examples of weaknesses of a research study

21 Research Limitations Examples

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Research limitations refer to the potential weaknesses inherent in a study. All studies have limitations of some sort, meaning declaring limitations doesn’t necessarily need to be a bad thing, so long as your declaration of limitations is well thought-out and explained.

Rarely is a study perfect. Researchers have to make trade-offs when developing their studies, which are often based upon practical considerations such as time and monetary constraints, weighing the breadth of participants against the depth of insight, and choosing one methodology or another.

In research, studies can have limitations such as limited scope, researcher subjectivity, and lack of available research tools.

Acknowledging the limitations of your study should be seen as a strength. It demonstrates your willingness for transparency, humility, and submission to the scientific method and can bolster the integrity of the study. It can also inform future research direction.

Typically, scholars will explore the limitations of their study in either their methodology section, their conclusion section, or both.

Research Limitations Examples

Qualitative and quantitative research offer different perspectives and methods in exploring phenomena, each with its own strengths and limitations. So, I’ve split the limitations examples sections into qualitative and quantitative below.

Qualitative Research Limitations

Qualitative research seeks to understand phenomena in-depth and in context. It focuses on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions.

It’s often used to explore new or complex issues, and it provides rich, detailed insights into participants’ experiences, behaviors, and attitudes. However, these strengths also create certain limitations, as explained below.

1. Subjectivity

Qualitative research often requires the researcher to interpret subjective data. One researcher may examine a text and identify different themes or concepts as more dominant than others.

Close qualitative readings of texts are necessarily subjective – and while this may be a limitation, qualitative researchers argue this is the best way to deeply understand everything in context.

Suggested Solution and Response: To minimize subjectivity bias, you could consider cross-checking your own readings of themes and data against other scholars’ readings and interpretations. This may involve giving the raw data to a supervisor or colleague and asking them to code the data separately, then coming together to compare and contrast results.

2. Researcher Bias

The concept of researcher bias is related to, but slightly different from, subjectivity.

Researcher bias refers to the perspectives and opinions you bring with you when doing your research.

For example, a researcher who is explicitly of a certain philosophical or political persuasion may bring that persuasion to bear when interpreting data.

In many scholarly traditions, we will attempt to minimize researcher bias through the utilization of clear procedures that are set out in advance or through the use of statistical analysis tools.

However, in other traditions, such as in postmodern feminist research , declaration of bias is expected, and acknowledgment of bias is seen as a positive because, in those traditions, it is believed that bias cannot be eliminated from research, so instead, it is a matter of integrity to present it upfront.

Suggested Solution and Response: Acknowledge the potential for researcher bias and, depending on your theoretical framework , accept this, or identify procedures you have taken to seek a closer approximation to objectivity in your coding and analysis.

3. Generalizability

If you’re struggling to find a limitation to discuss in your own qualitative research study, then this one is for you: all qualitative research, of all persuasions and perspectives, cannot be generalized.

This is a core feature that sets qualitative data and quantitative data apart.

The point of qualitative data is to select case studies and similarly small corpora and dig deep through in-depth analysis and thick description of data.

Often, this will also mean that you have a non-randomized sample size.

While this is a positive – you’re going to get some really deep, contextualized, interesting insights – it also means that the findings may not be generalizable to a larger population that may not be representative of the small group of people in your study.

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that take a quantitative approach to the question.

4. The Hawthorne Effect

The Hawthorne effect refers to the phenomenon where research participants change their ‘observed behavior’ when they’re aware that they are being observed.

This effect was first identified by Elton Mayo who conducted studies of the effects of various factors ton workers’ productivity. He noticed that no matter what he did – turning up the lights, turning down the lights, etc. – there was an increase in worker outputs compared to prior to the study taking place.

Mayo realized that the mere act of observing the workers made them work harder – his observation was what was changing behavior.

So, if you’re looking for a potential limitation to name for your observational research study , highlight the possible impact of the Hawthorne effect (and how you could reduce your footprint or visibility in order to decrease its likelihood).

Suggested Solution and Response: Highlight ways you have attempted to reduce your footprint while in the field, and guarantee anonymity to your research participants.

5. Replicability

Quantitative research has a great benefit in that the studies are replicable – a researcher can get a similar sample size, duplicate the variables, and re-test a study. But you can’t do that in qualitative research.

Qualitative research relies heavily on context – a specific case study or specific variables that make a certain instance worthy of analysis. As a result, it’s often difficult to re-enter the same setting with the same variables and repeat the study.

Furthermore, the individual researcher’s interpretation is more influential in qualitative research, meaning even if a new researcher enters an environment and makes observations, their observations may be different because subjectivity comes into play much more. This doesn’t make the research bad necessarily (great insights can be made in qualitative research), but it certainly does demonstrate a weakness of qualitative research.

6. Limited Scope

“Limited scope” is perhaps one of the most common limitations listed by researchers – and while this is often a catch-all way of saying, “well, I’m not studying that in this study”, it’s also a valid point.

No study can explore everything related to a topic. At some point, we have to make decisions about what’s included in the study and what is excluded from the study.

So, you could say that a limitation of your study is that it doesn’t look at an extra variable or concept that’s certainly worthy of study but will have to be explored in your next project because this project has a clearly and narrowly defined goal.

Suggested Solution and Response: Be clear about what’s in and out of the study when writing your research question.

7. Time Constraints

This is also a catch-all claim you can make about your research project: that you would have included more people in the study, looked at more variables, and so on. But you’ve got to submit this thing by the end of next semester! You’ve got time constraints.

And time constraints are a recognized reality in all research.

But this means you’ll need to explain how time has limited your decisions. As with “limited scope”, this may mean that you had to study a smaller group of subjects, limit the amount of time you spent in the field, and so forth.

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will build on your current work, possibly as a PhD project.

8. Resource Intensiveness

Qualitative research can be expensive due to the cost of transcription, the involvement of trained researchers, and potential travel for interviews or observations.

So, resource intensiveness is similar to the time constraints concept. If you don’t have the funds, you have to make decisions about which tools to use, which statistical software to employ, and how many research assistants you can dedicate to the study.

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will gain more funding on the back of this ‘ exploratory study ‘.

9. Coding Difficulties

Data analysis in qualitative research often involves coding, which can be subjective and complex, especially when dealing with ambiguous or contradicting data.

After naming this as a limitation in your research, it’s important to explain how you’ve attempted to address this. Some ways to ‘limit the limitation’ include:

• Triangulation: Have 2 other researchers code the data as well and cross-check your results with theirs to identify outliers that may need to be re-examined, debated with the other researchers, or removed altogether.
• Procedure: Use a clear coding procedure to demonstrate reliability in your coding process. I personally use the thematic network analysis method outlined in this academic article by Attride-Stirling (2001).

Suggested Solution and Response: Triangulate your coding findings with colleagues, and follow a thematic network analysis procedure.

10. Risk of Non-Responsiveness

There is always a risk in research that research participants will be unwilling or uncomfortable sharing their genuine thoughts and feelings in the study.

This is particularly true when you’re conducting research on sensitive topics, politicized topics, or topics where the participant is expressing vulnerability .

This is similar to the Hawthorne effect (aka participant bias), where participants change their behaviors in your presence; but it goes a step further, where participants actively hide their true thoughts and feelings from you.

Suggested Solution and Response: One way to manage this is to try to include a wider group of people with the expectation that there will be non-responsiveness from some participants.

11. Risk of Attrition

Attrition refers to the process of losing research participants throughout the study.

This occurs most commonly in longitudinal studies , where a researcher must return to conduct their analysis over spaced periods of time, often over a period of years.

Things happen to people over time – they move overseas, their life experiences change, they get sick, change their minds, and even die. The more time that passes, the greater the risk of attrition.

Suggested Solution and Response: One way to manage this is to try to include a wider group of people with the expectation that there will be attrition over time.

12. Difficulty in Maintaining Confidentiality and Anonymity

Given the detailed nature of qualitative data , ensuring participant anonymity can be challenging.

If you have a sensitive topic in a specific case study, even anonymizing research participants sometimes isn’t enough. People might be able to induce who you’re talking about.

Sometimes, this will mean you have to exclude some interesting data that you collected from your final report. Confidentiality and anonymity come before your findings in research ethics – and this is a necessary limiting factor.

Suggested Solution and Response: Highlight the efforts you have taken to anonymize data, and accept that confidentiality and accountability place extremely important constraints on academic research.

13. Difficulty in Finding Research Participants

A study that looks at a very specific phenomenon or even a specific set of cases within a phenomenon means that the pool of potential research participants can be very low.

Compile on top of this the fact that many people you approach may choose not to participate, and you could end up with a very small corpus of subjects to explore. This may limit your ability to make complete findings, even in a quantitative sense.

You may need to therefore limit your research question and objectives to something more realistic.

Suggested Solution and Response: Highlight that this is going to limit the study’s generalizability significantly.

14. Ethical Limitations

Ethical limitations refer to the things you cannot do based on ethical concerns identified either by yourself or your institution’s ethics review board.

This might include threats to the physical or psychological well-being of your research subjects, the potential of releasing data that could harm a person’s reputation, and so on.

Furthermore, even if your study follows all expected standards of ethics, you still, as an ethical researcher, need to allow a research participant to pull out at any point in time, after which you cannot use their data, which demonstrates an overlap between ethical constraints and participant attrition.

Suggested Solution and Response: Highlight that these ethical limitations are inevitable but important to sustain the integrity of the research.

For more on Qualitative Research, Explore my Qualitative Research Guide

Quantitative Research Limitations

Quantitative research focuses on quantifiable data and statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques. It’s often used to test hypotheses, assess relationships and causality, and generalize findings across larger populations.

Quantitative research is widely respected for its ability to provide reliable, measurable, and generalizable data (if done well!). Its structured methodology has strengths over qualitative research, such as the fact it allows for replication of the study, which underpins the validity of the research.

However, this approach is not without it limitations, explained below.

1. Over-Simplification

Quantitative research is powerful because it allows you to measure and analyze data in a systematic and standardized way. However, one of its limitations is that it can sometimes simplify complex phenomena or situations.

In other words, it might miss the subtleties or nuances of the research subject.

For example, if you’re studying why people choose a particular diet, a quantitative study might identify factors like age, income, or health status. But it might miss other aspects, such as cultural influences or personal beliefs, that can also significantly impact dietary choices.

When writing about this limitation, you can say that your quantitative approach, while providing precise measurements and comparisons, may not capture the full complexity of your subjects of study.

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest a follow-up case study using the same research participants in order to gain additional context and depth.

2. Lack of Context

Another potential issue with quantitative research is that it often focuses on numbers and statistics at the expense of context or qualitative information.

Let’s say you’re studying the effect of classroom size on student performance. You might find that students in smaller classes generally perform better. However, this doesn’t take into account other variables, like teaching style , student motivation, or family support.

When describing this limitation, you might say, “Although our research provides important insights into the relationship between class size and student performance, it does not incorporate the impact of other potentially influential variables. Future research could benefit from a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative analysis with qualitative insights.”

3. Applicability to Real-World Settings

Oftentimes, experimental research takes place in controlled environments to limit the influence of outside factors.

This control is great for isolation and understanding the specific phenomenon but can limit the applicability or “external validity” of the research to real-world settings.

For example, if you conduct a lab experiment to see how sleep deprivation impacts cognitive performance, the sterile, controlled lab environment might not reflect real-world conditions where people are dealing with multiple stressors.

Therefore, when explaining the limitations of your quantitative study in your methodology section, you could state:

“While our findings provide valuable information about [topic], the controlled conditions of the experiment may not accurately represent real-world scenarios where extraneous variables will exist. As such, the direct applicability of our results to broader contexts may be limited.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will engage in real-world observational research, such as ethnographic research.

4. Limited Flexibility

Once a quantitative study is underway, it can be challenging to make changes to it. This is because, unlike in grounded research, you’re putting in place your study in advance, and you can’t make changes part-way through.

Your study design, data collection methods, and analysis techniques need to be decided upon before you start collecting data.

For example, if you are conducting a survey on the impact of social media on teenage mental health, and halfway through, you realize that you should have included a question about their screen time, it’s generally too late to add it.

When discussing this limitation, you could write something like, “The structured nature of our quantitative approach allows for consistent data collection and analysis but also limits our flexibility to adapt and modify the research process in response to emerging insights and ideas.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will use mixed-methods or qualitative research methods to gain additional depth of insight.

5. Risk of Survey Error

Surveys are a common tool in quantitative research, but they carry risks of error.

There can be measurement errors (if a question is misunderstood), coverage errors (if some groups aren’t adequately represented), non-response errors (if certain people don’t respond), and sampling errors (if your sample isn’t representative of the population).

For instance, if you’re surveying college students about their study habits , but only daytime students respond because you conduct the survey during the day, your results will be skewed.

In discussing this limitation, you might say, “Despite our best efforts to develop a comprehensive survey, there remains a risk of survey error, including measurement, coverage, non-response, and sampling errors. These could potentially impact the reliability and generalizability of our findings.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will use other survey tools to compare and contrast results.

