1
Population gap: Most studies examine university students; evidence is limited for adult learners returning to education after long employment gaps.
8 Research Gap Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
A defensible research gap is demonstrated from the literature rather than announced by intuition: the writer shows what is already known, where evidence stops or conflicts, why the missing knowledge matters, and how the proposed study can address it.
- Brief synthesis of what the field already knows.
- Precise gap statement identifying the missing population, context, relationship, method, time period, or unresolved contradiction.
- Evidence that the gap actually exists across relevant sources.
- Connection from the gap to a feasible research objective or question.
2
Context gap: Remote-work findings from software firms may not transfer to manufacturing roles that require physical presence.
3
Method gap: Existing research relies heavily on self-reported intention; fewer studies measure observed behavior after six months.
4
Contradiction gap: Several studies link notifications to reduced focus, while two field experiments report no significant effect under user-controlled settings.
5
Time gap: Much of the evidence on mobile payment adoption predates major changes in biometric authentication.
6
Integration gap: Research examines heat exposure and transit access separately, but fewer studies test how they interact for commuters without private vehicles.
7
Measurement gap: Satisfaction scores are widely reported, yet definitions of “successful onboarding” vary across studies.
8
Gap-to-question: If prior work focuses on immediate recall, a feasible next question is whether spaced feedback improves retention after four weeks.
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.