How to Write Limitations of the Study (with examples)

This blog emphasizes the importance of recognizing and effectively writing about limitations in research. It discusses the types of limitations, their significance, and provides guidelines for writing about them, highlighting their role in advancing scholarly research.

Updated on August 24, 2023

a group of researchers writing their limitation of their study

No matter how well thought out, every research endeavor encounters challenges. There is simply no way to predict all possible variances throughout the process.

These uncharted boundaries and abrupt constraints are known as limitations in research . Identifying and acknowledging limitations is crucial for conducting rigorous studies. Limitations provide context and shed light on gaps in the prevailing inquiry and literature.

This article explores the importance of recognizing limitations and discusses how to write them effectively. By interpreting limitations in research and considering prevalent examples, we aim to reframe the perception from shameful mistakes to respectable revelations.

What are limitations in research?

In the clearest terms, research limitations are the practical or theoretical shortcomings of a study that are often outside of the researcher’s control . While these weaknesses limit the generalizability of a study’s conclusions, they also present a foundation for future research.

Sometimes limitations arise from tangible circumstances like time and funding constraints, or equipment and participant availability. Other times the rationale is more obscure and buried within the research design. Common types of limitations and their ramifications include:

  • Theoretical: limits the scope, depth, or applicability of a study.
  • Methodological: limits the quality, quantity, or diversity of the data.
  • Empirical: limits the representativeness, validity, or reliability of the data.
  • Analytical: limits the accuracy, completeness, or significance of the findings.
  • Ethical: limits the access, consent, or confidentiality of the data.

Regardless of how, when, or why they arise, limitations are a natural part of the research process and should never be ignored . Like all other aspects, they are vital in their own purpose.

Why is identifying limitations important?

Whether to seek acceptance or avoid struggle, humans often instinctively hide flaws and mistakes. Merging this thought process into research by attempting to hide limitations, however, is a bad idea. It has the potential to negate the validity of outcomes and damage the reputation of scholars.

By identifying and addressing limitations throughout a project, researchers strengthen their arguments and curtail the chance of peer censure based on overlooked mistakes. Pointing out these flaws shows an understanding of variable limits and a scrupulous research process.

Showing awareness of and taking responsibility for a project’s boundaries and challenges validates the integrity and transparency of a researcher. It further demonstrates the researchers understand the applicable literature and have thoroughly evaluated their chosen research methods.

Presenting limitations also benefits the readers by providing context for research findings. It guides them to interpret the project’s conclusions only within the scope of very specific conditions. By allowing for an appropriate generalization of the findings that is accurately confined by research boundaries and is not too broad, limitations boost a study’s credibility .

Limitations are true assets to the research process. They highlight opportunities for future research. When researchers identify the limitations of their particular approach to a study question, they enable precise transferability and improve chances for reproducibility. 

Simply stating a project’s limitations is not adequate for spurring further research, though. To spark the interest of other researchers, these acknowledgements must come with thorough explanations regarding how the limitations affected the current study and how they can potentially be overcome with amended methods.

How to write limitations

Typically, the information about a study’s limitations is situated either at the beginning of the discussion section to provide context for readers or at the conclusion of the discussion section to acknowledge the need for further research. However, it varies depending upon the target journal or publication guidelines. 

Don’t hide your limitations

It is also important to not bury a limitation in the body of the paper unless it has a unique connection to a topic in that section. If so, it needs to be reiterated with the other limitations or at the conclusion of the discussion section. Wherever it is included in the manuscript, ensure that the limitations section is prominently positioned and clearly introduced.

While maintaining transparency by disclosing limitations means taking a comprehensive approach, it is not necessary to discuss everything that could have potentially gone wrong during the research study. If there is no commitment to investigation in the introduction, it is unnecessary to consider the issue a limitation to the research. Wholly consider the term ‘limitations’ and ask, “Did it significantly change or limit the possible outcomes?” Then, qualify the occurrence as either a limitation to include in the current manuscript or as an idea to note for other projects. 

Writing limitations

Once the limitations are concretely identified and it is decided where they will be included in the paper, researchers are ready for the writing task. Including only what is pertinent, keeping explanations detailed but concise, and employing the following guidelines is key for crafting valuable limitations:

1) Identify and describe the limitations : Clearly introduce the limitation by classifying its form and specifying its origin. For example:

  • An unintentional bias encountered during data collection
  • An intentional use of unplanned post-hoc data analysis

2) Explain the implications : Describe how the limitation potentially influences the study’s findings and how the validity and generalizability are subsequently impacted. Provide examples and evidence to support claims of the limitations’ effects without making excuses or exaggerating their impact. Overall, be transparent and objective in presenting the limitations, without undermining the significance of the research. 

3) Provide alternative approaches for future studies : Offer specific suggestions for potential improvements or avenues for further investigation. Demonstrate a proactive approach by encouraging future research that addresses the identified gaps and, therefore, expands the knowledge base.

Whether presenting limitations as an individual section within the manuscript or as a subtopic in the discussion area, authors should use clear headings and straightforward language to facilitate readability. There is no need to complicate limitations with jargon, computations, or complex datasets.

Examples of common limitations

Limitations are generally grouped into two categories , methodology and research process .

Methodology limitations

Methodology may include limitations due to:

  • Sample size
  • Lack of available or reliable data
  • Lack of prior research studies on the topic
  • Measure used to collect the data
  • Self-reported data

methodology limitation example

The researcher is addressing how the large sample size requires a reassessment of the measures used to collect and analyze the data.

Research process limitations

Limitations during the research process may arise from:

  • Access to information
  • Longitudinal effects
  • Cultural and other biases
  • Language fluency
  • Time constraints

research process limitations example

The author is pointing out that the model’s estimates are based on potentially biased observational studies.

Final thoughts

Successfully proving theories and touting great achievements are only two very narrow goals of scholarly research. The true passion and greatest efforts of researchers comes more in the form of confronting assumptions and exploring the obscure.

In many ways, recognizing and sharing the limitations of a research study both allows for and encourages this type of discovery that continuously pushes research forward. By using limitations to provide a transparent account of the project's boundaries and to contextualize the findings, researchers pave the way for even more robust and impactful research in the future.

Charla Viera, MS

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How to present limitations in research

Last updated

30 January 2024

Reviewed by

Limitations don’t invalidate or diminish your results, but it’s best to acknowledge them. This will enable you to address any questions your study failed to answer because of them.

In this guide, learn how to recognize, present, and overcome limitations in research.

  • What is a research limitation?

Research limitations are weaknesses in your research design or execution that may have impacted outcomes and conclusions. Uncovering limitations doesn’t necessarily indicate poor research design—it just means you encountered challenges you couldn’t have anticipated that limited your research efforts.

Does basic research have limitations?

Basic research aims to provide more information about your research topic. It requires the same standard research methodology and data collection efforts as any other research type, and it can also have limitations.

  • Common research limitations

Researchers encounter common limitations when embarking on a study. Limitations can occur in relation to the methods you apply or the research process you design. They could also be connected to you as the researcher.

Methodology limitations

Not having access to data or reliable information can impact the methods used to facilitate your research. A lack of data or reliability may limit the parameters of your study area and the extent of your exploration.

Your sample size may also be affected because you won’t have any direction on how big or small it should be and who or what you should include. Having too few participants won’t adequately represent the population or groups of people needed to draw meaningful conclusions.

Research process limitations

The study’s design can impose constraints on the process. For example, as you’re conducting the research, issues may arise that don’t conform to the data collection methodology you developed. You may not realize until well into the process that you should have incorporated more specific questions or comprehensive experiments to generate the data you need to have confidence in your results.

Constraints on resources can also have an impact. Being limited on participants or participation incentives may limit your sample sizes. Insufficient tools, equipment, and materials to conduct a thorough study may also be a factor.

Common researcher limitations

Here are some of the common researcher limitations you may encounter:

Time: some research areas require multi-year longitudinal approaches, but you might not be able to dedicate that much time. Imagine you want to measure how much memory a person loses as they age. This may involve conducting multiple tests on a sample of participants over 20–30 years, which may be impossible.

Bias: researchers can consciously or unconsciously apply bias to their research. Biases can contribute to relying on research sources and methodologies that will only support your beliefs about the research you’re embarking on. You might also omit relevant issues or participants from the scope of your study because of your biases.

Limited access to data : you may need to pay to access specific databases or journals that would be helpful to your research process. You might also need to gain information from certain people or organizations but have limited access to them. These cases require readjusting your process and explaining why your findings are still reliable.

  • Why is it important to identify limitations?

Identifying limitations adds credibility to research and provides a deeper understanding of how you arrived at your conclusions.

Constraints may have prevented you from collecting specific data or information you hoped would prove or disprove your hypothesis or provide a more comprehensive understanding of your research topic.

However, identifying the limitations contributing to your conclusions can inspire further research efforts that help gather more substantial information and data.

  • Where to put limitations in a research paper

A research paper is broken up into different sections that appear in the following order:

Introduction

Methodology

The discussion portion of your paper explores your findings and puts them in the context of the overall research. Either place research limitations at the beginning of the discussion section before the analysis of your findings or at the end of the section to indicate that further research needs to be pursued.

What not to include in the limitations section

Evidence that doesn’t support your hypothesis is not a limitation, so you shouldn’t include it in the limitation section. Don’t just list limitations and their degree of severity without further explanation.

  • How to present limitations

You’ll want to present the limitations of your study in a way that doesn’t diminish the validity of your research and leave the reader wondering if your results and conclusions have been compromised.

Include only the limitations that directly relate to and impact how you addressed your research questions. Following a specific format enables the reader to develop an understanding of the weaknesses within the context of your findings without doubting the quality and integrity of your research.

Identify the limitations specific to your study

You don’t have to identify every possible limitation that might have occurred during your research process. Only identify those that may have influenced the quality of your findings and your ability to answer your research question.

Explain study limitations in detail

This explanation should be the most significant portion of your limitation section.

Link each limitation with an interpretation and appraisal of their impact on the study. You’ll have to evaluate and explain whether the error, method, or validity issues influenced the study’s outcome and how.

Propose a direction for future studies and present alternatives

In this section, suggest how researchers can avoid the pitfalls you experienced during your research process.

If an issue with methodology was a limitation, propose alternate methods that may help with a smoother and more conclusive research project. Discuss the pros and cons of your alternate recommendation.

Describe steps taken to minimize each limitation

You probably took steps to try to address or mitigate limitations when you noticed them throughout the course of your research project. Describe these steps in the limitation section.

  • Limitation example

“Approaches like stem cell transplantation and vaccination in AD [Alzheimer’s disease] work on a cellular or molecular level in the laboratory. However, translation into clinical settings will remain a challenge for the next decade.”

The authors are saying that even though these methods showed promise in helping people with memory loss when conducted in the lab (in other words, using animal studies), more studies are needed. These may be controlled clinical trials, for example. 

However, the short life span of stem cells outside the lab and the vaccination’s severe inflammatory side effects are limitations. Researchers won’t be able to conduct clinical trials until these issues are overcome.

  • How to overcome limitations in research

You’ve already started on the road to overcoming limitations in research by acknowledging that they exist. However, you need to ensure readers don’t mistake weaknesses for errors within your research design.

To do this, you’ll need to justify and explain your rationale for the methods, research design, and analysis tools you chose and how you noticed they may have presented limitations.

Your readers need to know that even when limitations presented themselves, you followed best practices and the ethical standards of your field. You didn’t violate any rules and regulations during your research process.

You’ll also want to reinforce the validity of your conclusions and results with multiple sources, methods, and perspectives. This prevents readers from assuming your findings were derived from a single or biased source.

  • Learning and improving starts with limitations in research

Dealing with limitations with transparency and integrity helps identify areas for future improvements and developments. It’s a learning process, providing valuable insights into how you can improve methodologies, expand sample sizes, or explore alternate approaches to further support the validity of your findings.

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

  • Limitations of the Study
  • Purpose of Guide
  • Design Flaws to Avoid
  • Independent and Dependent Variables
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The limitations of the study are those characteristics of design or methodology that impacted or influenced the interpretation of the findings from your research. Study limitations are the constraints placed on the ability to generalize from the results, to further describe applications to practice, and/or related to the utility of findings that are the result of the ways in which you initially chose to design the study or the method used to establish internal and external validity or the result of unanticipated challenges that emerged during the study.

Price, James H. and Judy Murnan. “Research Limitations and the Necessity of Reporting Them.” American Journal of Health Education 35 (2004): 66-67; Theofanidis, Dimitrios and Antigoni Fountouki. "Limitations and Delimitations in the Research Process." Perioperative Nursing 7 (September-December 2018): 155-163. .

Importance of...

Always acknowledge a study's limitations. It is far better that you identify and acknowledge your study’s limitations than to have them pointed out by your professor and have your grade lowered because you appeared to have ignored them or didn't realize they existed.

Keep in mind that acknowledgment of a study's limitations is an opportunity to make suggestions for further research. If you do connect your study's limitations to suggestions for further research, be sure to explain the ways in which these unanswered questions may become more focused because of your study.

Acknowledgment of a study's limitations also provides you with opportunities to demonstrate that you have thought critically about the research problem, understood the relevant literature published about it, and correctly assessed the methods chosen for studying the problem. A key objective of the research process is not only discovering new knowledge but also to confront assumptions and explore what we don't know.

Claiming limitations is a subjective process because you must evaluate the impact of those limitations . Don't just list key weaknesses and the magnitude of a study's limitations. To do so diminishes the validity of your research because it leaves the reader wondering whether, or in what ways, limitation(s) in your study may have impacted the results and conclusions. Limitations require a critical, overall appraisal and interpretation of their impact. You should answer the question: do these problems with errors, methods, validity, etc. eventually matter and, if so, to what extent?

Price, James H. and Judy Murnan. “Research Limitations and the Necessity of Reporting Them.” American Journal of Health Education 35 (2004): 66-67; Structure: How to Structure the Research Limitations Section of Your Dissertation. Dissertations and Theses: An Online Textbook. Laerd.com.

Descriptions of Possible Limitations

All studies have limitations . However, it is important that you restrict your discussion to limitations related to the research problem under investigation. For example, if a meta-analysis of existing literature is not a stated purpose of your research, it should not be discussed as a limitation. Do not apologize for not addressing issues that you did not promise to investigate in the introduction of your paper.

Here are examples of limitations related to methodology and the research process you may need to describe and discuss how they possibly impacted your results. Note that descriptions of limitations should be stated in the past tense because they were discovered after you completed your research.

Possible Methodological Limitations

  • Sample size -- the number of the units of analysis you use in your study is dictated by the type of research problem you are investigating. Note that, if your sample size is too small, it will be difficult to find significant relationships from the data, as statistical tests normally require a larger sample size to ensure a representative distribution of the population and to be considered representative of groups of people to whom results will be generalized or transferred. Note that sample size is generally less relevant in qualitative research if explained in the context of the research problem.
  • Lack of available and/or reliable data -- a lack of data or of reliable data will likely require you to limit the scope of your analysis, the size of your sample, or it can be a significant obstacle in finding a trend and a meaningful relationship. You need to not only describe these limitations but provide cogent reasons why you believe data is missing or is unreliable. However, don’t just throw up your hands in frustration; use this as an opportunity to describe a need for future research based on designing a different method for gathering data.
  • Lack of prior research studies on the topic -- citing prior research studies forms the basis of your literature review and helps lay a foundation for understanding the research problem you are investigating. Depending on the currency or scope of your research topic, there may be little, if any, prior research on your topic. Before assuming this to be true, though, consult with a librarian! In cases when a librarian has confirmed that there is little or no prior research, you may be required to develop an entirely new research typology [for example, using an exploratory rather than an explanatory research design ]. Note again that discovering a limitation can serve as an important opportunity to identify new gaps in the literature and to describe the need for further research.
  • Measure used to collect the data -- sometimes it is the case that, after completing your interpretation of the findings, you discover that the way in which you gathered data inhibited your ability to conduct a thorough analysis of the results. For example, you regret not including a specific question in a survey that, in retrospect, could have helped address a particular issue that emerged later in the study. Acknowledge the deficiency by stating a need for future researchers to revise the specific method for gathering data.
  • Self-reported data -- whether you are relying on pre-existing data or you are conducting a qualitative research study and gathering the data yourself, self-reported data is limited by the fact that it rarely can be independently verified. In other words, you have to the accuracy of what people say, whether in interviews, focus groups, or on questionnaires, at face value. However, self-reported data can contain several potential sources of bias that you should be alert to and note as limitations. These biases become apparent if they are incongruent with data from other sources. These are: (1) selective memory [remembering or not remembering experiences or events that occurred at some point in the past]; (2) telescoping [recalling events that occurred at one time as if they occurred at another time]; (3) attribution [the act of attributing positive events and outcomes to one's own agency, but attributing negative events and outcomes to external forces]; and, (4) exaggeration [the act of representing outcomes or embellishing events as more significant than is actually suggested from other data].

