Research Gap
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What it is
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a specific limitation or unresolved issue in existing knowledge, evidence, data, or methods
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Types
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empirical — insufficient or conflicting observations
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theoretical — an explanation is missing or inadequately developed
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methodological — existing methods have limitations
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contextual — findings have not been established under meaningfully different conditions
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data — relevant data are missing or inadequately representative
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performance — existing approaches fail to meet a justified requirement
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Caution
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“Nobody studied location X” is insufficient unless that context could materially change the question or findings
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support gap claims through Literature Review, not assumption
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Distinguish from
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Research Contribution — what the new study supplies in response to the gap
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