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Importance of Identifying Research Gaps

Identifying research gaps is crucial in any research endeavor. It is important to understand why a particular research problem is being explored by identifying what is already known and what still needs to be investigated further. Effective identification of research gaps involves reviewing existing literature to determine areas where information is insufficient or ambiguous. This allows researchers to recognize key questions that need to be addressed and studies that need to be conducted. When framing the research gap, considerations include areas where information is limited, how gaps link to research questions, prioritizing gaps based on objectives and available data/resources.

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571 views2 pages

Importance of Identifying Research Gaps

Identifying research gaps is crucial in any research endeavor. It is important to understand why a particular research problem is being explored by identifying what is already known and what still needs to be investigated further. Effective identification of research gaps involves reviewing existing literature to determine areas where information is insufficient or ambiguous. This allows researchers to recognize key questions that need to be addressed and studies that need to be conducted. When framing the research gap, considerations include areas where information is limited, how gaps link to research questions, prioritizing gaps based on objectives and available data/resources.

Uploaded by

Rey Alegroso
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Importance of Identifying Research Gaps

While it is widely recognized that the core of a research endeavor is a well-defined research
topic, it is critical to understand why the researcher is attempting to explore a problem. In other words,
one of the most crucial aspects of any research is identifying the research gap. While drafting the
research proposal, it is important to keep in mind that some fields are explored more extensively than
others, while others have insufficient data. As a result, the study academics will have labeled this
knowledge gap as hunches or gaps that need to be investigated further. Subsequently, these gaps might
serve as a starting point for formulating the problem.

The necessity of identifying research gaps through reading and studying famous literature is
critical for the study's advancement. The identification and prioritizing of research gaps has the potential
to lead to more fast creation of following research, informed by the findings of earlier studies. In
addition, a literature review is the gold standard for assessing the current level of scientific knowledge
on a particular topic or research subject. Ergo, identifying gaps that allow researchers to recognize
regions of ambiguity within the study topic is critical.

It is crucial to not only identify research gaps, but also to figure out where the evidence falls
short, so that researchers, policymakers, and funders can get the most up-to-date information on the
types of questions that need to be addressed and the types of studies that need to be done to answer
them. As a result, the framework component was the characterization of the causes for the presence of
a research gap. The review team completing the framework chooses the reason(s) that most prevent
conclusions from being drawn in the systematic review for each research gap. It linked the causes for
research gaps to ideas from frequently used evidence grading systems to utilize work currently being
done by review teams.

In summary,

While it is critical to properly identify a research problem, the research gap is the bedrock of
every research problem. Thence, in framing the research gap, it is critical to keep the following
considerations in mind: (a) keep an eye out for themes or areas where the information is insufficient,
limiting the capacity of reviewers to draw a decision; (b) create an analytic framework that shows the
link between gaps and the review's core questions and analytic framework; (c) check to see if the gaps
discovered are within the scope of the major research questions created; and (d) prioritize the
discovered gaps based on the objectives, relevance to the issue at hand, and the extent of study that
may be conducted, as well as the availability of relevant data and/or the capacity to recruit people.

References

H. Arksey & L. O’Malley. (2005). “Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework,” Int. J.
Soc. Res. Methodol., vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 19–32.

J. W. Creswell & V. L. P. Clark. (2011). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. SAGE
Publications.

L. A. Bero, R. Grilli, J. M. Grimshaw, E. Harvey, A. D. Oxman, & M. A. Thomson. (1998). “Closing


the gap between research and practice: an overview of systematic reviews of interventions to promote
the implementation of research findings,” Br. Med. J., vol. 317, no. 7156, pp. 465–469.
Robinson, K. A., Akinyede, O., Dutta, T., Sawin, V. I., Li, T., Spencer, M. R. & Weston, C. (2013).
Framework for determining research gaps during systematic review: evaluation. Retrieved 17
September 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK126702/

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