6. Limited Ability to Probe Answers

With quantitative research, you typically can’t ask follow-up questions or delve deeper into participants’ responses like you could in a qualitative interview.

For instance, imagine you are surveying 500 students about study habits in a questionnaire. A respondent might indicate that they study for two hours each night. You might want to follow up by asking them to elaborate on what those study sessions involve or how effective they feel their habits are.

However, quantitative research generally disallows this in the way a qualitative semi-structured interview could.

When discussing this limitation, you might write, “Given the structured nature of our survey, our ability to probe deeper into individual responses is limited. This means we may not fully understand the context or reasoning behind the responses, potentially limiting the depth of our findings.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that engage in mixed-method or qualitative methodologies to address the issue from another angle.

7. Reliance on Instruments for Data Collection

In quantitative research, the collection of data heavily relies on instruments like questionnaires, surveys, or machines.

The limitation here is that the data you get is only as good as the instrument you’re using. If the instrument isn’t designed or calibrated well, your data can be flawed.

For instance, if you’re using a questionnaire to study customer satisfaction and the questions are vague, confusing, or biased, the responses may not accurately reflect the customers’ true feelings.

When discussing this limitation, you could say, “Our study depends on the use of questionnaires for data collection. Although we have put significant effort into designing and testing the instrument, it’s possible that inaccuracies or misunderstandings could potentially affect the validity of the data collected.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will use different instruments but examine the same variables to triangulate results.

8. Time and Resource Constraints (Specific to Quantitative Research)

Quantitative research can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, especially when dealing with large samples.

It often involves systematic sampling, rigorous design, and sometimes complex statistical analysis.

If resources and time are limited, it can restrict the scale of your research, the techniques you can employ, or the extent of your data analysis.

For example, you may want to conduct a nationwide survey on public opinion about a certain policy. However, due to limited resources, you might only be able to survey people in one city.

When writing about this limitation, you could say, “Given the scope of our research and the resources available, we are limited to conducting our survey within one city, which may not fully represent the nationwide public opinion. Hence, the generalizability of the results may be limited.”

Suggested Solution and Response: Suggest future studies that will have more funding or longer timeframes.

How to Discuss Your Research Limitations

1. in your research proposal and methodology section.

In the research proposal, which will become the methodology section of your dissertation, I would recommend taking the four following steps, in order:

• Be Explicit about your Scope – If you limit the scope of your study in your research question, aims, and objectives, then you can set yourself up well later in the methodology to say that certain questions are “outside the scope of the study.” For example, you may identify the fact that the study doesn’t address a certain variable, but you can follow up by stating that the research question is specifically focused on the variable that you are examining, so this limitation would need to be looked at in future studies.
• Acknowledge the Limitation – Acknowledging the limitations of your study demonstrates reflexivity and humility and can make your research more reliable and valid. It also pre-empts questions the people grading your paper may have, so instead of them down-grading you for your limitations; they will congratulate you on explaining the limitations and how you have addressed them!
• Explain your Decisions – You may have chosen your approach (despite its limitations) for a very specific reason. This might be because your approach remains, on balance, the best one to answer your research question. Or, it might be because of time and monetary constraints that are outside of your control.
• Highlight the Strengths of your Approach – Conclude your limitations section by strongly demonstrating that, despite limitations, you’ve worked hard to minimize the effects of the limitations and that you have chosen your specific approach and methodology because it’s also got some terrific strengths. Name the strengths.

Overall, you’ll want to acknowledge your own limitations but also explain that the limitations don’t detract from the value of your study as it stands.

2. In the Conclusion Section or Chapter

In the conclusion of your study, it is generally expected that you return to a discussion of the study’s limitations. Here, I recommend the following steps:

• Acknowledge issues faced – After completing your study, you will be increasingly aware of issues you may have faced that, if you re-did the study, you may have addressed earlier in order to avoid those issues. Acknowledge these issues as limitations, and frame them as recommendations for subsequent studies.
• Suggest further research – Scholarly research aims to fill gaps in the current literature and knowledge. Having established your expertise through your study, suggest lines of inquiry for future researchers. You could state that your study had certain limitations, and “future studies” can address those limitations.
• Suggest a mixed methods approach – Qualitative and quantitative research each have pros and cons. So, note those ‘cons’ of your approach, then say the next study should approach the topic using the opposite methodology or could approach it using a mixed-methods approach that could achieve the benefits of quantitative studies with the nuanced insights of associated qualitative insights as part of an in-study case-study.

Overall, be clear about both your limitations and how those limitations can inform future studies.

In sum, each type of research method has its own strengths and limitations. Qualitative research excels in exploring depth, context, and complexity, while quantitative research excels in examining breadth, generalizability, and quantifiable measures. Despite their individual limitations, each method contributes unique and valuable insights, and researchers often use them together to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon being studied.

Attride-Stirling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: an analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative research , 1 (3), 385-405. ( Source )

Atkinson, P., Delamont, S., Cernat, A., Sakshaug, J., & Williams, R. A. (2021).  SAGE research methods foundations . London: Sage Publications.

Clark, T., Foster, L., Bryman, A., & Sloan, L. (2021).  Bryman’s social research methods . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Köhler, T., Smith, A., & Bhakoo, V. (2022). Templates in qualitative research methods: Origins, limitations, and new directions.  Organizational Research Methods ,  25 (2), 183-210. ( Source )

Lenger, A. (2019). The rejection of qualitative research methods in economics.  Journal of Economic Issues ,  53 (4), 946-965. ( Source )

Taherdoost, H. (2022). What are different research approaches? Comprehensive review of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method research, their applications, types, and limitations.  Journal of Management Science & Engineering Research ,  5 (1), 53-63. ( Source )

Walliman, N. (2021).  Research methods: The basics . New York: Routledge.

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Research Limitations 101 📖

A Plain-Language Explainer (With Practical Examples)

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Dr. Eunice Rautenbach | May 2024

Research limitations are one of those things that students tend to avoid digging into, and understandably so. No one likes to critique their own study and point out weaknesses. Nevertheless, being able to understand the limitations of your study – and, just as importantly, the implications thereof – a is a critically important skill.

In this post, we’ll unpack some of the most common research limitations you’re likely to encounter, so that you can approach your project with confidence.

Overview: Research Limitations 101

• What are research limitations ?
• Access – based limitations
• Temporal & financial limitations
• Sample & sampling limitations
• Design limitations
• Researcher limitations
• Key takeaways

What (exactly) are “research limitations”?

At the simplest level, research limitations (also referred to as “the limitations of the study”) are the constraints and challenges that will invariably influence your ability to conduct your study and draw reliable conclusions .

Research limitations are inevitable. Absolutely no study is perfect and limitations are an inherent part of any research design. These limitations can stem from a variety of sources , including access to data, methodological choices, and the more mundane constraints of budget and time. So, there’s no use trying to escape them – what matters is that you can recognise them.

Acknowledging and understanding these limitations is crucial, not just for the integrity of your research, but also for your development as a scholar. That probably sounds a bit rich, but realistically, having a strong understanding of the limitations of any given study helps you handle the inevitable obstacles professionally and transparently, which in turn builds trust with your audience and academic peers.

Simply put, recognising and discussing the limitations of your study demonstrates that you know what you’re doing , and that you’ve considered the results of your project within the context of these limitations. In other words, discussing the limitations is a sign of credibility and strength – not weakness. Contrary to the common misconception, highlighting your limitations (or rather, your study’s limitations) will earn you (rather than cost you) marks.

So, with that foundation laid, let’s have a look at some of the most common research limitations you’re likely to encounter – and how to go about managing them as effectively as possible.

Need a helping hand?

Limitation #1: Access To Information

One of the first hurdles you might encounter is limited access to necessary information. For example, you may have trouble getting access to specific literature or niche data sets. This situation can manifest due to several reasons, including paywalls, copyright and licensing issues or language barriers.

To minimise situations like these, it’s useful to try to leverage your university’s resource pool to the greatest extent possible. In practical terms, this means engaging with your university’s librarian and/or potentially utilising interlibrary loans to get access to restricted resources. If this sounds foreign to you, have a chat with your librarian 🙃

In emerging fields or highly specific study areas, you might find that there’s very little existing research (i.e., literature) on your topic. This scenario, while challenging, also offers a unique opportunity to contribute significantly to your field , as it indicates that there’s a significant research gap .

All of that said, be sure to conduct an exhaustive search using a variety of keywords and Boolean operators before assuming that there’s a lack of literature. Also, remember to snowball your literature base . In other words, scan the reference lists of the handful of papers that are directly relevant and then scan those references for more sources. You can also consider using tools like Litmaps and Connected Papers (see video below).

Limitation #2: Time & Money

Almost every researcher will face time and budget constraints at some point. Naturally, these limitations can affect the depth and breadth of your research – but they don’t need to be a death sentence.

Effective planning is crucial to managing both the temporal and financial aspects of your study. In practical terms, utilising tools like Gantt charts can help you visualise and plan your research timeline realistically, thereby reducing the risk of any nasty surprises. Always take a conservative stance when it comes to timelines, especially if you’re new to academic research. As a rule of thumb, things will generally take twice as long as you expect – so, prepare for the worst-case scenario.

If budget is a concern, you might want to consider exploring small research grants or adjusting the scope of your study so that it fits within a realistic budget. Trimming back might sound unattractive, but keep in mind that a smaller, well-planned study can often be more impactful than a larger, poorly planned project.

If you find yourself in a position where you’ve already run out of cash, don’t panic. There’s usually a pivot opportunity hidden somewhere within your project. Engage with your research advisor or faculty to explore potential solutions – don’t make any major changes without first consulting your institution.

Limitation #3: Sample Size & Composition

As we’ve discussed before , the size and representativeness of your sample are crucial , especially in quantitative research where the robustness of your conclusions often depends on these factors. All too often though, students run into issues achieving a sufficient sample size and composition.

To ensure adequacy in terms of your sample size, it’s important to plan for potential dropouts by oversampling from the outset . In other words, if you aim for a final sample size of 100 participants, aim to recruit 120-140 to account for unexpected challenges. If you still find yourself short on participants, consider whether you could complement your dataset with secondary data or data from an adjacent sample – for example, participants from another city or country. That said, be sure to engage with your research advisor before making any changes to your approach.

A related issue that you may run into is sample composition. In other words, you may have trouble securing a random sample that’s representative of your population of interest. In cases like this, you might again want to look at ways to complement your dataset with other sources, but if that’s not possible, it’s not the end of the world. As with all limitations, you’ll just need to recognise this limitation in your final write-up and be sure to interpret your results accordingly. In other words, don’t claim generalisability of your results if your sample isn’t random.

Limitation #4: Methodological Limitations

As we alluded earlier, every methodological choice comes with its own set of limitations . For example, you can’t claim causality if you’re using a descriptive or correlational research design. Similarly, as we saw in the previous example, you can’t claim generalisability if you’re using a non-random sampling approach.

Making good methodological choices is all about understanding (and accepting) the inherent trade-offs . In the vast majority of cases, you won’t be able to adopt the “perfect” methodology – and that’s okay. What’s important is that you select a methodology that aligns with your research aims and research questions , as well as the practical constraints at play (e.g., time, money, equipment access, etc.). Just as importantly, you must recognise and articulate the limitations of your chosen methods, and justify why they were the most suitable, given your specific context.

Limitation #5: Researcher (In)experience 

A discussion about research limitations would not be complete without mentioning the researcher (that’s you!). Whether we like to admit it or not, researcher inexperience and personal biases can subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) influence the interpretation and presentation of data within a study. This is especially true when it comes to dissertations and theses , as these are most commonly undertaken by first-time (or relatively fresh) researchers.

When it comes to dealing with this specific limitation, it’s important to remember the adage “ We don’t know what we don’t know ”. In other words, recognise and embrace your (relative) ignorance and subjectivity – and interpret your study’s results within that context . Simply put, don’t be overly confident in drawing conclusions from your study – especially when they contradict existing literature.

Cultivating a culture of reflexivity within your research practices can help reduce subjectivity and keep you a bit more “rooted” in the data. In practical terms, this simply means making an effort to become aware of how your perspectives and experiences may have shaped the research process and outcomes.

As with any new endeavour in life, it’s useful to garner as many outsider perspectives as possible. Of course, your university-assigned research advisor will play a large role in this respect, but it’s also a good idea to seek out feedback and critique from other academics. To this end, you might consider approaching other faculty at your institution, joining an online group, or even working with a private coach .

Key Takeaways

Understanding and effectively navigating research limitations is key to conducting credible and reliable academic work. By acknowledging and addressing these limitations upfront, you not only enhance the integrity of your research, but also demonstrate your academic maturity and professionalism.

Whether you’re working on a dissertation, thesis or any other type of formal academic research, remember the five most common research limitations and interpret your data while keeping them in mind.

• Access to Information (literature and data)
• Time and money
• Sample size and composition
• Research design and methodology
• Researcher (in)experience and bias

If you need a hand identifying and mitigating the limitations within your study, check out our 1:1 private coaching service .

