Speaker 1: If you're writing a research paper or you're planning to start writing a research paper, then in this video I want to share with you the most important tip that can mean that your paper is either going to get accepted in a very good journal or is just going to get rejected. So let's dive right in and see what's that key strategy to publishing research papers in top journals. Now you've probably seen all sorts of YouTube videos that claim to, you know, know the number one strategy to writing and publishing research papers. So you might be wondering, well why should I even listen to this one? Well this strategy is based on my experience of successfully coaching over 300 PhD students and researchers and helping them publish research papers in top journals and also having written and published research papers in journals myself. It's also based on my personal experience of having had some of my papers actually rejected or having had some of my papers come back with major comments. And looking at all of these things, you know, how I've helped my clients, my own experience of writing papers, those situations where my paper was rejected or it needed major revisions, what I've realized is that, you know, there is one like really really important thing that you must do correctly in your research paper if you want to publish in really good journals. And this is what I want to share with you in this video. And if you're new here, my name is Marek Kiczkowek and I run Academic English Now, where I help PhD students and researchers regularly publish papers in top journals. So this number one key thing that you've got to get right in a research paper is the research gap. I'm going to explain in a second what a research gap is and show you examples from research papers, but let me first explain why the research gap is so important. Well, it's really really key because it's the number one thing that shows the reviewers in the journal why there is a need for your study. Like without a research gap or without a properly explained research gap in your introduction, your study doesn't have any merit. It has zero merit. It has zero validity basically and your research question is basically useless. I'm sorry if I sound blunt, but that's just the way it is. And you can even have a research gap that is amazing and it's very clear in your head, but if you didn't present it correctly in your research paper right in the introduction, then your research paper is done. Like the likelihood of it being rejected is very very high. And this is something that actually happened to me not a very long time ago. I submitted my paper to a really good journal in my field. It's like top 10 journal in teaching English and it didn't get rejected, but it came back with major corrections and what seemed like I'll have to completely redo my study because the main comment that the reviewers gave me was that we don't really see why this study was needed and we don't understand what's the contribution and novelty of your study. And initially when I saw that I was like, what are they talking about? I did mention the research gap in my introduction. I really don't understand. Did you even read my paper? Of course it has an amazing contribution and of course it has novelty. That was my immediate reaction. But then the more and more I thought about it and the more I looked at my introduction and the research gap, the more I realized that they were completely right. The research gap was clear in my head but it wasn't clearly explained on paper. And exactly the same thing happened almost at a very similar time to one of my clients whose paper also came back with major corrections and one of the main comments was, you know, we don't really understand the contribution and we don't know what the research gap here is and therefore we're not really sure about the novelty of your study. And this really for me drove the message home that the research gap is the key to publishing in high-impact journals. Now before I show you how to actually express the research gap in your own paper, let me just very briefly explain what a research gap is and give you some clarity on the different types of research gaps that are out there. So there are basically four main types of a research gap. The first one is lack or insufficient research. And this basically means that, you know, simply not enough research has been done on a particular topic, on a particular group of people or material or maybe in a particular country or setting or doing a particular, using a particular methodology or something like this, right? So that's the first one. The second one is that there is some sort of like lack of understanding or lack of consensus about the specific issue in your field. So in other words, a lot of studies have been done but the results are maybe contradictory or just like completely different, right? And therefore researchers disagree as to a certain issue, right? And then you can come in and try to clarify this disagreement. So that's research gap number two. Research gap number three is limitations of previous studies, right? So all studies have some sort of problems, right? So you want to look at the limitations of all the previous studies and see if you can notice any patterns about them and then, you know, take those patterns and see if you can fix those limitations in your own study, right? So that's research gap number three or type number three. The fourth one is, you know, a real world problem or a practical problem that needs fixing. So in other words, you know, imagine like, you know, engineers are using a specific algorithm for solving a specific problem and while this algorithm works, maybe it takes a very long time to actually use it, right? So that's a practical problem, right? A real world problem. And now you can come in with your study and solve it, right? So that's research gap number four. Now that you understand what a research gap is, we need to look very carefully at how you actually present the research gap in your research paper so that, you know, you really highlight the contribution and the novelty of your paper. And then when the reviewers read the research gap, it's crystal clear to them why your study was needed, why your study is novel, and why your aim or research question, you know, really can contribute to the field a great deal, right? So I'm going to show you that on a couple of examples from different research papers, from different fields. So regardless of whether, you know, you're in more exact sciences