Possible Limitations of the Researcher

  • Access -- if your study depends on having access to people, organizations, data, or documents and, for whatever reason, access is denied or limited in some way, the reasons for this needs to be described. Also, include an explanation why being denied or limited access did not prevent you from following through on your study.
  • Longitudinal effects -- unlike your professor, who can literally devote years [even a lifetime] to studying a single topic, the time available to investigate a research problem and to measure change or stability over time is constrained by the due date of your assignment. Be sure to choose a research problem that does not require an excessive amount of time to complete the literature review, apply the methodology, and gather and interpret the results. If you're unsure whether you can complete your research within the confines of the assignment's due date, talk to your professor.
  • Cultural and other type of bias -- we all have biases, whether we are conscience of them or not. Bias is when a person, place, event, or thing is viewed or shown in a consistently inaccurate way. Bias is usually negative, though one can have a positive bias as well, especially if that bias reflects your reliance on research that only support your hypothesis. When proof-reading your paper, be especially critical in reviewing how you have stated a problem, selected the data to be studied, what may have been omitted, the manner in which you have ordered events, people, or places, how you have chosen to represent a person, place, or thing, to name a phenomenon, or to use possible words with a positive or negative connotation. NOTE :   If you detect bias in prior research, it must be acknowledged and you should explain what measures were taken to avoid perpetuating that bias. For example, if a previous study only used boys to examine how music education supports effective math skills, describe how your research expands the study to include girls.
  • Fluency in a language -- if your research focuses , for example, on measuring the perceived value of after-school tutoring among Mexican-American ESL [English as a Second Language] students and you are not fluent in Spanish, you are limited in being able to read and interpret Spanish language research studies on the topic or to speak with these students in their primary language. This deficiency should be acknowledged.

Aguinis, Hermam and Jeffrey R. Edwards. “Methodological Wishes for the Next Decade and How to Make Wishes Come True.” Journal of Management Studies 51 (January 2014): 143-174; Brutus, Stéphane et al. "Self-Reported Limitations and Future Directions in Scholarly Reports: Analysis and Recommendations." Journal of Management 39 (January 2013): 48-75; Senunyeme, Emmanuel K. Business Research Methods. Powerpoint Presentation. Regent University of Science and Technology; ter Riet, Gerben et al. “All That Glitters Isn't Gold: A Survey on Acknowledgment of Limitations in Biomedical Studies.” PLOS One 8 (November 2013): 1-6.

Structure and Writing Style

Information about the limitations of your study are generally placed either at the beginning of the discussion section of your paper so the reader knows and understands the limitations before reading the rest of your analysis of the findings, or, the limitations are outlined at the conclusion of the discussion section as an acknowledgement of the need for further study. Statements about a study's limitations should not be buried in the body [middle] of the discussion section unless a limitation is specific to something covered in that part of the paper. If this is the case, though, the limitation should be reiterated at the conclusion of the section.

If you determine that your study is seriously flawed due to important limitations , such as, an inability to acquire critical data, consider reframing it as an exploratory study intended to lay the groundwork for a more complete research study in the future. Be sure, though, to specifically explain the ways that these flaws can be successfully overcome in a new study.

But, do not use this as an excuse for not developing a thorough research paper! Review the tab in this guide for developing a research topic . If serious limitations exist, it generally indicates a likelihood that your research problem is too narrowly defined or that the issue or event under study is too recent and, thus, very little research has been written about it. If serious limitations do emerge, consult with your professor about possible ways to overcome them or how to revise your study.

When discussing the limitations of your research, be sure to:

  • Describe each limitation in detailed but concise terms;
  • Explain why each limitation exists;
  • Provide the reasons why each limitation could not be overcome using the method(s) chosen to acquire or gather the data [cite to other studies that had similar problems when possible];
  • Assess the impact of each limitation in relation to the overall findings and conclusions of your study; and,
  • If appropriate, describe how these limitations could point to the need for further research.

Remember that the method you chose may be the source of a significant limitation that has emerged during your interpretation of the results [for example, you didn't interview a group of people that you later wish you had]. If this is the case, don't panic. Acknowledge it, and explain how applying a different or more robust methodology might address the research problem more effectively in a future study. A underlying goal of scholarly research is not only to show what works, but to demonstrate what doesn't work or what needs further clarification.

Aguinis, Hermam and Jeffrey R. Edwards. “Methodological Wishes for the Next Decade and How to Make Wishes Come True.” Journal of Management Studies 51 (January 2014): 143-174; Brutus, Stéphane et al. "Self-Reported Limitations and Future Directions in Scholarly Reports: Analysis and Recommendations." Journal of Management 39 (January 2013): 48-75; Ioannidis, John P.A. "Limitations are not Properly Acknowledged in the Scientific Literature." Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 60 (2007): 324-329; Pasek, Josh. Writing the Empirical Social Science Research Paper: A Guide for the Perplexed. January 24, 2012. Academia.edu; Structure: How to Structure the Research Limitations Section of Your Dissertation. Dissertations and Theses: An Online Textbook. Laerd.com; What Is an Academic Paper? Institute for Writing Rhetoric. Dartmouth College; Writing the Experimental Report: Methods, Results, and Discussion. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University.

Writing Tip

Don't Inflate the Importance of Your Findings!

After all the hard work and long hours devoted to writing your research paper, it is easy to get carried away with attributing unwarranted importance to what you’ve done. We all want our academic work to be viewed as excellent and worthy of a good grade, but it is important that you understand and openly acknowledge the limitations of your study. Inflating the importance of your study's findings could be perceived by your readers as an attempt hide its flaws or encourage a biased interpretation of the results. A small measure of humility goes a long way!

Another Writing Tip

Negative Results are Not a Limitation!

Negative evidence refers to findings that unexpectedly challenge rather than support your hypothesis. If you didn't get the results you anticipated, it may mean your hypothesis was incorrect and needs to be reformulated. Or, perhaps you have stumbled onto something unexpected that warrants further study. Moreover, the absence of an effect may be very telling in many situations, particularly in experimental research designs. In any case, your results may very well be of importance to others even though they did not support your hypothesis. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that results contrary to what you expected is a limitation to your study. If you carried out the research well, they are simply your results and only require additional interpretation.

Lewis, George H. and Jonathan F. Lewis. “The Dog in the Night-Time: Negative Evidence in Social Research.” The British Journal of Sociology 31 (December 1980): 544-558.

Yet Another Writing Tip

Sample Size Limitations in Qualitative Research

Sample sizes are typically smaller in qualitative research because, as the study goes on, acquiring more data does not necessarily lead to more information. This is because one occurrence of a piece of data, or a code, is all that is necessary to ensure that it becomes part of the analysis framework. However, it remains true that sample sizes that are too small cannot adequately support claims of having achieved valid conclusions and sample sizes that are too large do not permit the deep, naturalistic, and inductive analysis that defines qualitative inquiry. Determining adequate sample size in qualitative research is ultimately a matter of judgment and experience in evaluating the quality of the information collected against the uses to which it will be applied and the particular research method and purposeful sampling strategy employed. If the sample size is found to be a limitation, it may reflect your judgment about the methodological technique chosen [e.g., single life history study versus focus group interviews] rather than the number of respondents used.

Boddy, Clive Roland. "Sample Size for Qualitative Research." Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal 19 (2016): 426-432; Huberman, A. Michael and Matthew B. Miles. "Data Management and Analysis Methods." In Handbook of Qualitative Research . Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994), pp. 428-444; Blaikie, Norman. "Confounding Issues Related to Determining Sample Size in Qualitative Research." International Journal of Social Research Methodology 21 (2018): 635-641; Oppong, Steward Harrison. "The Problem of Sampling in qualitative Research." Asian Journal of Management Sciences and Education 2 (2013): 202-210.

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Writing Limitations of Research Study — 4 Reasons Why It Is Important!

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It is not unusual for researchers to come across the term limitations of research during their academic paper writing. More often this is interpreted as something terrible. However, when it comes to research study, limitations can help structure the research study better. Therefore, do not underestimate significance of limitations of research study.

Allow us to take you through the context of how to evaluate the limits of your research and conclude an impactful relevance to your results.

Table of Contents

What Are the Limitations of a Research Study?

Every research has its limit and these limitations arise due to restrictions in methodology or research design.  This could impact your entire research or the research paper you wish to publish. Unfortunately, most researchers choose not to discuss their limitations of research fearing it will affect the value of their article in the eyes of readers.

However, it is very important to discuss your study limitations and show it to your target audience (other researchers, journal editors, peer reviewers etc.). It is very important that you provide an explanation of how your research limitations may affect the conclusions and opinions drawn from your research. Moreover, when as an author you state the limitations of research, it shows that you have investigated all the weaknesses of your study and have a deep understanding of the subject. Being honest could impress your readers and mark your study as a sincere effort in research.

peer review

Why and Where Should You Include the Research Limitations?

The main goal of your research is to address your research objectives. Conduct experiments, get results and explain those results, and finally justify your research question . It is best to mention the limitations of research in the discussion paragraph of your research article.

At the very beginning of this paragraph, immediately after highlighting the strengths of the research methodology, you should write down your limitations. You can discuss specific points from your research limitations as suggestions for further research in the conclusion of your thesis.

1. Common Limitations of the Researchers

Limitations that are related to the researcher must be mentioned. This will help you gain transparency with your readers. Furthermore, you could provide suggestions on decreasing these limitations in you and your future studies.

2. Limited Access to Information

Your work may involve some institutions and individuals in research, and sometimes you may have problems accessing these institutions. Therefore, you need to redesign and rewrite your work. You must explain your readers the reason for limited access.

3. Limited Time

All researchers are bound by their deadlines when it comes to completing their studies. Sometimes, time constraints can affect your research negatively. However, the best practice is to acknowledge it and mention a requirement for future study to solve the research problem in a better way.

4. Conflict over Biased Views and Personal Issues

Biased views can affect the research. In fact, researchers end up choosing only those results and data that support their main argument, keeping aside the other loose ends of the research.

Types of Limitations of Research

Before beginning your research study, know that there are certain limitations to what you are testing or possible research results. There are different types that researchers may encounter, and they all have unique characteristics, such as:

1. Research Design Limitations

Certain restrictions on your research or available procedures may affect your final results or research outputs. You may have formulated research goals and objectives too broadly. However, this can help you understand how you can narrow down the formulation of research goals and objectives, thereby increasing the focus of your study.

2. Impact Limitations

Even if your research has excellent statistics and a strong design, it can suffer from the influence of the following factors:

  • Presence of increasing findings as researched
  • Being population specific
  • A strong regional focus.

3. Data or statistical limitations

In some cases, it is impossible to collect sufficient data for research or very difficult to get access to the data. This could lead to incomplete conclusion to your study. Moreover, this insufficiency in data could be the outcome of your study design. The unclear, shabby research outline could produce more problems in interpreting your findings.

How to Correctly Structure Your Research Limitations?

There are strict guidelines for narrowing down research questions, wherein you could justify and explain potential weaknesses of your academic paper. You could go through these basic steps to get a well-structured clarity of research limitations:

  • Declare that you wish to identify your limitations of research and explain their importance,
  • Provide the necessary depth, explain their nature, and justify your study choices.
  • Write how you are suggesting that it is possible to overcome them in the future.

In this section, your readers will see that you are aware of the potential weaknesses in your business, understand them and offer effective solutions, and it will positively strengthen your article as you clarify all limitations of research to your target audience.

Know that you cannot be perfect and there is no individual without flaws. You could use the limitations of research as a great opportunity to take on a new challenge and improve the future of research. In a typical academic paper, research limitations may relate to:

1. Formulating your goals and objectives

If you formulate goals and objectives too broadly, your work will have some shortcomings. In this case, specify effective methods or ways to narrow down the formula of goals and aim to increase your level of study focus.

2. Application of your data collection methods in research

If you do not have experience in primary data collection, there is a risk that there will be flaws in the implementation of your methods. It is necessary to accept this, and learn and educate yourself to understand data collection methods.

3. Sample sizes

This depends on the nature of problem you choose. Sample size is of a greater importance in quantitative studies as opposed to qualitative ones. If your sample size is too small, statistical tests cannot identify significant relationships or connections within a given data set.

You could point out that other researchers should base the same study on a larger sample size to get more accurate results.

4. The absence of previous studies in the field you have chosen

Writing a literature review is an important step in any scientific study because it helps researchers determine the scope of current work in the chosen field. It is a major foundation for any researcher who must use them to achieve a set of specific goals or objectives.

However, if you are focused on the most current and evolving research problem or a very narrow research problem, there may be very little prior research on your topic. For example, if you chose to explore the role of Bitcoin as the currency of the future, you may not find tons of scientific papers addressing the research problem as Bitcoins are only a new phenomenon.

It is important that you learn to identify research limitations examples at each step. Whatever field you choose, feel free to add the shortcoming of your work. This is mainly because you do not have many years of experience writing scientific papers or completing complex work. Therefore, the depth and scope of your discussions may be compromised at different levels compared to academics with a lot of expertise. Include specific points from limitations of research. Use them as suggestions for the future.

Have you ever faced a challenge of writing the limitations of research study in your paper? How did you overcome it? What ways did you follow? Were they beneficial? Let us know in the comments below!

Frequently Asked Questions

Setting limitations in our study helps to clarify the outcomes drawn from our research and enhance understanding of the subject. Moreover, it shows that the author has investigated all the weaknesses in the study.

Scope is the range and limitations of a research project which are set to define the boundaries of a project. Limitations are the impacts on the overall study due to the constraints on the research design.

Limitation in research is an impact of a constraint on the research design in the overall study. They are the flaws or weaknesses in the study, which may influence the outcome of the research.

1. Limitations in research can be written as follows: Formulate your goals and objectives 2. Analyze the chosen data collection method and the sample sizes 3. Identify your limitations of research and explain their importance 4. Provide the necessary depth, explain their nature, and justify your study choices 5. Write how you are suggesting that it is possible to overcome them in the future

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How to Identify Limitations in Research

How to Identify Limitations in Research

4-minute read

  • 7th March 2022

Whether you’re a veteran researcher with years of experience under your belt or a novice to the field that’s feeling overwhelmed with where to start, you must understand that every study has its limitations. These are restrictions that arise from the study’s design, or the methodology implemented during the testing phase. Unfortunately, research limitations will always exist due to the subjective nature of testing a hypothesis. We’ve compiled some helpful information below on how to identify and accept research limitations and use them to your advantage. Essentially, we’ll show you how to make lemonade (a brilliant piece of academic work ) from the lemons you receive (the constraints your study reveals).

Research Limitations

So, let’s dive straight in, shall we? It’s always beneficial (and good practice) to disclose your research limitations . A common thought is that divulging these shortcomings will undermine the credibility and quality of your research. However, this is certainly not the case— stating the facts upfront not only reinforces your reputation as a researcher but also lets the assessor or reader know that you’re confident and transparent about the results and relevance of your study, despite these constraints.

Additionally, it creates a gap for more research opportunities, where you can analyze these limitations and determine how to incorporate or address them in a new batch of tests or create a new hypothesis altogether. Another bonus is that it helps readers to understand the optimum conditions for how to apply the results of your testing. This is a win-win, making for a far more persuasive research paper .

Now that you know why you should clarify your research limitations, let’s focus on which ones take precedence and should be disclosed. Any given research project can be vulnerable to various hindrances, so how do you identify them and single out the most significant ones to discuss? Well, that depends entirely on the nature of your study. You’ll need to comb through your research approach, methodology, testing processes, and expected results to identify the type of limitations your study may be exposed to. It’s worth noting that this understanding can only offer a broad idea of the possible restrictions you’ll face and may potentially change throughout the study.

We’ve compiled a list of the most common types of research limitations that you may encounter so you can adequately prepare for them and remain vigilant during each stage of your study.

Sample Size:

It’s critical that you choose a sample size that accurately represents the population you wish to test your theory on. If a sample is too small, the results cannot reliably be generalized across a large population.

Methodology:

The method you choose before you commence testing might seem effective in theory, but too many stumbling blocks during the testing phase can influence the accuracy and reliability of the results.

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Collection of Data:

The methods you utilize to obtain your research—surveys, emails, in-person interviews, phone calls—will directly influence the type of results your study yields.

Age of Data:

The nature of the information—and how far back it goes—affects the type of assumptions you can make. Extrapolating older data for a current hypothesis can significantly change the outcome of your testing.

Time Constraints:

Working within the deadline of when you need to submit your findings will determine the extent of your research and testing and, therefore, can heavily impact your results. Limited time frames for testing might mean not achieving the scope of results you were originally looking for.

Limited Budget:

Your study may require equipment and other resources that can become extremely costly. Budget constraints may mean you cannot acquire advanced software, programs, or travel to multiple destinations to interview participants. All of these factors can substantially influence your results.