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling short course, Methodology Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

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• Research methods /
• Lesson 1: Qualitative and quan… /

Quantitative method Quantitive data are pieces of information that can be counted and which are usually gathered by surveys from large numbers of respondents randomly selected for inclusion. Secondary data such as census data, government statistics, health system metrics, etc. are often included in quantitative research. Quantitative data is analysed using statistical methods. Quantitative approaches are best used to answer what, when and who questions and are not well suited to how and why questions.

Qualitative method Qualitative data are usually gathered by observation, interviews or focus groups, but may also be gathered from written documents and through case studies.  In qualitative research there is less emphasis on counting numbers of people who think or behave in certain ways and more emphasis on explaining why people think and behave in certain ways.  Participants in qualitative studies often involve smaller numbers of tools include and utilizes open-ended questionnaires interview guides.  This type of research is best used to answer how and why questions and is not well suited to generalisable what, when and who questions.

Learn more about using quantitative and qualitative approaches in various study types in the next lesson.

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How to Present the Limitations of the Study Examples

What are the limitations of a study?

The limitations of a study are the elements of methodology or study design that impact the interpretation of your research results. The limitations essentially detail any flaws or shortcomings in your study. Study limitations can exist due to constraints on research design, methodology, materials, etc., and these factors may impact the findings of your study. However, researchers are often reluctant to discuss the limitations of their study in their papers, feeling that bringing up limitations may undermine its research value in the eyes of readers and reviewers.

In spite of the impact it might have (and perhaps because of it) you should clearly acknowledge any limitations in your research paper in order to show readers—whether journal editors, other researchers, or the general public—that you are aware of these limitations and to explain how they affect the conclusions that can be drawn from the research.

In this article, we provide some guidelines for writing about research limitations, show examples of some frequently seen study limitations, and recommend techniques for presenting this information. And after you have finished drafting and have received manuscript editing for your work, you still might want to follow this up with academic editing before submitting your work to your target journal.

Why do I need to include limitations of research in my paper?

Although limitations address the potential weaknesses of a study, writing about them toward the end of your paper actually strengthens your study by identifying any problems before other researchers or reviewers find them.

Furthermore, pointing out study limitations shows that you’ve considered the impact of research weakness thoroughly and have an in-depth understanding of your research topic. Since all studies face limitations, being honest and detailing these limitations will impress researchers and reviewers more than ignoring them.

Where should I put the limitations of the study in my paper?

Some limitations might be evident to researchers before the start of the study, while others might become clear while you are conducting the research. Whether these limitations are anticipated or not, and whether they are due to research design or to methodology, they should be clearly identified and discussed in the discussion section —the final section of your paper. Most journals now require you to include a discussion of potential limitations of your work, and many journals now ask you to place this “limitations section” at the very end of your article. 

Some journals ask you to also discuss the strengths of your work in this section, and some allow you to freely choose where to include that information in your discussion section—make sure to always check the author instructions of your target journal before you finalize a manuscript and submit it for peer review .

Limitations of the Study Examples

There are several reasons why limitations of research might exist. The two main categories of limitations are those that result from the methodology and those that result from issues with the researcher(s).

Common Methodological Limitations of Studies

Limitations of research due to methodological problems can be addressed by clearly and directly identifying the potential problem and suggesting ways in which this could have been addressed—and SHOULD be addressed in future studies. The following are some major potential methodological issues that can impact the conclusions researchers can draw from the research.

Issues with research samples and selection

Sampling errors occur when a probability sampling method is used to select a sample, but that sample does not reflect the general population or appropriate population concerned. This results in limitations of your study known as “sample bias” or “selection bias.”

For example, if you conducted a survey to obtain your research results, your samples (participants) were asked to respond to the survey questions. However, you might have had limited ability to gain access to the appropriate type or geographic scope of participants. In this case, the people who responded to your survey questions may not truly be a random sample.

Insufficient sample size for statistical measurements

When conducting a study, it is important to have a sufficient sample size in order to draw valid conclusions. The larger the sample, the more precise your results will be. If your sample size is too small, it will be difficult to identify significant relationships in the data.

Normally, statistical tests require a larger sample size to ensure that the sample is considered representative of a population and that the statistical result can be generalized to a larger population. It is a good idea to understand how to choose an appropriate sample size before you conduct your research by using scientific calculation tools—in fact, many journals now require such estimation to be included in every manuscript that is sent out for review.

Lack of previous research studies on the topic

Citing and referencing prior research studies constitutes the basis of the literature review for your thesis or study, and these prior studies provide the theoretical foundations for the research question you are investigating. However, depending on the scope of your research topic, prior research studies that are relevant to your thesis might be limited.

When there is very little or no prior research on a specific topic, you may need to develop an entirely new research typology. In this case, discovering a limitation can be considered an important opportunity to identify literature gaps and to present the need for further development in the area of study.

Methods/instruments/techniques used to collect the data

After you complete your analysis of the research findings (in the discussion section), you might realize that the manner in which you have collected the data or the ways in which you have measured variables has limited your ability to conduct a thorough analysis of the results.

For example, you might realize that you should have addressed your survey questions from another viable perspective, or that you were not able to include an important question in the survey. In these cases, you should acknowledge the deficiency or deficiencies by stating a need for future researchers to revise their specific methods for collecting data that includes these missing elements.

Common Limitations of the Researcher(s)

Study limitations that arise from situations relating to the researcher or researchers (whether the direct fault of the individuals or not) should also be addressed and dealt with, and remedies to decrease these limitations—both hypothetically in your study, and practically in future studies—should be proposed.

Limited access to data

If your research involved surveying certain people or organizations, you might have faced the problem of having limited access to these respondents. Due to this limited access, you might need to redesign or restructure your research in a different way. In this case, explain the reasons for limited access and be sure that your finding is still reliable and valid despite this limitation.

Time constraints

Just as students have deadlines to turn in their class papers, academic researchers might also have to meet deadlines for submitting a manuscript to a journal or face other time constraints related to their research (e.g., participants are only available during a certain period; funding runs out; collaborators move to a new institution). The time available to study a research problem and to measure change over time might be constrained by such practical issues. If time constraints negatively impacted your study in any way, acknowledge this impact by mentioning a need for a future study (e.g., a longitudinal study) to answer this research problem.

Conflicts arising from cultural bias and other personal issues

Researchers might hold biased views due to their cultural backgrounds or perspectives of certain phenomena, and this can affect a study’s legitimacy. Also, it is possible that researchers will have biases toward data and results that only support their hypotheses or arguments. In order to avoid these problems, the author(s) of a study should examine whether the way the research problem was stated and the data-gathering process was carried out appropriately.

Steps for Organizing Your Study Limitations Section

When you discuss the limitations of your study, don’t simply list and describe your limitations—explain how these limitations have influenced your research findings. There might be multiple limitations in your study, but you only need to point out and explain those that directly relate to and impact how you address your research questions.

We suggest that you divide your limitations section into three steps: (1) identify the study limitations; (2) explain how they impact your study in detail; and (3) propose a direction for future studies and present alternatives. By following this sequence when discussing your study’s limitations, you will be able to clearly demonstrate your study’s weakness without undermining the quality and integrity of your research.

Step 1. Identify the limitation(s) of the study

• This part should comprise around 10%-20% of your discussion of study limitations.

The first step is to identify the particular limitation(s) that affected your study. There are many possible limitations of research that can affect your study, but you don’t need to write a long review of all possible study limitations. A 200-500 word critique is an appropriate length for a research limitations section. In the beginning of this section, identify what limitations your study has faced and how important these limitations are.

You only need to identify limitations that had the greatest potential impact on: (1) the quality of your findings, and (2) your ability to answer your research question.

Step 2. Explain these study limitations in detail

• This part should comprise around 60-70% of your discussion of limitations.

After identifying your research limitations, it’s time to explain the nature of the limitations and how they potentially impacted your study. For example, when you conduct quantitative research, a lack of probability sampling is an important issue that you should mention. On the other hand, when you conduct qualitative research, the inability to generalize the research findings could be an issue that deserves mention.

Explain the role these limitations played on the results and implications of the research and justify the choice you made in using this “limiting” methodology or other action in your research. Also, make sure that these limitations didn’t undermine the quality of your dissertation .

Step 3. Propose a direction for future studies and present alternatives (optional)

• This part should comprise around 10-20% of your discussion of limitations.

After acknowledging the limitations of the research, you need to discuss some possible ways to overcome these limitations in future studies. One way to do this is to present alternative methodologies and ways to avoid issues with, or “fill in the gaps of” the limitations of this study you have presented.  Discuss both the pros and cons of these alternatives and clearly explain why researchers should choose these approaches.

Make sure you are current on approaches used by prior studies and the impacts they have had on their findings. Cite review articles or scientific bodies that have recommended these approaches and why. This might be evidence in support of the approach you chose, or it might be the reason you consider your choices to be included as limitations. This process can act as a justification for your approach and a defense of your decision to take it while acknowledging the feasibility of other approaches.

P hrases and Tips for Introducing Your Study Limitations in the Discussion Section

The following phrases are frequently used to introduce the limitations of the study:

• “There may be some possible limitations in this study.”
• “The findings of this study have to be seen in light of some limitations.”
•  “The first is the…The second limitation concerns the…”
•  “The empirical results reported herein should be considered in the light of some limitations.”
• “This research, however, is subject to several limitations.”
• “The primary limitation to the generalization of these results is…”
• “Nonetheless, these results must be interpreted with caution and a number of limitations should be borne in mind.”
• “As with the majority of studies, the design of the current study is subject to limitations.”
• “There are two major limitations in this study that could be addressed in future research. First, the study focused on …. Second ….”

For more articles on research writing and the journal submissions and publication process, visit Wordvice’s Academic Resources page.

And be sure to receive professional English editing and proofreading services , including paper editing services , for your journal manuscript before submitting it to journal editors.

Wordvice Resources

Proofreading & Editing Guide

Writing the Results Section for a Research Paper

How to Write a Literature Review

Research Writing Tips: How to Draft a Powerful Discussion Section

How to Captivate Journal Readers with a Strong Introduction

Tips That Will Make Your Abstract a Success!

APA In-Text Citation Guide for Research Writing

Additional Resources

• Diving Deeper into Limitations and Delimitations (PhD student)
• Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Limitations of the Study (USC Library)
• Research Limitations (Research Methodology)
• How to Present Limitations and Alternatives (UMASS)

Article References

Pearson-Stuttard, J., Kypridemos, C., Collins, B., Mozaffarian, D., Huang, Y., Bandosz, P.,…Micha, R. (2018). Estimating the health and economic effects of the proposed US Food and Drug Administration voluntary sodium reformulation: Microsimulation cost-effectiveness analysis. PLOS. https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002551

Xu, W.L, Pedersen, N.L., Keller, L., Kalpouzos, G., Wang, H.X., Graff, C,. Fratiglioni, L. (2015). HHEX_23 AA Genotype Exacerbates Effect of Diabetes on Dementia and Alzheimer Disease: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study. PLOS. Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1001853

Stating the Obvious: Writing Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations

During the process of writing your thesis or dissertation, you might suddenly realize that your research has inherent flaws. Don’t worry! Virtually all projects contain restrictions to your research. However, being able to recognize and accurately describe these problems is the difference between a true researcher and a grade-school kid with a science-fair project. Concerns with truthful responding, access to participants, and survey instruments are just a few of examples of restrictions on your research. In the following sections, the differences among delimitations, limitations, and assumptions of a dissertation will be clarified.

Delimitations

Delimitations are the definitions you set as the boundaries of your own thesis or dissertation, so delimitations are in your control. Delimitations are set so that your goals do not become impossibly large to complete. Examples of delimitations include objectives, research questions, variables, theoretical objectives that you have adopted, and populations chosen as targets to study. When you are stating your delimitations, clearly inform readers why you chose this course of study. The answer might simply be that you were curious about the topic and/or wanted to improve standards of a professional field by revealing certain findings. In any case, you should clearly list the other options available and the reasons why you did not choose these options immediately after you list your delimitations. You might have avoided these options for reasons of practicality, interest, or relativity to the study at hand. For example, you might have only studied Hispanic mothers because they have the highest rate of obese babies. Delimitations are often strongly related to your theory and research questions. If you were researching whether there are different parenting styles between unmarried Asian, Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic women, then a delimitation of your study would be the inclusion of only participants with those demographics and the exclusion of participants from other demographics such as men, married women, and all other ethnicities of single women (inclusion and exclusion criteria). A further delimitation might be that you only included closed-ended Likert scale responses in the survey, rather than including additional open-ended responses, which might make some people more willing to take and complete your survey. Remember that delimitations are not good or bad. They are simply a detailed description of the scope of interest for your study as it relates to the research design. Don’t forget to describe the philosophical framework you used throughout your study, which also delimits your study.

