How To Find A Research Gap (Quickly!): Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + Free Worksheet

Summary

In this video, Derek from Grad Coach outlines a methodical approach to swiftly identifying research gaps without specialized tools. He emphasizes defining a broad area of interest, consulting with academic institutions, and leveraging Google Scholar for recent literature. The focus is on skimming articles for abstracts, introductions, and discussions to pinpoint 'future research' sections, which often highlight potential gaps. Derek suggests a systematic evaluation of these gaps and offers resources on the Grad Coach blog for further guidance.

Takeaways

• 🔍 The video outlines a method for quickly identifying research gaps without special tools or software.
• 🎓 Aimed at researchers, particularly those working on dissertations or theses, the video provides practical research guidance.
• 🌐 The Grad Coach channel offers a variety of research-related resources, including templates and tools for research projects.
• 🔑 A research gap is defined as an area lacking solid, agreed-upon research on a specific topic, issue, or phenomenon.
• 📈 The 'friend hunting' strategy is introduced as a way to rapidly identify potential research gaps.
• 📝 The process begins by defining a broad area of interest and ensuring it aligns with the university's requirements.
• 🔎 Utilizing Google Scholar, researchers are advised to search with relevant keywords and filter results to recent publications.
• 📑 It's recommended to focus on the abstract, introduction, and discussion/conclusion sections of articles for a quick overview.
• 🔑 The 'FRIN' section (Future Research is Needed) within articles is highlighted as a key area to identify research opportunities.
• 🔄 After identifying potential gaps, the video suggests revisiting Google Scholar to ensure the gaps haven't been recently filled.
• 📝 A systematic evaluation of potential research gaps is advised, with a provided worksheet on the Grad Coach blog for this purpose.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of the Grad Coach channel?

The primary focus of the Grad Coach channel is to cover all things research related to help individuals approach their research projects, such as dissertations, theses, or research articles, with competence and confidence.

What resources are available on the Grad Coach blog for research proposal writing?

The Grad Coach blog offers a collection of templates and tools to help individuals get started on their research journey, including resources for writing research proposals for dissertations or theses.

What is a research gap in the context of this video?

A research gap is defined as any space where there is currently a lack of solid, agreed-upon research regarding a specific topic, issue, or phenomenon, indicating an opportunity for new research to be conducted.

Why is it important to find a research gap when starting a research project?

Finding a research gap is important because it identifies areas where established knowledge is lacking, thus providing opportunities for new research and ensuring that the research conducted is original and contributes to the field.

What is the 'friend hunting' strategy mentioned in the video?

The 'friend hunting' strategy is a process focused on quickly identifying potential research gaps by reviewing recent academic literature and looking for sections that suggest opportunities for further research, often labeled as 'future research' or 'further research needed'.

Why is it recommended to start with a broad area of interest when searching for a research gap?

Starting with a broad area of interest allows for a wider exploration of potential research topics and gaps without being confined to a specific topic. It also helps in generating a variety of keyword combinations for literature searches.

How does Google Scholar play a role in finding research gaps as described in the video?

Google Scholar is used as a starting point to source academic literature on a broad area of interest. It allows for searching with relevant keywords and filtering results to find recent articles that may indicate research gaps.

What are the three specific sections of an academic article that should be focused on when looking for a research gap?

The three specific sections to focus on when looking for a research gap are the abstract, the introduction, and the discussion or conclusion section. These sections provide insights into the study's objectives, context, and findings.

What does the acronym 'FRIN' stand for in the context of this video?

The acronym 'FRIN' stands for 'Further Research is Needed' and refers to sections within academic articles that suggest opportunities for future research, indicating potential research gaps.

How can one ensure that a potential research gap they've identified is still valid and not already filled by more recent studies?

To ensure a potential research gap is still valid, one should return to Google Scholar and conduct further searches using the same or refined keywords to check for any newer publications that might have addressed the gap.

What additional service does Grad Coach offer for individuals needing more personalized guidance in their research journey?

Grad Coach offers a one-on-one private coaching service where they help individuals step by step through the research process, ensuring the development of high-quality work.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Introduction to Finding Research Gaps

The video introduces a method for quickly identifying research gaps without the need for special tools or software. It emphasizes the importance of defining a research gap as an area lacking solid, agreed-upon research. The speaker, Derek from Grad Coach, suggests starting with a broad area of interest and ensuring it aligns with university or institutional requirements. The video promises a straightforward process to find potential research opportunities, focusing on the strategy of 'friend hunting,' which involves searching for 'future research' sections in academic papers.

