scope and limitation of the study example thesis

• Social Science
• Social Research

Scope and Limitation of Study in Social Research

• November 2020
• In book: Contemporary Issues in Social Research (pp.105-114)
• Publisher: Ibadan University Press

• University of Ibadan

• Swinburne University of Technology

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How To Write Scope and Delimitation of a Research Paper (With Examples)

An effective research paper or thesis has a well-written Scope and Delimitation.  This portion specifies your study’s coverage and boundaries.

Not yet sure about how to write your research’s Scope and Delimitation? Fret not, as we’ll guide you through the entire writing process through this article.

Related: How To Write Significance of the Study (With Examples)

Table of Contents

What is the scope and delimitation of a research paper.

The “Scope and Delimitation” section states the concepts and variables your study covered. It tells readers which things you have included and excluded in your analysis.

This portion tells two things: 1

• The study’s “Scope” – concepts and variables you have explored in your research and;
• The study’s “Delimitation” – the “boundaries” of your study’s scope. It sets apart the things included in your analysis from those excluded.

For example, your scope might be the effectiveness of plant leaves in lowering blood sugar levels. You can “delimit” your study only to the effect of gabi leaves on the blood glucose of Swiss mice.

Where Should I Put the Scope and Delimitation?

This portion is in Chapter 1, usually after the “Background of the Study.”

Why Should I Write the Scope and Delimitation of My Research Paper?

There’s a lot to discover in a research paper or thesis. However, your resources and time dedicated to it are scarce. Thus, given these constraints, you have to narrow down your study. You do this in the Scope and Delimitation.

Suppose you’re studying the correlation between the quantity of organic fertilizer and plant growth . Experimenting with several types of plants is impossible because of several limitations. So, you’ve decided to use one plant type only. 

Informing your readers about this decision is a must. So, you have to state it in your Scope and Delimitation. It also acts as a “disclaimer” that your results are inapplicable to the entire plant kingdom.

What Is the Difference Between Delimitation and Limitation?

People often use the terms “Delimitation” and “Limitation” interchangeably. However, these words differ 2 .

Delimitation refers to factors you set to limit your analysis. It delineates those that are included in your research and those that are excluded. Remember, delimitations are within your control. 

Meanwhile, limitations are factors beyond your control that may affect your research’s results.  You can think of limitations as the “weaknesses” of your study. 

Let’s go back to our previous example. Due to some constraints, you’ve only decided to examine one plant type: dandelions. This is an example of a delimitation since it limits your analysis to dandelions only and not other plant types. Note that the number of plant types used is within your control. 

Meanwhile, your study cannot state that a higher quantity of organic fertilizer is the sole reason for plant growth. That’s because your research’s focus is only on correlation. Since this is already beyond your control, then this is a limitation. 

How To Write Scope and Delimitation: Step-by-Step Guide

To write your research’s Scope and Delimitation section, follow these steps:

1. Review Your Study’s Objectives and Problem Statement

Your study’s coverage relies on its objectives. Thus, you can only write this section if you know what you’re researching. Furthermore, ensure that you understand the problems you ought to answer. 

Once you understand the abovementioned things, you may start writing your study’s Scope and Delimitation.

2. State the Key Information To Explain Your Study’s Coverage and Boundaries

a. The Main Objective of the Research

This refers to the concept that you’re focusing on in your research. Some examples are the following:

• level of awareness or satisfaction of a particular group of people
• correlation between two variables
• effectiveness of a new product
• comparison between two methods/approaches
• lived experiences of several individuals

It’s helpful to consult your study’s Objectives or Statement of the Problem section to determine your research’s primary goal.

b. Independent and Dependent Variables Included

Your study’s independent variable is the variable that you manipulate. Meanwhile, the dependent variable is the variable whose result depends upon the independent variable. Both of these variables must be clear and specific when indicated. 

Suppose you study the relationship between social media usage and students’ language skills. These are the possible variables for the study:

• Independent Variable: Number of hours per day spent on using Facebook
• Dependent Variable: Grade 10 students’ scores in Quarterly Examination in English. 

Note how specific the variables stated above are. For the independent variable, we narrow it down to Facebook only. Since there are many ways to assess “language skills,” we zero in on the students’ English exam scores as our dependent variable. 

c. Subject of the Study

This refers to your study’s respondents or participants. 

In our previous example, the research participants are Grade 10 students. However, there are a lot of Grade 10 students in the Philippines. Thus, we have to select from a specific school only—for instance, Grade 10 students from a national high school in Manila. 

d. Timeframe and Location of the Study

Specify the month(s), quarter(s), or year(s) as the duration of your study. Also, indicate where you will gather the data required for your research. 

e. Brief Description of the Study’s Research Design and Methodology

You may also include whether your research is quantitative or qualitative, the sampling method (cluster, stratified, purposive) applied, and how you conducted the experiment.

Using our previous example, the Grade 10 students can be selected using stratified sampling. Afterward, the researchers may obtain their English quarterly exam scores from their respective teachers. You can add these things to your study’s Scope and Delimitation. 

3. Indicate Which Variables or Factors Are Not Covered by Your Research

Although you’ve already set your study’s coverage and boundaries in Step 2, you may also explicitly mention things you’ve excluded from your research. 

Returning to our previous example, you can state that your assessment will not include the vocabulary and oral aspects of the English proficiency skill. 

Examples of Scope and Delimitation of a Research Paper

1. scope and delimitation examples for quantitative research.

a. Example 1

Research Title

    A Study on the Relationship of the Extent of Facebook Usage on the English Proficiency Level of Grade 10 Students of Matagumpay High School

Scope and Delimitation

(Main Objective)

This study assessed the correlation between the respondents’ duration of Facebook usage and their English proficiency level. 

(Variables used)

The researchers used the number of hours per day of using Facebook and the activities usually performed on the platform to assess the respondents’ extent of Facebook usage. Meanwhile, the respondents’ English proficiency level is limited to their quarterly English exam scores. 

(Subject of the study)

A sample of fifty (50) Grade 10 students of Matagumpay High School served as the study’s respondents. 

(Timeframe and location)

This study was conducted during the Second Semester of the School Year 2018 – 2019 on the premises of Matagumpay High School in Metro Manila. 

(Methodology)

The respondents are selected by performing stratified random sampling to ensure that there will be ten respondents from five Grade 10 classes of the school mentioned above. The researchers administered a 20-item questionnaire to assess the extent of Facebook usage of the selected respondents. Meanwhile, the data for the respondents’ quarterly exam scores were acquired from their English teachers. The collected data are handled with the utmost confidentiality. Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation was applied to quantitatively assess the correlation between the variables.

(Exclusions)

This study didn’t assess other aspects of the respondents’ English proficiency, such as English vocabulary and oral skills. 

Note: The words inside the parentheses in the example above are guides only. They are not included in the actual text.

b. Example 2

  Level of Satisfaction of Grade 11 Students on the Implementation of the Online Learning Setup of Matagumpay High School for SY 2020 – 2021

This study aims to identify students’ satisfaction levels with implementing online learning setups during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students’ satisfaction was assessed according to teachers’ pedagogy, school policies, and learning materials used in the online learning setup. The respondents included sixty (60) Grade 11 students of Matagumpay High School who were randomly picked. The researchers conducted the study from October 2020 to February 2021. 

Online platforms such as email and social media applications were used to reach the respondents. The researchers administered a 15-item online questionnaire to measure the respondents’ satisfaction levels. Each response was assessed using a Likert Scale to provide a descriptive interpretation of their answers. A weighted mean was applied to determine the respondents’ general satisfaction. 

This study did not cover other factors related to the online learning setup, such as the learning platform used, the schedule of synchronous learning, and channels for information dissemination.

2. Scope and Delimitation Examples for Qualitative Research

  Lived Experiences of Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) Drivers of Antipolo City Amidst the Continuous June 2022 Oil Price Hikes

This research focused on the presentation and discussion of the lived experiences of PUV drivers during the constant oil price hike in June 2022.

The respondents involved are five (5) jeepney drivers from Antipolo City who agreed to be interviewed. The researchers assessed their experiences in terms of the following: (1) daily net income; (2) duration and extent of working; (3) alternative employment opportunity considerations; and (4) mental and emotional status. The respondents were interviewed daily at their stations on June 6 – 10, 2022. 

