Research gaps have different types, but the four types commonly used by researchers include the following:
Methodological Gap
The methodological gap is a type of research gap that emanates from the research design of the previous research. In this type of research gap, there are often errors in specific perspectives of the actual study or methodology. For instance, if you find a gap in the method used in carrying out the research and suggest a better research method, you can only be partially correct or get the best outcome without any errors. You are curious to know more about types of research gaps, go here.
Classic Literature Gap
As the name suggests, a classic literature gap means that a new area of study has yet to be examined at all or just a little. This type of research gap provides interesting opportunities for researchers. However, it requires you to work on an entirely different concept that has yet to be worked on before. So, you will need more resources to work with, which can be quite challenging, especially if you’re doing research for the first time.
Disagreement Gap
The disagreement gap emanates from the discrepancies in actual research outcomes with different questions to be answered. This type of research gap often shows that there is a particular set of different findings, with each study sharing reasonable weight that makes them disagree.
Contextual Gap
This type of gap occurs when there is an existing decent body of research on a specific topic but a need for more study in certain contexts. For instance, a study may not use a specific population in terms of gender or age group in their research.
A geographical area like a state or country may also be missing in the research. It could also be that the research took place years ago, and many things may have changed ever since then, resulting in a contextual gap.
Note that Ph.D. students often use this type of research gap for their theses and dissertations, especially those carrying out research for the first time. It helps their research’s foundation be less faulty since they have existing studies to build upon. They can use the techniques used by researchers who did the actual research.
However, it’s vital to mention that using this method of research gap ensures that there is a concrete reason for you to find likely disparities in the particular context you’ve chosen. You must expect different results between new and existing contexts to be able to justify the research gap. So, ensure that your chosen topic stands out from the actual research, which can lead to a new outcome.