So, now that you know how to determine your research limitations and the types you might experience, where should you document it? It’s commonly disclosed at the beginning of your discussion section , so the reader understands the shortcomings of your study before digging into the juicy bit—your findings. Alternatively, you can detail the constraints faced at the end of the discussion section to emphasize the requirements for the completion of further studies.

We hope this post will prepare you for some of the pitfalls you may encounter when conducting and documenting your research. Once you have a first draft ready, consider submitting a free sample to us for proofreading to ensure that your writing is concise and error-free and your results—despite their limitations— shine through.

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How to Present the Limitations of the Study Examples

research on limitation

What are the limitations of a study?

The limitations of a study are the elements of methodology or study design that impact the interpretation of your research results. The limitations essentially detail any flaws or shortcomings in your study. Study limitations can exist due to constraints on research design, methodology, materials, etc., and these factors may impact the findings of your study. However, researchers are often reluctant to discuss the limitations of their study in their papers, feeling that bringing up limitations may undermine its research value in the eyes of readers and reviewers.

In spite of the impact it might have (and perhaps because of it) you should clearly acknowledge any limitations in your research paper in order to show readers—whether journal editors, other researchers, or the general public—that you are aware of these limitations and to explain how they affect the conclusions that can be drawn from the research.

In this article, we provide some guidelines for writing about research limitations, show examples of some frequently seen study limitations, and recommend techniques for presenting this information. And after you have finished drafting and have received manuscript editing for your work, you still might want to follow this up with academic editing before submitting your work to your target journal.

Why do I need to include limitations of research in my paper?

Although limitations address the potential weaknesses of a study, writing about them toward the end of your paper actually strengthens your study by identifying any problems before other researchers or reviewers find them.

Furthermore, pointing out study limitations shows that you’ve considered the impact of research weakness thoroughly and have an in-depth understanding of your research topic. Since all studies face limitations, being honest and detailing these limitations will impress researchers and reviewers more than ignoring them.

limitations of the study examples, brick wall with blue sky

Where should I put the limitations of the study in my paper?

Some limitations might be evident to researchers before the start of the study, while others might become clear while you are conducting the research. Whether these limitations are anticipated or not, and whether they are due to research design or to methodology, they should be clearly identified and discussed in the discussion section —the final section of your paper. Most journals now require you to include a discussion of potential limitations of your work, and many journals now ask you to place this “limitations section” at the very end of your article. 

Some journals ask you to also discuss the strengths of your work in this section, and some allow you to freely choose where to include that information in your discussion section—make sure to always check the author instructions of your target journal before you finalize a manuscript and submit it for peer review .

Limitations of the Study Examples

There are several reasons why limitations of research might exist. The two main categories of limitations are those that result from the methodology and those that result from issues with the researcher(s).

Common Methodological Limitations of Studies

Limitations of research due to methodological problems can be addressed by clearly and directly identifying the potential problem and suggesting ways in which this could have been addressed—and SHOULD be addressed in future studies. The following are some major potential methodological issues that can impact the conclusions researchers can draw from the research.

Issues with research samples and selection

Sampling errors occur when a probability sampling method is used to select a sample, but that sample does not reflect the general population or appropriate population concerned. This results in limitations of your study known as “sample bias” or “selection bias.”

For example, if you conducted a survey to obtain your research results, your samples (participants) were asked to respond to the survey questions. However, you might have had limited ability to gain access to the appropriate type or geographic scope of participants. In this case, the people who responded to your survey questions may not truly be a random sample.

Insufficient sample size for statistical measurements

When conducting a study, it is important to have a sufficient sample size in order to draw valid conclusions. The larger the sample, the more precise your results will be. If your sample size is too small, it will be difficult to identify significant relationships in the data.

Normally, statistical tests require a larger sample size to ensure that the sample is considered representative of a population and that the statistical result can be generalized to a larger population. It is a good idea to understand how to choose an appropriate sample size before you conduct your research by using scientific calculation tools—in fact, many journals now require such estimation to be included in every manuscript that is sent out for review.

Lack of previous research studies on the topic

Citing and referencing prior research studies constitutes the basis of the literature review for your thesis or study, and these prior studies provide the theoretical foundations for the research question you are investigating. However, depending on the scope of your research topic, prior research studies that are relevant to your thesis might be limited.

When there is very little or no prior research on a specific topic, you may need to develop an entirely new research typology. In this case, discovering a limitation can be considered an important opportunity to identify literature gaps and to present the need for further development in the area of study.

Methods/instruments/techniques used to collect the data

After you complete your analysis of the research findings (in the discussion section), you might realize that the manner in which you have collected the data or the ways in which you have measured variables has limited your ability to conduct a thorough analysis of the results.

For example, you might realize that you should have addressed your survey questions from another viable perspective, or that you were not able to include an important question in the survey. In these cases, you should acknowledge the deficiency or deficiencies by stating a need for future researchers to revise their specific methods for collecting data that includes these missing elements.

Common Limitations of the Researcher(s)

Study limitations that arise from situations relating to the researcher or researchers (whether the direct fault of the individuals or not) should also be addressed and dealt with, and remedies to decrease these limitations—both hypothetically in your study, and practically in future studies—should be proposed.

Limited access to data

If your research involved surveying certain people or organizations, you might have faced the problem of having limited access to these respondents. Due to this limited access, you might need to redesign or restructure your research in a different way. In this case, explain the reasons for limited access and be sure that your finding is still reliable and valid despite this limitation.

Time constraints

Just as students have deadlines to turn in their class papers, academic researchers might also have to meet deadlines for submitting a manuscript to a journal or face other time constraints related to their research (e.g., participants are only available during a certain period; funding runs out; collaborators move to a new institution). The time available to study a research problem and to measure change over time might be constrained by such practical issues. If time constraints negatively impacted your study in any way, acknowledge this impact by mentioning a need for a future study (e.g., a longitudinal study) to answer this research problem.

Conflicts arising from cultural bias and other personal issues

Researchers might hold biased views due to their cultural backgrounds or perspectives of certain phenomena, and this can affect a study’s legitimacy. Also, it is possible that researchers will have biases toward data and results that only support their hypotheses or arguments. In order to avoid these problems, the author(s) of a study should examine whether the way the research problem was stated and the data-gathering process was carried out appropriately.

Steps for Organizing Your Study Limitations Section

When you discuss the limitations of your study, don’t simply list and describe your limitations—explain how these limitations have influenced your research findings. There might be multiple limitations in your study, but you only need to point out and explain those that directly relate to and impact how you address your research questions.

We suggest that you divide your limitations section into three steps: (1) identify the study limitations; (2) explain how they impact your study in detail; and (3) propose a direction for future studies and present alternatives. By following this sequence when discussing your study’s limitations, you will be able to clearly demonstrate your study’s weakness without undermining the quality and integrity of your research.

Step 1. Identify the limitation(s) of the study

  • This part should comprise around 10%-20% of your discussion of study limitations.

The first step is to identify the particular limitation(s) that affected your study. There are many possible limitations of research that can affect your study, but you don’t need to write a long review of all possible study limitations. A 200-500 word critique is an appropriate length for a research limitations section. In the beginning of this section, identify what limitations your study has faced and how important these limitations are.

You only need to identify limitations that had the greatest potential impact on: (1) the quality of your findings, and (2) your ability to answer your research question.

limitations of a study example

Step 2. Explain these study limitations in detail

  • This part should comprise around 60-70% of your discussion of limitations.

After identifying your research limitations, it’s time to explain the nature of the limitations and how they potentially impacted your study. For example, when you conduct quantitative research, a lack of probability sampling is an important issue that you should mention. On the other hand, when you conduct qualitative research, the inability to generalize the research findings could be an issue that deserves mention.

Explain the role these limitations played on the results and implications of the research and justify the choice you made in using this “limiting” methodology or other action in your research. Also, make sure that these limitations didn’t undermine the quality of your dissertation .

methodological limitations example

Step 3. Propose a direction for future studies and present alternatives (optional)

  • This part should comprise around 10-20% of your discussion of limitations.

After acknowledging the limitations of the research, you need to discuss some possible ways to overcome these limitations in future studies. One way to do this is to present alternative methodologies and ways to avoid issues with, or “fill in the gaps of” the limitations of this study you have presented.  Discuss both the pros and cons of these alternatives and clearly explain why researchers should choose these approaches.

Make sure you are current on approaches used by prior studies and the impacts they have had on their findings. Cite review articles or scientific bodies that have recommended these approaches and why. This might be evidence in support of the approach you chose, or it might be the reason you consider your choices to be included as limitations. This process can act as a justification for your approach and a defense of your decision to take it while acknowledging the feasibility of other approaches.

P hrases and Tips for Introducing Your Study Limitations in the Discussion Section

The following phrases are frequently used to introduce the limitations of the study:

  • “There may be some possible limitations in this study.”
  • “The findings of this study have to be seen in light of some limitations.”
  •  “The first is the…The second limitation concerns the…”
  •  “The empirical results reported herein should be considered in the light of some limitations.”
  • “This research, however, is subject to several limitations.”
  • “The primary limitation to the generalization of these results is…”
  • “Nonetheless, these results must be interpreted with caution and a number of limitations should be borne in mind.”
  • “As with the majority of studies, the design of the current study is subject to limitations.”
  • “There are two major limitations in this study that could be addressed in future research. First, the study focused on …. Second ….”

For more articles on research writing and the journal submissions and publication process, visit Wordvice’s Academic Resources page.

And be sure to receive professional English editing and proofreading services , including paper editing services , for your journal manuscript before submitting it to journal editors.

Wordvice Resources

Proofreading & Editing Guide

Writing the Results Section for a Research Paper

How to Write a Literature Review

Research Writing Tips: How to Draft a Powerful Discussion Section

How to Captivate Journal Readers with a Strong Introduction

Tips That Will Make Your Abstract a Success!

APA In-Text Citation Guide for Research Writing

Additional Resources

  • Diving Deeper into Limitations and Delimitations (PhD student)
  • Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Limitations of the Study (USC Library)
  • Research Limitations (Research Methodology)
  • How to Present Limitations and Alternatives (UMASS)

Article References

Pearson-Stuttard, J., Kypridemos, C., Collins, B., Mozaffarian, D., Huang, Y., Bandosz, P.,…Micha, R. (2018). Estimating the health and economic effects of the proposed US Food and Drug Administration voluntary sodium reformulation: Microsimulation cost-effectiveness analysis. PLOS. https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002551

Xu, W.L, Pedersen, N.L., Keller, L., Kalpouzos, G., Wang, H.X., Graff, C,. Fratiglioni, L. (2015). HHEX_23 AA Genotype Exacerbates Effect of Diabetes on Dementia and Alzheimer Disease: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study. PLOS. Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001853

Grad Coach

Research Limitations & Delimitations

What they are and how they’re different (with examples)

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewed By: David Phair (PhD) | September 2022

If you’re new to the world of research, you’ve probably heard the terms “ research limitations ” and “ research delimitations ” being thrown around, often quite loosely. In this post, we’ll unpack what both of these mean, how they’re similar and how they’re different – so that you can write up these sections the right way.

Overview: Limitations vs Delimitations

  • Are they the same?
  • What are research limitations
  • What are research delimitations
  • Limitations vs delimitations

First things first…

Let’s start with the most important takeaway point of this post – research limitations and research delimitations are not the same – but they are related to each other (we’ll unpack that a little later). So, if you hear someone using these two words interchangeably, be sure to share this post with them!

Research Limitations

Research limitations are, at the simplest level, the weaknesses of the study, based on factors that are often outside of your control as the researcher. These factors could include things like time , access to funding, equipment , data or participants . For example, if you weren’t able to access a random sample of participants for your study and had to adopt a convenience sampling strategy instead, that would impact the generalizability of your findings and therefore reflect a limitation of your study.

Research limitations can also emerge from the research design itself . For example, if you were undertaking a correlational study, you wouldn’t be able to infer causality (since correlation doesn’t mean certain causation). Similarly, if you utilised online surveys to collect data from your participants, you naturally wouldn’t be able to get the same degree of rich data that you would from in-person interviews .

Simply put, research limitations reflect the shortcomings of a study , based on practical (or theoretical) constraints that the researcher faced. These shortcomings limit what you can conclude from a study, but at the same time, present a foundation for future research . Importantly, all research has limitations , so there’s no need to hide anything here – as long as you discuss how the limitations might affect your findings, it’s all good.

Research Delimitations

Alright, now that we’ve unpacked the limitations, let’s move on to the delimitations .

Research delimitations are similar to limitations in that they also “ limit ” the study, but their focus is entirely different. Specifically, the delimitations of a study refer to the scope of the research aims and research questions . In other words, delimitations reflect the choices you, as the researcher, intentionally make in terms of what you will and won’t try to achieve with your study. In other words, what your research aims and research questions will and won’t include.

As we’ve spoken about many times before, it’s important to have a tight, narrow focus for your research, so that you can dive deeply into your topic, apply your energy to one specific area and develop meaningful insights. If you have an overly broad scope or unfocused topic, your research will often pull in multiple, even opposing directions, and you’ll just land up with a muddy mess of findings .

So, the delimitations section is where you’ll clearly state what your research aims and research questions will focus on – and just as importantly, what they will exclude . For example, you might investigate a widespread phenomenon, but choose to focus your study on a specific age group, ethnicity or gender. Similarly, your study may focus exclusively on one country, city or even organization. As long as the scope is well justified (in other words, it represents a novel, valuable research topic), this is perfectly acceptable – in fact, it’s essential. Remember, focus is your friend.

Need a helping hand?

research on limitation

Conclusion: Limitations vs Delimitations

Ok, so let’s recap.

Research limitations and research delimitations are related in that they both refer to “limits” within a study. But, they are distinctly different. Limitations reflect the shortcomings of your study, based on practical or theoretical constraints that you faced.

Contrasted to that, delimitations reflect the choices that you made in terms of the focus and scope of your research aims and research questions. If you want to learn more about research aims and questions, you can check out this video post , where we unpack those concepts in detail.

research on limitation

Psst… there’s more (for free)

This post is part of our dissertation mini-course, which covers everything you need to get started with your dissertation, thesis or research project. 

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17 Comments

GUDA EMMANUEL

Good clarification of ideas on how a researcher ought to do during Process of choice

Stephen N Senesie

Thank you so much for this very simple but explicit explanation on limitation and delimitation. It has so helped me to develop my masters proposal. hope to recieve more from your site as time progresses

Lucilio Zunguze

Thank you for this explanation – very clear.

Mohammed Shamsudeen

Thanks for the explanation, really got it well.

Lolwethu

This website is really helpful for my masters proposal

Julita Chideme Maradzika

Thank you very much for helping to explain these two terms

I spent almost the whole day trying to figure out the differences

when I came across your notes everything became very clear

nicholas

thanks for the clearly outlined explanation on the two terms, limitation and delimitation.

Zyneb

Very helpful Many thanks 🙏

Saad

Excellent it resolved my conflict .

Aloisius

I would like you to assist me please. If in my Research, I interviewed some participants and I submitted Questionnaires to other participants to answered to the questions, in the same organization, Is this a Qualitative methodology , a Quantitative Methodology or is it a Mixture Methodology I have used in my research? Please help me

Rexford Atunwey

How do I cite this article in APA format

Fiona gift

Really so great ,finally have understood it’s difference now

Jonomo Rondo

Getting more clear regarding Limitations and Delimitation and concepts

Mohammed Ibrahim Kari

I really appreciate your apt and precise explanation of the two concepts namely ; Limitations and Delimitations.

jane i. butale

thank you for this, very helpful to researchers

TAUNO

Very good explained

Mary Mutanda

Great and clear explanation, after a long confusion period on the two words, i can now explain to someone with ease.

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21 Research Limitations Examples

research limitations examples and definition, explained below

Research limitations refer to the potential weaknesses inherent in a study. All studies have limitations of some sort, meaning declaring limitations doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing, so long as your declaration of limitations is well thought-out and explained.

Rarely is a study perfect. Researchers have to make trade-offs when developing their studies, which are often based upon practical considerations such as time and monetary constraints, weighing the breadth of participants against the depth of insight, and choosing one methodology or another.

In research, studies can have limitations such as limited scope, researcher subjectivity, and lack of available research tools.

Acknowledging the limitations of your study should be seen as a strength. It demonstrates your willingness for transparency, humility, and submission to the scientific method and can bolster the integrity of the study. It can also inform future research direction.

Typically, scholars will explore the limitations of their study in either their methodology section, their conclusion section, or both.

Research Limitations Examples

Qualitative and quantitative research offer different perspectives and methods in exploring phenomena, each with its own strengths and limitations. So, I’ve split the limitations examples sections into qualitative and quantitative below.