In-depth one-on-one interviews were used for data collection.  Afterward, the respondents’ first-hand experiences were drafted and annotated with the researchers’ insights. 

The researchers excluded some factors in determining the respondents’ experiences, such as physical and health conditions and current family relationship status. 

 A Study on the Perception of the Residents of Mayamot, Antipolo City on the Political and Socioeconomic Conditions During the Post-EDSA Period (1986 – 1996)

This research aims to discuss the perception of Filipinos regarding the political and socioeconomic economic conditions during the post-EDSA period, specifically during the years 1986 – 1996. 

Ten (10) residents of Mayamot, Antipolo City, who belonged to Generation X (currently 40 – 62 years old), were purposively selected as the study’s respondents. The researchers asked them about their perception of the following aspects during the period mentioned above (1) performance of national and local government; (2) bureaucracy and government services; (3) personal economic and financial status; and (4) wage purchasing power. 

The researchers conducted face-to-face interviews in the respondents’ residences during the second semester of AY 2018 – 2019. The responses were written and corroborated with the literature on the post-EDSA period. 

The following factors were not included in the research analysis: political conflicts and turmoils, the status of the legislative and judicial departments, and other macroeconomic indicators. 

Tips and Warnings

1. use the “5ws and 1h” as your guide in understanding your study’s coverage.

• Why did you write your study?  
• What variables are included?
• Who are your study’s subject
• Where did you conduct the study?
• When did your study start and end?
• How did you conduct the study?

2. Use key phrases when writing your research’s scope

• This study aims to … 
• This study primarily focuses on …
• This study deals with … 
• This study will cover …
• This study will be confined…

3. Use key phrases when writing factors beyond your research’s delimitations

• The researcher(s) decided to exclude …
• This study did not cover….
• This study excluded … 
• These variables/factors were excluded from the study…

4. Don’t forget to ask for help

Your research adviser can assist you in selecting specific concepts and variables suitable to your study. Make sure to consult him/her regularly. 

5. Make it brief

No need to make this section wordy. You’re good to go if you meet the “5Ws and 1Hs”. 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. what are scope and delimitation in tagalog.

In a Filipino research ( pananaliksik ), Scope and Delimitation is called “ Saklaw at Delimitasyon”. 

Here’s an example of Scope and Delimitation in Filipino:

Pamagat ng Pananaliksik

Epekto Ng Paggamit Ng Mga Digital Learning Tools Sa Pag-Aaral Ng Mga Mag-Aaral Ng Mataas Na Paaralan Ng Matagumpay Sa General Mathematics

Sakop at Delimitasyon ng Pag-aaral

Nakatuon ang pananaliksik na ito sa epekto ng paggamit ng mga digital learning aids sa pag-aaral ng mga mag-aaral.

Ang mga digital learning tools na kinonsidera sa pag-aaral na ito ay Google Classroom, Edmodo, Kahoot, at mga piling bidyo mula YouTube. Samantala, ang epekto sa pag-aaral ng mga mag-aaral ng mga nabanggit na digital learning tools ay natukoy sa pamamagitan ng kanilang (1) mga pananaw hinggil sa benepisyo nito sa kanilang pag-aaral sa General Mathematics at (2) kanilang average grade sa asignaturang ito.

Dalawampu’t-limang (25) mag-aaral mula sa Senior High School ng Mataas na Paaralan ng Matagumpay ang pinili para sa pananaliksik na ito. Sila ay na-interbyu at binigyan ng questionnaire noong Enero 2022 sa nasabing paaralan. Sinuri ang resulta ng pananaliksik sa pamamagitan ng mga instrumentong estadistikal na weighted mean at Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Hindi saklaw ng pananaliksik na ito ang ibang mga aspeto hinggil sa epekto ng online learning aids sa pag-aaral gaya ng lebel ng pag-unawa sa aralin at kakayahang iugnay ito sa araw-araw na buhay. 

2. The Scope and Delimitation should consist of how many paragraphs?

Three or more paragraphs will suffice for your study’s Scope and Delimitation. Here’s our suggestion on what you should write for each paragraph:

Paragraph 1: Introduction (state research objective) Paragraph 2: Coverage and boundaries of the research (you may divide this section into 2-3 paragraphs) Paragraph 3 : Factors excluded from the study

• University of St. La Salle. Unit 3: Lesson 3 Setting the Scope and Limitation of a Qualitative Research [Ebook] (p. 12). Retrieved from https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/university-of-st-la-salle/senior-high-school/final-sg-pr1-11-12-unit-3-lesson-3-setting-the-scope-and-limitation-of-a-qualitative-research/24341582
• Theofanidis, D., & Fountouki, A. (2018). Limitations and Delimitations in the Research Process. Perioperative Nursing (GORNA), 7(3), 155–162. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.2552022

Written by Jewel Kyle Fabula

in Career and Education , Juander How

Jewel Kyle Fabula

Jewel Kyle Fabula is a Bachelor of Science in Economics student at the University of the Philippines Diliman. His passion for learning mathematics developed as he competed in some mathematics competitions during his Junior High School years. He loves cats, playing video games, and listening to music.

Browse all articles written by Jewel Kyle Fabula

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How to Write the Scope of the Study

• By DiscoverPhDs
• August 26, 2020

What is the Scope of the Study?

The scope of the study refers to the boundaries within which your research project will be performed; this is sometimes also called the scope of research. To define the scope of the study is to define all aspects that will be considered in your research project. It is also just as important to make clear what aspects will not be covered; i.e. what is outside of the scope of the study.

Why is the Scope of the Study Important?

The scope of the study is always considered and agreed upon in the early stages of the project, before any data collection or experimental work has started. This is important because it focuses the work of the proposed study down to what is practically achievable within a given timeframe.

A well-defined research or study scope enables a researcher to give clarity to the study outcomes that are to be investigated. It makes clear why specific data points have been collected whilst others have been excluded.

Without this, it is difficult to define an end point for a research project since no limits have been defined on the work that could take place. Similarly, it can also make the approach to answering a research question too open ended.

How do you Write the Scope of the Study?

In order to write the scope of the study that you plan to perform, you must be clear on the research parameters that you will and won’t consider. These parameters usually consist of the sample size, the duration, inclusion and exclusion criteria, the methodology and any geographical or monetary constraints.

Each of these parameters will have limits placed on them so that the study can practically be performed, and the results interpreted relative to the limitations that have been defined. These parameters will also help to shape the direction of each research question you consider.

The term limitations’ is often used together with the scope of the study to describe the constraints of any parameters that are considered and also to clarify which parameters have not been considered at all. Make sure you get the balance right here between not making the scope too broad and unachievable, and it not being too restrictive, resulting in a lack of useful data.

The sample size is a commonly used parameter in the definition of the research scope. For example, a research project involving human participants may define at the start of the study that 100 participants will be recruited. This number will be determined based on an understanding of the difficulty in recruiting participants to studies and an agreement of an acceptable period of time in which to recruit this number.

Any results that are obtained by the research group can then be interpreted by others with the knowledge that the study was capped to 100 participants and an acceptance of this as a limitation of the study. In other words, it is acknowledged that recruiting 100 rather than 1,000 participants has limited the amount of data that could be collected, however this is an acceptable limitation due to the known difficulties in recruiting so many participants (e.g. the significant period of time it would take and the costs associated with this).

Example of a Scope of the Study

The follow is a (hypothetical) example of the definition of the scope of the study, with the research question investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health.

Whilst the immediate negative health problems related to the COVID-19 pandemic have been well documented, the impact of the virus on the mental health (MH) of young adults (age 18-24 years) is poorly understood. The aim of this study is to report on MH changes in population group due to the pandemic.

The scope of the study is limited to recruiting 100 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 24 who will be contacted using their university email accounts. This recruitment period will last for a maximum of 2 months and will end when either 100 volunteers have been recruited or 2 months have passed. Each volunteer to the study will be asked to complete a short questionnaire in order to evaluate any changes in their MH.

From this example we can immediately see that the scope of the study has placed a constraint on the sample size to be used and/or the time frame for recruitment of volunteers. It has also introduced a limitation by only opening recruitment to people that have university emails; i.e. anyone that does not attend university will be excluded from this study.

