◥ University. {q} PhD. {tr} Training. {R} Gap. Patter is Pat Thomson - the problem with gap talk. Gap talk. You know, the “this research fills a gap in the literature” line. Most of us have made this statement at some point in our academic life. It’s the most common starter for journal papers, proposals and theses, according to genre researchers. They’ve identified three moves in the game of what they call CARS, Create a Research Space. CARS basically goes – Establish the context for the studyDescribe what is missing – the gap Identify how you will fill the gap Yep, the gap is named, potentially filled and Bob’s your uncle – your paper is accepted, the research is funded, the supervisor allocated.
“Gap” overstates the reality of most disciplines. These objections are all important. if you are going to make the warrant for your research a “gap” in the existing literatures, then it is certainly worth seriously considering these concerns. I worry that the CARS three moves are too reduced, very over-simplified. To illustrate my point about variation, here’s a few examples. Like this: 2009 - (Stuermer) Find the Gap.
Find the Gap. The PhD Blog: Finding a Gap in the Literature. Finding a Gap in the Literature If you're going to pass your PhD you need to contribute some new knowledge about something. That means you need to be able to establish what is usually referred to as "a gap in the literature" i.e. something that has not yet been researched. Mapping out the literature is a major job in itself. You need to be able to articulate what previous studies have shown and use this as the means of pointing toward things that are not yet known. Helpfully, academic papers often conclude with a call for further research on something or other. Research Gap, What is It?
Q. What is the literature gap and why is it needed? » Ways of constructing research questions: gap-spotting or problematization? This article examines ways of constructing research questions from existing literature, which are likely to promote the development of interesting and influential theories. We review 52 articles in organization studies and develop a typology of how researchers construct their research questions from existing literature. The most common way across paradigmatic camps is to spot various ‘gaps’ in the literature and, based on that, to formulate specific research questions.
The dominance of gap-spotting is surprising, given it is increasingly recognized that theory is made interesting and influential when it challenges assumptions that underlie existing literature. The article discusses why assumption-challenging approaches are rare, and it identifies a range of social norms that favour gap-spotting. . © The Author(s) 2011. Gap in literature.