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How to Write the Scope of the Study
- By DiscoverPhDs
- August 26, 2020
What is the Scope of the Study?
The scope of the study refers to the boundaries within which your research project will be performed; this is sometimes also called the scope of research. To define the scope of the study is to define all aspects that will be considered in your research project. It is also just as important to make clear what aspects will not be covered; i.e. what is outside of the scope of the study.
Why is the Scope of the Study Important?
The scope of the study is always considered and agreed upon in the early stages of the project, before any data collection or experimental work has started. This is important because it focuses the work of the proposed study down to what is practically achievable within a given timeframe.
A well-defined research or study scope enables a researcher to give clarity to the study outcomes that are to be investigated. It makes clear why specific data points have been collected whilst others have been excluded.
Without this, it is difficult to define an end point for a research project since no limits have been defined on the work that could take place. Similarly, it can also make the approach to answering a research question too open ended.
How do you Write the Scope of the Study?
In order to write the scope of the study that you plan to perform, you must be clear on the research parameters that you will and won’t consider. These parameters usually consist of the sample size, the duration, inclusion and exclusion criteria, the methodology and any geographical or monetary constraints.
Each of these parameters will have limits placed on them so that the study can practically be performed, and the results interpreted relative to the limitations that have been defined. These parameters will also help to shape the direction of each research question you consider.
The term limitations’ is often used together with the scope of the study to describe the constraints of any parameters that are considered and also to clarify which parameters have not been considered at all. Make sure you get the balance right here between not making the scope too broad and unachievable, and it not being too restrictive, resulting in a lack of useful data.
The sample size is a commonly used parameter in the definition of the research scope. For example, a research project involving human participants may define at the start of the study that 100 participants will be recruited. This number will be determined based on an understanding of the difficulty in recruiting participants to studies and an agreement of an acceptable period of time in which to recruit this number.
Any results that are obtained by the research group can then be interpreted by others with the knowledge that the study was capped to 100 participants and an acceptance of this as a limitation of the study. In other words, it is acknowledged that recruiting 100 rather than 1,000 participants has limited the amount of data that could be collected, however this is an acceptable limitation due to the known difficulties in recruiting so many participants (e.g. the significant period of time it would take and the costs associated with this).
Example of a Scope of the Study
The follow is a (hypothetical) example of the definition of the scope of the study, with the research question investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health.
Whilst the immediate negative health problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic have been well documented, the impact of the virus on the mental health (MH) of young adults (age 18-24 years) is poorly understood. The aim of this study is to report on MH changes in population group due to the pandemic.
The scope of the study is limited to recruiting 100 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 24 who will be contacted using their university email accounts. This recruitment period will last for a maximum of 2 months and will end when either 100 volunteers have been recruited or 2 months have passed. Each volunteer to the study will be asked to complete a short questionnaire in order to evaluate any changes in their MH.
From this example we can immediately see that the scope of the study has placed a constraint on the sample size to be used and/or the time frame for recruitment of volunteers. It has also introduced a limitation by only opening recruitment to people that have university emails; i.e. anyone that does not attend university will be excluded from this study.
This may be an important factor when interpreting the results of this study; the comparison of MH during the pandemic between those that do and do not attend university, is therefore outside the scope of the study here. We are also told that the methodology used to assess any changes in MH are via a questionnaire. This is a clear definition of how the outcome measure will be investigated and any other methods are not within the scope of research and their exclusion may be a limitation of the study.
The scope of the study is important to define as it enables a researcher to focus their research to within achievable parameters.
In this post you’ll learn what the significance of the study means, why it’s important, where and how to write one in your paper or thesis with an example.
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In the UK, a dissertation, usually around 20,000 words is written by undergraduate and Master’s students, whilst a thesis, around 80,000 words, is written as part of a PhD.
The scope of the study is defined at the start of the study. It is used by researchers to set the boundaries and limitations within which the research study will be performed.
Dr Thirlaway gained his PhD in immunology from the University of Nottingham in 2018. He is now a Science Communicator at the Natural History Museum, London.