This may be an important factor when interpreting the results of this study; the comparison of MH during the pandemic between those that do and do not attend university, is therefore outside the scope of the study here. We are also told that the methodology used to assess any changes in MH are via a questionnaire. This is a clear definition of how the outcome measure will be investigated and any other methods are not within the scope of research and their exclusion may be a limitation of the study.

The scope of the study is important to define as it enables a researcher to focus their research to within achievable parameters.

The term research instrument refers to any tool that you may use to collect, measure and analyse research data.

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The scope of the study is defined at the start of the study. It is used by researchers to set the boundaries and limitations within which the research study will be performed.

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Home » Delimitations in Research – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

Delimitations in Research – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

Delimitations

Definition:

Delimitations refer to the specific boundaries or limitations that are set in a research study in order to narrow its scope and focus. Delimitations may be related to a variety of factors, including the population being studied, the geographical location, the time period, the research design , and the methods or tools being used to collect data .

The Importance of Delimitations in Research Studies

Here are some reasons why delimitations are important in research studies:

• Provide focus : Delimitations help researchers focus on a specific area of interest and avoid getting sidetracked by tangential topics. By setting clear boundaries, researchers can concentrate their efforts on the most relevant and significant aspects of the research question.
• Increase validity : Delimitations ensure that the research is more valid by defining the boundaries of the study. When researchers establish clear criteria for inclusion and exclusion, they can better control for extraneous variables that might otherwise confound the results.
• Improve generalizability : Delimitations help researchers determine the extent to which their findings can be generalized to other populations or contexts. By specifying the sample size, geographic region, time frame, or other relevant factors, researchers can provide more accurate estimates of the generalizability of their results.
• Enhance feasibility : Delimitations help researchers identify the resources and time required to complete the study. By setting realistic parameters, researchers can ensure that the study is feasible and can be completed within the available time and resources.
• Clarify scope: Delimitations help readers understand the scope of the research project. By explicitly stating what is included and excluded, researchers can avoid confusion and ensure that readers understand the boundaries of the study.

Types of Delimitations in Research

Here are some types of delimitations in research and their significance:

Time Delimitations

This type of delimitation refers to the time frame in which the research will be conducted. Time delimitations are important because they help to narrow down the scope of the study and ensure that the research is feasible within the given time constraints.

Geographical Delimitations

Geographical delimitations refer to the geographic boundaries within which the research will be conducted. These delimitations are significant because they help to ensure that the research is relevant to the intended population or location.

Population Delimitations

Population delimitations refer to the specific group of people that the research will focus on. These delimitations are important because they help to ensure that the research is targeted to a specific group, which can improve the accuracy of the results.

Data Delimitations

Data delimitations refer to the specific types of data that will be used in the research. These delimitations are important because they help to ensure that the data is relevant to the research question and that the research is conducted using reliable and valid data sources.

Scope Delimitations

Scope delimitations refer to the specific aspects or dimensions of the research that will be examined. These delimitations are important because they help to ensure that the research is focused and that the findings are relevant to the research question.

How to Write Delimitations

In order to write delimitations in research, you can follow these steps:

• Identify the scope of your study : Determine the extent of your research by defining its boundaries. This will help you to identify the areas that are within the scope of your research and those that are outside of it.
• Determine the time frame : Decide on the time period that your research will cover. This could be a specific period, such as a year, or it could be a general time frame, such as the last decade.
• I dentify the population : Determine the group of people or objects that your study will focus on. This could be a specific age group, gender, profession, or geographic location.
• Establish the sample size : Determine the number of participants that your study will involve. This will help you to establish the number of people you need to recruit for your study.
• Determine the variables: Identify the variables that will be measured in your study. This could include demographic information, attitudes, behaviors, or other factors.
• Explain the limitations : Clearly state the limitations of your study. This could include limitations related to time, resources, sample size, or other factors that may impact the validity of your research.
• Justify the limitations : Explain why these limitations are necessary for your research. This will help readers understand why certain factors were excluded from the study.

When to Write Delimitations in Research

Here are some situations when you may need to write delimitations in research:

• When defining the scope of the study: Delimitations help to define the boundaries of your research by specifying what is and what is not included in your study. For instance, you may delimit your study by focusing on a specific population, geographic region, time period, or research methodology.
• When addressing limitations: Delimitations can also be used to address the limitations of your research. For example, if your data is limited to a certain timeframe or geographic area, you can include this information in your delimitations to help readers understand the limitations of your findings.
• When justifying the relevance of the study : Delimitations can also help you to justify the relevance of your research. For instance, if you are conducting a study on a specific population or region, you can explain why this group or area is important and how your research will contribute to the understanding of this topic.
• When clarifying the research question or hypothesis : Delimitations can also be used to clarify your research question or hypothesis. By specifying the boundaries of your study, you can ensure that your research question or hypothesis is focused and specific.
• When establishing the context of the study : Finally, delimitations can help you to establish the context of your research. By providing information about the scope and limitations of your study, you can help readers to understand the context in which your research was conducted and the implications of your findings.

Examples of Delimitations in Research

Examples of Delimitations in Research are as follows:

Research Title : “Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Cybersecurity Threat Detection”

Delimitations :

• The study will focus solely on the use of artificial intelligence in detecting and mitigating cybersecurity threats.
• The study will only consider the impact of AI on threat detection and not on other aspects of cybersecurity such as prevention, response, or recovery.
• The research will be limited to a specific type of cybersecurity threats, such as malware or phishing attacks, rather than all types of cyber threats.
• The study will only consider the use of AI in a specific industry, such as finance or healthcare, rather than examining its impact across all industries.
• The research will only consider AI-based threat detection tools that are currently available and widely used, rather than including experimental or theoretical AI models.

Research Title: “The Effects of Social Media on Academic Performance: A Case Study of College Students”

Delimitations:

• The study will focus only on college students enrolled in a particular university.
• The study will only consider social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• The study will only analyze the academic performance of students based on their GPA and course grades.
• The study will not consider the impact of other factors such as student demographics, socioeconomic status, or other factors that may affect academic performance.
• The study will only use self-reported data from students, rather than objective measures of their social media usage or academic performance.

Purpose of Delimitations

Some Purposes of Delimitations are as follows:

• Focusing the research : By defining the scope of the study, delimitations help researchers to narrow down their research questions and focus on specific aspects of the topic. This allows for a more targeted and meaningful study.
• Clarifying the research scope : Delimitations help to clarify the boundaries of the research, which helps readers to understand what is and is not included in the study.
• Avoiding scope creep : Delimitations help researchers to stay focused on their research objectives and avoid being sidetracked by tangential issues or data.
• Enhancing the validity of the study : By setting clear boundaries, delimitations help to ensure that the study is valid and reliable.
• Improving the feasibility of the study : Delimitations help researchers to ensure that their study is feasible and can be conducted within the time and resources available.

Applications of Delimitations

Here are some common applications of delimitations:

• Geographic delimitations : Researchers may limit their study to a specific geographic area, such as a particular city, state, or country. This helps to narrow the focus of the study and makes it more manageable.
• Time delimitations : Researchers may limit their study to a specific time period, such as a decade, a year, or a specific date range. This can be useful for studying trends over time or for comparing data from different time periods.
• Population delimitations : Researchers may limit their study to a specific population, such as a particular age group, gender, or ethnic group. This can help to ensure that the study is relevant to the population being studied.
• Data delimitations : Researchers may limit their study to specific types of data, such as survey responses, interviews, or archival records. This can help to ensure that the study is based on reliable and relevant data.
• Conceptual delimitations : Researchers may limit their study to specific concepts or variables, such as only studying the effects of a particular treatment on a specific outcome. This can help to ensure that the study is focused and clear.

Advantages of Delimitations

Some Advantages of Delimitations are as follows:

• Helps to focus the study: Delimitations help to narrow down the scope of the research and identify specific areas that need to be investigated. This helps to focus the study and ensures that the research is not too broad or too narrow.
• Defines the study population: Delimitations can help to define the population that will be studied. This can include age range, gender, geographical location, or any other factors that are relevant to the research. This helps to ensure that the study is more specific and targeted.
• Provides clarity: Delimitations help to provide clarity about the research study. By identifying the boundaries and limitations of the research, it helps to avoid confusion and ensures that the research is more understandable.
• Improves validity: Delimitations can help to improve the validity of the research by ensuring that the study is more focused and specific. This can help to ensure that the research is more accurate and reliable.
• Reduces bias: Delimitations can help to reduce bias by limiting the scope of the research. This can help to ensure that the research is more objective and unbiased.

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Decoding the Scope and Delimitations of the Study in Research

Scope and delimitations of the study are two essential elements of a research paper or thesis that help to contextualize and convey the focus and boundaries of a research study. This allows readers to understand the research focus and the kind of information to expect. For researchers, especially students and early career researchers, understanding the meaning and purpose of the scope and delimitation of a study is crucial to craft a well-defined and impactful research project. In this article, we delve into the core concepts of scope and delimitation in a study, providing insightful examples, and practical tips on how to effectively incorporate them into your research endeavors.

Table of Contents

What is scope and delimitation in research

The scope of a research paper explains the context and framework for the study, outlines the extent, variables, or dimensions that will be investigated, and provides details of the parameters within which the study is conducted. Delimitations in research , on the other hand, refer to the limitations imposed on the study. It identifies aspects of the topic that will not be covered in the research, conveys why these choices were made, and how this will affect the outcome of the research. By narrowing down the scope and defining delimitations, researchers can ensure focused research and avoid pitfalls, which ensures the study remains feasible and attainable.

Example of scope and delimitation of a study

A researcher might want to study the effects of regular physical exercise on the health of senior citizens. This would be the broad scope of the study, after which the researcher would refine the scope by excluding specific groups of senior citizens, perhaps based on their age, gender, geographical location, cultural influences, and sample sizes. These then, would form the delimitations of the study; in other words, elements that describe the boundaries of the research.

The purpose of scope and delimitation in a study

The purpose of scope and delimitation in a study is to establish clear boundaries and focus for the research. This allows researchers to avoid ambiguity, set achievable objectives, and manage their project efficiently, ultimately leading to more credible and meaningful findings in their study. The scope and delimitation of a study serve several important purposes, including:

• Establishing clarity: Clearly defining the scope and delimitation of a study helps researchers and readers alike understand the boundaries of the investigation and what to expect from it.
• Focus and relevance: By setting the scope, researchers can concentrate on specific research questions, preventing the study from becoming too broad or irrelevant.
• Feasibility: Delimitations of the study prevent researchers from taking on too unrealistic or unmanageable tasks, making the research more achievable.
• Avoiding ambiguity: A well-defined scope and delimitation of the study minimizes any confusion or misinterpretation regarding the research objectives and methods.

Given the importance of both the scope and delimitations of a study, it is imperative to ensure that they are mentioned early on in the research manuscript. Most experts agree that the scope of research should be mentioned as part of the introduction and the delimitations must be mentioned as part of the methods section. Now that we’ve covered the scope and delimitation meaning and purpose, we look at how to write each of these sections.

How to write the scope of the study in research

When writing the scope of the study, remain focused on what you hope to achieve. Broadening the scope too much might make it too generic while narrowing it down too much may affect the way it would be interpreted. Ensure the scope of the study is clear, concise and accurate. Conduct a thorough literature review to understand existing literature, which will help identify gaps and refine the scope of your study.

It is helpful if you structure the scope in a way that answers the Six Ws – questions whose answers are considered basic in information-gathering.

Why: State the purpose of the research by articulating the research objectives and questions you aim to address in your study.

What: Outline the specific topic to be studied, while mentioning the variables, concepts, or aspects central to your research; these will define the extent of your study.

Where: Provide the setting or geographical location where the research study will be conducted.

When : Mention the specific timeframe within which the research data will be collected.

Who : Specify the sample size for the study and the profile of the population they will be drawn from.

How : Explain the research methodology, research design, and tools and analysis techniques.

How to write the delimitations of a study in research

When writing the delimitations of the study, researchers must provide all the details clearly and precisely. Writing the delimitations of the study requires a systematic approach to narrow down the research’s focus and establish boundaries. Follow these steps to craft delimitations effectively:

• Clearly understand the research objectives and questions you intend to address in your study.
• Conduct a comprehensive literature review to identify gaps and areas that have already been extensively covered. This helps to avoid redundancies and home in on a unique issue.
• Clearly state what aspects, variables, or factors you will be excluding in your research; mention available alternatives, if any, and why these alternatives were rejected.
• Explain how you the delimitations were set, and they contribute to the feasibility and relevance of your study, and how they align with the research objectives.
• Be sure to acknowledge limitations in your research, such as constraints related to time, resources, or data availability.

Being transparent ensures credibility, while explaining why the delimitations of your study could not be overcome with standard research methods backed up by scientific evidence can help readers understand the context better.

Differentiating between delimitations and limitations

Most early career researchers get confused and often use these two terms interchangeably which is wrong. Delimitations of a study refer to the set boundaries and specific parameters within which the research is carried out. They help narrow down your focus and makes it more relevant to what you are trying to prove.

Meanwhile, limitations in a study refer to the validity and reliability of the research being conducted. They are those elements of your study that are usually out of your immediate control but are still able to affect your findings in some way. In other words, limitation are potential weaknesses of your research.

In conclusion, scope and delimitation of a study are vital elements that shape the trajectory of your research study. The above explanations will have hopefully helped you better understand the scope and delimitations meaning, purpose, and importance in crafting focused, feasible, and impactful research studies. Be sure to follow the simple techniques to write the scope and delimitations of the study to embark on your research journey with clarity and confidence. Happy researching!

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Scope and Delimitations in Research

Delimitations are the boundaries that the researcher sets in a research study, deciding what to include and what to exclude. They help to narrow down the study and make it more manageable and relevant to the research goal.

Updated on October 19, 2022

All scientific research has boundaries, whether or not the authors clearly explain them. Your study's scope and delimitations are the sections where you define the broader parameters and boundaries of your research.

The scope details what your study will explore, such as the target population, extent, or study duration. Delimitations are factors and variables not included in the study.

Scope and delimitations are not methodological shortcomings; they're always under your control. Discussing these is essential because doing so shows that your project is manageable and scientifically sound.

This article covers:

• What's meant by “scope” and “delimitations”
• Why these are integral components of every study
• How and where to actually write about scope and delimitations in your manuscript
• Examples of scope and delimitations from published studies

What is the scope in a research paper?

Simply put, the scope is the domain of your research. It describes the extent to which the research question will be explored in your study.

Articulating your study's scope early on helps you make your research question focused and realistic.

It also helps decide what data you need to collect (and, therefore, what data collection tools you need to design). Getting this right is vital for both academic articles and funding applications.

What are delimitations in a research paper?

Delimitations are those factors or aspects of the research area that you'll exclude from your research. The scope and delimitations of the study are intimately linked.

Essentially, delimitations form a more detailed and narrowed-down formulation of the scope in terms of exclusion. The delimitations explain what was (intentionally) not considered within the given piece of research.

Scope and delimitations examples

Use the following examples provided by our expert PhD editors as a reference when coming up with your own scope and delimitations.

Scope example

Your research question is, “What is the impact of bullying on the mental health of adolescents?” This topic, on its own, doesn't say much about what's being investigated.

The scope, for example, could encompass:

• Variables: “bullying” (dependent variable), “mental health” (independent variable), and ways of defining or measuring them
• Bullying type: Both face-to-face and cyberbullying
• Target population: Adolescents aged 12–17
• Geographical coverage: France or only one specific town in France

Delimitations example

Look back at the previous example.

Exploring the adverse effects of bullying on adolescents' mental health is a preliminary delimitation. This one was chosen from among many possible research questions (e.g., the impact of bullying on suicide rates, or children or adults).

Delimiting factors could include:

• Research design : Mixed-methods research, including thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and statistical analysis of a survey
• Timeframe : Data collection to run for 3 months
• Population size : 100 survey participants; 15 interviewees
• Recruitment of participants : Quota sampling (aiming for specific portions of men, women, ethnic minority students etc.)

We can see that every choice you make in planning and conducting your research inevitably excludes other possible options.

What's the difference between limitations and delimitations?

Delimitations and limitations are entirely different, although they often get mixed up. These are the main differences:

This chart explains the difference between delimitations and limitations. Delimitations are the boundaries of the study while the limitations are the characteristics of the research design or methodology.

