Before getting into the meat of our topic, we would immediately define what research delimitation and scope are. In discussing research delimitations, you can’t ignore discussing them along with the scope of the study. The scope and delimitation of a research paper, dissertation, or thesis can be defined as the topic or boundaries of the particular research problem that you are investigating.
The scope, in more detail, can be said to determine how deep your study goes in the exploration of the given research question along with the parameters that it would operate under as it relates to timeframe and population.
On the other hand, the research delimitations of a study can be said to be the variables and factors excluded from your investigation. You can also put it another way as the boundaries that the researcher has put in place regarding factors such as population size, study duration, type of participants, etc.
What then are the differences between research delimitations and limitations?
As earlier pointed out, research delimitations can be defined as the boundaries set by the researcher during his research study that is based on the researcher’s decision on what he would like to include and what he would like to take away. This would help a lot, especially if you are looking to narrow down your study to a manageable scale whilst also being relevant to the point you intend to prove.
On the other hand, we can state simply that limitations refer mainly to how valid and reliable the study is. They refer majorly to factors and situations surrounding the research design and methodology that you definitely can’t control, but your research work is influenced by them. For this reason, they go a long way towards determining the internal and external validity of your research and could be considered potential weaknesses in your study.
Simply put, in other terms, the major difference between research delimitations and limitations is that while limitations refer to elements or factors that are beyond the control of the researcher, delimitations would then refer to those things about the research that the researcher has set for himself not to do. That is, they have set boundaries for themselves and they would not go beyond them. The next question would be if they are important. To help put the research into context, both of them play a role. This is because they add validity and credibility to research work, even though they demonstrate how limited the study is.
Helpful Guidelines On How You Can Write A Scope
To write a decent scope, correct answers should be provided to the following questions:
The first is, «Why?» In answering this question, you should be able to state clearly the general aims and objectives of your research study.
Where? In this case, you should provide an answer as to the location setting of your research study.
Who? You should state clearly what the subject matter of your research is and also state from which population it would be selected. To be able to make generalizations, the population has to be large enough.
The next question is, what? You should state what the subject to be investigated is and the variables that would be included.
When? In answering this, make sure you state the timeframe within which you are going to collect the data.
The final question should be how? Here you are stating how the research would be conducted by stating the description of the research design. Is it going to be a case study, experimental research, or qualitative research, methodology, analysis technique, research tools, etc.?
An important note! For the sake of clarity, it is important for you to mention why you omitted certain variables from the scope of the research and whether it was because it was a research delimitation or limitation. It should also explain why it could not be overcome using scientifically proven standard research methods.
Helpful tips on how you should write your research delimitations
Readers should understand why the research delimitation criteria were chosen, what alternatives existed, and why these alternatives were rejected because the researcher influenced these factors. The reader must comprehend how and why you chose the experiment you have if, for instance, you are gathering data that can be drawn from three distinct but comparable studies.
As all delimitations should be made to make your study more pertinent to its scope, they should always be connected to your research topic. As a result, when creating a paper, the scope and delimitations are frequently taken into account jointly.
How You Can Start Writing Your Research Delimitations
- Use the excellent starters listed below to begin composing your study delimitations:
- This study excludes
- This investigation is limited to
The following was not included in this investigation:
Examples of Research Delimitation
Examples of research delimitations include:
- Research questions
- Research objectives
- target populations,
- Variables of the research
- Techniques used in statistical analysis
Examples of Research Limitations
Examples of research limitations include:
- Sample and selection problems.
- Lack of statistical significance due to small sample size, population characteristics, or certain participation
- Lack of prior research on the subject that has permitted more analysis
- There are limitations to the tools and technologies used to get your data.
- Restricted funding options or scarce financial resources.