Qualitative Research Limitations

Qualitative research seeks to understand phenomena in-depth and in context. It focuses on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions.

It’s often used to explore new or complex issues, and it provides rich, detailed insights into participants’ experiences, behaviors, and attitudes. However, these strengths also create certain limitations, as explained below.

1. Subjectivity

Qualitative research often requires the researcher to interpret subjective data. One researcher may examine a text and identify different themes or concepts as more dominant than others.

Close qualitative readings of texts are necessarily subjective – and while this may be a limitation, qualitative researchers argue this is the best way to deeply understand everything in context.

Suggested Solution and Response: To minimize subjectivity bias, you could consider cross-checking your own readings of themes and data against other scholars’ readings and interpretations. This may involve giving the raw data to a supervisor or colleague and asking them to code the data separately, then coming together to compare and contrast results.

2. Researcher Bias

The concept of researcher bias is related to, but slightly different from, subjectivity.

Researcher bias refers to the perspectives and opinions you bring with you when doing your research.

For example, a researcher who is explicitly of a certain philosophical or political persuasion may bring that persuasion to bear when interpreting data.

In many scholarly traditions, we will attempt to minimize researcher bias through the utilization of clear procedures that are set out in advance or through the use of statistical analysis tools.

However, in other traditions, such as in postmodern feminist research , declaration of bias is expected, and acknowledgment of bias is seen as a positive because, in those traditions, it is believed that bias cannot be eliminated from research, so instead, it is a matter of integrity to present it upfront.

Suggested Solution and Response: Acknowledge the potential for researcher bias and, depending on your theoretical framework , accept this, or identify procedures you have taken to seek a closer approximation to objectivity in your coding and analysis.

3. Generalizability

If you’re struggling to find a limitation to discuss in your own qualitative research study, then this one is for you: all qualitative research, of all persuasions and perspectives, cannot be generalized.

This is a core feature that sets qualitative data and quantitative data apart.

The point of qualitative data is to select case studies and similarly small corpora and dig deep through in-depth analysis and thick description of data.

Often, this will also mean that you have a non-randomized sample size.

While this is a positive – you’re going to get some really deep, contextualized, interesting insights – it also means that the findings may not be generalizable to a larger population that may not be representative of the small group of people in your study.

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that take a quantitative approach to the question.

4. The Hawthorne Effect

The Hawthorne effect refers to the phenomenon where research participants change their ‘observed behavior’ when they’re aware that they are being observed.

This effect was first identified by Elton Mayo who conducted studies of the effects of various factors ton workers’ productivity. He noticed that no matter what he did – turning up the lights, turning down the lights, etc. – there was an increase in worker outputs compared to prior to the study taking place.

Mayo realized that the mere act of observing the workers made them work harder – his observation was what was changing behavior.

So, if you’re looking for a potential limitation to name for your observational research study , highlight the possible impact of the Hawthorne effect (and how you could reduce your footprint or visibility in order to decrease its likelihood).

Suggested Solution and Response: Highlight ways you have attempted to reduce your footprint while in the field, and guarantee anonymity to your research participants.

5. Replicability

Quantitative research has a great benefit in that the studies are replicable – a researcher can get a similar sample size, duplicate the variables, and re-test a study. But you can’t do that in qualitative research.

Qualitative research relies heavily on context – a specific case study or specific variables that make a certain instance worthy of analysis. As a result, it’s often difficult to re-enter the same setting with the same variables and repeat the study.

Furthermore, the individual researcher’s interpretation is more influential in qualitative research, meaning even if a new researcher enters an environment and makes observations, their observations may be different because subjectivity comes into play much more. This doesn’t make the research bad necessarily (great insights can be made in qualitative research), but it certainly does demonstrate a weakness of qualitative research.

6. Limited Scope

“Limited scope” is perhaps one of the most common limitations listed by researchers – and while this is often a catch-all way of saying, “well, I’m not studying that in this study”, it’s also a valid point.

No study can explore everything related to a topic. At some point, we have to make decisions about what’s included in the study and what is excluded from the study.

So, you could say that a limitation of your study is that it doesn’t look at an extra variable or concept that’s certainly worthy of study but will have to be explored in your next project because this project has a clearly and narrowly defined goal.

Suggested Solution and Response: Be clear about what’s in and out of the study when writing your research question.

7. Time Constraints

This is also a catch-all claim you can make about your research project: that you would have included more people in the study, looked at more variables, and so on. But you’ve got to submit this thing by the end of next semester! You’ve got time constraints.

And time constraints are a recognized reality in all research.

But this means you’ll need to explain how time has limited your decisions. As with “limited scope”, this may mean that you had to study a smaller group of subjects, limit the amount of time you spent in the field, and so forth.

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will build on your current work, possibly as a PhD project.

8. Resource Intensiveness

Qualitative research can be expensive due to the cost of transcription, the involvement of trained researchers, and potential travel for interviews or observations.

So, resource intensiveness is similar to the time constraints concept. If you don’t have the funds, you have to make decisions about which tools to use, which statistical software to employ, and how many research assistants you can dedicate to the study.

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will gain more funding on the back of this ‘ exploratory study ‘.

9. Coding Difficulties

Data analysis in qualitative research often involves coding, which can be subjective and complex, especially when dealing with ambiguous or contradicting data.

After naming this as a limitation in your research, it’s important to explain how you’ve attempted to address this. Some ways to ‘limit the limitation’ include:

  • Triangulation: Have 2 other researchers code the data as well and cross-check your results with theirs to identify outliers that may need to be re-examined, debated with the other researchers, or removed altogether.
  • Procedure: Use a clear coding procedure to demonstrate reliability in your coding process. I personally use the thematic network analysis method outlined in this academic article by Attride-Stirling (2001).

Suggested Solution and Response: Triangulate your coding findings with colleagues, and follow a thematic network analysis procedure.

10. Risk of Non-Responsiveness

There is always a risk in research that research participants will be unwilling or uncomfortable sharing their genuine thoughts and feelings in the study.

This is particularly true when you’re conducting research on sensitive topics, politicized topics, or topics where the participant is expressing vulnerability .

This is similar to the Hawthorne effect (aka participant bias), where participants change their behaviors in your presence; but it goes a step further, where participants actively hide their true thoughts and feelings from you.

Suggested Solution and Response: One way to manage this is to try to include a wider group of people with the expectation that there will be non-responsiveness from some participants.

11. Risk of Attrition

Attrition refers to the process of losing research participants throughout the study.

This occurs most commonly in longitudinal studies , where a researcher must return to conduct their analysis over spaced periods of time, often over a period of years.

Things happen to people over time – they move overseas, their life experiences change, they get sick, change their minds, and even die. The more time that passes, the greater the risk of attrition.

Suggested Solution and Response: One way to manage this is to try to include a wider group of people with the expectation that there will be attrition over time.

12. Difficulty in Maintaining Confidentiality and Anonymity

Given the detailed nature of qualitative data , ensuring participant anonymity can be challenging.

If you have a sensitive topic in a specific case study, even anonymizing research participants sometimes isn’t enough. People might be able to induce who you’re talking about.

Sometimes, this will mean you have to exclude some interesting data that you collected from your final report. Confidentiality and anonymity come before your findings in research ethics – and this is a necessary limiting factor.

Suggested Solution and Response: Highlight the efforts you have taken to anonymize data, and accept that confidentiality and accountability place extremely important constraints on academic research.

13. Difficulty in Finding Research Participants

A study that looks at a very specific phenomenon or even a specific set of cases within a phenomenon means that the pool of potential research participants can be very low.

Compile on top of this the fact that many people you approach may choose not to participate, and you could end up with a very small corpus of subjects to explore. This may limit your ability to make complete findings, even in a quantitative sense.

You may need to therefore limit your research question and objectives to something more realistic.

Suggested Solution and Response: Highlight that this is going to limit the study’s generalizability significantly.

14. Ethical Limitations

Ethical limitations refer to the things you cannot do based on ethical concerns identified either by yourself or your institution’s ethics review board.

This might include threats to the physical or psychological well-being of your research subjects, the potential of releasing data that could harm a person’s reputation, and so on.

Furthermore, even if your study follows all expected standards of ethics, you still, as an ethical researcher, need to allow a research participant to pull out at any point in time, after which you cannot use their data, which demonstrates an overlap between ethical constraints and participant attrition.

Suggested Solution and Response: Highlight that these ethical limitations are inevitable but important to sustain the integrity of the research.

For more on Qualitative Research, Explore my Qualitative Research Guide

Quantitative Research Limitations

Quantitative research focuses on quantifiable data and statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques. It’s often used to test hypotheses, assess relationships and causality, and generalize findings across larger populations.

Quantitative research is widely respected for its ability to provide reliable, measurable, and generalizable data (if done well!). Its structured methodology has strengths over qualitative research, such as the fact it allows for replication of the study, which underpins the validity of the research.

However, this approach is not without it limitations, explained below.

1. Over-Simplification

Quantitative research is powerful because it allows you to measure and analyze data in a systematic and standardized way. However, one of its limitations is that it can sometimes simplify complex phenomena or situations.

In other words, it might miss the subtleties or nuances of the research subject.

For example, if you’re studying why people choose a particular diet, a quantitative study might identify factors like age, income, or health status. But it might miss other aspects, such as cultural influences or personal beliefs, that can also significantly impact dietary choices.

When writing about this limitation, you can say that your quantitative approach, while providing precise measurements and comparisons, may not capture the full complexity of your subjects of study.

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest a follow-up case study using the same research participants in order to gain additional context and depth.

2. Lack of Context

Another potential issue with quantitative research is that it often focuses on numbers and statistics at the expense of context or qualitative information.

Let’s say you’re studying the effect of classroom size on student performance. You might find that students in smaller classes generally perform better. However, this doesn’t take into account other variables, like teaching style , student motivation, or family support.

When describing this limitation, you might say, “Although our research provides important insights into the relationship between class size and student performance, it does not incorporate the impact of other potentially influential variables. Future research could benefit from a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative analysis with qualitative insights.”

3. Applicability to Real-World Settings

Oftentimes, experimental research takes place in controlled environments to limit the influence of outside factors.

This control is great for isolation and understanding the specific phenomenon but can limit the applicability or “external validity” of the research to real-world settings.

For example, if you conduct a lab experiment to see how sleep deprivation impacts cognitive performance, the sterile, controlled lab environment might not reflect real-world conditions where people are dealing with multiple stressors.

Therefore, when explaining the limitations of your quantitative study in your methodology section, you could state:

“While our findings provide valuable information about [topic], the controlled conditions of the experiment may not accurately represent real-world scenarios where extraneous variables will exist. As such, the direct applicability of our results to broader contexts may be limited.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will engage in real-world observational research, such as ethnographic research.

4. Limited Flexibility

Once a quantitative study is underway, it can be challenging to make changes to it. This is because, unlike in grounded research, you’re putting in place your study in advance, and you can’t make changes part-way through.

Your study design, data collection methods, and analysis techniques need to be decided upon before you start collecting data.

For example, if you are conducting a survey on the impact of social media on teenage mental health, and halfway through, you realize that you should have included a question about their screen time, it’s generally too late to add it.

When discussing this limitation, you could write something like, “The structured nature of our quantitative approach allows for consistent data collection and analysis but also limits our flexibility to adapt and modify the research process in response to emerging insights and ideas.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will use mixed-methods or qualitative research methods to gain additional depth of insight.

5. Risk of Survey Error

Surveys are a common tool in quantitative research, but they carry risks of error.

There can be measurement errors (if a question is misunderstood), coverage errors (if some groups aren’t adequately represented), non-response errors (if certain people don’t respond), and sampling errors (if your sample isn’t representative of the population).

For instance, if you’re surveying college students about their study habits , but only daytime students respond because you conduct the survey during the day, your results will be skewed.

In discussing this limitation, you might say, “Despite our best efforts to develop a comprehensive survey, there remains a risk of survey error, including measurement, coverage, non-response, and sampling errors. These could potentially impact the reliability and generalizability of our findings.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will use other survey tools to compare and contrast results.

6. Limited Ability to Probe Answers

With quantitative research, you typically can’t ask follow-up questions or delve deeper into participants’ responses like you could in a qualitative interview.

For instance, imagine you are surveying 500 students about study habits in a questionnaire. A respondent might indicate that they study for two hours each night. You might want to follow up by asking them to elaborate on what those study sessions involve or how effective they feel their habits are.

However, quantitative research generally disallows this in the way a qualitative semi-structured interview could.

When discussing this limitation, you might write, “Given the structured nature of our survey, our ability to probe deeper into individual responses is limited. This means we may not fully understand the context or reasoning behind the responses, potentially limiting the depth of our findings.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that engage in mixed-method or qualitative methodologies to address the issue from another angle.

7. Reliance on Instruments for Data Collection

In quantitative research, the collection of data heavily relies on instruments like questionnaires, surveys, or machines.

The limitation here is that the data you get is only as good as the instrument you’re using. If the instrument isn’t designed or calibrated well, your data can be flawed.

For instance, if you’re using a questionnaire to study customer satisfaction and the questions are vague, confusing, or biased, the responses may not accurately reflect the customers’ true feelings.

When discussing this limitation, you could say, “Our study depends on the use of questionnaires for data collection. Although we have put significant effort into designing and testing the instrument, it’s possible that inaccuracies or misunderstandings could potentially affect the validity of the data collected.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will use different instruments but examine the same variables to triangulate results.

8. Time and Resource Constraints (Specific to Quantitative Research)

Quantitative research can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, especially when dealing with large samples.

It often involves systematic sampling, rigorous design, and sometimes complex statistical analysis.

If resources and time are limited, it can restrict the scale of your research, the techniques you can employ, or the extent of your data analysis.

For example, you may want to conduct a nationwide survey on public opinion about a certain policy. However, due to limited resources, you might only be able to survey people in one city.

When writing about this limitation, you could say, “Given the scope of our research and the resources available, we are limited to conducting our survey within one city, which may not fully represent the nationwide public opinion. Hence, the generalizability of the results may be limited.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will have more funding or longer timeframes.

How to Discuss Your Research Limitations

1. in your research proposal and methodology section.

In the research proposal, which will become the methodology section of your dissertation, I would recommend taking the four following steps, in order:

  • Be Explicit about your Scope – If you limit the scope of your study in your research question, aims, and objectives, then you can set yourself up well later in the methodology to say that certain questions are “outside the scope of the study.” For example, you may identify the fact that the study doesn’t address a certain variable, but you can follow up by stating that the research question is specifically focused on the variable that you are examining, so this limitation would need to be looked at in future studies.
  • Acknowledge the Limitation – Acknowledging the limitations of your study demonstrates reflexivity and humility and can make your research more reliable and valid. It also pre-empts questions the people grading your paper may have, so instead of them down-grading you for your limitations; they will congratulate you on explaining the limitations and how you have addressed them!
  • Explain your Decisions – You may have chosen your approach (despite its limitations) for a very specific reason. This might be because your approach remains, on balance, the best one to answer your research question. Or, it might be because of time and monetary constraints that are outside of your control.
  • Highlight the Strengths of your Approach – Conclude your limitations section by strongly demonstrating that, despite limitations, you’ve worked hard to minimize the effects of the limitations and that you have chosen your specific approach and methodology because it’s also got some terrific strengths. Name the strengths.

Overall, you’ll want to acknowledge your own limitations but also explain that the limitations don’t detract from the value of your study as it stands.

2. In the Conclusion Section or Chapter

In the conclusion of your study, it is generally expected that you return to a discussion of the study’s limitations. Here, I recommend the following steps:

  • Acknowledge issues faced – After completing your study, you will be increasingly aware of issues you may have faced that, if you re-did the study, you may have addressed earlier in order to avoid those issues. Acknowledge these issues as limitations, and frame them as recommendations for subsequent studies.
  • Suggest further research – Scholarly research aims to fill gaps in the current literature and knowledge. Having established your expertise through your study, suggest lines of inquiry for future researchers. You could state that your study had certain limitations, and “future studies” can address those limitations.
  • Suggest a mixed methods approach – Qualitative and quantitative research each have pros and cons. So, note those ‘cons’ of your approach, then say the next study should approach the topic using the opposite methodology or could approach it using a mixed-methods approach that could achieve the benefits of quantitative studies with the nuanced insights of associated qualitative insights as part of an in-study case-study.

Overall, be clear about both your limitations and how those limitations can inform future studies.

In sum, each type of research method has its own strengths and limitations. Qualitative research excels in exploring depth, context, and complexity, while quantitative research excels in examining breadth, generalizability, and quantifiable measures. Despite their individual limitations, each method contributes unique and valuable insights, and researchers often use them together to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon being studied.

Attride-Stirling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative research , 1 (3), 385-405. ( Source )

Atkinson, P., Delamont, S., Cernat, A., Sakshaug, J., & Williams, R. A. (2021).  SAGE research methods foundations . London: Sage Publications.

