How do you use R&D literature review to identify research gaps and opportunities?
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The first step of conducting a literature review is to define your research scope and objectives. This means clarifying the purpose, scope, and focus of your review, as well as the criteria and methods for selecting and evaluating the sources. You should also formulate a clear research question or problem statement that guides your review and reflects your research interests and goals. For example, if you are interested in developing a new product or service, you might ask: What are the existing solutions and alternatives for this problem or need? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are the gaps and limitations in the current research and practice?
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Read and Make a Note! From my point of view, the research scope and objectives are about reading previous works. Every scientist makes a story that brings us a result and leaves the other problems. These problems are always stated in every article they publish in the last section. One way to make it easier to find the problem gap is by reading and making important notes from each article. One of the habits that I often do is making important notes regarding the objectives, and methods. The more notes obtained, the more problem gaps will be found. Thus, we can define the research scope and objectives easily.
The second step of conducting a literature review is to search and collect relevant sources that address your research question or problem. You should use a variety of sources, such as books, journal articles, reports, patents, conference papers, and websites, to ensure a comprehensive and balanced coverage of the topic. You should also use appropriate keywords, databases, and search strategies to find the most relevant and reliable sources. You should keep track of the sources you find and record their bibliographic details, summaries, and notes for later use.
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Using Software or Search Engines! Nowadays, searching for sources from literature is very easy. There are lots of software or search engines that can be used to filtrate a research object. For example, in Google Scholar, we can use the facilities in it to limit a search, based on the year it was published or related to certain methods. This process will make it easier for us to carry out literature searches and start assessing literature which we will later use as a source of information for our research process.
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Using a robust reference software application is extremely helpful at this stage. You can search within the application and download relevant sources directly including abstracts. You can also link a PDF of the source to the reference in some applications.
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In this phase, I recommend my students to register in professional communities (for example: researchgate.net) that bring together researchers from different research centers and institutes. In this way, they can request a copy (for academic purposes) of the scientific literature directly from the author or co-author.
The third step of conducting a literature review is to analyze and synthesize the sources you have collected. This means critically evaluating the quality, relevance, and contribution of each source, as well as identifying the main themes, patterns, and trends in the literature. You should also compare and contrast the different perspectives, arguments, and evidence presented by the authors, and highlight the similarities and differences among them. You should also look for gaps and inconsistencies in the literature, such as missing data, conflicting results, or unanswered questions.
The fourth and final step of conducting a literature review is to identify research gaps and opportunities based on your analysis and synthesis of the sources. This means identifying the areas where the existing research is insufficient, incomplete, or outdated, and where there is room for improvement, innovation, or further investigation. You should also suggest how your own research can fill these gaps or address these opportunities, and how it can contribute to the advancement of knowledge and practice in your field. You should also state the limitations and implications of your review, and how it can inform your research design and methodology.
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This is a good article, yet it can be improved by adding an example (a research question), and then stating how each step above is used in order to identify the gaps and opportunities in this research topic.
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In R&D literature reviews, being systematic is key to uncovering research gaps and opportunities. As the number of articles grows, it's easy to miss details, leading to incomplete findings. I use tools like Obsidian and Notion for organization. They allow for tagged notes and visual mapping, helping to identify connections and gaps between articles. This structured approach ensures a thorough review and helps track the evolution of my analysis, making it easier to spot unexplored areas or new opportunities
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