Delimitations encompass the elements outside of the boundaries you've set and depends on your decision of what yo include and exclude. On the flip side, limitations are the elements outside of your control, such as:

• limited financial resources
• unplanned work or expenses
• unexpected events (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic)
• time constraints
• lack of technology/instruments
• unavailable evidence or previous research on the topic

Delimitations involve narrowing your study to make it more manageable and relevant to what you're trying to prove. Limitations influence the validity and reliability of your research findings. Limitations are seen as potential weaknesses in your research.

Example of the differences

To clarify these differences, go back to the limitations of the earlier example.

Limitations could comprise:

• Sample size : Not large enough to provide generalizable conclusions.
• Sampling approach : Non-probability sampling has increased bias risk. For instance, the researchers might not manage to capture the experiences of ethnic minority students.
• Methodological pitfalls : Research participants from an urban area (Paris) are likely to be more advantaged than students in rural areas. A study exploring the latter's experiences will probably yield very different findings.

Where do you write the scope and delimitations, and why?

It can be surprisingly empowering to realize you're restricted when conducting scholarly research. But this realization also makes writing up your research easier to grasp and makes it easier to see its limits and the expectations placed on it. Properly revealing this information serves your field and the greater scientific community.

Openly (but briefly) acknowledge the scope and delimitations of your study early on. The Abstract and Introduction sections are good places to set the parameters of your paper.

Next, discuss the scope and delimitations in greater detail in the Methods section. You'll need to do this to justify your methodological approach and data collection instruments, as well as analyses

At this point, spell out why these delimitations were set. What alternative options did you consider? Why did you reject alternatives? What could your study not address?

Let's say you're gathering data that can be derived from different but related experiments. You must convince the reader that the one you selected best suits your research question.

Finally, a solid paper will return to the scope and delimitations in the Findings or Discussion section. Doing so helps readers contextualize and interpret findings because the study's scope and methods influence the results.

For instance, agricultural field experiments carried out under irrigated conditions yield different results from experiments carried out without irrigation.

Being transparent about the scope and any outstanding issues increases your research's credibility and objectivity. It helps other researchers replicate your study and advance scientific understanding of the same topic (e.g., by adopting a different approach).

How do you write the scope and delimitations?

Define the scope and delimitations of your study before collecting data. This is critical. This step should be part of your research project planning.

Answering the following questions will help you address your scope and delimitations clearly and convincingly.

• What are your study's aims and objectives?
• Why did you carry out the study?
• What was the exact topic under investigation?
• Which factors and variables were included? And state why specific variables were omitted from the research scope.
• Who or what did the study explore? What was the target population?
• What was the study's location (geographical area) or setting (e.g., laboratory)?
• What was the timeframe within which you collected your data ?
• Consider a study exploring the differences between identical twins who were raised together versus identical twins who weren't. The data collection might span 5, 10, or more years.
• A study exploring a new immigration policy will cover the period since the policy came into effect and the present moment.
• How was the research conducted (research design)?
• Experimental research, qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods research, literature review, etc.
• What data collection tools and analysis techniques were used? e.g., If you chose quantitative methods, which statistical analysis techniques and software did you use?
• What did you find?
• What did you conclude?

Useful vocabulary for scope and delimitations

When explaining both the scope and delimitations, it's important to use the proper language to clearly state each.

For the scope , use the following language:

• This study focuses on/considers/investigates/covers the following:
• This study aims to . . . / Here, we aim to show . . . / In this study, we . . .
• The overall objective of the research is . . . / Our objective is to . . .

When stating the delimitations, use the following language:

• This [ . . . ] will not be the focus, for it has been frequently and exhaustively discusses in earlier studies.
• To review the [ . . . ] is a task that lies outside the scope of this study.
• The following [ . . . ] has been excluded from this study . . .
• This study does not provide a complete literature review of [ . . . ]. Instead, it draws on selected pertinent studies [ . . . ]

Analysis of a published scope

In one example, Simione and Gnagnarella (2020) compared the psychological and behavioral impact of COVID-19 on Italy's health workers and general population.

Here's a breakdown of the study's scope into smaller chunks and discussion of what works and why.

Also notable is that this study's delimitations include references to:

• Recruitment of participants: Convenience sampling
• Demographic characteristics of study participants: Age, sex, etc.
• Measurements methods: E.g., the death anxiety scale of the Existential Concerns Questionnaire (ECQ; van Bruggen et al., 2017) etc.
• Data analysis tool: The statistical software R

Analysis of published scope and delimitations

Scope of the study : Johnsson et al. (2019) explored the effect of in-hospital physiotherapy on postoperative physical capacity, physical activity, and lung function in patients who underwent lung cancer surgery.

The delimitations narrowed down the scope as follows:

Refine your scope, delimitations, and scientific English

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Diving Deeper into Limitations and Delimitations

If you are working on a thesis, dissertation, or other formal research project, chances are your advisor or committee will ask you to address the delimitations of your study. When faced with this request, many students respond with a puzzled look and then go on to address what are actually the study’s limitations.

In a previous article , we covered what goes into the limitations, delimitations, and assumptions sections of your thesis or dissertation. Here, we will dive a bit deeper into the differences between limitations and delimitations and provide some helpful tips for addressing them in your research project—whether you are working on a quantitative or qualitative study.

Acknowledging Weaknesses vs. Defining Boundaries

These concepts are easy to get confused because both limitations and delimitations restrict (or limit) the questions you’ll be able to answer with your study, most notably in terms of generalizability.

However, the biggest difference between limitations and delimitations is the degree of control you have over them—that is, how much they are based in conscious, intentional choices you made in designing your study.

Limitations occur in all types of research and are, for the most part, outside the researcher’s control (given practical constraints, such as time, funding, and access to populations of interest). They are threats to the study’s internal or external validity.

Limitations may include things such as participant drop-out, a sample that isn’t entirely representative of the desired population, violations to the assumptions of parametric analysis (e.g., normality, homogeneity of variance), the limits of self-report, or the absence of reliability and validity data for some of your survey measures.

Limitations can get in the way of your being able to answer certain questions or draw certain types of inferences from your findings. Therefore, it’s important to acknowledge them upfront and make note of how they restrict the conclusions you’ll be able to draw from your study. Frequently, limitations can get in the way of our ability to generalize our findings to the larger populations or to draw causal conclusions, so be sure to consider these issues when you’re thinking about the potential limitations of your study.

Delimitations are also factors that can restrict the questions you can answer or the inferences you can draw from your findings. However, they are based on intentional choices you make a priori (i.e., as you’re designing the study) about where you’re going to draw the boundaries of your project. In other words, they define the project’s scope.

Like limitations, delimitations are a part of every research project, and this is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s very important! You can’t study everything at once. If you try to do so, your project is bound to get huge and unwieldy, and it will become a lot more difficult to interpret your results or come to meaningful conclusions with so many moving parts. You have to draw the line somewhere, and the delimitations are where you choose to draw these lines.

One of the clearest examples of a delimitation that applies to almost every research project is participant exclusion criteria. In conducting either a quantitative or a qualitative study, you will have to define your population of interest. Defining this population of interest means that you will need to articulate the boundaries of that population (i.e., who is not included). Those boundaries are delimitations.

For example, if you’re interested in understanding the experiences of elementary school teachers who have been implementing a new curriculum into their classrooms, you probably won’t be interviewing or sending a survey to any of the following people: non-teachers, high-school teachers, college professors, principals, parents of elementary school children, or the children themselves. Furthermore, you probably won’t be talking to elementary school teachers who have not yet had the experience of implementing the curriculum in question. You would probably only choose to gather data from elementary school teachers who have had this experience because that is who you’re interested in for the purposes of your study. Perhaps you’ll narrow your focus even more to elementary school teachers in a particular school district who have been teaching for a particular length of time. The possibilities can go on. These are choices you will need to make, both for practical reasons (i.e., the population you have access to) and for the questions you are trying to answer.

Of course, for this particular example, this does not mean that it wouldn’t be interesting to also know what principals think about the new curriculum. Or parents. Or elementary school children. It just means that, for the purposes of your project and your research questions, you’re interested in the experience of the teachers, so you’re excluding anyone who does not meet those criteria. Having delimitations to your population of interest also means that you won’t be able to answer any questions about the experiences of those other populations; this is ok because those populations are outside of the scope of your project . As interesting as their experiences might be, you can save these questions for another study. That is the part of the beauty of research: there will always be more studies to do, more questions to ask. You don’t have to (and can’t) do it all in one project.