Clark, T., Foster, L., Bryman, A., & Sloan, L. (2021).  Bryman’s social research methods . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Köhler, T., Smith, A., & Bhakoo, V. (2022). Templates in qualitative research methods: Origins, limitations, and new directions.  Organizational Research Methods ,  25 (2), 183-210. ( Source )

Lenger, A. (2019). The rejection of qualitative research methods in economics.  Journal of Economic Issues ,  53 (4), 946-965. ( Source )

Taherdoost, H. (2022). What are different research approaches? Comprehensive review of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method research, their applications, types, and limitations.  Journal of Management Science & Engineering Research ,  5 (1), 53-63. ( Source )

Walliman, N. (2021).  Research methods: The basics . New York: Routledge.

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Home » Delimitations in Research – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

Delimitations in Research – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

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Delimitations

Delimitations

Definition:

Delimitations refer to the specific boundaries or limitations that are set in a research study in order to narrow its scope and focus. Delimitations may be related to a variety of factors, including the population being studied, the geographical location, the time period, the research design , and the methods or tools being used to collect data .

The Importance of Delimitations in Research Studies

Here are some reasons why delimitations are important in research studies:

  • Provide focus : Delimitations help researchers focus on a specific area of interest and avoid getting sidetracked by tangential topics. By setting clear boundaries, researchers can concentrate their efforts on the most relevant and significant aspects of the research question.
  • Increase validity : Delimitations ensure that the research is more valid by defining the boundaries of the study. When researchers establish clear criteria for inclusion and exclusion, they can better control for extraneous variables that might otherwise confound the results.
  • Improve generalizability : Delimitations help researchers determine the extent to which their findings can be generalized to other populations or contexts. By specifying the sample size, geographic region, time frame, or other relevant factors, researchers can provide more accurate estimates of the generalizability of their results.
  • Enhance feasibility : Delimitations help researchers identify the resources and time required to complete the study. By setting realistic parameters, researchers can ensure that the study is feasible and can be completed within the available time and resources.
  • Clarify scope: Delimitations help readers understand the scope of the research project. By explicitly stating what is included and excluded, researchers can avoid confusion and ensure that readers understand the boundaries of the study.

Types of Delimitations in Research

Here are some types of delimitations in research and their significance:

Time Delimitations

This type of delimitation refers to the time frame in which the research will be conducted. Time delimitations are important because they help to narrow down the scope of the study and ensure that the research is feasible within the given time constraints.

Geographical Delimitations

Geographical delimitations refer to the geographic boundaries within which the research will be conducted. These delimitations are significant because they help to ensure that the research is relevant to the intended population or location.

Population Delimitations

Population delimitations refer to the specific group of people that the research will focus on. These delimitations are important because they help to ensure that the research is targeted to a specific group, which can improve the accuracy of the results.

Data Delimitations

Data delimitations refer to the specific types of data that will be used in the research. These delimitations are important because they help to ensure that the data is relevant to the research question and that the research is conducted using reliable and valid data sources.

Scope Delimitations

Scope delimitations refer to the specific aspects or dimensions of the research that will be examined. These delimitations are important because they help to ensure that the research is focused and that the findings are relevant to the research question.

How to Write Delimitations

In order to write delimitations in research, you can follow these steps:

  • Identify the scope of your study : Determine the extent of your research by defining its boundaries. This will help you to identify the areas that are within the scope of your research and those that are outside of it.
  • Determine the time frame : Decide on the time period that your research will cover. This could be a specific period, such as a year, or it could be a general time frame, such as the last decade.
  • I dentify the population : Determine the group of people or objects that your study will focus on. This could be a specific age group, gender, profession, or geographic location.
  • Establish the sample size : Determine the number of participants that your study will involve. This will help you to establish the number of people you need to recruit for your study.
  • Determine the variables: Identify the variables that will be measured in your study. This could include demographic information, attitudes, behaviors, or other factors.
  • Explain the limitations : Clearly state the limitations of your study. This could include limitations related to time, resources, sample size, or other factors that may impact the validity of your research.
  • Justify the limitations : Explain why these limitations are necessary for your research. This will help readers understand why certain factors were excluded from the study.

When to Write Delimitations in Research

Here are some situations when you may need to write delimitations in research:

  • When defining the scope of the study: Delimitations help to define the boundaries of your research by specifying what is and what is not included in your study. For instance, you may delimit your study by focusing on a specific population, geographic region, time period, or research methodology.
  • When addressing limitations: Delimitations can also be used to address the limitations of your research. For example, if your data is limited to a certain timeframe or geographic area, you can include this information in your delimitations to help readers understand the limitations of your findings.
  • When justifying the relevance of the study : Delimitations can also help you to justify the relevance of your research. For instance, if you are conducting a study on a specific population or region, you can explain why this group or area is important and how your research will contribute to the understanding of this topic.
  • When clarifying the research question or hypothesis : Delimitations can also be used to clarify your research question or hypothesis. By specifying the boundaries of your study, you can ensure that your research question or hypothesis is focused and specific.
  • When establishing the context of the study : Finally, delimitations can help you to establish the context of your research. By providing information about the scope and limitations of your study, you can help readers to understand the context in which your research was conducted and the implications of your findings.

Examples of Delimitations in Research

Examples of Delimitations in Research are as follows:

Research Title : “Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Cybersecurity Threat Detection”

Delimitations :

  • The study will focus solely on the use of artificial intelligence in detecting and mitigating cybersecurity threats.
  • The study will only consider the impact of AI on threat detection and not on other aspects of cybersecurity such as prevention, response, or recovery.
  • The research will be limited to a specific type of cybersecurity threats, such as malware or phishing attacks, rather than all types of cyber threats.
  • The study will only consider the use of AI in a specific industry, such as finance or healthcare, rather than examining its impact across all industries.
  • The research will only consider AI-based threat detection tools that are currently available and widely used, rather than including experimental or theoretical AI models.

Research Title: “The Effects of Social Media on Academic Performance: A Case Study of College Students”

Delimitations:

  • The study will focus only on college students enrolled in a particular university.
  • The study will only consider social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
  • The study will only analyze the academic performance of students based on their GPA and course grades.
  • The study will not consider the impact of other factors such as student demographics, socioeconomic status, or other factors that may affect academic performance.
  • The study will only use self-reported data from students, rather than objective measures of their social media usage or academic performance.

Purpose of Delimitations

Some Purposes of Delimitations are as follows:

  • Focusing the research : By defining the scope of the study, delimitations help researchers to narrow down their research questions and focus on specific aspects of the topic. This allows for a more targeted and meaningful study.
  • Clarifying the research scope : Delimitations help to clarify the boundaries of the research, which helps readers to understand what is and is not included in the study.
  • Avoiding scope creep : Delimitations help researchers to stay focused on their research objectives and avoid being sidetracked by tangential issues or data.
  • Enhancing the validity of the study : By setting clear boundaries, delimitations help to ensure that the study is valid and reliable.
  • Improving the feasibility of the study : Delimitations help researchers to ensure that their study is feasible and can be conducted within the time and resources available.

Applications of Delimitations

Here are some common applications of delimitations:

  • Geographic delimitations : Researchers may limit their study to a specific geographic area, such as a particular city, state, or country. This helps to narrow the focus of the study and makes it more manageable.
  • Time delimitations : Researchers may limit their study to a specific time period, such as a decade, a year, or a specific date range. This can be useful for studying trends over time or for comparing data from different time periods.
  • Population delimitations : Researchers may limit their study to a specific population, such as a particular age group, gender, or ethnic group. This can help to ensure that the study is relevant to the population being studied.
  • Data delimitations : Researchers may limit their study to specific types of data, such as survey responses, interviews, or archival records. This can help to ensure that the study is based on reliable and relevant data.
  • Conceptual delimitations : Researchers may limit their study to specific concepts or variables, such as only studying the effects of a particular treatment on a specific outcome. This can help to ensure that the study is focused and clear.

Advantages of Delimitations

Some Advantages of Delimitations are as follows:

  • Helps to focus the study: Delimitations help to narrow down the scope of the research and identify specific areas that need to be investigated. This helps to focus the study and ensures that the research is not too broad or too narrow.
  • Defines the study population: Delimitations can help to define the population that will be studied. This can include age range, gender, geographical location, or any other factors that are relevant to the research. This helps to ensure that the study is more specific and targeted.
  • Provides clarity: Delimitations help to provide clarity about the research study. By identifying the boundaries and limitations of the research, it helps to avoid confusion and ensures that the research is more understandable.
  • Improves validity: Delimitations can help to improve the validity of the research by ensuring that the study is more focused and specific. This can help to ensure that the research is more accurate and reliable.
  • Reduces bias: Delimitations can help to reduce bias by limiting the scope of the research. This can help to ensure that the research is more objective and unbiased.

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Research Limitations

It is for sure that your research will have some limitations and it is normal. However, it is critically important for you to be striving to minimize the range of scope of limitations throughout the research process.  Also, you need to provide the acknowledgement of your research limitations in conclusions chapter honestly.

It is always better to identify and acknowledge shortcomings of your work, rather than to leave them pointed out to your by your dissertation assessor. While discussing your research limitations, don’t just provide the list and description of shortcomings of your work. It is also important for you to explain how these limitations have impacted your research findings.

Your research may have multiple limitations, but you need to discuss only those limitations that directly relate to your research problems. For example, if conducting a meta-analysis of the secondary data has not been stated as your research objective, no need to mention it as your research limitation.

Research limitations in a typical dissertation may relate to the following points:

1. Formulation of research aims and objectives . You might have formulated research aims and objectives too broadly. You can specify in which ways the formulation of research aims and objectives could be narrowed so that the level of focus of the study could be increased.

2. Implementation of data collection method . Because you do not have an extensive experience in primary data collection (otherwise you would not be reading this book), there is a great chance that the nature of implementation of data collection method is flawed.

3. Sample size. Sample size depends on the nature of the research problem. If sample size is too small, statistical tests would not be able to identify significant relationships within data set. You can state that basing your study in larger sample size could have generated more accurate results. The importance of sample size is greater in quantitative studies compared to qualitative studies.

4. Lack of previous studies in the research area . Literature review is an important part of any research, because it helps to identify the scope of works that have been done so far in research area. Literature review findings are used as the foundation for the researcher to be built upon to achieve her research objectives.

However, there may be little, if any, prior research on your topic if you have focused on the most contemporary and evolving research problem or too narrow research problem. For example, if you have chosen to explore the role of Bitcoins as the future currency, you may not be able to find tons of scholarly paper addressing the research problem, because Bitcoins are only a recent phenomenon.

5. Scope of discussions . You can include this point as a limitation of your research regardless of the choice of the research area. Because (most likely) you don’t have many years of experience of conducing researches and producing academic papers of such a large size individually, the scope and depth of discussions in your paper is compromised in many levels compared to the works of experienced scholars.

You can discuss certain points from your research limitations as the suggestion for further research at conclusions chapter of your dissertation.

My e-book,  The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Dissertation in Business Studies: a step by step assistance  offers practical assistance to complete a dissertation with minimum or no stress. The e-book covers all stages of writing a dissertation starting from the selection to the research area to submitting the completed version of the work within the deadline. John Dudovskiy

Research Limitations

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How to Commercialise Research in Biotechnology? pp 262–265 Cite as

Contribution to research, limitations, and future research

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In addition to practical implications, the present study also contributed to existing literature. This study contributed to the current understanding of how early stages of the innovation process for radical innovations in academia can be effectively managed. The holistic analysis of this study added to existing research by identifying a group of five important characteristics that should be considered in early stages of the innovation process, compared to a group of four characteristics that are less important. To holistically analyse the priorities of these characteristics, has not been done before. The study confirmed results of existing studies that also emphasized the importance of certain characteristics like availability of financial resources (e.g. O’Shea et al. 2005, Link and Siegel 2005, Decter et al. 2007, Powers and McDougall 2005, Dibner et al. 2003, Hall and Bagchi-Sen 2007). However, the present study also identified characteristics like drug development expertise that were not emphasised in existing innovation management and technology transfer literature, and only partly in biotechnology-focused studies (e.g. Albani and Prakken 2009).

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Potential limitations in systematic review studies assessing the effect of the main intervention for treatment/therapy of COVID-19 patients: An overview

Mahsa mohseni.

1 Knowledge Utilization Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Hosein Ameri

2 Health Policy and Management Research Center, Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

Morteza Arab-Zozani

3 Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran

Associated Data

The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article/ Supplementary material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Although several studies have assessed the safety, efficacy, and effectiveness of interventions in treating the COVID-19, many of them have limitations that can have an immense impact on their results. This study aims to assess the potential limitations in systematic reviews (SRs) that evaluate the effect of interventions on the treatment of the COVID-19.

PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Sciences (WOS) databases were searched from inception to January 1, 2022. All systematic reviews investigated the effectiveness, efficacy, safety, and outcome of the main intervention (Favipiravir, Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, or Tocilizumab) for the treatment of COVID-19 patients and reported the potential limitations of the included studies. We assessed the quality of the included studies using the Quality Assessment Tool (QAT) for review articles. We conducted a content analysis and prepared a narrative summary of the limitations.

Forty-six studies were included in this review. Ninety one percent of the included studies scored as strong quality and the remaining (9%) as moderate quality. Only 29.7% of the included systematic reviews have a registered protocol. 26% of the included studies mentioned a funding statement. The main limitations of the included studies were categorized in 10 domains: sample size, heterogeneity, follow-up, treatment, including studies, design, definitions, synthesis, quality, and search.

Various limitations have been reported in all the included studies. Indeed, the existence of limitations in studies can affect their results, therefore, identifying these limitations can help researchers design better studies. As a result, stronger studies with more reliable results will be reported and disseminated. Further research on COVID-19 SRs is essential to improve research quality and also, efficiency among scientists across the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020 with major health consequences ( 1 ). According to live data from Worldometer website, the total number of coronavirus cases and the number of deaths so far is 595,494,252 and 6,455,301, respectively (Tue, 16 Aug 2022). Numerous studies have assessed the effects of the different interventions on the treatment of the COVID-19 patients ( 2 – 6 ). These studies differ in many ways, including the type of treatment, follow-up time, study design, patient type, and disease severity, each of which can have a positive or negative effect on the results of these studies ( 7 ).

As the global community eagerly awaits credible scientific solutions for this pandemic, researchers and scientists are under much pressure to identify effective therapeutic and preventive strategies for COVID-19. Also, there are many unknowns, and the massive demand for evidence on the treatment of a novel disease such as COVID-19 may be unintentionally affecting studies’ design and conduct. Furthermore, it may inadvertently affect the peer-review and publication process, leading to significant methodology gaps and overall lower quality evidence on COVID-19. These gaps lead to less-informative studies, loss of precious time, and valuable resources ( 8 ).

With the growth of evidence in this area ( 9 ), there is a need for studies that report the results of these individual studies in general. Systematic reviews objectively summarize large amounts of information, identifying gaps in medical research, and identifying beneficial or harmful interventions which will be useful for clinicians, researchers, and even for public and policymakers. The value of a systematic review depends on what was done, what was found, and the clarity of reporting ( 10 ). The results of a systematic review are influenced by the quality of the primary studies included. Methodologically, poor studies tend to exaggerate the overall estimate of treatment effect and may lead to incorrect inferences ( 11 ).

While a need to disseminate information to the medical community and general public was paramount, concerns have been raised regarding the scientific rigor, quality, and limitations in published reports which may potentially effect on the systematic reviews and meta-analysis results ( 1 ). In this study, we aim to identify the potential limitations in systematic reviews that evaluated the effect of interventions on the treatment of the COVID-19 which can help to improve and make the result of studies more accurate in the future.

Methodology

Protocol and registration.

We conducted this overview based on Smith et al. guideline for conducting a systematic review of systematic reviews of healthcare interventions ( 12 ). We also followed the PRISMA guideline for reporting the methods and results of this study ( 13 ).

Eligibility criteria

All systematic reviews with available full text and in EN languages investigated the effectiveness, efficacy, safety, and outcome of the main intervention (Favipiravir, Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, or Tocilizumab) for treatment of COVID-19 patients and reported the potential limitation of the study were included.

We exclude articles that are full-text not available or used other treatment options than mentioned drugs. For example, acupuncture or traditional medicine, or supplement therapy. Preprint and without peer review articles also was excluded.

Information sources and search strategy

We searched PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Sciences (WOS) databases from inception to January 1, 2022, for the keywords COVID-19, “SARS-CoV-2,” “novel coronavirus,” “systematic review,” OR limitation in the title, abstract, or main text of the published article. There was no limitation regarding time or language. We also conducted a manual search in Google Scholar for potential missing articles. In addition to database searches, we screened reference lists of included studies after screening records were retrieved via databases and also contacted the corresponding authors of the included studies. The full search strategy for all databases is presented in Supplementary Table 1 .

