Research Gap Identification and

Problem Formulation
Dr. Fuad A. Ghaleb
Senior Lecturer and Cyber Security Researcher
Department of Computer Science
Faculty of Computing
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
“The mere formulation of a problem is far
more essential than its solution, which may
be merely a matter of mathematical or
experimental skill. To raise new questions,
new possibilities, to regard old problems
from a new angle requires creative
imagination and marks real advances in
science.”
– Albert Einstein
Agenda

• Definitions of
• Research Gap
• Problem in the domain
• Research problem
• Process of identifying the research gap
• Formulate the Problem
• Common Mistakes in identification and presenting the research gap
What is the Research gap?
• Missing Knowledge in the
existing body of
knowledge
• lack of comprehensive
studies, data, or
information,
• Issues that have not
been adequately
addressed or
researched.
What is the importance of the research gap?
➢Novelty & Contribution to Knowledge.
➢Identification of Research Direction.
➢Research Focus.
➢Critical Thinking.
 Types of Research Gap inconsistencies in
previous research
Miles (2017) findings. (contradictory )

Issues in the lacks

representation an understanding
of population of phenomenon
Neglected areas

Issues in the theory

Lack of consensus or Practical and
conflicting theories knowledge Conflict

Issues in empirical issues with the research

testing, validation methodologies
Inadequate research
design?
What is the research problem?
• The issue or topic that a
researcher wants to explore
through research is known as a
research problem
• The problem that a researcher
need to address.
• A question that need to be
answered.
Types of Research Problems
What?

Experimental
How? What?
How? Research
Problems

Comparative
How? Problems
Why? How? Will ?
Can?
 Research GAP and Research Problem

Missing
MissingKnowledge
Knowledge
Missing Knowledge
Research Problem
Research Gap:
Identify the need
deficiency in the
of doing some
existing body of
thing …
knowledge

motivation
Missing for a
Knowledge
Need
Missing further
Knowledge Missing Knowledge
research
Missing Knowledge
investigation
Find the research problem and the
research gap, in the literature ?
Example #1(1) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214209619302335
(2) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574119216301237
Example #2(1) https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9151929
How to identify the research gap?
• Reading, Reading, …,Reading Scholarly Articles
Identifying the research gap: Step-by-Step
1. Selecting the area of study (research topic)
2. Explore the Literature (Read the Review
Articles)
3. Determine the problem in the domain.
(Finding the issues in the literatures. )
4. Narrow down and focus on specific issue.
5. Collect the related work (Read the Research
Articles)
6. Critical analysis of the related work
(limitations)
7. Identify the research direction
8. Identify the research gap
Selecting the area of study (research topic)
1. Brainstorming ideas (pick a topic)
2. Area of interest
3. Hot topics ? Relevant? (Google Scholar,
Scopus, Web of science)
4. Skills needed
5. identify keywords
6. Enough Resources
1. Articles (Scholarly Journals - library IEEE Xplore,
Science Direct )
2. Supervisor
3. Hardware
4. Software
Collecting the Literature
• Primary Sources Use Search Engine to collect the literature
• Google Scholar
• IEEE Explore
• Scopus
• Web of Knowledge
• Secondary Sources (textbooks)
• Recent publications (Use filters)
• Understand the state of the art.
• Identify the problem in the domain and the relevant issues.
• Focus on specific problem – discuss with supervisor or expert in the field
Taxonomy of research
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S15740137
22000636

What we
know?
Find the Problem in the Domain
• Domain problem is known broad problem -> many possible issues
contribute to the problem.
Poor Detection
Accuracy
Issue 2 Issue 1

Problem

Issue 3 Issue 4 Issue 5

Narrow Identify the issues
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S10848045
• Zoom to specific issue 19303868
7. Research issues and challenges

The model of reference

Issue 2 become
Issue absolute
1
Supervised
Learning Concept Drift
Poor
Detection
Accuracy

