Scholarly papers often include what is known as a “gap statement.” A gap is something that remains to be done or learned in an area of research; it’s a gap in the knowledge of all of the scientists in the field of research of your study. Every research project builds on the research that came before it, attempting to contribute something new or novel. Some scholars prefer to think of gaps as opportunities rather than as something that is missing.

Identify the Gap

A gap statement is found in the Introduction section of a journal article or poster and succinctly identifies for your audience the gap that you will attempt to address in your project. *Important to note: Abstracts do not often contain knowledge gap statements. So, if you’re hunting for a knowledge gap, you’ll have to look farther than the Abstract.

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. It could be the way you are synthesizing multiple ideas together, or the way you are connecting one piece of scholarship to another. Think about this as your contribution.

Phrases that might help you identify (or form!) a gap statement are:

…has/have not been… (studied/reported/examined)

…is required/needed…

…the key question is/remains…

…it is important to address…

little is known about…

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.

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 goal of this paper…”

Adaptations

This section has been adapted from Gap Statements in Write Like a Scientist- A Guide to Scientific Communication by Molly Costanza-Robinson, Alison Maxwell, Catharine Wright, and Mary Ellen Bertollini.

References

Yang, P. H.W., Black, J. L., Barr, S. I., & Vatanparast, H. (2014). Examining differences in nutrient intake and dietary quality on weekdays versus weekend days in Canada. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 39(12). https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0110