Continuing with the previous example, for instance, let’s suppose that the problem you are most interested in addressing is the fact that we know relatively little about elementary school teachers’ experiences of implementing a new curriculum. Perhaps you believe that knowing more about teachers’ experiences could inform their training or help administrators know more about how to support their teachers. If the identified problem is our lack of knowledge about teachers’ experiences, and your research questions focus on better understanding these experiences, that means that you are choosing not to focus on other problems or questions, even those that may seem closely related. For instance, you are not asking how effective the new curriculum is in improving student test scores or graduation rates. You might think that would be a very interesting question, but it will have to wait for another study. In narrowing the focus of your research questions, you limit your ability to answer other questions, and again, that’s ok. These other questions may be interesting and important, but, again, they are beyond the scope of your project .

Common Examples of Limitations

While each study will have its own unique set of limitations, some limitations are more common in quantitative research, and others are more common in qualitative research.

In quantitative research, common limitations include the following:

– Participant dropout

– Small sample size, low power

– Non-representative sample

– Violations of statistical assumptions

– Non-experimental design, lack of manipulation of variables, lack of controls

– Potential confounding variables

– Measures with low (or unknown) reliability or validity

– Limits of an instrument to measure the construct of interest

– Data collection methods (e.g., self-report)

– Anything else that might limit the study’s internal or external validity

In qualitative research, common limitations include the following:

– Lack of generalizability of findings (not the goal of qualitative research, but still worth mentioning as a limitation)

– Inability to draw causal conclusions (again, not the goal of qualitative research, but still worth mentioning)

– Researcher bias/subjectivity (especially if there is only one coder)

– Limitations in participants’ ability/willingness to share or describe their experiences

– Any factors that might limit the rigor of data collection or analysis procedures

Common Examples of Delimitations

As noted above, the two most common sources of delimitations in both quantitative and qualitative research include the following:

– Inclusion/exclusion criteria (or how you define your population of interest)

– Research questions or problems you’ve chosen to examine

Several other common sources of delimitations include the following:

– Theoretical framework or perspective adopted

– Methodological framework or paradigm chosen (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods)

– In quantitative research, the variables you’ve chosen to measure or manipulate (as opposed to others)

Whether you’re conducting a quantitative or qualitative study, you will (hopefully!) have chosen your research design because it is well suited to the questions you’re hoping to answer. Because these questions define the boundaries or scope of your project and thus point to its delimitations, your research design itself will also be related to these delimitations.

Questions to Ask Yourself

As you are considering the limitations and delimitations of your project, it can be helpful to ask yourself a few different questions.

Questions to help point out your study’s limitations :

1. If I had an unlimited budget, unlimited amounts of time, access to all possible populations, and the ability to manipulate as many variables as I wanted, how would I design my study differently to be better able to answer the questions I want to answer? (The ways in which your study falls short of this will point to its limitations.)

2. Are there design issues that get in the way of my being able to draw causal conclusions?

3. Are there sampling issues that get in the way of my being able to generalize my findings?

4. Are there issues related to the measures I’m using or the methods I’m using to collect data? Do I have concerns about participants telling the truth or being able to provide accurate responses to my questions?

5. Are there any other factors that might limit my study’s internal or external validity?

Questions that help point out your study’s delimitations :

1. What are my exclusion criteria? Who did I not include in my study, and why did I make this choice?

2. What questions did I choose not to address in my study? (Of course, the possibilities are endless here, but consider related questions that you chose not to address.)

3. In what ways did I narrow the scope of my study in order to hone in on a particular issue or question?

4. What other methodologies did I not use that might have allowed me to answer slightly different questions about the same topic?

How to Write About Limitations and Delimitations

Remember, having limitations and delimitations is not a bad thing. They’re present in even the most rigorous research. The important thing is to be aware of them and to acknowledge how they may impact your findings or the conclusions you can draw.

In fact, writing about them and acknowledging them gives you an opportunity to demonstrate that you can think critically about these aspects of your study and how they impact your findings, even if they were out of your control.

Keep in mind that your study’s limitations will likely point to important directions for future research. Therefore, when you’re getting ready to write about your recommendations for future research in your discussion, remember to refer back to your limitations section!

As you write about your delimitations in particular, remember that they are not weaknesses, and you don’t have to apologize for them. Good, strong research projects have clear boundaries. Also, keep in mind that you are the researcher and you can choose whatever delimitations you want for your study. You’re in control of the delimitations. You just have to be prepared—both in your discussion section and in your dissertation defense itself—to justify the choices you make and acknowledge how these choices impact your findings.

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Setting Limits and Focusing Your Study: Exploring scope and delimitation

As a researcher, it can be easy to get lost in the vast expanse of information and data available. Thus, when starting a research project, one of the most important things to consider is the scope and delimitation of the study. Setting limits and focusing your study is essential to ensure that the research project is manageable, relevant, and able to produce useful results. In this article, we will explore the importance of setting limits and focusing your study through an in-depth analysis of scope and delimitation.

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Table of Contents

Scope and Delimitation – Definition and difference

Scope refers to the range of the research project and the study limitations set in place to define the boundaries of the project and delimitation refers to the specific aspects of the research project that the study will focus on.

In simpler words, scope is the breadth of your study, while delimitation is the depth of your study.

Scope and delimitation are both essential components of a research project, and they are often confused with one another. The scope defines the parameters of the study, while delimitation sets the boundaries within those parameters. The scope and delimitation of a study are usually established early on in the research process and guide the rest of the project.

Types of Scope and Delimitation

Significance of Scope and Delimitation

Setting limits and focusing your study through scope and delimitation is crucial for the following reasons:

• It allows researchers to define the research project’s boundaries, enabling them to focus on specific aspects of the project. This focus makes it easier to gather relevant data and avoid unnecessary information that might complicate the study’s results.
• Setting limits and focusing your study through scope and delimitation enables the researcher to stay within the parameters of the project’s resources.
• A well-defined scope and delimitation ensure that the research project can be completed within the available resources, such as time and budget, while still achieving the project’s objectives.

5 Steps to Setting Limits and Defining the Scope and Delimitation of Your Study

There are a few steps that you can take to set limits and focus your study.

1. Identify your research question or topic

The first step is to identify what you are interested in learning about. The research question should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Once you have a research question or topic, you can start to narrow your focus.

2. Consider the key terms or concepts related to your topic

What are the important terms or concepts that you need to understand in order to answer your research question? Consider all available resources, such as time, budget, and data availability, when setting scope and delimitation.

The scope and delimitation should be established within the parameters of the available resources. Once you have identified the key terms or concepts, you can start to develop a glossary or list of definitions.

3. Consider the different perspectives on your topic

There are often different perspectives on any given topic. Get feedback on the proposed scope and delimitation. Advisors can provide guidance on the feasibility of the study and offer suggestions for improvement.

It is important to consider all of the different perspectives in order to get a well-rounded understanding of your topic.

4. Narrow your focus

Be specific and concise when setting scope and delimitation. The parameters of the study should be clearly defined to avoid ambiguity and ensure that the study is focused on relevant aspects of the research question.

This means deciding which aspects of your topic you will focus on and which aspects you will eliminate.

5. Develop the final research plan

Revisit and revise the scope and delimitation as needed. As the research project progresses, the scope and delimitation may need to be adjusted to ensure that the study remains focused on the research question and can produce useful results. This plan should include your research goals, methods, and timeline.

Examples of Scope and Delimitation

To better understand scope and delimitation, let us consider two examples of research questions and how scope and delimitation would apply to them.

Research question: What are the effects of social media on mental health?

Scope: The scope of the study will focus on the impact of social media on the mental health of young adults aged 18-24 in the United States.

Delimitation: The study will specifically examine the following aspects of social media: frequency of use, types of social media platforms used, and the impact of social media on self-esteem and body image.

Research question: What are the factors that influence employee job satisfaction in the healthcare industry?

Scope: The scope of the study will focus on employee job satisfaction in the healthcare industry in the United States.

Delimitation: The study will specifically examine the following factors that influence employee job satisfaction: salary, work-life balance, job security, and opportunities for career growth.