Limitations

Limitations of a dissertation are potential weaknesses in your study that are mostly out of your control, given limited funding, choice of research design, statistical model constraints, or other factors. In addition, a limitation is a restriction on your study that cannot be reasonably dismissed and can affect your design and results. Do not worry about limitations because limitations affect virtually all research projects, as well as most things in life. Even when you are going to your favorite restaurant, you are limited by the menu choices. If you went to a restaurant that had a menu that you were craving, you might not receive the service, price, or location that makes you enjoy your favorite restaurant. If you studied participants’ responses to a survey, you might be limited in your abilities to gain the exact type or geographic scope of participants you wanted. The people whom you managed to get to take your survey may not truly be a random sample, which is also a limitation. If you used a common test for data findings, your results are limited by the reliability of the test. If your study was limited to a certain amount of time, your results are affected by the operations of society during that time period (e.g., economy, social trends). It is important for you to remember that limitations of a dissertation are often not something that can be solved by the researcher. Also, remember that whatever limits you also limits other researchers, whether they are the largest medical research companies or consumer habits corporations. Certain kinds of limitations are often associated with the analytical approach you take in your research, too. For example, some qualitative methods like heuristics or phenomenology do not lend themselves well to replicability. Also, most of the commonly used quantitative statistical models can only determine correlation, but not causation.

Assumptions

Assumptions are things that are accepted as true, or at least plausible, by researchers and peers who will read your dissertation or thesis. In other words, any scholar reading your paper will assume that certain aspects of your study is true given your population, statistical test, research design, or other delimitations. For example, if you tell your friend that your favorite restaurant is an Italian place, your friend will assume that you don’t go there for the sushi. It’s assumed that you go there to eat Italian food. Because most assumptions are not discussed in-text, assumptions that are discussed in-text are discussed in the context of the limitations of your study, which is typically in the discussion section. This is important, because both assumptions and limitations affect the inferences you can draw from your study. One of the more common assumptions made in survey research is the assumption of honesty and truthful responses. However, for certain sensitive questions this assumption may be more difficult to accept, in which case it would be described as a limitation of the study. For example, asking people to report their criminal behavior in a survey may not be as reliable as asking people to report their eating habits. It is important to remember that your limitations and assumptions should not contradict one another. For instance, if you state that generalizability is a limitation of your study given that your sample was limited to one city in the United States, then you should not claim generalizability to the United States population as an assumption of your study. Statistical models in quantitative research designs are accompanied with assumptions as well, some more strict than others. These assumptions generally refer to the characteristics of the data, such as distributions, correlational trends, and variable type, just to name a few. Violating these assumptions can lead to drastically invalid results, though this often depends on sample size and other considerations.

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• v.9(4); Oct-Dec 2018

Study designs: Part 1 – An overview and classification

Priya ranganathan.

Department of Anaesthesiology, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Rakesh Aggarwal

1 Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

There are several types of research study designs, each with its inherent strengths and flaws. The study design used to answer a particular research question depends on the nature of the question and the availability of resources. In this article, which is the first part of a series on “study designs,” we provide an overview of research study designs and their classification. The subsequent articles will focus on individual designs.

INTRODUCTION

Research study design is a framework, or the set of methods and procedures used to collect and analyze data on variables specified in a particular research problem.

Research study designs are of many types, each with its advantages and limitations. The type of study design used to answer a particular research question is determined by the nature of question, the goal of research, and the availability of resources. Since the design of a study can affect the validity of its results, it is important to understand the different types of study designs and their strengths and limitations.

There are some terms that are used frequently while classifying study designs which are described in the following sections.

A variable represents a measurable attribute that varies across study units, for example, individual participants in a study, or at times even when measured in an individual person over time. Some examples of variables include age, sex, weight, height, health status, alive/dead, diseased/healthy, annual income, smoking yes/no, and treated/untreated.

Exposure (or intervention) and outcome variables

A large proportion of research studies assess the relationship between two variables. Here, the question is whether one variable is associated with or responsible for change in the value of the other variable. Exposure (or intervention) refers to the risk factor whose effect is being studied. It is also referred to as the independent or the predictor variable. The outcome (or predicted or dependent) variable develops as a consequence of the exposure (or intervention). Typically, the term “exposure” is used when the “causative” variable is naturally determined (as in observational studies – examples include age, sex, smoking, and educational status), and the term “intervention” is preferred where the researcher assigns some or all participants to receive a particular treatment for the purpose of the study (experimental studies – e.g., administration of a drug). If a drug had been started in some individuals but not in the others, before the study started, this counts as exposure, and not as intervention – since the drug was not started specifically for the study.

Observational versus interventional (or experimental) studies

Observational studies are those where the researcher is documenting a naturally occurring relationship between the exposure and the outcome that he/she is studying. The researcher does not do any active intervention in any individual, and the exposure has already been decided naturally or by some other factor. For example, looking at the incidence of lung cancer in smokers versus nonsmokers, or comparing the antenatal dietary habits of mothers with normal and low-birth babies. In these studies, the investigator did not play any role in determining the smoking or dietary habit in individuals.

For an exposure to determine the outcome, it must precede the latter. Any variable that occurs simultaneously with or following the outcome cannot be causative, and hence is not considered as an “exposure.”

Observational studies can be either descriptive (nonanalytical) or analytical (inferential) – this is discussed later in this article.

Interventional studies are experiments where the researcher actively performs an intervention in some or all members of a group of participants. This intervention could take many forms – for example, administration of a drug or vaccine, performance of a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure, and introduction of an educational tool. For example, a study could randomly assign persons to receive aspirin or placebo for a specific duration and assess the effect on the risk of developing cerebrovascular events.

Descriptive versus analytical studies

Descriptive (or nonanalytical) studies, as the name suggests, merely try to describe the data on one or more characteristics of a group of individuals. These do not try to answer questions or establish relationships between variables. Examples of descriptive studies include case reports, case series, and cross-sectional surveys (please note that cross-sectional surveys may be analytical studies as well – this will be discussed in the next article in this series). Examples of descriptive studies include a survey of dietary habits among pregnant women or a case series of patients with an unusual reaction to a drug.

Analytical studies attempt to test a hypothesis and establish causal relationships between variables. In these studies, the researcher assesses the effect of an exposure (or intervention) on an outcome. As described earlier, analytical studies can be observational (if the exposure is naturally determined) or interventional (if the researcher actively administers the intervention).

Directionality of study designs

Based on the direction of inquiry, study designs may be classified as forward-direction or backward-direction. In forward-direction studies, the researcher starts with determining the exposure to a risk factor and then assesses whether the outcome occurs at a future time point. This design is known as a cohort study. For example, a researcher can follow a group of smokers and a group of nonsmokers to determine the incidence of lung cancer in each. In backward-direction studies, the researcher begins by determining whether the outcome is present (cases vs. noncases [also called controls]) and then traces the presence of prior exposure to a risk factor. These are known as case–control studies. For example, a researcher identifies a group of normal-weight babies and a group of low-birth weight babies and then asks the mothers about their dietary habits during the index pregnancy.

Prospective versus retrospective study designs

The terms “prospective” and “retrospective” refer to the timing of the research in relation to the development of the outcome. In retrospective studies, the outcome of interest has already occurred (or not occurred – e.g., in controls) in each individual by the time s/he is enrolled, and the data are collected either from records or by asking participants to recall exposures. There is no follow-up of participants. By contrast, in prospective studies, the outcome (and sometimes even the exposure or intervention) has not occurred when the study starts and participants are followed up over a period of time to determine the occurrence of outcomes. Typically, most cohort studies are prospective studies (though there may be retrospective cohorts), whereas case–control studies are retrospective studies. An interventional study has to be, by definition, a prospective study since the investigator determines the exposure for each study participant and then follows them to observe outcomes.

The terms “prospective” versus “retrospective” studies can be confusing. Let us think of an investigator who starts a case–control study. To him/her, the process of enrolling cases and controls over a period of several months appears prospective. Hence, the use of these terms is best avoided. Or, at the very least, one must be clear that the terms relate to work flow for each individual study participant, and not to the study as a whole.

Classification of study designs

Figure 1 depicts a simple classification of research study designs. The Centre for Evidence-based Medicine has put forward a useful three-point algorithm which can help determine the design of a research study from its methods section:[ 1 ]

Classification of research study designs

• Does the study describe the characteristics of a sample or does it attempt to analyze (or draw inferences about) the relationship between two variables? – If no, then it is a descriptive study, and if yes, it is an analytical (inferential) study
• If analytical, did the investigator determine the exposure? – If no, it is an observational study, and if yes, it is an experimental study
• If observational, when was the outcome determined? – at the start of the study (case–control study), at the end of a period of follow-up (cohort study), or simultaneously (cross sectional).

In the next few pieces in the series, we will discuss various study designs in greater detail.

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Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

2.2 Approaches to Research

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe the different research methods used by psychologists
• Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of case studies, naturalistic observation, surveys, and archival research
• Compare longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches to research
• Compare and contrast correlation and causation

There are many research methods available to psychologists in their efforts to understand, describe, and explain behavior and the cognitive and biological processes that underlie it. Some methods rely on observational techniques. Other approaches involve interactions between the researcher and the individuals who are being studied—ranging from a series of simple questions to extensive, in-depth interviews—to well-controlled experiments.

Each of these research methods has unique strengths and weaknesses, and each method may only be appropriate for certain types of research questions. For example, studies that rely primarily on observation produce incredible amounts of information, but the ability to apply this information to the larger population is somewhat limited because of small sample sizes. Survey research, on the other hand, allows researchers to easily collect data from relatively large samples. While this allows for results to be generalized to the larger population more easily, the information that can be collected on any given survey is somewhat limited and subject to problems associated with any type of self-reported data. Some researchers conduct archival research by using existing records. While this can be a fairly inexpensive way to collect data that can provide insight into a number of research questions, researchers using this approach have no control on how or what kind of data was collected. All of the methods described thus far are correlational in nature. This means that researchers can speak to important relationships that might exist between two or more variables of interest. However, correlational data cannot be used to make claims about cause-and-effect relationships.

Correlational research can find a relationship between two variables, but the only way a researcher can claim that the relationship between the variables is cause and effect is to perform an experiment. In experimental research, which will be discussed later in this chapter, there is a tremendous amount of control over variables of interest. While this is a powerful approach, experiments are often conducted in artificial settings. This calls into question the validity of experimental findings with regard to how they would apply in real-world settings. In addition, many of the questions that psychologists would like to answer cannot be pursued through experimental research because of ethical concerns.

Clinical or Case Studies

In 2011, the New York Times published a feature story on Krista and Tatiana Hogan, Canadian twin girls. These particular twins are unique because Krista and Tatiana are conjoined twins, connected at the head. There is evidence that the two girls are connected in a part of the brain called the thalamus, which is a major sensory relay center. Most incoming sensory information is sent through the thalamus before reaching higher regions of the cerebral cortex for processing.

Link to Learning

Watch this CBC video about Krista's and Tatiana's lives to learn more.

The implications of this potential connection mean that it might be possible for one twin to experience the sensations of the other twin. For instance, if Krista is watching a particularly funny television program, Tatiana might smile or laugh even if she is not watching the program. This particular possibility has piqued the interest of many neuroscientists who seek to understand how the brain uses sensory information.

These twins represent an enormous resource in the study of the brain, and since their condition is very rare, it is likely that as long as their family agrees, scientists will follow these girls very closely throughout their lives to gain as much information as possible (Dominus, 2011).

Over time, it has become clear that while Krista and Tatiana share some sensory experiences and motor control, they remain two distinct individuals, which provides invaluable insight for researchers interested in the mind and the brain (Egnor, 2017).

In observational research, scientists are conducting a clinical or case study when they focus on one person or just a few individuals. Indeed, some scientists spend their entire careers studying just 10–20 individuals. Why would they do this? Obviously, when they focus their attention on a very small number of people, they can gain a precious amount of insight into those cases. The richness of information that is collected in clinical or case studies is unmatched by any other single research method. This allows the researcher to have a very deep understanding of the individuals and the particular phenomenon being studied.

If clinical or case studies provide so much information, why are they not more frequent among researchers? As it turns out, the major benefit of this particular approach is also a weakness. As mentioned earlier, this approach is often used when studying individuals who are interesting to researchers because they have a rare characteristic. Therefore, the individuals who serve as the focus of case studies are not like most other people. If scientists ultimately want to explain all behavior, focusing attention on such a special group of people can make it difficult to generalize any observations to the larger population as a whole. Generalizing refers to the ability to apply the findings of a particular research project to larger segments of society. Again, case studies provide enormous amounts of information, but since the cases are so specific, the potential to apply what’s learned to the average person may be very limited.

Naturalistic Observation

If you want to understand how behavior occurs, one of the best ways to gain information is to simply observe the behavior in its natural context. However, people might change their behavior in unexpected ways if they know they are being observed. How do researchers obtain accurate information when people tend to hide their natural behavior? As an example, imagine that your professor asks everyone in your class to raise their hand if they always wash their hands after using the restroom. Chances are that almost everyone in the classroom will raise their hand, but do you think hand washing after every trip to the restroom is really that universal?

This is very similar to the phenomenon mentioned earlier in this chapter: many individuals do not feel comfortable answering a question honestly. But if we are committed to finding out the facts about hand washing, we have other options available to us.

Suppose we send a classmate into the restroom to actually watch whether everyone washes their hands after using the restroom. Will our observer blend into the restroom environment by wearing a white lab coat, sitting with a clipboard, and staring at the sinks? We want our researcher to be inconspicuous—perhaps standing at one of the sinks pretending to put in contact lenses while secretly recording the relevant information. This type of observational study is called naturalistic observation : observing behavior in its natural setting. To better understand peer exclusion, Suzanne Fanger collaborated with colleagues at the University of Texas to observe the behavior of preschool children on a playground. How did the observers remain inconspicuous over the duration of the study? They equipped a few of the children with wireless microphones (which the children quickly forgot about) and observed while taking notes from a distance. Also, the children in that particular preschool (a “laboratory preschool”) were accustomed to having observers on the playground (Fanger, Frankel, & Hazen, 2012).

It is critical that the observer be as unobtrusive and as inconspicuous as possible: when people know they are being watched, they are less likely to behave naturally. If you have any doubt about this, ask yourself how your driving behavior might differ in two situations: In the first situation, you are driving down a deserted highway during the middle of the day; in the second situation, you are being followed by a police car down the same deserted highway ( Figure 2.7 ).

It should be pointed out that naturalistic observation is not limited to research involving humans. Indeed, some of the best-known examples of naturalistic observation involve researchers going into the field to observe various kinds of animals in their own environments. As with human studies, the researchers maintain their distance and avoid interfering with the animal subjects so as not to influence their natural behaviors. Scientists have used this technique to study social hierarchies and interactions among animals ranging from ground squirrels to gorillas. The information provided by these studies is invaluable in understanding how those animals organize socially and communicate with one another. The anthropologist Jane Goodall , for example, spent nearly five decades observing the behavior of chimpanzees in Africa ( Figure 2.8 ). As an illustration of the types of concerns that a researcher might encounter in naturalistic observation, some scientists criticized Goodall for giving the chimps names instead of referring to them by numbers—using names was thought to undermine the emotional detachment required for the objectivity of the study (McKie, 2010).

The greatest benefit of naturalistic observation is the validity , or accuracy, of information collected unobtrusively in a natural setting. Having individuals behave as they normally would in a given situation means that we have a higher degree of ecological validity, or realism, than we might achieve with other research approaches. Therefore, our ability to generalize the findings of the research to real-world situations is enhanced. If done correctly, we need not worry about people or animals modifying their behavior simply because they are being observed. Sometimes, people may assume that reality programs give us a glimpse into authentic human behavior. However, the principle of inconspicuous observation is violated as reality stars are followed by camera crews and are interviewed on camera for personal confessionals. Given that environment, we must doubt how natural and realistic their behaviors are.

The major downside of naturalistic observation is that they are often difficult to set up and control. In our restroom study, what if you stood in the restroom all day prepared to record people’s hand washing behavior and no one came in? Or, what if you have been closely observing a troop of gorillas for weeks only to find that they migrated to a new place while you were sleeping in your tent? The benefit of realistic data comes at a cost. As a researcher you have no control of when (or if) you have behavior to observe. In addition, this type of observational research often requires significant investments of time, money, and a good dose of luck.

Sometimes studies involve structured observation. In these cases, people are observed while engaging in set, specific tasks. An excellent example of structured observation comes from Strange Situation by Mary Ainsworth (you will read more about this in the chapter on lifespan development). The Strange Situation is a procedure used to evaluate attachment styles that exist between an infant and caregiver. In this scenario, caregivers bring their infants into a room filled with toys. The Strange Situation involves a number of phases, including a stranger coming into the room, the caregiver leaving the room, and the caregiver’s return to the room. The infant’s behavior is closely monitored at each phase, but it is the behavior of the infant upon being reunited with the caregiver that is most telling in terms of characterizing the infant’s attachment style with the caregiver.

Another potential problem in observational research is observer bias . Generally, people who act as observers are closely involved in the research project and may unconsciously skew their observations to fit their research goals or expectations. To protect against this type of bias, researchers should have clear criteria established for the types of behaviors recorded and how those behaviors should be classified. In addition, researchers often compare observations of the same event by multiple observers, in order to test inter-rater reliability : a measure of reliability that assesses the consistency of observations by different observers.

Often, psychologists develop surveys as a means of gathering data. Surveys are lists of questions to be answered by research participants, and can be delivered as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally ( Figure 2.9 ). Generally, the survey itself can be completed in a short time, and the ease of administering a survey makes it easy to collect data from a large number of people.

Surveys allow researchers to gather data from larger samples than may be afforded by other research methods . A sample is a subset of individuals selected from a population , which is the overall group of individuals that the researchers are interested in. Researchers study the sample and seek to generalize their findings to the population. Generally, researchers will begin this process by calculating various measures of central tendency from the data they have collected. These measures provide an overall summary of what a typical response looks like. There are three measures of central tendency: mode, median, and mean. The mode is the most frequently occurring response, the median lies at the middle of a given data set, and the mean is the arithmetic average of all data points. Means tend to be most useful in conducting additional analyses like those described below; however, means are very sensitive to the effects of outliers, and so one must be aware of those effects when making assessments of what measures of central tendency tell us about a data set in question.

There is both strength and weakness of the survey in comparison to case studies. By using surveys, we can collect information from a larger sample of people. A larger sample is better able to reflect the actual diversity of the population, thus allowing better generalizability. Therefore, if our sample is sufficiently large and diverse, we can assume that the data we collect from the survey can be generalized to the larger population with more certainty than the information collected through a case study. However, given the greater number of people involved, we are not able to collect the same depth of information on each person that would be collected in a case study.

Another potential weakness of surveys is something we touched on earlier in this chapter: People don't always give accurate responses. They may lie, misremember, or answer questions in a way that they think makes them look good. For example, people may report drinking less alcohol than is actually the case.

Any number of research questions can be answered through the use of surveys. One real-world example is the research conducted by Jenkins, Ruppel, Kizer, Yehl, and Griffin (2012) about the backlash against the US Arab-American community following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Jenkins and colleagues wanted to determine to what extent these negative attitudes toward Arab-Americans still existed nearly a decade after the attacks occurred. In one study, 140 research participants filled out a survey with 10 questions, including questions asking directly about the participant’s overt prejudicial attitudes toward people of various ethnicities. The survey also asked indirect questions about how likely the participant would be to interact with a person of a given ethnicity in a variety of settings (such as, “How likely do you think it is that you would introduce yourself to a person of Arab-American descent?”). The results of the research suggested that participants were unwilling to report prejudicial attitudes toward any ethnic group. However, there were significant differences between their pattern of responses to questions about social interaction with Arab-Americans compared to other ethnic groups: they indicated less willingness for social interaction with Arab-Americans compared to the other ethnic groups. This suggested that the participants harbored subtle forms of prejudice against Arab-Americans, despite their assertions that this was not the case (Jenkins et al., 2012).

Archival Research

Some researchers gain access to large amounts of data without interacting with a single research participant. Instead, they use existing records to answer various research questions. This type of research approach is known as archival research . Archival research relies on looking at past records or data sets to look for interesting patterns or relationships.

For example, a researcher might access the academic records of all individuals who enrolled in college within the past ten years and calculate how long it took them to complete their degrees, as well as course loads, grades, and extracurricular involvement. Archival research could provide important information about who is most likely to complete their education, and it could help identify important risk factors for struggling students ( Figure 2.10 ).

In comparing archival research to other research methods, there are several important distinctions. For one, the researcher employing archival research never directly interacts with research participants. Therefore, the investment of time and money to collect data is considerably less with archival research. Additionally, researchers have no control over what information was originally collected. Therefore, research questions have to be tailored so they can be answered within the structure of the existing data sets. There is also no guarantee of consistency between the records from one source to another, which might make comparing and contrasting different data sets problematic.

Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Research

Sometimes we want to see how people change over time, as in studies of human development and lifespan. When we test the same group of individuals repeatedly over an extended period of time, we are conducting longitudinal research. Longitudinal research is a research design in which data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time. For example, we may survey a group of individuals about their dietary habits at age 20, retest them a decade later at age 30, and then again at age 40.

Another approach is cross-sectional research. In cross-sectional research , a researcher compares multiple segments of the population at the same time. Using the dietary habits example above, the researcher might directly compare different groups of people by age. Instead of studying a group of people for 20 years to see how their dietary habits changed from decade to decade, the researcher would study a group of 20-year-old individuals and compare them to a group of 30-year-old individuals and a group of 40-year-old individuals. While cross-sectional research requires a shorter-term investment, it is also limited by differences that exist between the different generations (or cohorts) that have nothing to do with age per se, but rather reflect the social and cultural experiences of different generations of individuals that make them different from one another.

To illustrate this concept, consider the following survey findings. In recent years there has been significant growth in the popular support of same-sex marriage. Many studies on this topic break down survey participants into different age groups. In general, younger people are more supportive of same-sex marriage than are those who are older (Jones, 2013). Does this mean that as we age we become less open to the idea of same-sex marriage, or does this mean that older individuals have different perspectives because of the social climates in which they grew up? Longitudinal research is a powerful approach because the same individuals are involved in the research project over time, which means that the researchers need to be less concerned with differences among cohorts affecting the results of their study.

Often longitudinal studies are employed when researching various diseases in an effort to understand particular risk factors. Such studies often involve tens of thousands of individuals who are followed for several decades. Given the enormous number of people involved in these studies, researchers can feel confident that their findings can be generalized to the larger population. The Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3) is one of a series of longitudinal studies sponsored by the American Cancer Society aimed at determining predictive risk factors associated with cancer. When participants enter the study, they complete a survey about their lives and family histories, providing information on factors that might cause or prevent the development of cancer. Then every few years the participants receive additional surveys to complete. In the end, hundreds of thousands of participants will be tracked over 20 years to determine which of them develop cancer and which do not.

Clearly, this type of research is important and potentially very informative. For instance, earlier longitudinal studies sponsored by the American Cancer Society provided some of the first scientific demonstrations of the now well-established links between increased rates of cancer and smoking (American Cancer Society, n.d.) ( Figure 2.11 ).

As with any research strategy, longitudinal research is not without limitations. For one, these studies require an incredible time investment by the researcher and research participants. Given that some longitudinal studies take years, if not decades, to complete, the results will not be known for a considerable period of time. In addition to the time demands, these studies also require a substantial financial investment. Many researchers are unable to commit the resources necessary to see a longitudinal project through to the end.

Research participants must also be willing to continue their participation for an extended period of time, and this can be problematic. People move, get married and take new names, get ill, and eventually die. Even without significant life changes, some people may simply choose to discontinue their participation in the project. As a result, the attrition rates, or reduction in the number of research participants due to dropouts, in longitudinal studies are quite high and increase over the course of a project. For this reason, researchers using this approach typically recruit many participants fully expecting that a substantial number will drop out before the end. As the study progresses, they continually check whether the sample still represents the larger population, and make adjustments as necessary.

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Addressing five common weaknesses in qualitative research: Sticking feathers together in the hope of producing a duck

• Philippa Kerr University of Oslo

This paper identifies a number of common conceptual and methodological weaknesses that crop up in qualitative social science research articles and theses. These weaknesses are: (1) conceptual frameworks with no implications; (2) conceptual frameworks which dominate findings; (3) generic technical jargon in methods sections instead of a transparent account of how the research and analytical decisions actually proceeded; (4) superficial and/or anecdotal results sections; and (5) an overuse of social science jargon that sometimes does not mean very much. Suggestions for improving on these weaknesses are made. It is argued that the validity of a piece of qualitative research is established through coherence among all sections of a paper or thesis – concepts, methods, and findings. The metaphor in the paper’s title conveys the point that simply including the right-sounding terminology or sections in a qualitative research article or thesis in the hope that this will, in and of itself, produce good social science is a strategy about as likely to succeed as sticking feathers together in the hope of eventually producing a duck!

Author Biography

Psychology Institute, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

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The Strengths and Weaknesses of Research Methodology: Comparison and Complimentary between Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Related Papers

International Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research (IJAMR

Ramatu Ussif

This article discussed the research methodologies used in social sciences by students, researchers, and lectures. It looked at the qualitative method, quantitative method, and the mixed-method approaches in social sciences researches. The components of each methodology were discussed, including the data collection methods, and ethical issues (Ethical approval form, consent form, voluntary participation form). The article also assessed the overview of the methodologies which help increase knowledge of the facts in the researches. Furthermore, main objectives of conducting research and research motivating factors were also elaborated. The study recommends that teachers should help students' choose the best research methodology for their research and the researchers should read different types of research methodology to know which one best fits their study. We conclude that this paper gives more understanding of quantitative research, qualitative research and mixed research methods approach in researching and it helps understand the various ground root of the methodological framework and which one best fit the kind of research and at what time.

Fernando Almeida

Scientific research adopts qualitative and quantitative methodologies in the modeling and analysis of numerous phenomena. The qualitative methodology intends to understand a complex reality and the meaning of actions in a given context. On the other hand, the quantitative methodology seeks to obtain accurate and reliable measurements that allow a statistical analysis. Both methodologies offer a set of methods, potentialities and limitations that must be explored and known by researchers. This paper concisely maps a total of seven qualitative methods and five quantitative methods. A comparative analysis of the most relevant and adopted methods is done to understand the main strengths and limitations of them. Additionally, the work developed intends to be a fundamental reference for the accomplishment of a research study, in which the researcher intends to adopt a qualitative or quantitative methodology. Through the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of each method, it becomes possible to formulate a more accurate, informed and complete choice.

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The objective of this study is to provide a guide to qualitative research methodology in social sciences. It is the result of the observation that research in Management Sciences in most Universities in Cameroon is still dominated by the quantitative approach supported by economists who handle most research methodology courses. In an environment of oral tradition and the difficulties to have access to data, emphasising purely quantitative research may leave aside many aspects of the environment and several areas of human behaviour that make its specificities. Therefore, there is a need to generalise the use of qualitative research to enable researchers to always have a good insight into phenomena not yet clarified before thinking of any generalisation which is the main objective of quantitative research: this gives room to the contextualisation of research which results can easily be applied in its context, thus, enhancing development.

Dr Muhibul Haq

The aim of this review is to create awareness about uses of available social research methods and to provide a guideline in adopting appropriate methods specifically in qualitative and mixed methods research genre. Based on the review of contemporary social research methods I believe that mixed methods research produces more accurate results than relying on either qualitative or quantitative methods alone in explaining complex social issues. This paper contributes to the methodological literature in two areas. First, create awareness among social researchers and students about the available research methods in order to help them to adopt suitable research designs in addressing their particular research questions. Second, encourage scholars from all disciplines to theorize further, especially in the field of mixed methods, and engage in a dialogue in order to improve methodological appropriateness for future research in social sciences.

IRJET Journal

Research design methods, such as qualitative, quantitative as well as mixed methods were introduced and subsequently each method was discussed in detail with the help of literature review as well as some personal and live examples to substantiate the findings of various literature. From various literature as well as from the own experiences, it is concluded that both qualitative research design method and quantitative research design method are equally important. It is not fair to criticize one method as the researcher is inclined towards the other method. It is practically evidenced that usage of both methods in the research, the researcher can substantiate the case better. However, duration part while using mixed methods to be kept in mind as it will take more time compared to the qualitative and quantitative methods. Hurrying and aborting in the middle due to time constraint ultimately result in poor research. It would be better if the world view towards these methods changes from criticizing mode to effective utilization mode, which will help research community in focusing and bring up better research outcomes rather than wasting time in arguing which method is scientifically acceptable and which method is biased. While I agree that the ontological, epistemological, axiological, and methodological assumptions for qualitative research method and quantitative research method, researchers should know fully about these methods and keep them as effective tools to utilize them in mixed mode, wherever it is appropriate and required to arrive at adequate research findings.

The Cyprus Journal of Sciences

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Carrying out a research paper is concerned to be a simple task. However, in practice it is far more complicated. The most important factor is for the researcher to know the main principles of the research process. It is vital to identify the research methods progression, the meaning and purpose of the research to be carried out, by the formulation of hypothesis, aims and questions, the use of methodology-both quantitative and qualitative-their characteristics and suitability when utilized, and the need of sampling and ethical considerations. By the use of theoretical framework, the current research paper firstly discusses and analyses the principles of bringing about a research paper, and most importantly it emphasizes the advantages and disadvantages of research methodology.

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SUBHAJIT PANDA

There's no hard and fast rule for qualitative versus quantitative research, and it's often taken for granted. It is claimed here that the divide between qualitative and quantitative research is ambiguous, incoherent, and hence of little value, and that its widespread use could have negative implications. This conclusion is supported by a variety of arguments. Qualitative researchers, for example, have varying perspectives on fundamental problems (such as the use of quantification and causal analysis), which makes the difference as such shaky. In addition, many elements of qualitative and quantitative research overlap significantly, making it difficult to distinguish between the two. Practically in the case of field research, the Qualitative and quantitative approach can't be distinguished clearly as the study pointed. The distinction may limit innovation in the development of new research methodologies, as well as cause complication and wasteful activity. As a general rule, it may be desirable not to conceptualise research approaches at such abstract levels as are done in the context of qualitative or quantitative methodologies. Discussions of the benefits and drawbacks of various research methods, rather than general research questions, are recommended.

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What is weakness of a study?  

Insight from top 5 papers, source papers (5).

Related Questions

The weakness of venture capital lies in various factors highlighted in the research. One significant weakness is the challenge faced by venture capitalists in financing ventures from emerging or transition economies due to institutional pitfalls, especially regulatory issues . Additionally, the financial crisis has been associated with a 20% decrease in the average funds raised per funding round, particularly affecting firms in later financing rounds, leading to a potential 'funding gap' in technological development and innovation . Moreover, the difficulty in assessing an entrepreneur's ability to develop a successful venture results in venture capital-backed firms not being initiated by the most capable entrepreneurs, potentially leading to a higher failure rate among such firms compared to the general population of new firms .

The weaknesses identified in the abstracts include the following: 1. Underground banking systems, such as hawala and the black market peso exchange, can be utilized to circumvent existing anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing measures, making them suitable for illegal activities like money laundering and terrorism financing. Underground banking systems lack the strict compliance regulations that financial institutions have, posing significant risks . 2. The emphasis on wage- versus profit-led growth in post-Keynesian macroeconomics may not be helpful as the profit share is not an exogenous variable and correlations between the profit share and economic growth can vary depending on exogenous shocks. The focus on the goods market can be misleading, and empirical estimates suggest weaker support for wage-led conclusions than suggested by the literature . 3. The use of artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence has inherent risks and complications, including mechanical and nonmechanical complications such as infection, urethral atrophy, cuff erosion, and stricture. Managing these complications, especially urethral atrophy, presents challenges that require further evaluation and research . 4. Illegal exports of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) from industrial to developing countries pose serious threats to human health and the environment. Weaknesses in the legislative framework, implementation and enforcement, law enforcement capacity, knowledge and training, and information management contribute to the facilitation of such criminal activity .

The limitations in the studies are as follows: The first study by Martin et al. has limitations related to error in models, what is measured, and the statistical method used. Additionally, the lack of longitudinal data is a limitation in assessing the stability of the model across developmental ages . The second study mentions limitations such as the need for more cross-linguistic verification, comparisons in greater detail, and consideration of spoken language . The third study by Solem states that the choice of HUs instead of gray values is a limitation, despite their close agreement with BMD . Wehner's research highlights limitations including a small sample size, lack of generalizability, and potential respondent bias . Finally, Bai et al. discuss limitations in their study on syndesmosis malreduction, such as the lack of sensitivity of certain measurements and the need for better diagnostic utility .

The limitations of the research studies mentioned in the abstracts include the lack of attention given to the presentation of limitations in the EAP literature . Another limitation is the absence of research studies comparing the thoughts of educational thinkers regarding professional ethics for teachers . Additionally, authors often use generic descriptions to describe study limitations, which is an ineffective use of word count . One study is limited by the binary distinction between manufacturing and service firms, which may affect the generalizability of the findings . Finally, there is a lack of evidence for CSR practices in developing countries like Sri Lanka, highlighting the need for further investigation .

The research has several limitations and strengths. One limitation is the lack of standardization in measuring and defining cyberbullying, which is exacerbated by the changing technological scene . Another limitation is the binary distinction between manufacturing and service firms, which may limit the generalizability of findings to pure manufacturing and service firms . Additionally, the majority of contributions in the area of customer engagement value (CEV) are theoretical and lack practical applicability . On the other hand, the research has strengths such as the use of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to assess body composition, which has demonstrated prognostic utility in multiple aspects of health and disease . The proposed framework for CEV combines components to make it more comprehensive and applicable, and the models have the potential to capture the complexity in the relationship between the firm and its customers in real-life situations .

Trending Questions

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influences the spread of radical ideologies through a multifaceted approach. The CCP maintains control over the ideological sphere by strengthening the leadership of the official ideology, preventing radicalization of public sentiment, and countering non-mainstream ideas that challenge national ideological security . Additionally, the CCP manipulates the concept of the enemy to serve political agendas, creating a narrative that the West aims to suppress China, thus justifying certain actions and garnering support . Furthermore, historical events like the Cultural Revolution have influenced collective action and the perception of democracy and political authority among the Chinese population, impacting the spread of radical ideas and shaping societal movements . By utilizing propaganda strategies and disseminating Marxist theory effectively, the CCP has historically influenced the development and dissemination of radical ideologies within China .

Public sentiment on AI, particularly in the context of self-driving cars, showcases a notable ideological divide between liberals and conservatives. Research indicates that conservatives and Republicans tend to express more concern about autonomous vehicles and show greater support for restrictive regulations compared to liberals and Democrats . This ideological gap is primarily driven by social conservatism, with familiarity with driver-less vehicles and scientific literacy playing a role in reducing concerns and regulatory support across the board, albeit to a lesser extent among social conservatives . Additionally, authoritarianism, a broader ideological attitude, influences attitudes towards AI differently across various domains, with a strong positive relationship observed between authoritarianism and attitudes towards AI in surveillance, aligning with the preference for security and social order typically associated with authoritarianism . These findings highlight the complex interplay of ideology, familiarity, and broader ideological attitudes in shaping public sentiment towards AI technologies.

Somatization, the manifestation of physical symptoms stemming from mental projections, plays a significant role in various disorders, including binge eating disorder (BED) . BED is characterized by episodes of consuming large amounts of food with a loss of control over eating behavior, often leading to obesity and mental health comorbidities . Research suggests that individuals with BED may experience somatization, where psychological distress is expressed through physical symptoms, further complicating the disorder . Additionally, somatization disorder, a challenging psychiatric condition, involves the presentation of physical symptoms without a clear medical explanation, necessitating comprehensive biopsychosocial treatment planning by healthcare professionals . Understanding the interplay between somatization and BED is crucial for effective diagnosis and treatment of individuals experiencing these complex conditions.

Strict parenting styles, characterized by low responsiveness to children's needs like authoritarian-paternalistic approaches, can indeed lead to the suppression of a child's natural emotional and psychological needs . Research indicates that authoritarian parenting is associated with emotional distress, anxiety, and depression in adult offspring, reflecting the impact of strictness on later well-being . Additionally, studies show that positive parenting styles, such as warmth and supportiveness, are negatively correlated with emotion dysregulation, while negative styles like authoritarian parenting are positively associated with it . This suggests that a lack of emotional support and responsiveness in parenting can hinder a child's emotional regulation abilities, potentially leading to the suppression of their natural emotional and psychological needs.

Political paradox refers to the inherent contradictions and complexities within political systems and theories. Various scholars have explored paradoxes in politics, such as the paradox of political power, where the necessity of power to enforce just conduct conflicts with its potential for favoritism and arbitrariness . Additionally, the paradox of freedom highlights the concept that individuals can only achieve freedom through obedience to a sovereign, creating a seeming contradiction between freedom and obedience . Furthermore, the paradox of democracy is evident in the challenges posed by political parties, which are essential for legitimizing democratic decisions but also contribute to significant legitimacy issues within the system . These paradoxes underscore the intricate and often conflicting nature of political concepts and practices, highlighting the need for nuanced approaches to navigate them effectively.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Ai generator.

After one has submitted their best resume or  perfect resume  to a hiring manager, recruiter, or employer, they will be endorsed to the next step of the hiring or application process. Most application processes will let the person continue to the interview where the hiring manager or the HR will try to gauge the person’s personality, knowledge, and skills .

What Are the Strengths and Weaknesses?

Strengths are the skills, attributes, or areas of knowledge where an individual excels, providing a distinct advantage in certain situations or tasks. Conversely, weaknesses are aspects where an individual may lack proficiency, confidence, or capability, which can hinder progress in both personal and professional contexts. Recognizing the nature of these traits is the first step towards effective personal development.

Strengths and Weaknesses Examples for Students

• Curiosity – Eagerness to learn and explore new subjects.
• Time Management – Balancing schoolwork, hobbies, and social activities effectively.
• Organizational Skills – Keeping study materials and schedules well-organized.
• Critical Thinking – Ability to analyze information and form reasoned conclusions.
• Persistence – Continuing effort to achieve in spite of difficulties.
• Active Listening – Paying full attention in class and grasping new concepts quickly.
• Public Speaking – Comfort with presenting in front of peers.
• Adaptability to Technology – Proficiency in using digital tools for learning.
• Self-motivation – Initiating and completing tasks without external encouragement.
• Group Collaboration – Working effectively in project teams or study groups.
• Shyness – Difficulty in speaking up in class or group discussions.
• Distraction – Easily sidetracked by social media or other interests.
• Over-planning – Spending too much time on planning rather than doing.
• Fear of Public Speaking – Anxiety when required to present or speak publicly.
• Impulsiveness – Making decisions or actions without adequate thought.
• Prioritization – Struggling to identify which tasks or studies are most important.
• Test Anxiety – Nervousness that impairs performance during exams.
• Over-Reliance on Help – Depending too much on assistance from peers or teachers.
• Underestimating Deadlines – Frequently underestimating the time needed to complete assignments.
• Rigid Thinking – Difficulty adapting to new methods or different perspectives.

Strengths and Weaknesses Examples for Freshers

• Eagerness to Learn – High enthusiasm for acquiring new skills and knowledge.
• Flexibility – Willingness to take on various roles or responsibilities.
• Tech-Savvy – Strong familiarity with latest technology and software.
• Innovative Thinking – Bringing new ideas to the team.
• Cultural Awareness – Understanding and adapting to diverse workplace environments.
• Positive Attitude – Maintaining optimism and energy.
• Strong Work Ethic – Commitment to working hard and achieving results.
• Quick Learner – Ability to grasp new concepts and processes swiftly.
• Networking Skills – Building relationships within and outside the organization.
• Open-Mindedness – Receptive to feedback and different ideas.
• Limited Industry Experience – Lack of practical experience in a professional setting.
• Tendency to Overpromise – Committing to more than can be realistically delivered.
• Difficulty with Constructive Criticism – Taking feedback too personally.
• Lack of Confidence – Uncertainty in one’s abilities due to inexperience.
• Time Management in Work Settings – Adapting to managing work tasks efficiently.
• Fear of Asking Questions – Hesitation to seek clarification when needed.
• Struggle with Authority – Adjusting to hierarchical structures in the workplace.
• Over-Enthusiasm – Sometimes overwhelming others with intense energy.
• Lack of Negotiation Skills – Difficulty in bargaining or advocating for oneself.
• Inexperience with Office Politics – Naivety about navigating professional relationships.

Strengths and Weaknesses Examples for Job Interviews

• Professionalism – Consistent display of mature behavior and attitude.
• Communication Skills – Clarity in expressing thoughts and understanding others.
• Leadership Potential – Ability to guide and inspire others.
• Reliability – Dependability in completing tasks and meeting deadlines.
• Emotional Intelligence – Understanding and managing one’s emotions and those of others.
• Conflict Resolution – Skill in resolving disagreements effectively.
• Analytical Abilities – Competence in examining information and solving problems.
• Strategic Planning – Proficiency in setting goals and determining actions to achieve them.
• Customer Service Orientation – Dedication to fulfilling the needs and expectations of clients.
• Goal-Oriented – Focused on achieving specified outcomes.
• Perfectionistic Tendencies – Often spending too much time perfecting minor details.
• Overthinking – Complicating situations by thinking too much about them.
• High Self-Criticism – Frequently finding faults in one’s own work.
• Discomfort with Uncertainty – Struggling in situations where outcomes are unpredictable.
• Limited Experience in a Specific Role – Lack of specific skills due to limited role exposure.
• Difficulty Saying No – Tendency to take on more than can be handled.
• Inexperience with Remote Work – Adjusting to working outside a traditional office.
• Impatience with Slow Processes – Frustration with tasks that progress more slowly than expected.
• Sensitive to Stress – Difficulty managing stress in high-pressure environments.
• Multitasking – Sometimes losing focus when juggling multiple tasks.

Strengths and Weaknesses Examples for Nursing

• Empathy – High capacity to understand and share the feelings of others.
• Stamina – Physical and mental endurance during long shifts.
• Attention to Detail – Careful monitoring of patient symptoms and treatment plans.
• Communication with Patients and Families – Providing clear and compassionate information.
• Crisis Management – Ability to remain calm and effective during emergencies.
• Technical Skills – Proficiency in using medical equipment and performing procedures.
• Patient Advocacy – Ensuring patient needs and preferences are respected.
• Team Coordination – Collaborating efficiently with other healthcare professionals.
• Dedication to Patient Care – Commitment to providing high-quality care.
• Composure – Maintaining a calm demeanor in stressful situations.
• Emotional Involvement – Sometimes becoming too emotionally attached to patients.
• Physical Demands – Managing the physical strain of nursing duties.
• Shift Work Challenges – Adjusting to irregular hours and night shifts.
• Handling Paperwork – Difficulty with the extensive documentation required in nursing.
• Time Management with Patient Load – Balancing time among multiple patients.
• Dealing with Loss – Coping with the emotional impact of patient death.
• Updating Skills – Keeping up-to-date with medical practices and technologies.
• Managing Patient Expectations – Handling situations where patient expectations are not met.
• Resource Limitations – Working effectively despite resource constraints in healthcare settings.
• Burnout – Risk of emotional and physical exhaustion from high-stress situations.

How to Answer The Strengths and Weaknesses Interview Question

The “What are your strengths and weakness?” question allows the interviewee to showcase one’s self-awareness and willingness to learn and improve. To answer this question, one must comfortably list out their various hard skills , soft skills , and flaws to the interviewer and illustrate how one can leverage these strengths and weaknesses in one’s work.

Step 1: Understand the Context of The Interview Based on the Position You are Applying For

Begin by understanding the context , theme , and tone of the interview you will be in. This will help you navigate specific nuances and terms that are relevant to the position you are going to be applying for.

Step 2: Practice Proper Body Language and Delivery During the Interview

Body language plays a large role in a successful job interview. This means that you must practice proper body language and delivery when you are giving your strengths and weaknesses as these can be a great tell whether you are open to the idea of willingly sharing said answers.

Step 3: Create an Outline to Act as A Reference During the Interview Proper

Create an outline that you can use to structure your answer to this question. Using the outline , you can create a well-paced interview answer that can properly detail your strengths and weaknesses in an instant.

Step 4: List Out a Reference of Your Strengths and Weaknesses before the Interview

You can also create a small note that will list your strengths and weaknesses in bullet form, which will act as a guide during the interview. You can use your general resume or the position’s job description as a reference for what you can put on your list.

Examples of Strengths and Weaknesses Responses

Strengths : “My primary strength is my problem-solving ability. Last year, I led a project that encountered multiple unexpected hurdles. My ability to quickly analyze the issues and propose effective solutions helped us meet our deadlines without compromising quality.”

Weaknesses : “I sometimes struggle with delegation. I take pride in my work and can be meticulous, which makes it challenging to hand over responsibilities. However, I’m actively working to trust my team more and have taken leadership courses to improve my managerial skills.”

Strengths : “I am very adaptable, which allows me to handle changes in workplace environments effectively. For example, when my company shifted to remote work, I was one of the first to adapt and even helped colleagues troubleshoot their setups.”

Weaknesses : “Public speaking has always been a challenge for me. Recognizing this, I joined a local Toastmasters club to improve my speaking skills. This has not only boosted my confidence but also enhanced my ability to communicate my points more clearly in meetings.”

Strengths : “I excel at critical thinking and have a keen analytical mind. In my current role, this has enabled me to anticipate potential problems and devise preemptive solutions, which has been instrumental in optimizing our operational processes.”

Weaknesses : “I have been overly cautious sometimes, especially when it comes to risk-taking. I’ve been working on balancing risk and caution by consulting more with peers and mentors before making decisions, which has led to more dynamic and profitable project outcomes.”

Strengths : “Organizational skills are one of my strongest points. At my previous job, I was often commended for my ability to manage multiple projects efficiently without missing deadlines. This skill has been crucial in maintaining productivity and meeting targets consistently.”

Weaknesses : “I’ve noticed that my technical skills were not as strong as they could be, particularly regarding the latest software in our industry. To address this, I have enrolled in several courses and am currently upskilling to ensure I stay relevant and efficient in my role.”

Strengths : “I have a strong work ethic and am extremely reliable. In my last position, I was the go-to person for urgent tasks because my team knew I would handle the pressure well and deliver the work on time.”

Weaknesses : “Earlier in my career, I found it difficult to say ‘no’ to additional tasks, which sometimes affected my work-life balance. I’ve learned to manage my workload better by prioritizing tasks and communicating more openly with my supervisors about my capacity.”

Strengths : “One of my main strengths is my ability to communicate effectively. In my previous role, I was responsible for coordinating between different teams. My communication skills helped streamline projects and reduce misunderstandings, which improved our team’s overall productivity.”

Weaknesses : “A weakness I’ve been working on is my proficiency in advanced Excel functions. I realized this was a gap in my skills during a complex project, so I’ve since taken an online course and have been practicing regularly. It’s something I’ve improved significantly and continue to work on.”

Strengths and Weaknesses List

• Adaptability – Ability to adjust to new conditions or changes in the environment.
• Communication – Proficient in sharing information, ideas, and feelings effectively.
• Problem-solving – Aptitude for identifying solutions to complex or challenging issues.
• Resilience – Capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or setbacks.
• Teamwork – Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with others.
• Leadership – Skill in leading, motivating, and organizing groups or teams.
• Creativity – Talent for thinking of innovative or original ideas.
• Attention to Detail – Focus on the minor aspects and accuracy in tasks.
• Time Management – Efficiency in managing one’s time to maximize productivity.
• Technical Proficiency – Expertise in specific technical fields or tools.
• Procrastination – Tendency to delay or postpone tasks unnecessarily.
• Impatience – Difficulty in tolerating delays or problems without becoming annoyed or anxious.
• Difficulty Delegating – Reluctance to assign responsibilities to others.
• Sensitivity – Overly reactive or susceptible to others’ comments or situations.
• Perfectionism – The need to achieve flawlessness, often at the expense of time and stress.
• Overcommitment – Taking on more tasks or responsibilities than manageable.
• Fear of Failure – Avoidance of risk or challenges due to the fear of not succeeding.
• Resistance to Change – Difficulty or reluctance to adapt to changes.
• Limited Experience – Areas where experience or knowledge is insufficient.
• Overconfidence – Excessive belief in one’s abilities, sometimes leading to mistakes or oversights.

Understand the Importance

It’s important to understand why interviewers ask about them. This question helps interviewers gauge self-awareness, honesty, and the ability to self-improve. Recognizing the purpose behind the question can guide your preparation and help you tailor your answers to showcase your suitability for the job.

Why Interviewers Ask About Strengths

• Alignment with Job Requirements : How well the candidate’s strengths match the skills and attributes required for the job.
• Self-Awareness : How well the candidate understands their own abilities and can articulate them confidently.
• Potential Contribution : What specific contributions the candidate might make to the team or company based on their strengths.

Why Interviewers Ask About Weaknesses

• Self-Awareness and Honesty : It shows whether a candidate can critically evaluate themselves and acknowledge areas needing improvement.
• Growth Mindset : It demonstrates whether the candidate is proactive about personal and professional growth by identifying weaknesses and working on them.
• Fit and Management : Understanding a candidate’s weaknesses helps the interviewer determine how well the candidate might integrate into the team and what support they might need.

Turning Weaknesses Into Opportunities

Discussing your weaknesses openly can turn them into strengths in the eyes of an interviewer. Explain the steps you are taking to overcome these weaknesses. This might include professional development courses, mentoring, or new strategies you are implementing in your work.

Strategies for Discussing Strengths in an Interview

Identify relevant strengths.

Before the interview, reflect on your key strengths that align with the job description. Consider the following:

• Skills : Technical and soft skills that are directly applicable to the job.
• Experiences : Specific instances where you successfully applied your skills.
• Attributes : Personal qualities like resilience, leadership, or creativity that make you a unique candidate.

Use Examples

When discussing your strengths, it’s effective to illustrate them with concrete examples:

• Situation-Action-Result (SAR) Format : Describe a situation, the action you took, and the results of your actions. This method provides a clear narrative that highlights the impact of your strengths.
• Quantifiable Achievements : Whenever possible, use numbers to quantify your achievements. For example, “increased sales by 20%” or “managed a team of 10.”

Tailor Your Strengths to the Job

Customize your discussion to fit the specific job and company:

• Job Description : Refer back to the job listing to highlight strengths that are directly mentioned or implied as important.
• Company Culture : If the company values certain traits, like innovation or teamwork, emphasize these qualities in your examples.

Be Authentic

Authenticity resonates well in interviews:

• Honesty : Be genuine about your strengths. Exaggerating or misrepresenting your abilities can lead to challenges down the line.
• Confidence : Present your strengths confidently but without arrogance. Acknowledge teamwork and the role of others in your successes when applicable.

Practice Your Delivery

Practicing how you talk about your strengths can make your delivery more natural and confident:

• Mock Interviews : Conduct practice interviews with friends or mentors. Ask for feedback on your clarity and delivery.
• Record Yourself : Sometimes, recording yourself and playing it back can reveal areas for improvement in tone and pacing.

Strategies for Discussing Weaknesses in an Interview

Choose appropriate weaknesses.

• Job-Relevant : Choose weaknesses that are not central to the job requirements. For instance, if you are applying for a data analyst position, you might mention public speaking instead of statistical analysis.
• Genuine : Pick real weaknesses. Avoid clichés like “I’m a perfectionist,” unless you can discuss genuine challenges it has caused and how you are addressing them.

Frame Weaknesses Constructively

• Positive Framing : Focus on how you’ve recognized the weakness and the steps you’re taking to improve. This shows a proactive attitude.
• Growth Mindset : Demonstrate that you view weaknesses as opportunities for growth rather than fixed flaws.

Use Specific Examples

Similar to discussing strengths, use examples to illustrate your weaknesses:

• Situation-Action-Result (SAR) Model : Describe a specific instance where your weakness came into play, what you did to handle the situation, and the outcome.
• Continuous Improvement : Highlight any training, courses, or self-study you have undertaken to mitigate your weaknesses.

