Definition

The limitations of the study are those characteristics of design or methodology that impacted or
influenced the application or interpretation of the results of your study. They are the constraints
on generalizability and utility of findings that are the result of the ways in which you chose to
design the study and/or the method used to establish internal and external validity.

Importance of...
Always acknowledge a study's limitations. It is far better for you to identify and acknowledge
your study’s limitations than to have them pointed out by your professor and be graded down
because you appear to have ignored them.

Keep in mind that acknowledgement 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.

Acknowledgement of a study's limitations also provides you with an opportunity to

demonstrate to your professor 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 limitiations 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 findings 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?

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 your paper.

Here are examples of limitations you may need to describe and to discuss how they possibly impacted
your findings. Descrptions of limitations should be stated in the past tense.
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.

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 to offer 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 the need for future research.

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, consult with a librarian! In cases when a librarian
has confirmed that there is a lack of 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
that this limitiation can serve as an important opportunity 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 in future research to revise the specific method for
gathering data.

Self-reported data -- whether you are relying on pre-existing self-reported 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 take what people say, whether in
interviews, focus groups, or on questionnaries, at face value. However, self-reported data contain several
potential sources of bias that should be noted as limitations: (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 embelishing
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, or documents and, for
whatever reason, access is denied or otherwise limited, the reasons for this need to be described.

Longitudinal effects -- unlike your professor, who can literally devote years [even a lifetime] to studying
a single research problem, the time available to investigate a research problem and to measure change
or stability within a sample is constrained by the due date of your assignment. Be sure to choose a topic
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, 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, or thing is viewed or shown in a consistently inaccurate way. It is usually negative,
though one can have a positive bias as well. 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 and 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 that if you detect bias in prior research, it must be acknowledged and you should
explain what measures were taken to avoid perpetuating bias.

Fluency in a language -- if your research focuses on measuring the perceived value of after-school
tutoring among Mexican-American ESL [English as a Second Language] students, for example, and you
are not fluent in Spanish, you are limited in being able to read and interpret Spanish language research
studies on the topic. This deficiency should be acknowledged.

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.

Structure and Writing Style

Information about the limitiations 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 limitiations are outlined at the conclusion of the discussion
section as an aknowledgement 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 a pilot 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 later studies.

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 reframe 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 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 ask a particular question in a survey
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 any future
study. A underlying goal of scholarly research is not only to prove what works, but to demonstrate what
doesn't work or what needs further clarification.
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.