05:02

🔎 Conducting Literature Search on Google Scholar

The speaker outlines a strategy for using Google Scholar to find academic literature related to a broad area of interest. This involves using relevant keywords and refining search results to focus on recent articles. The process includes scanning titles for relevance and selecting a manageable number of articles for further review. The video also addresses the issue of accessing full articles, suggesting the use of open access resources or platforms like Deep Dive for those without university access.

10:02

📚 Skimming Articles for Research Gaps

The video describes a method for efficiently skimming academic articles to identify research gaps. It suggests focusing on the abstract, introduction, and discussion/conclusion sections of each article. The speaker introduces the concept of the 'FRIN' section, which refers to parts of articles that discuss future research needs. These sections are highlighted as goldmines for identifying potential research opportunities. The video also provides examples of how to interpret and act on the information found in these sections.

15:03

🏁 Final Steps and Additional Resources

The final part of the video emphasizes the importance of verifying the originality of potential research gaps by double-checking for more recent publications. It advises on the need for originality depending on university requirements and the level of study. The speaker also introduces a worksheet available on the Grad Coach blog to help evaluate and choose the most promising research gap. The video concludes by offering a one-on-one coaching service for further guidance and support in developing research proposals and dissertations.

Keywords

💡Research gap

A 'research gap' refers to a deficiency in the existing body of research where there is a lack of solid, agreed-upon research on a specific topic, issue, or phenomenon. In the context of the video, research gaps are identified as the starting point for new research endeavors. The script emphasizes that finding a research gap is essential for researchers looking to contribute new knowledge to their field. The video provides a method to quickly identify these gaps using recent academic literature.

💡Grad Coach

Grad Coach is mentioned as a resource for research-related guidance, including templates and tools for research proposals, dissertations, and theses. It is portrayed as a supportive platform that aids students in approaching their research projects with competence and confidence. The video is hosted by Derek from Grad Coach, indicating that the channel is a source of educational content for graduate students.

💡Academic literature

Academic literature encompasses scholarly articles, papers, and books that contribute to a field of study. The video script suggests using academic literature as a primary source for identifying research gaps, particularly through recent publications. Google Scholar is highlighted as a tool for accessing this literature, with a focus on the most current works to find the latest gaps in knowledge.

💡Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an online platform that indexes scholarly literature across various publishing formats and disciplines. In the video, it is recommended as a starting point for sourcing academic literature relevant to a researcher's area of interest. The script provides instructions on how to use Google Scholar to search for recent articles, which are crucial for identifying current research gaps.

💡Keywords

Keywords are significant terms used in academic research to describe the main topics or concepts of a paper. In the context of the video, keywords are utilized to perform targeted searches on Google Scholar to find relevant academic literature. The script advises experimenting with various keyword combinations to refine searches and uncover potential research gaps.

💡Abstract

An abstract is a brief summary of a research article that presents the key points of the study, typically including the research question, methods, results, and conclusions. The video script instructs viewers to read the abstracts of articles to quickly grasp the essence of the research and to identify potential research gaps.

💡Introduction

The introduction section of an academic paper sets the context for the research, outlining the background, purpose, and significance of the study. According to the video, reviewing the introduction can provide insights into the research gap by understanding the existing knowledge and the study's objectives.

💡Discussion/Conclusion

The discussion or conclusion section of a research paper analyzes the results and their implications, often suggesting areas for future research. The video script advises focusing on these sections to find phrases indicating the need for further research, which can point to potential research gaps.

💡FRIN section

The FRIN section, an acronym for 'Future Research is Needed,' refers to parts of academic papers that explicitly suggest opportunities for further research. The video script identifies this section as a 'goldmine' for researchers seeking to identify potential research gaps and new directions for their work.

💡Open Access

Open Access denotes scholarly research that is freely available to the public, without the need for a subscription or purchase. The video mentions open access articles as an alternative for researchers who may not have access to certain academic journals through their institutions, thus facilitating the identification of research gaps.

💡Deep Dive

Deep Dive is mentioned as a subscription service that provides access to a broad range of journal articles. In the video, it is presented as a potential resource for researchers who need to access a large number of articles to identify research gaps, especially when institutional access is limited.

Highlights

Introduction to a method for quickly finding a research gap without special tools or software.

Overview of Grad Coach channel's focus on research-related content.

Mention of available research proposal templates and tools on the Grad Coach blog.

Definition of a research gap as a lack of solid, agreed-upon research on a specific topic.

Emphasis on the importance of research gaps as the starting point for research topics.

Explanation of the process for finding research gaps quickly, referred to as 'friend hunting'.

Step one: Deciding on a broad area of interest and confirming its acceptance by the institution.

Using Google Scholar to source academic literature with relevant keywords.

Advice on refining searches to focus on recent articles to identify current research gaps.

Guidance on skimming articles to find the abstract, introduction, and discussion/conclusion sections.

The FRIN (Further Research Is Needed) section as a goldmine for identifying research opportunities.

Example of how to identify and evaluate potential research gaps from academic articles.

Advice on double-checking potential research gaps for originality against recent publications.

Offer of a free worksheet on the Grad Coach blog for systematically evaluating research gaps.

Promotion of Grad Coach's one-on-one private coaching service for research guidance.

Conclusion and encouragement for researchers to use the provided method to find research gaps efficiently.

Transcripts

In this video, I'm gonna show you how to find a research gap as quickly

as possible using a straightforward process that doesn't rely on

any tools or special software.

Let's jump into it.

Hey, Derek, here from Grad Coach.

If it's your first time with us, the Grad coach channel is where we

cover all things research related so you can approach your research

project, whether that's a dissertation paper, or just a research article.

With competence and confidence.

Speaking of which, if you are currently working on a research proposal for

a dissertation or thesis, be sure to check out our collection of templates

and tools over on the Grad coach blog.

On the blog, we cover everything that you need to get started

on your research journey.

If that interests you, you can head over to grad coach.com/.

As a starting point, it's useful for us to first define what exactly

we mean by a research gap to make sure we're all on the same page.

Simply put a research gap is any space where there's currently a lack of

solid agreed upon research regarding a specific topic or issue or phenomenon.

In other words, there's a lack of established knowledge given this

lack and opportunity emerges for a researcher like yourself to.

That gap.

So research gaps are essentially the birthplace of research topics.

In other words, if you want to find a research topic, you've gotta

start by finding a research gap.

Now, we've already done a comprehensive video going into the details.

Of what a research gap is and the different types of research gaps.

So I'm not gonna go into the weeds about that right here.

If you're interested in that video, you can find the details up here.

There should be a little link for you.

Alternatively, there is a link in the description.

Instead, in this video, I'm gonna focus on the how specifically, how do you go about

finding a research gap really quickly now?

Quickly is the key word.

Yeah.

Because there are many ways to find a research gap, and we do

cover some of those alternative options on the grad coach blogs,

so remember to go check that out.

But in this video, we're gonna focus on a process that really allows you to

find potential research gaps quickly.

So it's important to state this because it's not the only way.

Saying this is the way or the best way to find a research gap.

But it is really a great way to quickly wrap your head around potential

opportunities that exist within your area of interest and what we call the strategy

or this process is friend hunting.

So without further delay, let's get into it.

Right.

So the very first step is to decide on your broad area of interest.

So obviously we're not talking about deciding on a topic yet,

just a broad area of interest.

Perhaps there's something that you've done in your coursework that

piqued your interest and you're, uh, keen to explore that further.

It could come from any source, but first things first, define your broad area of

interest and then check that this is okay with your university or your institution.

This might sound really dead obvious, but we've seen it so many times

that students run down a path.

With great excitement and start piecing together research proposals and getting

all excited about what they're gonna do.

Only to find that actually the university requires a very specific focus in terms

of the topic that needs to be researched.

So step one, make sure that you have some clarity about your, your rough

area of interest, and that that is acceptable to your university.

You can do that by checking any briefing documents that they've

given you, or of course you can just contact the faculty and check that.

Area that you're interested in would be acceptable.

In this video, we're gonna use job satisfaction.

In other words, satisfaction in the workplace, satisfaction with your

employer, and where you work as a sample area of interest to work through

a running example and show you step by step how this process plays out.

So once you've pinned down your research area of interest, the broad

area of interest that you're keen to explore, the next step is to head

over to good old Google Scholar.

If you don't already know, Google Scholar is a great way to source academic

literature for pretty much any topic.

It's certainly not the only way, and again, we're not prescribing this.

Best way to find academic literature, but it is a useful starting point.

And so that's the first step that we're gonna take.

So let's go on over to Google Scholar.