Be Proactive in Your Approach

• Action Steps : Discuss specific actions you are taking, such as seeking mentorship, attending workshops, or practicing new skills.
• Feedback Utilization : Mention how you use feedback constructively to improve your performance in areas of weakness.

Maintain a Balanced Perspective

• No Overemphasis : Don’t dwell too long on your weaknesses or give them more weight than your strengths.
• Confidence : Maintain confidence while discussing your weaknesses. Acknowledge them as part of your professional development rather than as impediments.

Practice Your Responses

• Mock Interviews : Practice with a friend or mentor to refine how you present your weaknesses.
• Record and Review : Recording your practice sessions can help you notice and correct any hesitations or overly negative tones.

Impact of Strengths and Weaknesses on Career Development

Your career progression can be significantly influenced by how well you manage your strengths and weaknesses. Leveraging strengths while mitigating weaknesses can lead to enhanced job performance, greater career opportunities, and increased job satisfaction.

1. Strengths and Weaknesses Example

Tips for Answering “Strengths and Weaknesses” in an Interview

• Identify real strengths: Focus on qualities that are relevant to the role you are applying for, such as communication skills, problem-solving, and leadership.
• Provide examples: Support your strengths with concrete examples of how you have demonstrated these qualities in past roles or projects.
• Be specific: Avoid generic strengths and instead, tailor your strengths to the specific job and company.
• Connect to the job: Show how your strengths make you a perfect fit for the job and how they can contribute to the organization’s goals.

Weaknesses:

• Choose wisely: Select a weakness that is genuine but not a critical component of the job responsibilities.
• Frame it positively: Present your weakness in a way that also shows your awareness and proactive steps to manage or improve it.
• Show progress: Discuss any steps you’ve taken to overcome your weakness, demonstrating your commitment to self-improvement.
• Keep it professional: Focus on professional weaknesses rather than personal ones. Avoid mentioning weaknesses that raise red flags about your ability to perform the job effectively.

What are the common strengths in individuals?

Common strengths include adaptability, communication skills, resilience, and problem-solving abilities.

How can one identify their weaknesses?

Identify weaknesses by seeking feedback, self-assessment, and observing recurring challenges in your activities.

Why is knowing your strengths important?

Understanding your strengths helps maximize your effectiveness and guide career choices and personal development.

How can weaknesses be turned into strengths?

Transform weaknesses into strengths through targeted practice, learning new skills, and seeking mentorship or coaching.

What role do strengths play in workplace success?

Strengths contribute to higher productivity, better job satisfaction, and improved teamwork in the workplace.

Can strengths sometimes become weaknesses?

Yes, overemphasized strengths can turn into weaknesses, such as perfectionism leading to procrastination or burnout.

How should one discuss weaknesses in a job interview?

In job interviews, present weaknesses honestly but focus on steps taken to address and improve them.

Are strengths and weaknesses fixed traits?

Strengths and weaknesses can evolve with experiences, education, and personal efforts towards self-improvement.

How can understanding weaknesses improve relationships?

Recognizing and working on weaknesses can foster empathy, better communication, and stronger bonds in relationships.

What methods can help in balancing strengths and weaknesses?

Balancing can be achieved by leveraging strengths in areas of weakness and continuously working on personal growth and development.

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China calls on scientists of all nations to study lunar samples, but notes obstacle with the US

Bian Zhigang, Deputy Director of the China National Space Administration speaks during a press conference at the State Council Information Office in Beijing, Thursday, June 27, 2024. China’s space officials said Thursday they welcomed scientists from across the world to apply to study the lunar rock samples the Chang’e 6 probe brought back to earth in a historic mission, but noted there were limits to that cooperation, specifically with the U.S. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Bian Zhigang, Deputy Director of the China National Space Administration walks by Chang’e 6 probe models as he arrives for a press conference at the State Council Information Office in Beijing, Thursday, June 27, 2024. China’s space officials said Thursday they welcomed scientists from across the world to apply to study the lunar rock samples the Chang’e 6 probe brought back to earth in a historic mission, but noted there were limits to that cooperation, specifically with the U.S. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the return capsule of the Chang’e 6 probe is seen in Siziwang Banner, northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. China’s Chang’e 6 probe has returned on Earth with rock and soil samples from the little-explored far side of the moon in a global first. (Bei He/Xinhua via AP)

Hu Hao, chief designer of China’s Chang’e 6 probe, right, speaks next to Bian Zhigang, Deputy Director of the China National Space Administration during a press conference at the State Council Information Office in Beijing, Thursday, June 27, 2024. China’s space officials said Thursday they welcomed scientists from across the world to apply to study the lunar rock samples the Chang’e 6 probe brought back to earth in a historic mission, but noted there were limits to that cooperation, specifically with the U.S. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A reporter takes a smartphone photo of Chang’e 6 probe models on display at the State Council Information Office, in Beijing, Thursday, June 27, 2024. China’s space officials said Thursday they welcomed scientists from across the world to apply to study the lunar rock samples the Chang’e 6 probe brought back to earth in a historic mission, but noted there were limits to that cooperation, specifically with the U.S. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Bian Zhigang, Deputy Director of the China National Space Administration listens to a question from a foreign journalist during a press conference at the State Council Information Office in Beijing, Thursday, June 27, 2024. China’s space officials said Thursday they welcomed scientists from across the world to apply to study the lunar rock samples the Chang’e 6 probe brought back to earth in a historic mission, but noted there were limits to that cooperation, specifically with the U.S. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A staff member holding a smartphone showing the State Council Information Office website broadcasting a live of Hu Hao, chief designer of China’s Chang’e 6 probe speaking during a press conference at the State Council Information Office in Beijing, Thursday, June 27, 2024. China’s space officials said Thursday they welcomed scientists from across the world to apply to study the lunar rock samples the Chang’e 6 probe brought back to earth in a historic mission, but noted there were limits to that cooperation, specifically with the U.S. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

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BANGKOK (AP) — China’s space officials said Thursday they welcomed scientists from around the world to apply to study the lunar rock samples that the Chang’e 6 probe brought back to Earth in a historic mission , but noted there were limits to that cooperation, specifically with the United States.

Officials said at a televised news conference in Beijing meant to introduce the mission’s achievements that any cooperation with the U.S. would be hinged on removing an American law that bans direct bilateral cooperation with NASA.

“The source of the obstacle in US-China aerospace cooperation is still in the Wolf Amendment,” said Bian Zhigang, vice chair of the China National Space Administration. “If the U.S. truly wants to hope to began regular aerospace cooperation, I think they should take the appropriate measures to remove the obstacle.”

The Wolf Amendment was enacted in 2011 and prevents direct U.S.-Chinese bilateral cooperation except in cases where the FBI can certify that there is no national security risk to sharing information with the Chinese side in the course of work.

Still, China could cooperate with scientists of other countries. It worked with the European Space Agency, France, Italy and Pakistan in the Chang’e 6 mission.

“China welcomes scientists from all countries to apply according to the processes and share in the benefits,” said Liu Yunfeng, director of the international cooperation office of the China National Space Administration.

Meanwhile, little information about the global first achieved Tuesday was announced. Chinese officials declined to reveal how many samples they actually gathered or any preliminary findings.

“I’m afraid this matter will not be revealed until tomorrow, so I hope everyone can wait patiently for another day,” Chang’e 6 chief designer Hu Hao said at the news conference.

On Monday, Chinese scientists said that they anticipate the returned samples will include 2.5 million-year-old volcanic rock and other material that scientists hope will answer questions about geographic differences on the moon’s two sides. The mission had aimed to gather two kilograms (more than four pounds) of material.

The near side of the moon is what is seen from Earth, and the far side faces outer space. The far side is also known to have mountains and impact craters and is much more difficult to reach.

The probe’s journey to the far side of the moon was historic in that it was the first time a probe had successfully taken off and brought back samples from the far side directly. Previous samples thought to be from the far side of the moon are from meteorites found on Earth.

The probe had landed in the moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater created more than 4 billion years ago. The samples scientists are expecting will likely come from different layers of the basin, which will bear traces of the different geological events across its long chronology, such as when the moon was younger and had an active inside that could produce volcanic rock.

Officials did announce some future plans, with a planned Chang’e 7 probe to explore resources on the moon’s South Pole. Further down the line, they have planned Tianwen-3 for around 2030 to carry out a Mars sample return mission and a Tianwen-4 Jupiter exploration mission.

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• Published: 19 June 2024

Detection of microplastics in the human penis

• Jason Codrington   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0003-1490-4211 1 ,
• Alexandra Aponte Varnum 1 ,
• Lars Hildebrandt 2 ,
• Daniel Pröfrock 2 ,
• Joginder Bidhan 1 ,
• Kajal Khodamoradi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2951-4382 1 ,
• Anke-Lisa Höhme 3 ,
• Martin Held   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1869-463X 3 ,
• Aymara Evans 1 ,
• David Velasquez   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0003-0475-4918 1 ,
• Christina C. Yarborough 1 ,
• Bahareh Ghane-Motlagh 4 ,
• Ashutosh Agarwal 1 , 5 ,
• Justin Achua   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4159-439X 6 ,
• Edoardo Pozzi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0228-7039 1 , 7 , 8 ,
• Francesco Mesquita 1 ,
• Francis Petrella 1 ,
• David Miller 1 &
• Ranjith Ramasamy 1  

International Journal of Impotence Research ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Sexual dysfunction

The proliferation of microplastics (MPs) represents a burgeoning environmental and health crisis. Measuring less than 5 mm in diameter, MPs have infiltrated atmospheric, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, penetrating commonplace consumables like seafood, sea salt, and bottled beverages. Their size and surface area render them susceptible to chemical interactions with physiological fluids and tissues, raising bioaccumulation and toxicity concerns. Human exposure to MPs occurs through ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact. To date, there is no direct evidence identifying MPs in penile tissue. The objective of this study was to assess for potential aggregation of MPs in penile tissue. Tissue samples were extracted from six individuals who underwent surgery for a multi-component inflatable penile prosthesis (IPP). Samples were obtained from the corpora using Adson forceps before corporotomy dilation and device implantation and placed into cleaned glassware. A control sample was collected and stored in a McKesson specimen plastic container. The tissue fractions were analyzed using the Agilent 8700 Laser Direct Infrared (LDIR) Chemical Imaging System (Agilent Technologies. Moreover, the morphology of the particles was investigated by a Zeiss Merlin Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), complementing the detection range of LDIR to below 20 µm. MPs via LDIR were identified in 80% of the samples, ranging in size from 20–500 µm. Smaller particles down to 2 µm were detected via SEM. Seven types of MPs were found in the penile tissue, with polyethylene terephthalate (47.8%) and polypropylene (34.7%) being the most prevalent. The detection of MPs in penile tissue raises inquiries on the ramifications of environmental pollutants on sexual health. Our research adds a key dimension to the discussion on man-made pollutants, focusing on MPs in the male reproductive system.

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Desai Sethi Urology Institute, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

Jason Codrington, Alexandra Aponte Varnum, Joginder Bidhan, Kajal Khodamoradi, Aymara Evans, David Velasquez, Christina C. Yarborough, Ashutosh Agarwal, Edoardo Pozzi, Francesco Mesquita, Francis Petrella, David Miller & Ranjith Ramasamy

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Lars Hildebrandt & Daniel Pröfrock

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Anke-Lisa Höhme & Martin Held

Dr. J.T. MacDonald Foundation BioNIUM, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

Bahareh Ghane-Motlagh

Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

Ashutosh Agarwal

University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA

Justin Achua

Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

Edoardo Pozzi

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Jason Codrington—conceptualization, methodology, investigation, project administration, data curation, visualization, writing—original draft, editing. Alexandra Aponte Varnum—investigation, writing—original draft, editing, data curation, visualization. Lars Hildebrandt—investigation, writing—original draft, validation, resources. Daniel Pröfrock—investigation, editing, validation, resources. Joginder Bidhan—resources, writing—original draft. Kajal Khodamoradi—project administration, resources. Anke-Lisa Höhme—investigation, visualization. Martin Held—writing—original draft, editing. Aymara Evans—writing—original draft. David Velasquez—writing—original draft. Christina C. Yarborough—writing—original draft. Bahareh Ghane-Motlagh—investigation. Ashutosh Agarwal—investigation. Justin Achua—writing—original draft. Edoardo Pozzi—editing. Francesco Mesquita—editing. Francis Petrella—writing—review. David Miller—writing—review. Ranjith Ramasamy—conceptualization, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, editing, funding acquisition

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Correspondence to Ranjith Ramasamy .

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Dr. Edoardo Pozzi is currently an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Impotence Research.

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The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Miami (Study # 20150740) and conducted following the Declaration of Helsinki. All patients provided written and informed consent to participate in the study.

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Codrington, J., Varnum, A.A., Hildebrandt, L. et al. Detection of microplastics in the human penis. Int J Impot Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-024-00930-6

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Received : 21 March 2024

Revised : 29 May 2024

Accepted : 04 June 2024

Published : 19 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-024-00930-6

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