Setting limits and defining the scope and delimitation of a research study is essential to conducting effective research. By doing so, researchers can ensure that their study is focused, manageable, and feasible within the given time frame and resources. It can also help to identify areas that require further study, providing a foundation for future research.

So, the next time you embark on a research project, don’t forget to set clear limits and define the scope and delimitation of your study. It may seem like a tedious task, but it can ultimately lead to more meaningful and impactful research. And if you still can’t find a solution, reach out to Enago Academy using #AskEnago and tag @EnagoAcademy on Twitter , Facebook , and Quora .

Frequently Asked Questions

The scope in research refers to the boundaries and extent of a study, defining its specific objectives, target population, variables, methods, and limitations, which helps researchers focus and provide a clear understanding of what will be investigated.

Delimitation in research defines the specific boundaries and limitations of a study, such as geographical, temporal, or conceptual constraints, outlining what will be excluded or not within the scope of investigation, providing clarity and ensuring the study remains focused and manageable.

To write a scope; 1. Clearly define research objectives. 2. Identify specific research questions. 3. Determine the target population for the study. 4. Outline the variables to be investigated. 5. Establish limitations and constraints. 6. Set boundaries and extent of the investigation. 7. Ensure focus, clarity, and manageability. 8. Provide context for the research project.

To write delimitations; 1. Identify geographical boundaries or constraints. 2. Define the specific time period or timeframe of the study. 3. Specify the sample size or selection criteria. 4. Clarify any demographic limitations (e.g., age, gender, occupation). 5. Address any limitations related to data collection methods. 6. Consider limitations regarding the availability of resources or data. 7. Exclude specific variables or factors from the scope of the study. 8. Clearly state any conceptual boundaries or theoretical frameworks. 9. Acknowledge any potential biases or constraints in the research design. 10. Ensure that the delimitations provide a clear focus and scope for the study.

What is an example of delimitation of the study?

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The limitations of the study are those characteristics of design or methodology that impacted or influenced the interpretation of the findings from your research. Study limitations are the constraints placed on the ability to generalize from the results, to further describe applications to practice, and/or related to the utility of findings that are the result of the ways in which you initially chose to design the study or the method used to establish internal and external validity or the result of unanticipated challenges that emerged during the study.

Price, James H. and Judy Murnan. “Research Limitations and the Necessity of Reporting Them.” American Journal of Health Education 35 (2004): 66-67; Theofanidis, Dimitrios and Antigoni Fountouki. "Limitations and Delimitations in the Research Process." Perioperative Nursing 7 (September-December 2018): 155-163. .

Importance of...

Always acknowledge a study's limitations. It is far better that you identify and acknowledge your study’s limitations than to have them pointed out by your professor and have your grade lowered because you appeared to have ignored them or didn't realize they existed.

Keep in mind that acknowledgment of a study's limitations is an opportunity to make suggestions for further research. If you do connect your study's limitations to suggestions for further research, be sure to explain the ways in which these unanswered questions may become more focused because of your study.

Acknowledgment of a study's limitations also provides you with opportunities to demonstrate that you have thought critically about the research problem, understood the relevant literature published about it, and correctly assessed the methods chosen for studying the problem. A key objective of the research process is not only discovering new knowledge but also to confront assumptions and explore what we don't know.

Claiming limitations is a subjective process because you must evaluate the impact of those limitations . Don't just list key weaknesses and the magnitude of a study's limitations. To do so diminishes the validity of your research because it leaves the reader wondering whether, or in what ways, limitation(s) in your study may have impacted the results and conclusions. Limitations require a critical, overall appraisal and interpretation of their impact. You should answer the question: do these problems with errors, methods, validity, etc. eventually matter and, if so, to what extent?

Price, James H. and Judy Murnan. “Research Limitations and the Necessity of Reporting Them.” American Journal of Health Education 35 (2004): 66-67; Structure: How to Structure the Research Limitations Section of Your Dissertation. Dissertations and Theses: An Online Textbook. Laerd.com.

Descriptions of Possible Limitations

All studies have limitations . However, it is important that you restrict your discussion to limitations related to the research problem under investigation. For example, if a meta-analysis of existing literature is not a stated purpose of your research, it should not be discussed as a limitation. Do not apologize for not addressing issues that you did not promise to investigate in the introduction of your paper.

Here are examples of limitations related to methodology and the research process you may need to describe and discuss how they possibly impacted your results. Note that descriptions of limitations should be stated in the past tense because they were discovered after you completed your research.

Possible Methodological Limitations

• Sample size -- the number of the units of analysis you use in your study is dictated by the type of research problem you are investigating. Note that, if your sample size is too small, it will be difficult to find significant relationships from the data, as statistical tests normally require a larger sample size to ensure a representative distribution of the population and to be considered representative of groups of people to whom results will be generalized or transferred. Note that sample size is generally less relevant in qualitative research if explained in the context of the research problem.
• Lack of available and/or reliable data -- a lack of data or of reliable data will likely require you to limit the scope of your analysis, the size of your sample, or it can be a significant obstacle in finding a trend and a meaningful relationship. You need to not only describe these limitations but provide cogent reasons why you believe data is missing or is unreliable. However, don’t just throw up your hands in frustration; use this as an opportunity to describe a need for future research based on designing a different method for gathering data.
• Lack of prior research studies on the topic -- citing prior research studies forms the basis of your literature review and helps lay a foundation for understanding the research problem you are investigating. Depending on the currency or scope of your research topic, there may be little, if any, prior research on your topic. Before assuming this to be true, though, consult with a librarian! In cases when a librarian has confirmed that there is little or no prior research, you may be required to develop an entirely new research typology [for example, using an exploratory rather than an explanatory research design ]. Note again that discovering a limitation can serve as an important opportunity to identify new gaps in the literature and to describe the need for further research.
• Measure used to collect the data -- sometimes it is the case that, after completing your interpretation of the findings, you discover that the way in which you gathered data inhibited your ability to conduct a thorough analysis of the results. For example, you regret not including a specific question in a survey that, in retrospect, could have helped address a particular issue that emerged later in the study. Acknowledge the deficiency by stating a need for future researchers to revise the specific method for gathering data.
• Self-reported data -- whether you are relying on pre-existing data or you are conducting a qualitative research study and gathering the data yourself, self-reported data is limited by the fact that it rarely can be independently verified. In other words, you have to the accuracy of what people say, whether in interviews, focus groups, or on questionnaires, at face value. However, self-reported data can contain several potential sources of bias that you should be alert to and note as limitations. These biases become apparent if they are incongruent with data from other sources. These are: (1) selective memory [remembering or not remembering experiences or events that occurred at some point in the past]; (2) telescoping [recalling events that occurred at one time as if they occurred at another time]; (3) attribution [the act of attributing positive events and outcomes to one's own agency, but attributing negative events and outcomes to external forces]; and, (4) exaggeration [the act of representing outcomes or embellishing events as more significant than is actually suggested from other data].

Possible Limitations of the Researcher

• Access -- if your study depends on having access to people, organizations, data, or documents and, for whatever reason, access is denied or limited in some way, the reasons for this needs to be described. Also, include an explanation why being denied or limited access did not prevent you from following through on your study.
• Longitudinal effects -- unlike your professor, who can literally devote years [even a lifetime] to studying a single topic, the time available to investigate a research problem and to measure change or stability over time is constrained by the due date of your assignment. Be sure to choose a research problem that does not require an excessive amount of time to complete the literature review, apply the methodology, and gather and interpret the results. If you're unsure whether you can complete your research within the confines of the assignment's due date, talk to your professor.
• Cultural and other type of bias -- we all have biases, whether we are conscience of them or not. Bias is when a person, place, event, or thing is viewed or shown in a consistently inaccurate way. Bias is usually negative, though one can have a positive bias as well, especially if that bias reflects your reliance on research that only support your hypothesis. When proof-reading your paper, be especially critical in reviewing how you have stated a problem, selected the data to be studied, what may have been omitted, the manner in which you have ordered events, people, or places, how you have chosen to represent a person, place, or thing, to name a phenomenon, or to use possible words with a positive or negative connotation. NOTE :   If you detect bias in prior research, it must be acknowledged and you should explain what measures were taken to avoid perpetuating that bias. For example, if a previous study only used boys to examine how music education supports effective math skills, describe how your research expands the study to include girls.
• Fluency in a language -- if your research focuses , for example, on measuring the perceived value of after-school tutoring among Mexican-American ESL [English as a Second Language] students and you are not fluent in Spanish, you are limited in being able to read and interpret Spanish language research studies on the topic or to speak with these students in their primary language. This deficiency should be acknowledged.