So to start, you gonna want to do a few searches using keywords that are

relevant to your area of interest.

In our example of.

Job satisfaction.

We could use job satisfaction as a keyword, or we might want to get a

little bit more specific, perhaps job satisfaction for millennials or

job satisfaction for Gen Zers or job satisfaction in a specific industry.

So it's always a good idea to play around with as many keyword combinations and

phrases as you can, and as you start looking at the literature, that'll

also give you some ideas in terms.

How you could potentially phrase things and what language is used within your

space, within your area of interest.

So then for each of the keyword combinations that you use, or keywords

or key phrases that you use, you'll wanna do some refining specifically.

You wanna narrow it down to very recent articles because you're

looking for a research gap.

Obviously, you want to.

Content that's really fresh content that's come out as recently as possible.

Of course, within academia, the wheels turn fairly slowly, and so what's

considered fresh might already be, uh, you know, a year or two old, depending on your

field, but you wanna narrow that down.

And so what you'll do is use Google Scholar to filter it down to the

most recent papers, perhaps a year or within the year that you're in,

or perhaps one year behind, depending on how fast moving the space is.

Then it's time to dig into the literature itself.

Yeah, it's time to get reading once you've run through a few searches or run

a few searches using different keywords, and I'd recommend that you keep a

separate tab for each of those keywords.

You'll need to scan through the results and see what's most relevant

and what's most interesting to you.

Of course, Google's going to give you a lot of content.

For any given keyword, there's probably gonna be tons and tons of papers and.

You've gotta do a little bit of scanning and see what looks interesting to you.

If you're looking at titles and they don't make any sense to you, well then

you can probably scratch that off the list because that's going to be, uh, quite a

curve for you to overcome in order to just get an idea of what the topic is about.

So you wanna have a look through all of the articles that are coming up in

the results, and you want to narrow your search down or pick out, let's say

five to 10 articles that interest you and are attractive to you in some way.

At least pique your.

Now I am making the assumption, yeah, that your university has provided you

with access to academic databases.

In other words, when you click on one of these articles, you can

actually access it, or at least that you can go search for it within the

university's database or library.

But if that's not the case, you will need to look at potentially two other options.

The first option, Open Access articles and open access are essentially free

to access articles and will include a link or two links to some open access

dial directories below this video.

So you can go have a look at those and that will allow you to search for

articles that you know you have access to.

And the second option is a platform called Deep Dive.

Now Deep Dive is essentially something like a Netflix or like

a subscription service to access a broad range of journal articles.

So this can.

Really useful and something that that'll probably be worth the money if you're

just gonna use it for a short amount of time to source a group of articles.

So you wanna look at those two options, either open access

directories or Deep Dyve.

All right, so onto the next step.

Once you've got your collection of articles, it's time to get reading.

Now, the good news is you don't need to read every article from start to finish.

That's gonna be extremely time consuming, and at least at this point

in time, it's just not necessary.

So the way that you can approach this in a more.

Optimized fashion is to focus on three specific sections for each given article.

So the first is the abstract.

And while you were looking through Google, uh, scholar, you're

probably reading the abstract.

Uh, that's usually what they list in any case.

And so you wanna have a look at the abstract.

That's usually one paragraph, two paragraphs, very short.

You wanna have a look at the introduction cuz this will give you a bit.

Uh, of an insight into the context of the study and the background

of the study and what the researchers were trying to achieve.

And then lastly, you want to have a look at the discussion

section or the conclusion section.

Sometimes these two things are bound together and so that will tell you.

What they found.

So by having a look at the abstract, by having a look at the introduction

and by having a look at the discussion slash conclusion, you've got an

idea of what were they trying to find and what did they find?

And that's gonna give you a good idea of what that study was about.

So you want to rinse and repeat that process.

Four, five, or 10 articles.

From there, it's really time to get down to business and to focus on where

you're gonna find your research gap.

Now, this is where the magic happens.

So what you wanna do is you wanna have a look within any given article for section.

That has phrasing along the lines of future research.

Uh, further research or further research is needed, research

opportunities or research directions.

You're looking for these kinds of terms.

And what these terms are, are pointing to is obviously opportunities for further

research for researchers like you.

And so what we call this is the FRIN the FRIN section F.R.I.N., and that just

stands for further research is needed.

Some studies will have a dedicated section for this, and some studies will

include this as part of the conclusion section, or as I mentioned, it might

even be the discussion section.

