MomCademia

To our incredible community:

Academic Hive will be taking a break from 2026.

Thank you for the unforgettable years.

We are deeply moved by your selfless dedication and the unwavering support you’ve shown our mission.

While we may not be active in the coming year we hope you continue to invest in your growth and have a lovely year ahead.

Thank you for riding with us!

From my inbox 📥

Hi Juliet, at what point is gap analysis, (such as knowledge, methodological, theoretical, and empirical gaps) required when writing the literature review?

My Response 👇🏽

Hi scholar, the literature review is the process of identifying the gaps.

There are different types of gaps as you have already noted.

When reviewing the literature, you are not only describing what has been done by others.

You go further to look at where the gaps are in existing knowledge.

So there’s really no reason to say at this point of literature review you apply so and so gap analysis.

The gap analysis IS the literature review.

Without the gap analysis, you have only done what I’ll call “literature description” not “literature review“.

Now, the type of gap you highlight in the your review, totally depends on certain factors: what you find, your research question or what you want to contribute to the field.

For instance, I started out my research keen to highlight African ways of knowing (which is methodological).

When reviewing the literature, I carefully identified that there are very few African methodologies used in topics that concern Africans.

I showed examples of such studies (this is description) and showed where they lacked the use of African methodologies (this is review).

Then I emphasised that there is need for more studies by, for, and with Africans to adopt African methodologies.

Now that is a gap analysis.

And a methodological gap at that.

I hope this helps 🙏🏾

Scholarly love 💕

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This question was from a new researcher taking the Research coaching program. Get it here: selar.com/AHRBootcamp

My heart is filled with gratitude for all who made the workshop on Structural Equation Modelling with SmartPLS4 a success.

Thank you to all the participants who showed up and stayed through the entire 2 hours. Your thoughtful feedback warms our hearts.

(Takes a deep breath)

I can’t find words deep enough to convey my sincere gratitude to the instructor, Dr Uduakobong Otu.

It’s beautiful to see how far we’ve come.

Teaching you and supervising your research was all I was paid to do at the time we first met.

Thank you for always investing in your growth and learning and being generous enough to give back to the African research community.

We love you 💕


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The SEM workshop recording is now available as a free course on YouTube channel. Visit to watch it.