What is a Research Gap | types | examples | How to Identify Research Gap — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01welcome to research
2. 0:04Hub if you are new to research you have
3. 0:07probably come across the concept of The
4. 0:09elusive research Gap also known as a
5. 0:12literature Gap in this video we will
6. 0:15delve into the complex subject of
7. 0:17research gaps defining what they
8. 0:19are examining the four most prevalent
9. 0:22types of research gaps and explaining
10. 0:25how to identify an appropriate research
11. 0:27gap for your dissertation thesis or
12. 0:29research
13. 0:31project what exactly is a research Gap
14. 0:35well at the simplest level a research
15. 0:38Gap is essentially an unanswered
16. 0:40question or unresolved problem in a
17. 0:42field which reflects a lack of existing
18. 0:44research in that
19. 0:46space
20. 0:48alternatively a research Gap can also
21. 0:50exist when there's already a fair deal
22. 0:52of existing research but where the
23. 0:54findings of the studies pull in
24. 0:56different directions making it difficult
25. 0:58to draw firm conclusions
26. 1:01for example let's say your research aims
27. 1:03to identify the cause or causes of a
28. 1:06particular
29. 1:08disease upon reviewing the literature
30. 1:10you may find that there's a body of
31. 1:12research that points towards cigarette
32. 1:14smoking as a key
33. 1:16factor but at the same time a large body
34. 1:19of research that finds no link between
35. 1:21smoking and the
36. 1:23disease in that case you may have
37. 1:26something of a research Gap that
38. 1:27warrants further investigation
39. 1:30the four most common types of research
40. 1:33gaps we one the classic literature Gap
41. 1:36first up is the classic literature Gap
42. 1:39this type of research Gap emerges when
43. 1:41there's a new concept or phenomenon that
44. 1:43hasn't been studied much or at all for
45. 1:47example when a social media platform is
46. 1:50launched There's an opportunity to
47. 1:52explore its impacts on users how it
48. 1:55could be leveraged for marketing its
49. 1:57impact on society and so on
50. 2:00the same applies for new technologies
51. 2:02new modes of communication
52. 2:04Transportation
53. 2:07Etc classic literature gaps can present
54. 2:10exciting research opportunities but a
55. 2:12drawback you need to be aware of is that
56. 2:14with this type of research Gap you'll be
57. 2:16exploring completely new
58. 2:18territory two the disagreement Gap as
59. 2:22the name suggests the disagreement Gap
60. 2:25emerges when there are contrasting or
61. 2:27contradictory findings in the existing
62. 2:29research regarding a specific research
63. 2:31question or set of
64. 2:33questions the hypothetical example we
65. 2:35looked at earlier regarding the causes
66. 2:37of a disease reflects a disagreement
67. 2:40Gap importantly for this type of
68. 2:42research Gap there needs to be a
69. 2:44relatively balanced set of opposing
70. 2:47findings in other words a situation
71. 2:50where 95% of studies find one result and
72. 2:535% find the opposite result wouldn't
73. 2:55quite constitute a disagreement in the
74. 2:58literature of course it's hard to
75. 3:00quantify exactly how much weight to give
76. 3:02to each study but you'll need to at
77. 3:04least show that the opposing findings
78. 3:06aren't simply a corner case
79. 3:09anomaly three the contextual Gap the
80. 3:12third type of research Gap is the
81. 3:14contextual Gap simply put a contextual
82. 3:18Gap exists when there's already a decent
83. 3:20body of existing research on a
84. 3:22particular topic but an absence of
85. 3:24research in specific
86. 3:27contexts for example there could be a
87. 3:29lack of research on a specific
88. 3:32population perhaps a certain age group
89. 3:35gender or
90. 3:36ethnicity a geographic area for example
91. 3:40a city country or
92. 3:42region a certain time period perhaps the
93. 3:45bulk of the studies took place many
94. 3:47years or even decades ago and the
95. 3:49landscape has
96. 3:50changed the contextual Gap is a popular
97. 3:53option for dissertations and thesis
98. 3:56especially for firsttime researchers as
99. 3:58it allows you to develop your research
100. 4:00on a solid foundation of existing
101. 4:02literature and potentially even use
102. 4:04existing survey
103. 4:06measures importantly if you're going to
104. 4:08go this route you need to ensure that
105. 4:10there's a plausible reason why you'd
106. 4:12expect potential differences in the
107. 4:14specific context you
108. 4:15choose if there's no reason to expect
109. 4:18different results between existing and
110. 4:20new
111. 4:21contexts the research Gap wouldn't be
112. 4:24well
113. 4:25Justified so make sure that you can
114. 4:27clearly articulate why you're chosen
115. 4:29context is different from existing
116. 4:32studies and why that might reasonably
117. 4:33result in different
118. 4:35findings for the methodological Gap last
119. 4:39but not least last but not least we have
120. 4:42the methodological Gap as the name
121. 4:45suggests this type of research Gap
122. 4:47emerges as a result of the research
123. 4:49methodology or design of existing
124. 4:52studies with this approach you'd argue
125. 4:54that the methodology of existing studies
126. 4:56is lacking in some way or that they're
127. 4:59missing a certain
128. 5:00perspective for example you might argue
129. 5:03that the bulk of the existing research
130. 5:05has taken a quantitative approach and
131. 5:07therefore there is a lack of Rich
132. 5:09insight and texture that a qualitative
133. 5:11study could
134. 5:12provide similarly you might argue that
135. 5:15existing Studies have primarily taken a
136. 5:17cross-sectional approach and as a result
137. 5:20have only provided a snapshot view of
138. 5:22the situation whereas a longitudinal
139. 5:25approach could help uncover how
140. 5:26constructs or variables have evolved
141. 5:28over time
142. 5:31considering the volume of existing
143. 5:32research identifying research gaps can
144. 5:35seem overwhelming or even
145. 5:37impossible I don't have time to read
146. 5:39every paper published on public health
147. 5:43similarly you guys don't have time to
148. 5:45read every paper so how can you identify
149. 5:48a research
150. 5:50Gap there are different techniques in
151. 5:52various disciplines but we can reduce
152. 5:54most of them down to a few steps which
153. 5:57are one identify your your key
154. 6:00motivating issue SL question two
155. 6:03identify key terms associated with this
156. 6:06issue three review the literature
157. 6:09searching for these key terms in
158. 6:11identifying relevant
159. 6:13Publications for review the literature
160. 6:15cited by the key Publications which you
161. 6:17located in the previous step five
162. 6:20identify issues not addressed by the
163. 6:23literature relating to your critical
164. 6:24motivating
165. 6:26issue it is the last step which we all
166. 6:28find the most
167. 6:30challenging it can be difficult to
168. 6:32figure out what an article is not saying
169. 6:35I like to keep a list of notes of biased
170. 6:37or inconsistent
171. 6:39information you could also track what
172. 6:41authors write as directions for future
173. 6:44research which often can point us
174. 6:46towards the existing
175. 6:48gaps don't forget like share and
176. 6:50subscribe my channel