And simply put, regardless of what shape it takes, the friend is your goldmine.

This is where the researchers explain what opportunities exist.

Beyond their study.

So given that you are looking at recent papers, you're looking at

papers from this year or the previous year, if these researchers are saying

that there's an opportunity for further exploration year or further

exploration there, then obviously that presents a golden opportunity,

provided that the research paper and the researchers are credible of course.

Um, but for the most part, if you're sticking to high quality academic

journals, that's not something to worry.

Now, of course, they're not handing you, uh, a bunch of research gaps and research

topics on a silver platter, but this is a great starting point for you to at

least get thinking about, okay, what are the opportunities for original research?

So this is all probably rather conceptual.

So let's take a look at some examples in action to see what this looks like.

So looking at this article, this articles about.

Impact of over education, on job outcomes, and naturally job

satisfaction is one of the variables that they'll consider in the study.

Hence, it's coming up in our search.

So if we scroll down to the bottom of this article, you'll see there's a

dedicated section called Limitations and Directions for Future Research.

Yeah.

They talk about the limitations of the study and provide suggestions

about how further research.

Could, or future researchers could improve upon their work and

overcome some of the limitations that were encountered in this study.

Next up, we've got this study about organizational

support and job satisfaction.

This is a quantitative study looking at the relationships between variables.

So in this article, if we scroll down to the section titled,

Limitations and future directions.

They provide a really nice structure because they essentially

break it down into limitation and then opportunity for research,

limitation, opportunity for research.

So that's very nicely structured and it creates a nice list of opportunities

that you can potentially explore.

So what you wanna do is follow this skim review process of digging up

research articles quickly, skimming through those three core sections, and

then looking for the opportunities for further research or the fringe sections.

You wanna do this for the five to 10 articles that you originally pulled

up, and you wanna map out any potential interesting research gaps or research

opportunities that emerge from that.

You might also find.

You want to have a look at a larger number of articles, you might find

that, oh, actually there were more than five or 10 that were interesting.

Or you might just find that as you snowball through the articles in your

original list that you find other stuff that's already interesting.

So don't rush this process, although I did say this is a quick way of doing it.

You take the time to have a look at what's going on in the research

and dig a little bit deeper.

If you've developed your, your short list, if you've got through that

process and you've found, let's say a, a handful of areas that are interesting

to you, you'll then need to do a final step, which is to return to

Google Scholar and just double check that there aren't any fresh articles,

any fresher publications that have.

Already filled the gap.

Obviously you don't want to go get all excited about a specific research gap.

I need to find that, oh, actually there was a paper published last

month that already covered this, and I just missed it in my original

search because I was using different keywords, whatever the case may be.

So make sure that you just.

Go back and sanity check all of the interest areas that you have or the

potential research gaps that you have, and keep in mind that ultimately this

need for originality will vary from university to university and depending

on what level of study you're at as well.

So, Keep that in mind.

Keep in mind that you don't need to always find something that's perfectly, perfectly

original, but it is useful to use this as your starting point because this gives

you really a view of sort of the edge of the current state of knowledge, the

edge of the current state of research.

Last but not least, once you've got that short list of potential research

gaps, you're gonna need to evaluate them systematically so that you.

Choose a winner, so to speak.

You certainly can't go on and research everything that's of interest to you.

So there's many factors to consider, and if you want to evaluate your options

systematically, we do have a free worksheet that you can access on the

grad coach blog, which you can then use to kind of line up and evaluate each

of your research gaps, so to speak.

So as usual, include the link to that.

So there you have it, a pretty straightforward, time efficient way

to quickly identify potential research gaps or at least potential research

directions based on the existing literature, and most importantly, the

most cutting edge, the most recent.

Existing literature.

As I said, this is certainly not the only way to find a research gap.

We do have many, many other routes that you can pursue, and you can

learn more about those on the grad coach blog, but it is one way.

As I mentioned, it might be a bit overkill depending on what

the need for originality is.

But it's a great starting point nonetheless, because it does give you an

idea of what research gaps look like and what opportunities look like if you're

still a bit unsure about how to pursue a research gap or how to find a research

opportunity and how to move that into, let's say, a proposal into a dissertation.

Be sure to check out our one-on-one private coaching service where we hold

your hand step by step through the process and make sure that you develop the best

quality work that you possibly could.

If you're interested in that, you can learn more and book a free

consultation at GradCoach.com.

Until next time, good luck.