Issue 3 Issue 4 Issue 5

Collect the related work?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084
• Focus on specific issue 804519303868
• Read Review Papers 7. Research issues and challenges
• Concept drift
• Create Taxonomy • Class imbalance
• Approaches
• Techniques used …etc.
• Search for Related Work
• Articles (Scholarly Journals – Rebuttable Journals) (to know the exisiting
knowledge)
• Conferences (to have abstracted idea)
• Books (to understand)
How and What to read?
• You have to have a clear goal and question before start reading?
• What you are looking for in the article?
• Follow the taxonomy (focus on one thing at time)
• Critical Review existing theories, concepts, methodologies, …etc.
• Read actively: Take notes, highlighting key points
• Focus on
• Abstract
• Introduction (last paragraphs) highlight the gap
• LR (last paragraph) - learn how to synthesis the literature – writing the gap
• Explore the methods and the results.
• Conclusion and Future Works
Critical analysis of the related work
1. Read the Article Thoroughly
2. Identify the gap and contribution
3. Understand the Main Argument
4. Examine the Article's Structure
5. Evaluate the Evidence and Support
6. Assess the Author's Use of Sources
7. Examine the Methodology
8. Identify Assumptions and Biases
9. Analysis Strengths and Weaknesses
Identify the gap in the related work?
• Tabulate the limitations of related work.
• Identify Gaps and Contradictions
• Infer how the limitations can be addresses. Why there is a room for
improvement? What is the missing knowledge? What should be
done instead?
• Exhaustive reading and synthesizing literature
• summarizing, integrating, and analyzing information and findings from
multiple sources
• Create a coherent and comprehensive understanding of the topic.
• Think out of the box
Problem Formulation
• The broader process of identifying, refining, and defining a research problem.
• Iterative process
• It includes
• The challenges of solving the problem in the domain
• Limitations of the existing works
• Identifying the gap in the literature
• Formulate the research questions
• Establish research hypothesis with factual evidence
• Visualize the research problem (cause effect diagram)
• Represent the problem – Mathematical Equation – Statement –
• Questions to be answered: The problem in research is formulated as a question
or something
• Writing hypotheses: Articulate the problem so you can solve it
Problem Statement
• A concise and specific statement that articulates the research
problem in a clear and understandable manner.
• It states the open issues that cause the problem
• It is the result of the problem formulation process
• It represents the final, refined version of the research problem.
• Narrow and focused
• Communicate the research problem to others
 Example of Problem Statement
challenges
• The field of malware analysis faces an escalating challenge in keeping up with the
rapid evolution of malicious software. Existing malware detection methods,
RL predominantly reliant on signature-based techniques, struggle to provide adequate
protection against novel and polymorphic malware variants. While some research has
focused on developing behavior-based and heuristic approaches to address these
gap issues, a notable gap persists in the literature: the lack of comprehensive solutions
that effectively combine various analysis techniques to provide real-time, multi-
layered protection against sophisticated malware threats.
• The existing literature predominantly highlights either signature-based or behavior-
needs based approaches in isolation, with limited exploration of hybrid solutions that
integrate both approaches seamlessly. This research aims to bridge this critical gap by
direct proposing a novel framework for the integration of signature-based and behavior-
ion based analysis in a way that leverages their complementary strengths and improves
the overall effectiveness of malware detection and prevention.
 Research GAP and Research Problem
Problem Statement
Missing
MissingKnowledge
Knowledge
Missing Knowledge
Research Problem
Research Gap:
Identify the need
deficiency in the
of doing some
existing body of
thing …
knowledge

motivation
Missing for a
Knowledge
Need
Missing further
Knowledge Missing Knowledge
research
Missing Knowledge
investigation
Common Mistakes
Lack of Proper reading
• No clear issue
• No confidence
• Lack of Clear Justification
Overlooking Recent Research
Failure to Define Research Focus
• Vague gap
Lack of Clear Justification
Relying Solely on Existing Gaps
Ignoring Interdisciplinary Insights:
Neglecting Peer Feedback: