How to describe your research contribution

One of the most difficult tasks in writing up research is explaining how your research is new and why it matters.Fortunately, the re are a few standard steps writers use to indicate their

research contribution. Following these steps helps ensure that readers can understand the

purpose and importance of your research. 

(1)Demonstrate the interest or importance of the research topic. If possible, show in a sentence how your research matters to the general public.

(2)Selectively review and summarize the previously published research literature.

(3)Show that this research is not complete.Try to articulates "gap" in the previous research. This gap may be a problem that has not been resolved, a question that has been overlooked, or a new application that has not been considered. You need to show that there is something missing (or unfulfilled) in the current state of research AND that there is a need for this gap to be filled.

(4)Present your own research as"filler" for this gap.

If you have articulated a problem in previous research, your own study should appear to be a natural solution to this problem. These moves are not necessarily linear: a writer can backtrack at any point and move from discussing a gap in the research (move 3) to again summarizing previous research (move 2). However, these moves do represent the overall trajectory of an introduction to a research article and too much movement back and forth can confuse readers.