Selection process

After the search was completed, all retrieved records were imported in EndNote, version X7, and duplicate removed. Two independent reviewers (HA, MM) screened the records based on the title, abstract, and full text. For increasing the agreement between reviewers we piloted a set of 30 studies before the screening. Discrepancies at this stage were resolved by consensus with a third reviewer (MA-Z).

Data collection process and data items

Two independent reviewers (HA, MM) extracted the data. We designed a data extraction table for this study, which was piloted by two reviewers (5 studies). we extracted the following data: first author name, corresponding authors name and email, Publication year, number of authors, study design, number of included studies in each included systematic review, investigated drug, country, language limitation, time of the search, number of the investigated outcome, sample size, limitations, funding statement, mean age, gender (%), protocol and registration information. Discrepancies at this stage were resolved by consensus with a third reviewer (MA-Z).

Quality appraisal

Two reviewers (HA and MM) independently assessed the quality of the included studies. We assessed the quality of the included studies using the Quality Assessment Tool (QAT) for review articles developed by healthevidence.org , which was piloted by two reviewers (5 studies) including ten quality criteria. A final review quality rating for each review is assigned: strong (8–10/10), moderate (5–7/10), or weak (1–4/10). Any discrepancies were resolved upon consultation with a third reviewer (MA-Z).

QAT tool available at: https://www.healthevidence.org/our-appraisal-tools.aspx .

Synthesis of results

For data synthesis, we prepared a table summarizing systematic review information. We also used graphs for presenting some information. We then conducted a content analysis and prepared a narrative summary of the limitations. Two authors (HA, MM) read and reread the results reported in published articles to extract limitations. The coding frame and final categories were developed by 3 authors (HA, MM, and MA-Z) using these data.

Study selection

A total of 773 records were retrieved from the database search. After removing duplicates, 525 records were screened by title, abstract, and full-text based on eligibility criteria, of which 46 studies were included in the final review ( 14 – 58 , 59 ). Twenty-seven studies were excluded after Full-text screening. The reasons for exclusion were as follows: Protocol (5 records), Preprint (6 records), Full-text not available after contacting the corresponding author (2 records), Not reporting limitation (5 records), and not investigating our target intervention (9 records). The PRISMA flow diagram for the complete study selection process is presented in Figure 1 .

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is fmed-09-966632-g001.jpg

PRISMA flow diagram.

Study characteristics

The number of authors of the included systematic reviews varied between 3 and 58 people. Most studies were from Asia (46%), America (31%), and Europe (17%). Also, by country, most studies were reported from the United States and India ( Figure 2 ). 80.4% of the included systematic review conducted a meta-analysis. The number of included studies in the included systematic reviews varied between 2 and 136. Only 29.7% of the included systematic reviews have a registered protocol. Also, 26% of the included systematic reviews mentioned a funding statement. More details about the characteristics of included systematic reviews are presented in Table 1 . The most studied drug in the included studies was Remdesivir (17.37%) ( Figure 3 ).

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Object name is fmed-09-966632-g002.jpg

Distribution of the included studies by countries.

Summary characteristics of the included studies.

*MC, Multi Country.

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Object name is fmed-09-966632-g003.jpg

Distribution of the drugs in the included studies.

The overall mean quality score of the included studies was 9.5. Overall, 91% of the included studies were scored as strong quality and the remaining (9%) as moderate quality. The overall scores ranged between 7 and 10. About 74% of the included studies had a score of 10, 11% had a score of 9, 6% had a score of 8, and the remaining (9%) had a score of 7 ( Figure 4 ) (for more details about items on the QAT checklist see Supplementary Table 2 ).

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Object name is fmed-09-966632-g004.jpg

Quality scores of the included studies.

Results of synthesis

Potential limitations of the included studies.

Various studies have listed different limitations for the studies, some related to how the systematic review was conducted and some related to the studies included in these systematic reviews. The main limitations of the included studies were categorized in 10 domains: Heterogeneity (4 sub-categories), sample size (2 sub-categories), follow-up (2 sub-categories), treatment (7 sub-categories), included studies (4 sub-categories), design (10sub-categories), definitions (3 sub-categories), synthesis (4 sub-categories), quality (2 sub-categories), and search (4 sub-categories). The highest frequencies reported in the included studies related to the heterogeneity in sample population, small sample size, and database searches.

Heterogeneity in studies has been reported for a variety of reasons, including differences in the sample population regarding age, gender, ethnicity, and racial groups; different level of disease severity in the included patients; different control group; and difference in the investigated outcome. Treatment-related limitations were mostly related to differences regarding the administration of drug, dose, duration of treatment, and different standard protocols and guidelines. Also, there are differences related to discontinuation, combination therapy, and supportive care which obscure the effect of the main treatment.

The studies had several design shortcomings. Many studies have suffered from a lack of randomization, placebo, blinding, and comparator arm. Selection bias, and publication bias, confounding bias were also reported in the studies. Also, different strategies regarding search were another limitation. Different databases, using pre-print and un-published data, limitations on language, and missing some eligible studies were the important limitation in this regard.

More details about the potential limitations of the included systematic reviews are presented in Table 2 .

Potential limitation of the included studies.

With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and has many consequences, the need arose to conduct studies and disseminate their findings ( 1 ).

Systematic reviews are a valuable resource in academia and practice. Well-done systematic reviews, which include but are not limited to meta-analyses, offer an efficient way to evaluate a large amount of information for decision-makers in areas of research, policy, and patient care. Systematic reviews can help us know what we know about a topic, and what is not yet known, often to a greater extent than the findings of a single study ( 60 – 64 ). Systemic review studies on the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 have grown in numbers. Regarding the growing number of studies and rapid publication time, there are concerns about accuracy, quality, and limitations. Richard et al. performed a systematic review to evaluate the methodological quality of currently available COVID-19 studies compared to historical controls. This research showed that COVID-19 clinical studies have a shorter time to publication and have lower methodological quality scores than control studies in the same journal ( 1 ). We tried to identify the potential limitations of COVID-19 systematic reviews which can improve and make the result of studies more accurate.

The current review examined 46 systematic reviews and all of them were conducted on COVID-19 patients. These studies differ in many aspects, including the type of treatment, follow-up time, study design, patient type, and disease severity. Most of them (80.4%) have conducted meta-analyses. Overall, 91% of the included studies were scored as strong quality, and the rest of them were moderate. The number of studies in the included systematic reviews ranged from 2 to 136.

In this study, we classified the reported limitations into 10 categories and 42 sub-categories. Heterogeneity, sample size, follow-up, treatment, including studies, design, definitions, synthesis, quality, and search are identified as the main limitation of included studies. These limitations were attributed to the included systematic reviews or due to primary studies in these systematic reviews. Among all the limitations, sample population, sample size, and database search were found to be the most-mentioned limitations with frequencies of 22, 21, and 18 in the studies, respectively. It seems that a greater number of limitations could be due to primary studies in the systematic reviews including heterogeneity, small sample size, short follow-up time, and low quality of included studies. Limitations in systematic review studies result from selection of studies, choice of relevant outcomes, methods of analysis, interpretation of heterogeneity, and generalization, application of results, and proper search ( 65 ).

Heterogeneity contains four subcategories including differences in the sample population, differences in disease severity of patients, different control group, and different measured outcomes. Differences in the sample population in terms of age, gender, race, and comorbidities in the participants are the most reported limitation. Heterogeneity across the studies may affect the study results ( 65 ). For instance, pooling the data of the original articles would be highly difficult due to heterogeneity in the study design and reported outcomes ( 25 ), and heterogeneity in disease severity could affect the treatment output.

The small sample size is the second most frequently reported limitation in 21 studies. The number of participants in the included studies was small which could decrease the power of the studies, furthermore comparing the interventions regarding the efficacy would not be incontrovertible. Therefore, the findings need to be interpreted with caution.

Database search is another important item that belongs to the search category and is reported in 18 studies. It may potentially limit access to eligible trials for inclusion and miss some data.

Treatment-related limitations are mostly associated with differences regarding the administration of drugs, dose, duration of treatment, and different standard protocols and guidelines. The lack of uniform guidelines for administering additional treatments and providing supportive care for COVID-19 patients in clinical trials may lead to inaccurate and unreliable outcomes. These limitations can generate confounding bias ( 36 ). Also, there are other items belonging to this category such as differences related to discontinuation, combination therapy, and supportive care which obscure the effect of the main treatment.

In addition to the above-mentioned limitations, different follow-up times, low quality of the included studies, pre-publish and unpublished studies, different comparator arms, and heterogeneity in control groups are the other highly reported items. The lack of a comparison/control group can limit the validity of the meta-analysis.

As mentioned, although systematic reviews are considered the gold standard of evidence for clinical decision-making, one should keep in mind that meta-analyses should neither be a replacement for well-designed large-scale randomized studies nor a justification for conducting small underpowered studies ( 65 ). As other studies reported, the quality of the methodology and reporting of present COVID-19 SR is far from optimal. In addition, Differences in disease definition and heterogeneity in studies are important factors influencing the results of these studies. Following existing guidelines and proper study design can be one of the factors reducing the limitations of these studies ( 66 , 67 ). Taken together, poor designs and various limitations of the studies render them ineffective in gaging the full extent of its safety and efficacy and thus warrant further research into the use of interventions in COVID-19 patient treatment. Our study further highlighted the importance of conducting quality studies so that the results can be trusted with more certainty.

Implications for future research

Our results can be used as a guide for designing and reporting the future studies in this field. Undoubtedly, awareness of the limitations of articles in this field can reduce bias and on the other hand increase the power of studies. Considering these issues helps researchers to report studies in a more integrated way, which can also help readers to better understand the results of studies and prevent the repetition of errors and mistakes or limitations reported in previous studies. It is recommended that researchers interested in research related to COVID-19, as well as those interested in investigating the effectiveness of treatments for this disease, must consider the points mentioned in this study when designing, implementing, and reporting their studies. In addition, respected researchers can design similar studies for other fields related to this disease and report their results. Designing such studies can greatly contribute to evidence-based decision making.

Strengths and limitations

Although this study is an overview, and the quality appraisal is optional, but the quality of the articles has been evaluated in it, which is one of the strong points of the study. Also, we conducted this overview based on Smith et al. guideline for conducting a systematic review of systematic reviews and report the results of this study based on PRISMA guideline. All the steps of this study were done by two independent reviewers, which reduces errors and increases the power of the study. There are many potential limitations to this overview. First, a literature search was conducted in the three major electronic databases, Scopus, Pubmed, and WOS, but no other databases were searched, as was the “gray” literature. Therefore, additional relevant studies might have been missed. Second, we included all systematic reviews with available full text and in EN languages investigated the effectiveness, efficacy, safety, and outcome of the main intervention (Favipiravir, Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, or Tocilizumab) for treatment of COVID-19 patients. However, there are other interventions for the treatment of this disease, which can be investigated in other studies, but due to the small number of them, they were not included in this study and only the main interventions were used. Third, we excluded articles published in preprint databases due to lack of peer review.

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

MA-Z: idea, design, analyses, writing the first draft, and revising. MM and HA: data extraction, quality appraisal, writing the first draft, and revising. All authors read and approved the final draft before submission.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.966632/full#supplementary-material

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  • The role of limitations in research: why they are important
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researcher doing a study and organizing limitation in research

What are the Limitations of a Study (Research)?

Why and where to include limitations in my research paper, common limitations of the researchers.

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Conflicts on biased views and personal issues, different types, 1. research design limitations, 2. impact limitations, 3. data or statistical limitations, how to structure your research limitations correctly, how to set your research limitations, formulation of your objectives and aims, implementation of your data collection methods, what are sample sizes, lacking previous studies in the same field, scope of discussions, concluding thoughts.

When completing a study or any other important work, there are different details that you should include to present its comprehensive and clear description. Sometimes you might even need to hire a thesis writer to help you with the whole writing process. Don’t underrate the section with limitations in research . It plays a big role in the entire process. Some students find it difficult to write this part, while others are reluctant to include it in their academic papers. Don’t underestimate the significance of limitations in research to provide readers with an accurate context of your work and enough data to evaluate the impact and relevance of your results. What is the best way to go about them? Keep reading to find out more.

Every research has its limitations. These limitations can appear due to constraints on methodology or research design. Needless to say, this may impact your whole study or research paper. Most researchers prefer to not discuss their study limitations because they think it may decrease the value of their paper in the eyes of the audience.

Remember that it’s quite important to show your study limitations to your audience (other researchers, editors of journals, and public readers). You need to notice that you know about these limitations and about the impact they may have. It’s important to give an explanation of how your research limitations can affect the conclusions and thoughts drawn from your research. 

In this guide, you can read useful tips on how to write limitations on your future research. Read great techniques on making a proper limitations section and see examples to make sure you have got an idea of writing your qualitative research limitations. You need to understand that even if limitations show the weaknesses of your future research, including them in your study can make your paper strengthen because you show all the problems before your readers will discover them by themselves. 

Apart from this, when the author points out the study limitations, it means that you have researched all the weak sides of your study and you understand the topic deeply. Needless to say, all the studies have their limitations even if you know how to make research design properly. When you’re honest with your readers, it can impress people much better than ignoring limitations at all.

Every research has certain limitations, and it’s completely normal, but you need to minimize their range of scope in the process. Provide your acknowledgment of them in the conclusion. Identify and understand potential shortcomings in your work.

When discussing limitations in research, explain how they impact your findings because creating their short list or description isn’t enough. Your research may have many limitations. Your basic goal is to discuss the ones that relate to the research questions that you choose for a specific academic assignment.

Limitations of your qualitative research can become clear to your readers even before they start to read your study. Sometimes, people can see the limitations only when they have viewed the whole document. You have to present your study limitations clearly in the Discussion section of a researh paper . This is the final part of your work where it’s logical to place the limitations section. You should write the limitations at the very beginning of this paragraph, just after you have highlighted the strong sides of the research methodology. When you discuss the limitations before the findings are analyzed, it will help to see how to qualify and apply these findings in future research.   

Limitations related to the researcher must also be written and shown to readers. You have to provide suggestions on decreasing these limitations in both your and future studies.

Limited Access to Information 

Your study may involve some organizations and people in the research, and sometimes you may get problems with access to these organizations. Due to this, you need to redesign and rewrite your study. You need to explain the cause of limited access to your readers.

Needless to say, all the researchers have their deadlines when they need to complete their studies. Sometimes, time constraints can affect your research negatively. If this happened, you need to acknowledge it and mention a need for future research to solve the main problem. 

Some researchers can have biased views because of their cultural background or personal views. Needless to say, it can affect the research. Apart from this, researchers with biased views can choose only those results and data that support their main arguments. If you want to avoid this problem, pay your attention to the problem statement and proper data gathering.

Before you start your study or work, keep in mind that there are specific limitations to what you test or possible research results. What are their types? There are different types that students may encounter and they all have unique features, including:

  • Research design limitations,
  • Impact limitations,
  • Data or statistical limitations.

Specific constraints on your population research or available procedures may affect the final outcomes or results that you obtain.

Even if your research has excellent stats and a strong design, it may suffer from the impact of such factors as:

  • The field is conductive to incremental findings,
  • Being too population-specific.
  • A strong regional focus.

In some cases, it’s impossible to collect enough data or enrollment is very difficult, and all that under-powers your research results. They may stem from your study design. They produce more issues in interpreting your findings.

There are strict rules to structure this section of your academic paper where you need to justify and explain its potential weaknesses. Take these basic steps to end up with a well-structured section:

  • Announce to identify your research limitations and explain their importance,
  • Reflect to provide the necessary depth, explain their nature, and justify your study choices,
  • Look forward to suggest how it’s possible to overcome them in the future.

They walk your readers through this section. You need them to make it clear to your target audience that you recognize potential weaknesses in your work, understand them, and can point effective solutions.

No one is perfect. It means that your work isn’t beyond possible flaws, but you need to use them as a great opportunity to overcome new challenges and improve your knowledge. In a typical academic paper, research limitations can relate to these points:

  • Formulation of your objectives and aims,
  • Implementation of your data collection methods,
  • Sample sizes,
  • Lack of previous studies in your chosen area,
  • The scope of discussions.

Learn to determine them in each one.

Your work has certain shortcomings if you formulate objectives and aims in a very broad manner. What to do in this case? Specify effective methods or ways to narrow your formulation of objectives and aims to increase the level of your study focus.

If you don’t have a lot of experience in collecting primary data, there’s a certain risk that the implementation of your methods has flaws. It’s necessary to acknowledge that.

They depend on the nature of your chosen problem and their significance is bigger in quantitative studies, unlike the qualitative ones. If your sample size is very small, statistical tests will fail to identify important relationships or connections within a particular data set. How to solve this problem? State that other researchers need to base the same study on a larger sample size to end up with more accurate results. To find more information on how to identify a resesrch problem , check our guide. 