Lewis is a third-year PhD student at CVSSP at the University of Surrey. His research involves using multi-camera broadcast footage of sports, and using this data to create new viewpoints in virtual and augmented reality.
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Scope and Delimitations in Research
Delimitations are the boundaries that the researcher sets in a research study, deciding what to include and what to exclude. They help to narrow down the study and make it more manageable and relevant to the research goal.
Updated on October 19, 2022
All scientific research has boundaries, whether or not the authors clearly explain them. Your study's scope and delimitations are the sections where you define the broader parameters and boundaries of your research.
The scope details what your study will explore, such as the target population, extent, or study duration. Delimitations are factors and variables not included in the study.
Scope and delimitations are not methodological shortcomings; they're always under your control. Discussing these is essential because doing so shows that your project is manageable and scientifically sound.
This article covers:
- What's meant by “scope” and “delimitations”
- Why these are integral components of every study
- How and where to actually write about scope and delimitations in your manuscript
- Examples of scope and delimitations from published studies
What is the scope in a research paper?
Simply put, the scope is the domain of your research. It describes the extent to which the research question will be explored in your study.
Articulating your study's scope early on helps you make your research question focused and realistic.
It also helps decide what data you need to collect (and, therefore, what data collection tools you need to design). Getting this right is vital for both academic articles and funding applications.
What are delimitations in a research paper?
Delimitations are those factors or aspects of the research area that you'll exclude from your research. The scope and delimitations of the study are intimately linked.
Essentially, delimitations form a more detailed and narrowed-down formulation of the scope in terms of exclusion. The delimitations explain what was (intentionally) not considered within the given piece of research.
Scope and delimitations examples
Use the following examples provided by our expert PhD editors as a reference when coming up with your own scope and delimitations.
Scope example
Your research question is, “What is the impact of bullying on the mental health of adolescents?” This topic, on its own, doesn't say much about what's being investigated.
The scope, for example, could encompass:
- Variables: “bullying” (dependent variable), “mental health” (independent variable), and ways of defining or measuring them
- Bullying type: Both face-to-face and cyberbullying
- Target population: Adolescents aged 12–17
- Geographical coverage: France or only one specific town in France
Delimitations example
Look back at the previous example.
Exploring the adverse effects of bullying on adolescents' mental health is a preliminary delimitation. This one was chosen from among many possible research questions (e.g., the impact of bullying on suicide rates, or children or adults).
Delimiting factors could include:
- Research design : Mixed-methods research, including thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and statistical analysis of a survey
- Timeframe : Data collection to run for 3 months
- Population size : 100 survey participants; 15 interviewees
- Recruitment of participants : Quota sampling (aiming for specific portions of men, women, ethnic minority students etc.)
We can see that every choice you make in planning and conducting your research inevitably excludes other possible options.
What's the difference between limitations and delimitations?
Delimitations and limitations are entirely different, although they often get mixed up. These are the main differences:
This chart explains the difference between delimitations and limitations. Delimitations are the boundaries of the study while the limitations are the characteristics of the research design or methodology.
Delimitations encompass the elements outside of the boundaries you've set and depends on your decision of what yo include and exclude. On the flip side, limitations are the elements outside of your control, such as:
- limited financial resources
- unplanned work or expenses
- unexpected events (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic)
- time constraints
- lack of technology/instruments
- unavailable evidence or previous research on the topic
Delimitations involve narrowing your study to make it more manageable and relevant to what you're trying to prove. Limitations influence the validity and reliability of your research findings. Limitations are seen as potential weaknesses in your research.
Example of the differences
To clarify these differences, go back to the limitations of the earlier example.
Limitations could comprise:
- Sample size : Not large enough to provide generalizable conclusions.
- Sampling approach : Non-probability sampling has increased bias risk. For instance, the researchers might not manage to capture the experiences of ethnic minority students.
- Methodological pitfalls : Research participants from an urban area (Paris) are likely to be more advantaged than students in rural areas. A study exploring the latter's experiences will probably yield very different findings.
