A
gap statement is found in the Introduction section of a journal article or poster or in the
Goals and Importance section of a research proposal and succinctly identifies for your
audience the gap that you will attempt to address in your project.
A gap might be a lack of understanding about how well a particular instrument works in a
certain situation. It could be introducing a new method that needs to be tested. Or it could
be that you are studying a whole new organism, system, or part of a process. Your project
may also address multiple gaps, in which case you should be sure to identify each of them
clearly!
In a class, you might not always be studying something brand “new.” But, in most cases, you
should still try to come up with something unique about your project, however small. Talk
to your professor about what they expect for your gap statement if nothing seems to work.
An example gap from Hosaka, Itao, and Kuroda (1995):
“… The relationship between the four damping factors, i.e. internal friction, support loss,
airflow force in free space, and squeeze force, has not yet been clarified, so it is not obvious
which one is dominant in actual microsystems.”
Here, the authors signal to us that this is a gap because they use the words “has not yet
been clarified.” Other phrases that might help you identify (or form!) a gap statement are:
…has/have not been… (studied/reported/elucidated)
…is required/needed…
…the key question is/remains…
…it is important to address…
Fill the gap.
Once you identify the gap in the literature, you must tell your audience how you attempt to
at least somewhat address in your project this lack of knowledge or understanding . In a
journal article or poster, this is often done in a new paragraph and should be accomplished
in one summary statement, such as:
Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of lead on the
hepatobiliary system, especially on the liver and on the gallbladder (adapted from Sipos et
al. 2003).
You’ll often find that the first sentence of the last paragraph in a paper’s introduction will
start somewhat like this, indicating the gap fill.
Some phrases you can use to indicate your gap “fill:”
“We therefore analyzed…”
“In this study, we investigated…”
“Therefore, the goals of this study are…”
“In this paper, we report…”
Remember–always keep your voice professional! Colloquial phrases such as “we looked
into” or “we checked if” should be avoided when introducing your gap fill.
So let’s look at this idea in context by looking at some examples from a couple of types of
papers. The gap statements are underlined; the fills are italicized.
Types of Research Gap
According to Robinson, Saldanhea, and McKoy (2011). Five types of research gaps are:
(a) Population, (b) Intervention, (c) Comparison, (d) Outcomes, and (e) Setting.
According to Müller-Bloch and Kranz, (2014) research gaps consisted of six gaps:
(a) Contradictory Evidence Gap; (b) Knowledge Void Gap; (c) Action-Knowledge Conflict Gap;
(d) Methodological Gap; (e) Evaluation Void Gap; and (f) Theory Application Void Gap.
Miles (2017) proposed a new model built on the two previous models that consist of seven core
research gaps renamed:
(a) Evidence Gap; (b) Knowledge Gap; (c) Practical-Knowledge Conflict Gap; (d) Methodological
Gap; (e) Empirical Gap; and (f) Theoretical Gap; (g) Population Gap.
Types of Research Gap
According to Robinson, Saldanhea, and McKoy (2011). Five types of research gaps are:
(a) Population, (b) Intervention, (c) Comparison, (d) Outcomes, and (e) Setting.
According to Müller-Bloch and Kranz, (2014) research gaps consisted of six gaps:
(a) Contradictory Evidence Gap; (b) Knowledge Void Gap; (c) Action-Knowledge Conflict Gap;
(d) Methodological Gap; (e) Evaluation Void Gap; and (f) Theory Application Void Gap.
Miles (2017) proposed a new model built on the two previous models that consist of seven core
research gaps renamed:
(a) Evidence Gap; (b) Knowledge Gap; (c) Practical-Knowledge Conflict Gap; (d) Methodological
Gap; (e) Empirical Gap; and (f) Theoretical Gap; (g) Population Gap.
Hope a small effort will help you to some extent.
(Remember me in your prayers)
Maeenuddin Moin