Writing a literature review is a key step in any scientific work because it helps students determine the scope of existing studies in the chosen area. Why should you use the literature review findings? They are a basic foundation for any researcher who must use them to achieve a set of specific objectives or aims. What if there are no previous works? You may face this challenge if you choose an evolving or current problem for your study or if it’s very narrow.

Feel free to include this point as a shortcoming of your work, no matter what your chosen area is. Why? The main reason is that you don’t have long years of experience in writing scientific papers or completing complex studies. That’s why the depth and scope of your discussions can be compromised in different levels compared to scholars with a lot of expertise. Include certain points from limitations in research. Use them as suggestions for the future.

Any research suffers from specific limitations that range from common flaws to serious problems in design or methodology dissertation has. The ability to set these shortcomings plays a huge role in writing a successful academic paper and earning good grades. What if you lack it? Turn to our professional thesis writers and get their expert consultation on thesis or research paper.

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A business journal from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

AI and Innovation: A Question of Quantity vs. Quality

March 25, 2024 • 3 min read.

In a recent AI at Wharton webinar, scholars shared their research on how AI can enhance innovation and where the limitations are.

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The following article was originally published by  AI at Wharton .

Generative artificial intelligence has a quantity-over-quality problem.

One of the biggest challenges in using large language models like ChatGPT is precision.

“Why do you need to buy the whole candy store if you just need a lollipop,” said Daniel Ringel , marketing professor at the University of Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

His latest study looks at how synthetic experts can refine results to give users exactly what they need. He created one for the study and compared it with the work of crowdsourcing amateurs, academic experts, and ChatGPT-4. The synthetic expert outdid them all, performing 66 times faster and 400 times cheaper than ChatGPT-4.

Ringel was one of four scholars who shared their work during the webinar, “AI and Innovation,” that streamed live on March 1. The webinar series is hosted by AI at Wharton . Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions, and co-director of AI at Wharton Kartik Hosanagar served as moderator.

“Clearly, AI is going to significantly transform work, the productivity of organizations, even how things work at the macroeconomic and societal level,” he said.

The webinar also featured research presentations from Dokyun Lee , information systems professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business; Rayna Xu , information systems and analytics professor at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business; and Léonard Boussioux , information systems and operations management professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.

Boussioux hailed AI’s ability to help humans solve the world’s most pressing problems — including the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations — if they can filter out the noise. In his co-authored paper on gen AI and crowdsourcing, he found humans and machines were equal in creating ideas for the circular economy. But humans were better at highly novel solutions, so the most valuable ideas came from a collaboration of both.

“It’s easy for AI to recombine ideas, but it’s harder to get moonshots.” — Léonard Boussioux

“This whole study is motivated by the statistical view of innovation. The best ideas are statistically rare,” Boussioux said. “It’s easy for AI to recombine ideas, but it’s harder to get moonshots.”

Xu’s co-authored paper looked at another aspect of AI’s quantity-over-quality problem by examining whether Google or ChatGPT was better at information retrieval. The study found ChatGPT excelled at pulling answers to questions but struggled with fact-checking. Depending on the task, integrating AI into traditional search engines may generate the most stable results, she said.

Xu pointed out ChatGPT’s accuracy is improving, with each iteration getting better at fact-checking.

Lee’s co-authored study introduced InnoVAET, an exploratory tool that enables interpretation, comparison, visualization, and augmented creation of multi-modal business objects. He said the tool can help business leaders understand the competitive landscape and filter good ideas for strategic action.

“Novelty is the easy part,” he said. “The challenging part is how do you make sure that things are valuable.”

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Research Highlights

Plant responses to elevated co2 under competing hypotheses of nitrogen and phosphorus limitations.

Natural terrestrial ecosystem processes, including plant biomass growth and microbial decomposition of soil organic matter, are commonly constrained by the availability of multiple nutrients. It has been widely acknowledged that high latitude ecosystems are more limited by Nitrogen (N) supply, while tropical ecosystems are strongly limited by soil Phosphorus (P) supply. However, model simulated responses of ecosystem dynamics to CO 2 and nutrient perturbation remain highly uncertain, raising the question of whether models can accurately predict ecosystem carbon dynamics under future environmental changes.

This work bridges the gap between observations and model predictions, and improves the confidence in modeled carbon-climate predictions under a changing climate. Extrapolating the two prevailing nutrient limitation hypotheses (Liebig’s Law of the Minimum (LLM), Multiple Element Limitation (MEL)) to global scales using the E3SM land model, we find that the LLM and MEL significantly differ in predicting the future trajectory of ecosystem carbon accumulation. By the end of the 21st century, LLM and MEL predictions could differ by a factor of two for both vegetation and soil carbon fluxes.

Two prevailing approaches are widely applied to represent the mechanisms affecting nutrient limitations to plant growth. The LLM implies that a more limited supply of N or P in the future will dramatically dampen the rate of ecosystem carbon accumulation. The MEL approach, in which plants possess multiple pathways to overcome N and P limitation, e.g., adjustment of photosynthetic rates or investment to enhance phosphatase production or N 2 fixation. In this work, we first compiled field measurements of forest N and P fertilization experiments across tropical, temperate, and boreal forest ecosystems. We then compared the LLM and MEL modeled responses of net primary production (NPP) to the applied nutrient fertilizations, and analyzed which mechanism provides a more accurate plant growth response. Finally, we evaluated the consequences of applying the two limitation approaches on future global carbon dynamics.

Plant responses to elevated CO2 under competing hypotheses of nitrogen and phosphorus limitations Zhu, Qing, William J. Riley, Jinyun Tang, and Nicholas J. Bouskill . 2024 . “Plant Responses To Elevated Co2 Under Competing Hypotheses Of Nitrogen And Phosphorus Limitations” . Ecological Applications . Wiley . doi:10.1002/eap.2967.

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Is Intermittent Fasting Bad for Your Heart? Here’s What We Know.

Alice Callahan

By Alice Callahan

You may have seen the headlines: “Intermittent fasting linked to 91 percent increase in risk of death from heart disease”; “The intermittent fasting trend may pose risks to your heart.”

The news came from an abstract presented Monday at an American Heart Association conference in Chicago. The study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and experts cautioned that it had many limitations. Here’s what we know.

An empty white plate with a fork on top sits on a table across from a woman drinking.

The Background

Intermittent fasting involves cycling between eating and fasting for specific periods of time. A common approach, for example, is to eat only within an eight-hour window each day, said Krista Varady, a professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Several short-term trials have suggested that this eating style can lead to some weight loss and may lower blood pressure and improve blood sugar control in certain people, she said.

But the longest intermittent fasting trial lasted only one year , said Victor Wenze Zhong, lead author of the new study and an epidemiologist at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China. His aim, he said, was to look at longer term health.

The Research

The new study included more than 20,000 adults from the United States. The participants completed two interviews, less than two weeks apart, about what time they ate on the previous day. The researchers then calculated the participants’ average eating windows and assumed it was their typical schedule for the rest of the study, Dr. Zhong said. The participants were followed for an average of eight years.

During that time, the participants who limited their eating to eight hours in a day had a 91 percent greater chance of dying from cardiovascular disease than those who ate over a 12- to 16-hour time frame, the researchers reported.

But there were just 414 people in the eight-hour eating group, Dr. Zhong said. And they tended to be younger and less educated; have lower income and less access to food; and be more likely to smoke than the other participants.

The researchers accounted for these factors in their analysis, Dr. Zhong said. But the study did not show that this style of eating caused deaths from cardiovascular disease, only that the two were linked.

The Limitations

Since the study has not been published or peer-reviewed, it’s challenging to fully evaluate it, Dr. Varady said.

A “major limitation” is that they used just two reports to accurately represent people’s typical eating pattern, Dr. Varady said; and the study did not seem to evaluate what kinds of foods people ate.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Tufts University, called the study “very problematic.” The eight-hour eating group may have included many people who were very busy, or faced other challenges that forced them to miss meals or eat erratically, he said.

The group also could have included people who were already in poor health — those with eating disorders or illness that reduced their appetite, for instance, which may have resulted in them eating during a shorter window, said Satchidananda Panda, a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego.

And if intermittent fasting is really harmful, it’s not clear why that might be. Dr. Zhong said that his study was not designed to answer that question.

What’s Next

More research is needed to evaluate the long term health effects of intermittent fasting, Dr. Zhong said.

Intermittent fasting isn’t a good fit for everyone, said Dr. Pam Taub, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Diego. But many of her patients have enjoyed its benefits, like reduced cholesterol levels.

Now, her patients are “confused and scared” by the headlines they’re reading, Dr. Taub said. But she won’t recommend that they change anything based on this study, she said, adding that people should always talk with their doctor before shifting their diet or lifestyle.

An earlier version of this story misrepresented the way researchers collected diet information with the study participants. It was via two interviews, not two questionnaires.

How we handle corrections

Alice Callahan is a Times reporter covering nutrition and health. She has a Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of California, Davis. More about Alice Callahan

A Guide to Better Nutrition

How much salt is too much? Should I cut back ? We asked experts these and other questions about sodium.

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We asked a nutrition expert how she keeps up healthy habits without stressing about food. Here are seven tips  she shared for maintaining that balance.

There are many people who want to lose a few pounds for whom weight loss drugs are not the right choice. Is old-fashioned dieting a good option ?

Salmon is good for you, but choosing the right type to eat isn’t so easy. Here are answers to all your questions about this nutritional powerhouse .

Read these books to shift into a healthier way of thinking about food .

Sign up for Well’s Mediterranean diet week : Each day, we’ll send guidance and recipes to help make 2024 your most nourishing year yet.

Explainer-Why Did the Baltimore Bridge Collapse and What Do We Know About the Ship?

Reuters

A view of the Dali cargo vessel which crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge causing it to collapse in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., March 26, 2024. REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson

By Lisa Shumaker

(Reuters) -Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early on Tuesday after a container ship smashed into a pylon, with the six people missing presumed dead after falling into the frigid water below. Authorities stopped people from using the bridge after the ship sent out a mayday call, which Maryland's governor said saved lives.

It may be some time before one of the busiest ports on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard can reopen.

WHAT HAPPENED IN BALTIMORE?

Shortly after 1 a.m. ET (0500 GMT), a container ship named the Dali was sailing down the Patapsco River on its way to Sri Lanka. At 1:24 a.m., it suffered a total power failure and all its lights went out.

Three minutes later, at 1:27 a.m., the container ship struck a pylon of the bridge, crumpling almost the entire structure into the water. 

The bridge was up to code and there were no known structural issues, Maryland Governor Wes Moore said.

There was no indication of terrorism, police said.

WHY DID THE BRIDGE COLLAPSE?

The metal truss-style bridge has a suspended deck, a design that contributed to its collapse, engineers say. The ship appeared to hit a main concrete pier, which rests on soil underwater and is part of the foundation.

ARE THERE ANY CASUALTIES?

Six people are missing and presumed dead, Maryland state police said. Two people were rescued, one unharmed and one critically injured.

A construction crew was fixing potholes on the bridge and eight people fell 185 feet (56 meters) into the river where water temperatures were 47 F (8 C). 

According to research for the Federal Aviation Administration, that is the upper limit of what a human could survive falling into water.

Authorities saved lives by stopping vehicles from using the bridge after the ship sent out a mayday call, the Maryland governor said.

The ship also dropped its anchors to try to avoid the collision.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE SHIP THAT WAS INVOLVED?

The Dali was leaving Baltimore en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka.

All 22 crew, including two pilots on board, have been accounted for and there were no injuries, the ship's manager, Synergy Marine Group said.

The registered owner of the Singapore-flagged ship is Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, LSEG data show. The ship measures 948 feet (289 meters) — as long as three football fields placed end to end — and was stacked high with containers.

The ship can hold up to 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit, or TEU, a measure of cargo capacity. It was carrying 4,679 TEU.

The same ship was involved in an incident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, when it hit a quay as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.

A later inspection in June 2023 carried out in San Antonio in Chile found the vessel had "propulsion and auxiliary machinery" deficiencies, according to data on the public Equasis website, which provides information on ships.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE BRIDGE THAT COLLAPSED?

The Francis Scott Key Bridge was one of three ways to cross the Baltimore Harbor and handled 31,000 cars per day or 11.3 million vehicles a year.

The steel structure is four lanes wide and sits 185 feet (56 meters) above the river.    

It opened in 1977 and crosses the Patapsco River, where U.S. national anthem author Francis Scott Key wrote the "Star Spangled Banner" in 1814 after witnessing the British defeat at the Battle of Baltimore and the British bombing of Fort McHenry.

HOW WILL THE BRIDGE COLLAPSE IMPACT THE BALTIMORE PORT? 

Traffic was suspended at the port after the collision.  It is one of the smallest container ports on the Northeastern seaboard, handling about a tenth of the volume that passes through the Port of New York and New Jersey. 

The flow of containers to Baltimore can likely be redistributed to bigger ports, said container shipping expert Lars Jensen. However, there could be major disruptions in shipping cars, coal and sugar.

It is the busiest U.S. port for car shipments, handling at least 750,000 vehicles in 2023, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration.

In 2023, the port was the second busiest for coal exports.

It is also the largest U.S. port by volume for handling farm and construction machinery, as well as agricultural products such as sugar and salt.

(Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Stephen Coates)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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Cardiologists Tell Us What You Really Need to Know About Intermittent Fasting and Heart Health

By Erin Bunch

Image may contain Cutlery Fork Clothing and Glove

New research on intermittent fasting made splashy headlines last week. The abstract, presented at an American Heart Association conference, found that intermittent fasting—specifically, the restriction of food consumption to an 8-hour period each day—was associated with a 91% increase in risk of cardiovascular death. (Insert needle-scratch.)

This is shocking intel, not just because the statistic is so staggering, but because it flies in the face of what we’ve previously known to be true about the benefits of intermittent fasting, which would suggest it has the opposite impact on heart health. The practice, in fact, is supposed to be good for your heart.

However, experts say that prior research shouldn’t necessarily be discarded in favor of these new findings and that you don’t need to panic if you get your calories within a restricted window of time each day. Here, they unpack everything we know to date on intermittent fasting’s impact on heart health.

What is intermittent fasting?

Generally speaking, intermittent fasting is a dietary approach where you are in a fasted state for some period of time, says Julia Zumpano, RD , a preventive cardiology nutritionist at Cleveland Clinic. The precise period of time depends on the type of intermittent fasting you’re doing— there are several different types —but one popular approach involves restricting calories to an eight-hour window each day. For example, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. It doesn’t involve any dietary restrictions beyond eating within a specific time window, and some people find this easier to adhere to than trying to cut out specific foods or counting calories. However, it can result in an overall reduction in caloric intake—some research indicates that people end up cutting out about 300 to 500 calories by intermittent fasting.

What has prior research said about intermittent fasting’s impact on heart health?

Prior, well-controlled, short-term studies have shown that intermittent fasting can result in improvements in body weight , insulin resistance , blood pressure , and some markers of inflammation , a.k.a. “a number of surrogates for heart health that tend to be associated with improved cardiovascular outcomes in the long term,” says Sean Heffron, MD , preventive cardiologist and director of fitness-focused cardiology at the Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at NYU Langone Heart.

Longer-term data is scarce in humans due to the general limitations of diet and nutrition studies (more on that to follow), but we do have longer-term data based on animal studies. “Lots of these studies show that life-long adherence to limited energy intake is associated with greater lifespan,” Dr. Heffron says.

What did this new research find?

This new study aimed to look at long-term data in humans to fill the gaps in our understanding of intermittent fasting’s impact on health. It included data collected as part of the National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey , which asked 20,000 adults of varying ages, sexes, and ethnicities what they ate during an average period of eight years.

During that time period, participants reported what they had eaten in two separate interviews less than two weeks apart. If they reported having eaten within a restricted eight-hour window, researchers generalized that eating pattern to their lives overall, essentially labeling them as intermittent fasts.

Researchers then looked at who had died subsequent to filling out the surveys to see whether or not their engagement in this form of intermittent fasting was associated with overall death, cardiovascular death, and death from cancer, says Dr. Heffron. “They found that there were associations, meaning that restricting food consumption over a very short period was associated with worse outcomes,” he says.

In other words, the study noted that those who consumed food in windows of time shorter than 8 hours had a greater risk of cardiovascular death than those who ate food in windows of time longer than 8 hours—hence the shocking headline.

What are the limitations of this new research?

