Finding a research gap, or a gap in the literature, may seem like an enormous task. With all of the published research articles and books out there, how can you possibly determine what hasn't been well-studied?
Luckily, most published research articles will give you some clues: in their final sections (the Discussion or Conclusions), they'll first point out how their own study fits in with the existing body of research, then they'll typically identify a few areas of needed research. Since these researchers have carefully evaluated the literature and successfully published their own studies, you can feel confident that their suggestions are good ones.
Here's an example from an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy - you can see that the last paragraph is devoted to potential areas of future research.
So, you'll begin your search for a research gap much as you would if you were planning to write a literature review:
1. Identify a topic or research question that interests you.
2. Search the literature (scholarly sources are best). The library's Everything search is a good place to begin, as is Google Scholar.
3. When you find an article that's highly relevant, skim its Discussion or Conclusions section for mentions of needed or future research.
4. If you find a suggested gap that interests you, refine your keywords to match it and search again. If you don't see many published studies that fill that gap, then you may have found what you're looking for!
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