Limitations of Research

Research is employed to establish or confirm facts, reaffirm the outcomes of previous research work, solve new or current issues, support theorems, or develop new theories. Research enables you to develop further knowledge on a subject. Research can be just about anything, and we hear about all different kinds of research in news reports. Researchers particularly those engaged in empirical research face several problems.

What are the Key Limitations of Research ?

Lack of Training: The research methodology isn’t systematic. A lot of researchers carry out research work without having genuine understanding of the research methods. They simply seek out similar studies and replicate the methodologies mentioned in it. Even the research guides don’t have a thorough knowledge of the different methodologies. This scenario warrants the necessity for some kind of short-term training to be imparted to researchers before undertaking research activities.

Lack of Interaction: There isn’t any proper interaction between researchers and the businesses, government institutions, etc. This results in a substantial amount of data going untapped. Interaction programs must be arranged between researchers and other establishments on a regular basis. This will likely highlight what issues must be researched, what data is needed for performing research, and how the research will be beneficial.

Figure: Common Research Limitations

Research studies overlapping each other are carried out frequently for want of sufficient information. This leads to duplication and fritters away resources. This challenge can be solved by appropriate compilation and revision, at regular intervals, of a list of topics on which and the locations where the studies are going on. Due attention must be given toward identification of research problems in different disciplines of applied science that are of immediate concern to the businesses.

Lack of Confidence: The majority of the businesses are of the viewpoint that, researchers can misuse the data given by them. As a result, they’re unwilling to reveal information about their business. This has an effect on the research studies for which that particular data may be very important. Thus, confidence-building measures should really be adopted that will encourage the business units that their data will be put to productive uses, and won’t be abused by any means by the researcher.

Absence of Code of Conduct: No specific code of conduct exists for the researchers, which results in inter-departmental and inter-university rivalries.

Library management and functioning isn’t adequate at numerous places and a lot of the time and energy of researchers are invested in tracing out the books, journals, reports, etc., instead of in tracing out relevant material from them.

Expensive Publishing: Once their research is finished, the researchers need to search for a means to publish it. Publishing in international journals is very expensive. This discourages the majority of the researchers from taking up research work.

For example, a research carried out in only one particular town and involving only females has limitations which include gender, sample size and location. Furthermore, all research is limited by the perception of the researcher.

The above listed points indicate that there are several problems and limitations of research which need attention.