There are many, which even the study’s authors acknowledge. To begin with, this research was presented in an abstract rather than as a full study. It has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

An abstract, Zumpano explains, is just the preliminary part of a study in which researchers share their methods and hypotheses or conclusions. Still, they don’t provide any of the details or specifics of the study. “It’s basically a one-sheet page describing what they wanted to do,” she says. “So it’s kind of like looking at the front of a food label without being able to look at the back. You don’t know the nutrition facts or have the ingredients—you’re just looking at the marketing on the front.” Generally, she says, this format is one of the biggest limitations of these findings. “We can't come to conclusions until we have all of the information when the full study comes out,” she says.

Another limitation is that the abstract was based on an observational study, which means its details were self-reported. “We know observational studies aren’t necessarily always accurate,” she says. People can’t always recall what they ate, for example, or they might even fib about it. And given that participants only contributed a 24-hour dietary recall twice throughout the entire survey period, this analysis does not include a lot of data from which to draw conclusions, says Dana Hunnes, RD, PhD , senior dietitian at UCLA Medical Center and author of Recipe for Survival: What You Can Do to Live a Healthier and More Environmentally Friendly Life .

Additionally, several factors are not accounted for in the analysis. Perhaps most glaringly, it does not seem to include any details whatsoever on the content of participants’ diets. “We don’t know what these 20,000 individuals are eating as it’s not described anywhere,” says Dr. Hunnes. “They could be eating nothing but hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, ice cream, and other highly processed, high-calorie foods.” Other lifestyle factors that impact health, such as exercise habits, were not included in the analysis either.

And finally, the study did not demonstrate a causal effect, says Dr. Hunnes, meaning that you can’t conclude from it that intermittent fasting caused the increased risk of cardiovascular death but rather that the two were linked. It also offers no insight into why this might be the case.

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For all of these reasons, Dr. Heffron ultimately says, rather definitively, that this is “not a noteworthy study.”

What research needs to be done to investigate this finding further?

Perhaps some of the above gaps in knowledge will be filled in when the full study is released. Still, even then, Dr. Heffron says a considerable amount of further work would be required to validate the results of this analysis. “You’d need to do the appropriate statistical analyses from the cohort that these data are derived from and then look for validation within other independent cohorts,” he says. “And if that pans out, then you would think about potential short-term-duration interventions, which are possible in nutrition.”

Generally speaking, Dr. Hunnes says a significant amount of additional research is needed on intermittent fasting beyond this analysis, especially regarding its impacts on heart health. “In fact, much more information in general is needed with regard to lifestyle and heart health,” she says.

She says this intel can be difficult to collect as there are limitations to nearly all nutrition studies. “There are so many variables and factors that are difficult to account for and are confounding,” she says. “If we were to conduct a long-term nutrition study where all variables could be accounted for—ie. 1,000 people live in a hotel or dormitory and are given access only to foods provided by the study, and were monitored in their daily activities 100 percent of the time, and all other variables are known—we could make grand conclusions.”

Dr. Heffron agrees. “The gold standard in health outcomes research is a randomized controlled trial, and it’s very difficult to randomize anybody to a nutritional intervention,” he says. “Modifying even one small aspect of a diet for a long-term study, which is what’s necessary to find out if someone dies or not as a result of that modification, is very difficult.”

TL;DR: What conclusions should we draw about the impacts of intermittent fasting on heart health? In the short term, we know that intermittent fasting can help people lose weight and reduce certain risk factors for heart disease. We don’t yet know how intermittent fasting affects human health in the long run.

If the data on intermittent fasting is inconclusive, what diets are shown to be beneficial to heart health?

Even though Dr. Heffron believes this abstract’s data should more or less be taken with a grain of salt, he says it’s okay to abandon intermittent fasting if you’re troubled by the new intel. In fact, he rarely recommends it per se anyway, despite the fact that there is evidence to suggest that intermittent fasting is an effective way to restrict overall calories and, in turn, mitigate major risk factors for heart disease. This is because he prefers to focus his counseling on encouraging behaviors patients will be able to maintain for decades, as those are better associated with improved heart health outcomes.

Such behaviors include better food choices, and Zumpano agrees that emphasis should be placed more on what you eat than when you eat it. “Focus on including heart-healthy foods and decreasing the things that we know can negatively impact your heart, like processed meats, processed foods, fast foods, junk foods, and sugary foods,” she says.

If you are looking for specific dietary guidelines, Dr. Hunnes says we know that some diets are generally good for heart health. “For example, we know from long-term epidemiological studies that the Mediterranean diet is, generally speaking, a heart-protective diet and that populations that eat this type of diet live longer with fewer cardiovascular problems, tend to have lower body weight, lower body-fat percentage, and die less from heart disease,” she says. “We similarly know that the DASH diet (dietary approaches to stop hypertension), which is similar to a Mediterranean diet, also helps protect against heart disease and death from heart disease. And we know that a whole-food, plant-based diet that limits processed foods is protective against heart disease and death from heart disease.”

This doesn’t mean that intermittent fasting has no role in a heart-healthy diet, but rather that more research is needed to understand its impact, says Dr. Hunnes. “We would need to tweak those diets to find out if intermittent fasting makes any of them better or worse for heart disease outcomes,” she says.

Zumpano also notes that, in any case, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to diet. So, even if it is determined that intermittent fasting is harmful or helpful to heart health in the long term, those findings may not be applicable to all demographics. “If you’re questioning what the best diet is for you, I would recommend seeing a dietician,” she says. “We’re able to look at your risk factors, medical history, family history, labs, etcetera, and can pinpoint the best plan for you.”

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US Supreme Court abortion pill fight brings claims of distorted science

US Supreme Court faces another self-imposed deadline to act on abortion pill curbs

ABORTION CRACKDOWN

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Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham

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A drone view of the Dali cargo vessel, which crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge causing it to collapse, in Baltimore

A lawyer for music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs said Tuesday the rapper was being targeted by a "witch hunt" after civil lawsuits accused him of sexual misconduct and federal authorities raided two of his properties.

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Vietnam minister says president's resignation has not affected policies

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son said on Tuesday the resignation of the communist-ruled country's second president in little over a year has not affected Hanoi's foreign and economic policies, given its collective leadership and policymaking.

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Lawsuit by Elon Musk's X was an attempt to punish free speech, judge rules

  • A US judge threw out a suit X filed, saying it was about "punishing the defendants for their speech."
  • It had sought millions in damages from a research group that found a rise in hate speech on X.
  • X CEO Elon Musk has said a similar "thermonuclear" lawsuit is about " protecting free speech ."

Insider Today

A lawsuit that Elon Musk's X filed last year against a research group was thrown out Monday, with US District Judge Charles Breyer saying, "This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech."

In its complaint, filed in the Northern District of California, X argued that the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate violated the platform's terms of service in gathering data for reports that documented a significant increase in hate speech on X following Musk's takeover.

The company claimed the CCDH was responsible for "tens of millions of dollars" in damages due to lost advertising revenue and the expense of internal investigations.

But Breyer wrote "there can be no mistaking" that the real motive of the suit was to bully X's critics into silence.

The decision cited a survey that found "social media researchers have canceled, suspended or changed more than 100 studies about X" as a result of Musk's policies as CEO.

Related stories

When asked for comment on the decision, the press email for X replied, "Busy now, please check back later."

Musk has previously said he's a "free speech absolutist" and that his "thermonuclear" lawsuits against media-watchdog groups are about "protecting free speech."

In his scathing dismissal, Breyer said the CCDH exercising its First Amendment rights was the fundamental issue, despite X's attempt to sidestep it with arguments about data privacy and security.

In its complaint, X was seeking payment for advertising revenue it said it lost because of the CCDH's reports, but it stopped short of contesting any of the facts in those reports.

"It is apparent to the Court that X Corp. wishes to have it both ways," Breyer wrote, "to be spared the burdens of pleading a defamation claim, while bemoaning the harm to its reputation, and seeking punishing damages based on reputational harm."

In a footnote, he added: "If there is any question about the 'punishing' part, X Corp. filed a similar suit, not before this Court, in November of 2023 against Media Matters, another non-profit media watchdog , for 'reporting on ads from major brands appearing next to neo-Nazi content.'"

In a statement, the CCDH's CEO and founder, Imran Ahmed, said the lawsuit was part of Musk's "loud, hypocritical campaign of harassment, abuse, and lawfare designed to avoid taking responsibility for his own decisions."

"We hope this landmark ruling will embolden public-interest researchers everywhere," he added, "to continue, and even intensify, their vital work of holding social media companies accountable for the hate and disinformation they host and the harm they cause."

Watch: OPINION: Media activist shares how Musk could change Twitter

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  1. What Are The Research Study's limitations, And How To Identify Them

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  2. Research Limitations Examples: 5 Common Limitations In Dissertations

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  3. Recap Research Says Lesson 7 Scope and Limitation

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  4. 21 Research Limitations Examples (2023)

    research on limitation

  5. Example of Study Limitation in Research Work

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  6. Example Of Limitation Of Study In Research Proposal

    research on limitation

VIDEO

  1. Daniel Kahneman

  2. Lecture 3 : Limits 1.1 & Computing Limits 1.2

  3. Literature Review: Find Research gap and limitation in an article!

  4. The Limitation Act, 1908- Lecture 01

  5. Limitation vs. Delimitation in Research [Urdu/Hindi]

  6. Limitation of Operation Research

COMMENTS

  1. How to Write Limitations of the Study (with examples)

    Common types of limitations and their ramifications include: Theoretical: limits the scope, depth, or applicability of a study. Methodological: limits the quality, quantity, or diversity of the data. Empirical: limits the representativeness, validity, or reliability of the data. Analytical: limits the accuracy, completeness, or significance of ...

  2. Limitations in Research

    Limitations in Research. Limitations in research refer to the factors that may affect the results, conclusions, and generalizability of a study.These limitations can arise from various sources, such as the design of the study, the sampling methods used, the measurement tools employed, and the limitations of the data analysis techniques.

  3. Understanding Limitations in Research

    Methodology limitations. Not having access to data or reliable information can impact the methods used to facilitate your research. A lack of data or reliability may limit the parameters of your study area and the extent of your exploration. Your sample size may also be affected because you won't have any direction on how big or small it ...

  4. Limitations of the Study

    The limitations of the study are those characteristics of design or methodology that impacted or influenced the interpretation of the findings from your research. Study limitations are the constraints placed on the ability to generalize from the results, to further describe applications to practice, and/or related to the utility of findings ...

  5. Limited by our limitations

    Abstract. Study limitations represent weaknesses within a research design that may influence outcomes and conclusions of the research. Researchers have an obligation to the academic community to present complete and honest limitations of a presented study. Too often, authors use generic descriptions to describe study limitations.

  6. PDF How to discuss your study's limitations effectively

    build reviewers' trust in you and your research, discussing every drawback, no matter how small, can give the impression that the study is irreparably flawed. For each limitation you identify, provide a sentence that refutes the limitation or that provides information to counterbalance or otherwise minimize the limitation's perceived impact.

  7. Limitations of a Research Study

    A strong regional focus. 3. Data or statistical limitations. In some cases, it is impossible to collect sufficient data for research or very difficult to get access to the data. This could lead to incomplete conclusion to your study. Moreover, this insufficiency in data could be the outcome of your study design.

  8. Research limitations: the need for honesty and common sense

    Limitations usually relate to the study's design and methodologies, such as bias or specific statistical models (Ross & Bibler Zaidi, 2019). The first limitation is associated with the ...

  9. How to Identify Limitations in Research

    Well, that depends entirely on the nature of your study. You'll need to comb through your research approach, methodology, testing processes, and expected results to identify the type of limitations your study may be exposed to. It's worth noting that this understanding can only offer a broad idea of the possible restrictions you'll face ...

  10. Discussing your limitations

    Chapter 7 highlights the importance to the scientific community of discussing the possible limitations in your research and explains how to present your negative results. Of course, you may have got negative results for other reasons: i) your hypothesis was incorrect and needs to be reformulated, ii) you had a bad experimental design and / or low statistical power.

  11. How to Present the Limitations of the Study Examples

    Step 1. Identify the limitation (s) of the study. This part should comprise around 10%-20% of your discussion of study limitations. The first step is to identify the particular limitation (s) that affected your study. There are many possible limitations of research that can affect your study, but you don't need to write a long review of all ...

  12. Research Limitations vs Research Delimitations

    Research Limitations. Research limitations are, at the simplest level, the weaknesses of the study, based on factors that are often outside of your control as the researcher. These factors could include things like time, access to funding, equipment, data or participants.For example, if you weren't able to access a random sample of participants for your study and had to adopt a convenience ...

  13. 21 Research Limitations Examples (2024)

    In research, studies can have limitations such as limited scope, researcher subjectivity, and lack of available research tools. Acknowledging the limitations of your study should be seen as a strength. It demonstrates your willingness for transparency, humility, and submission to the scientific method and can bolster the integrity of the study.

  14. Research limitations: the need for honesty and common sense

    Limitations generally fall into some common categories, and in a sense we can make a checklist for authors here. Price and Murnan ( 2004) gave an excellent and detailed summary of possible research limitations in their editorial for the American Journal of Health Education. They discussed limitations affecting internal and external validity ...

  15. (PDF) Limited by our limitations

    Abstract. Study limitations represent weaknesses within a research design that may influence outcomes and conclusions of the research. Researchers have an obligation to the academic community to ...

  16. Delimitations in Research

    Delimitations refer to the specific boundaries or limitations that are set in a research study in order to narrow its scope and focus. Delimitations may be related to a variety of factors, including the population being studied, the geographical location, the time period, the research design, and the methods or tools being used to collect data.

  17. How to Write Research Limitations (Constraints): A Step-by-Step Guide

    Your research limitations can stem from your study design (as per your method or limitations having to do with the study population): As you know your method will be the determinant of the quality of the data you and results you will obtain.If you choose a method because of some opportunities it has for your work, if such method has significant limitations on your data or results somehow, you ...

  18. How to Present the Limitations of a Study in Research?

    Writing the limitations of the research papers is often assumed to require lots of effort. However, identifying the limitations of the study can help structure the research better. Therefore, do not underestimate the importance of research study limitations. 3. Opportunity to make suggestions for further research.

  19. Research Limitations

    Research Limitations. It is for sure that your research will have some limitations and it is normal. However, it is critically important for you to be striving to minimize the range of scope of limitations throughout the research process. Also, you need to provide the acknowledgement of your research limitations in conclusions chapter honestly.

  20. PDF 9 Contribution to research, limitations, and future research

    Contribution to research, limitations, and future research 263. 9.2 Limitations and future research. The present study has limitations due to the focus (sector, region, time, type of innovation), the applied methodology, data selection, as well as the scope of the characteristics considered, and the applied definition of effectiveness.

  21. (PDF) Limitations of Research

    "Limitations of Research" is a section in the standard research report (the research report is usually divided into the major sections of Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings ...

  22. Potential limitations in systematic review studies assessing the effect

    This research showed that COVID-19 clinical studies have a shorter time to publication and have lower methodological quality scores than control studies in the same journal . We tried to identify the potential limitations of COVID-19 systematic reviews which can improve and make the result of studies more accurate.

  23. Limitations in Research

    Why and Where to Include Limitations in My Research Paper. Common Limitations of the Researchers. Limited Access to Information. Time Limits. Conflicts on Biased Views and Personal Issues. Different types. 1. Research design limitations. 2.

  24. AI and Innovation: A Question of Quantity vs. Quality

    Ringel was one of four scholars who shared their work during the webinar, "AI and Innovation," that streamed live on March 1. The webinar series is hosted by AI at Wharton. Wharton professor ...

  25. Plant Responses to Elevated CO2 Under Competing Hypotheses of Nitrogen

    Two prevailing approaches are widely applied to represent the mechanisms affecting nutrient limitations to plant growth. The LLM implies that a more limited supply of N or P in the future will dramatically dampen the rate of ecosystem carbon accumulation. The MEL approach, in which plants possess multiple pathways to overcome N and P limitation, e.g., adjustment of photosynthetic rates or ...

  26. What to Know About Intermittent Fasting

    The Research. The new study included more than 20,000 adults from the United States. The participants completed two interviews, less than two weeks apart, about what time they ate on the previous day.

  27. Explainer-Why Did the Baltimore Bridge Collapse and What Do We Know

    According to research for the Federal Aviation Administration, that is the upper limit of what a human could survive falling into water. Two people were rescued, one unharmed and one critically ...

  28. Cardiologists Tell Us What You Really Need to Know About ...

    What are the limitations of this new research? There are many, which even the study's authors acknowledge. To begin with, this research was presented in an abstract rather than as a full study.

  29. US Supreme Court abortion pill fight brings claims of distorted science

    The abortion opponents who are seeking to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone point to three studies by Gynuity Health Projects, a New York-based ...

  30. US Judge Tosses Out Hate-Speech Lawsuit From Elon Musk's X

    A lawsuit filed last year by Elon Musk's X against a research group was thrown out Monday, with US District Judge Charles Breyer saying, "This case is about punishing the Defendants for their ...