Where do you write the scope and delimitations, and why?
It can be surprisingly empowering to realize you're restricted when conducting scholarly research. But this realization also makes writing up your research easier to grasp and makes it easier to see its limits and the expectations placed on it. Properly revealing this information serves your field and the greater scientific community.
Openly (but briefly) acknowledge the scope and delimitations of your study early on. The Abstract and Introduction sections are good places to set the parameters of your paper.
Next, discuss the scope and delimitations in greater detail in the Methods section. You'll need to do this to justify your methodological approach and data collection instruments, as well as analyses
At this point, spell out why these delimitations were set. What alternative options did you consider? Why did you reject alternatives? What could your study not address?
Let's say you're gathering data that can be derived from different but related experiments. You must convince the reader that the one you selected best suits your research question.
Finally, a solid paper will return to the scope and delimitations in the Findings or Discussion section. Doing so helps readers contextualize and interpret findings because the study's scope and methods influence the results.
For instance, agricultural field experiments carried out under irrigated conditions yield different results from experiments carried out without irrigation.
Being transparent about the scope and any outstanding issues increases your research's credibility and objectivity. It helps other researchers replicate your study and advance scientific understanding of the same topic (e.g., by adopting a different approach).
How do you write the scope and delimitations?
Define the scope and delimitations of your study before collecting data. This is critical. This step should be part of your research project planning.
Answering the following questions will help you address your scope and delimitations clearly and convincingly.
- What are your study's aims and objectives?
- Why did you carry out the study?
- What was the exact topic under investigation?
- Which factors and variables were included? And state why specific variables were omitted from the research scope.
- Who or what did the study explore? What was the target population?
- What was the study's location (geographical area) or setting (e.g., laboratory)?
- What was the timeframe within which you collected your data ?
- Consider a study exploring the differences between identical twins who were raised together versus identical twins who weren't. The data collection might span 5, 10, or more years.
- A study exploring a new immigration policy will cover the period since the policy came into effect and the present moment.
- How was the research conducted (research design)?
- Experimental research, qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods research, literature review, etc.
- What data collection tools and analysis techniques were used? e.g., If you chose quantitative methods, which statistical analysis techniques and software did you use?
- What did you find?
- What did you conclude?
Useful vocabulary for scope and delimitations
When explaining both the scope and delimitations, it's important to use the proper language to clearly state each.
For the scope , use the following language:
- This study focuses on/considers/investigates/covers the following:
- This study aims to . . . / Here, we aim to show . . . / In this study, we . . .
- The overall objective of the research is . . . / Our objective is to . . .
When stating the delimitations, use the following language:
- This [ . . . ] will not be the focus, for it has been frequently and exhaustively discusses in earlier studies.
- To review the [ . . . ] is a task that lies outside the scope of this study.
- The following [ . . . ] has been excluded from this study . . .
- This study does not provide a complete literature review of [ . . . ]. Instead, it draws on selected pertinent studies [ . . . ]
Analysis of a published scope
In one example, Simione and Gnagnarella (2020) compared the psychological and behavioral impact of COVID-19 on Italy's health workers and general population.
Here's a breakdown of the study's scope into smaller chunks and discussion of what works and why.
Also notable is that this study's delimitations include references to:
- Recruitment of participants: Convenience sampling
- Demographic characteristics of study participants: Age, sex, etc.
- Measurements methods: E.g., the death anxiety scale of the Existential Concerns Questionnaire (ECQ; van Bruggen et al., 2017) etc.
- Data analysis tool: The statistical software R
Analysis of published scope and delimitations
Scope of the study : Johnsson et al. (2019) explored the effect of in-hospital physiotherapy on postoperative physical capacity, physical activity, and lung function in patients who underwent lung cancer surgery.
The delimitations narrowed down the scope as follows:
Refine your scope, delimitations, and scientific English
English ability shouldn't limit how clear and impactful your research can be. Expert AJE editors are available to assess your science and polish your academic writing. See AJE services here .
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