or you're in more in social sciences, this is really going to help you to present the research gap in your own paper. So before we dive into the types of research gap with clear examples, let's just ensure that you know where exactly in your paper you should present the research gap, right? So you've got to present it in the introduction and where it's done, it's at the end of the introduction, right? So we can see the introduction in here, right? And before you state the aim, right, so in here they state the aim and the hypothesis, right? Before that, you've got to state the research gap. So this comes in the introduction after you've reviewed the literature, you've shown us what other researchers have done, then you state the research gap. Now, one way of stating the research gap is to point out that there is a lack of research or insufficient research, right? And so you've got an example of this here, right? And notice how also, you know, we want to be cautious, right? So it's very common to say something like, to the best of our knowledge, right? You know, because maybe we're wrong, I mean, we've done a thorough literature review search, but maybe we missed one study, so we want to be a little bit cautious here, right? And then you can say that this topic has not yet been included, studied, researched, and so on, right? So this is pointing out lack of research. Now, another thing that we can do, right, we can also point out a lack of knowledge or, you know, basically that a lot of studies have been conducted, but we still don't understand a certain phenomenon, right? So you can see that here, little is known about, right? So that's a clear lack of knowledge. And this phrase, little is known, is a very common phrase to express that type of research gap, right? And then same thing here, it is not clear whether, right? That's again, a very common phrase to express, to show that there is a lack of consensus or a lack of understanding of a specific topic, right? So, and again, notice that this is done right before the aim of the study, because this is the aim of the study, right? And this is done at the end of the introduction. Now, another thing that you can do is also show limitations of previous studies, right? For example, in here, so again, notice that this is the last paragraph of the introduction right before stating the aim, right? We've got a sentence in here, right? So there was one study in this context, but it used a very small sample size, right? So this clearly means as well that this study was limited, right? And then we've got another example in here, previous research does not explain something. So again, this is a limitation of previous studies. So that's a third type of a research gap. Now, the fourth type of a research gap that you can present is a sort of practical problem in your field that needs resolving. So let's take a look here. You can see an example here. So this production, this method is unpractical, right? So that's an example of a problem in your field where you're going to try to resolve in your paper, right? There's another example in here. While it is in principle possible to do something, it remains unpractical, right? And then another example here, such beams suffer from low production, cross sections and poor quality, right? So again, it's not so much about limitations of previous studies, the lack of research or anything like it. It's more about a practical problem that needs resolving and your study aims to resolve this problem. Now, with these four different types of research gaps, one tip that I would give you is to try to combine them together. So if we look at this example, right? So I mentioned in here that they talk about lack of knowledge on a specific topic, right? But also they mentioned limitations of previous studies, right? And they mentioned a practical problem as well. So in essence, they basically combine three types of research gaps. Now, this might not always be possible for all topics, but whenever you can try to combine more than one type of a research gap. I've got another example of how this is done in here, right? So we've got lack of studies, right? There have only been four studies on this topic, right? And there is also another type of lack of research where like all these studies have been only conducted in like a particular region of the world, right? So that's another type of a research gap. And then we've got limitations of previous studies, which is something that I've already mentioned, and another limitation. So in here, we kind of combine three types of research gaps, and this just makes your topic much stronger, right? And much more novel than just like having one simple research gap. And the last tip that I would want to give you is about combining the research gap with the contribution of your study, right? So this is how it's done in here. So we've got the research gap in here, but there is a clear lack of studies on this topic. And then we've got the aim. But what you can do after that is to present the contributions of your study straight away. This is a good trick if you want to let the reviewers know straight away in the introduction why your study is novel and why it should be considered for this journal, right? So the way to do this is very simple. You just need one paragraph, maybe three sentences or something like this. You start by saying that this study has several contributions, and then you can use phrases like this is the first study to do something, right? And then this research contributes for the first time to something, right? And then this paper opens several avenues for future research, right? So we just like in every sentence, we highlight why the results of this study are novel. So if you have a research gap, and then you state the aim, and then you highlight the novelty and the contributions of your study, your chances of your paper being accepted in a really good journal definitely go up. Now, if you've enjoyed this video, but you'd like to get more personalized help to publish research papers in top journals in your field, then schedule a free one-to-one consultation. And the link to do that is right below this video. We're going to meet one-to-one and identify what challenges you're currently having, pinpoint your exact goals, and we'll show you a clear pathway as well to getting to those goals and solving your challenges much faster and with greater ease. And if you're interested in doing that, the link to schedule a free one-to-one consultation is right below this video.