Aguinis, Hermam and Jeffrey R. Edwards. “Methodological Wishes for the Next Decade and How to Make Wishes Come True.” Journal of Management Studies 51 (January 2014): 143-174; Brutus, Stéphane et al. "Self-Reported Limitations and Future Directions in Scholarly Reports: Analysis and Recommendations." Journal of Management 39 (January 2013): 48-75; Senunyeme, Emmanuel K. Business Research Methods. Powerpoint Presentation. Regent University of Science and Technology; ter Riet, Gerben et al. “All That Glitters Isn't Gold: A Survey on Acknowledgment of Limitations in Biomedical Studies.” PLOS One 8 (November 2013): 1-6.

Structure and Writing Style

Information about the limitations of your study are generally placed either at the beginning of the discussion section of your paper so the reader knows and understands the limitations before reading the rest of your analysis of the findings, or, the limitations are outlined at the conclusion of the discussion section as an acknowledgement of the need for further study. Statements about a study's limitations should not be buried in the body [middle] of the discussion section unless a limitation is specific to something covered in that part of the paper. If this is the case, though, the limitation should be reiterated at the conclusion of the section.

If you determine that your study is seriously flawed due to important limitations , such as, an inability to acquire critical data, consider reframing it as an exploratory study intended to lay the groundwork for a more complete research study in the future. Be sure, though, to specifically explain the ways that these flaws can be successfully overcome in a new study.

But, do not use this as an excuse for not developing a thorough research paper! Review the tab in this guide for developing a research topic . If serious limitations exist, it generally indicates a likelihood that your research problem is too narrowly defined or that the issue or event under study is too recent and, thus, very little research has been written about it. If serious limitations do emerge, consult with your professor about possible ways to overcome them or how to revise your study.

When discussing the limitations of your research, be sure to:

• Describe each limitation in detailed but concise terms;
• Explain why each limitation exists;
• Provide the reasons why each limitation could not be overcome using the method(s) chosen to acquire or gather the data [cite to other studies that had similar problems when possible];
• Assess the impact of each limitation in relation to the overall findings and conclusions of your study; and,
• If appropriate, describe how these limitations could point to the need for further research.

Remember that the method you chose may be the source of a significant limitation that has emerged during your interpretation of the results [for example, you didn't interview a group of people that you later wish you had]. If this is the case, don't panic. Acknowledge it, and explain how applying a different or more robust methodology might address the research problem more effectively in a future study. A underlying goal of scholarly research is not only to show what works, but to demonstrate what doesn't work or what needs further clarification.

Aguinis, Hermam and Jeffrey R. Edwards. “Methodological Wishes for the Next Decade and How to Make Wishes Come True.” Journal of Management Studies 51 (January 2014): 143-174; Brutus, Stéphane et al. "Self-Reported Limitations and Future Directions in Scholarly Reports: Analysis and Recommendations." Journal of Management 39 (January 2013): 48-75; Ioannidis, John P.A. "Limitations are not Properly Acknowledged in the Scientific Literature." Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 60 (2007): 324-329; Pasek, Josh. Writing the Empirical Social Science Research Paper: A Guide for the Perplexed. January 24, 2012. Academia.edu; Structure: How to Structure the Research Limitations Section of Your Dissertation. Dissertations and Theses: An Online Textbook. Laerd.com; What Is an Academic Paper? Institute for Writing Rhetoric. Dartmouth College; Writing the Experimental Report: Methods, Results, and Discussion. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University.

Writing Tip

Don't Inflate the Importance of Your Findings!

After all the hard work and long hours devoted to writing your research paper, it is easy to get carried away with attributing unwarranted importance to what you’ve done. We all want our academic work to be viewed as excellent and worthy of a good grade, but it is important that you understand and openly acknowledge the limitations of your study. Inflating the importance of your study's findings could be perceived by your readers as an attempt hide its flaws or encourage a biased interpretation of the results. A small measure of humility goes a long way!

Another Writing Tip

Negative Results are Not a Limitation!

Negative evidence refers to findings that unexpectedly challenge rather than support your hypothesis. If you didn't get the results you anticipated, it may mean your hypothesis was incorrect and needs to be reformulated. Or, perhaps you have stumbled onto something unexpected that warrants further study. Moreover, the absence of an effect may be very telling in many situations, particularly in experimental research designs. In any case, your results may very well be of importance to others even though they did not support your hypothesis. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that results contrary to what you expected is a limitation to your study. If you carried out the research well, they are simply your results and only require additional interpretation.

Lewis, George H. and Jonathan F. Lewis. “The Dog in the Night-Time: Negative Evidence in Social Research.” The British Journal of Sociology 31 (December 1980): 544-558.

Yet Another Writing Tip

Sample Size Limitations in Qualitative Research

Sample sizes are typically smaller in qualitative research because, as the study goes on, acquiring more data does not necessarily lead to more information. This is because one occurrence of a piece of data, or a code, is all that is necessary to ensure that it becomes part of the analysis framework. However, it remains true that sample sizes that are too small cannot adequately support claims of having achieved valid conclusions and sample sizes that are too large do not permit the deep, naturalistic, and inductive analysis that defines qualitative inquiry. Determining adequate sample size in qualitative research is ultimately a matter of judgment and experience in evaluating the quality of the information collected against the uses to which it will be applied and the particular research method and purposeful sampling strategy employed. If the sample size is found to be a limitation, it may reflect your judgment about the methodological technique chosen [e.g., single life history study versus focus group interviews] rather than the number of respondents used.

Boddy, Clive Roland. "Sample Size for Qualitative Research." Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal 19 (2016): 426-432; Huberman, A. Michael and Matthew B. Miles. "Data Management and Analysis Methods." In Handbook of Qualitative Research . Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994), pp. 428-444; Blaikie, Norman. "Confounding Issues Related to Determining Sample Size in Qualitative Research." International Journal of Social Research Methodology 21 (2018): 635-641; Oppong, Steward Harrison. "The Problem of Sampling in qualitative Research." Asian Journal of Management Sciences and Education 2 (2013): 202-210.

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Sample of scope and limitations in thesis writing

Strategies for Publish Graduate Writing: Scope and Limitations of the Study

Hello and welcome back! I’m Dr. Cheryl Lentz, who owns The Refractive Thinker® Press. Today our focus for Strategies for Publish Graduate Writing is around the scope and limitations as offered in Chapter 1 and reviewed again in Chapter 5 within the Graduate Thesis format as well as for most Doctorate Dissertations.

The scope and limitations are important towards the nature of the study. As the study starts with your condition statement and purpose statement—outlining the main reason and direction for the study, your study should also indicate its limitations. Additionally as to the your study promises to accomplish. attorney at law of the items your study intends to not accomplish is worth focusing on and cost too. Do you know the limitations that possibly the style of your study might not allow?

This can include:

(1) Sampling. Is the sampling a non-probability or purposeful sampling for instance? Why?

• Possibly it wasn’t economical to survey all people from the organization?
• Possibly it wasn’t time efficient to survey all people from the organization?

(2) Possibly there’s a limitation within the scope and validity of the survey instrument?

(3) Possibly you will find limitations to the selection of methodology?

• Example: For that Delphi Technique, the literature review as provided by my dissertation found four primary limitations to using the conventional Delphi Technique as provided by authors Nekolaichuk, Fainsinger, and Lawlor (2005).
• Because of these limitations, great care was taken having the ability to generalize the resultant findings when discussed in Chapter 5

Remember, there’s frequently confusion in what is intended by delimitations (individuals characteristics and information regarding your study that could limit the scope or define your particular limitations) of the particular study and limitations (individuals factors that may limit what you could say concerning the results).

Simply by defining your condition statement in almost any particular way, you’re potentially restricting the scope, limitations, or parameters for the study. There are lots of approaches you could look at. If you take your unique approach, you’re committing to particular scope of action and path that you’ll be traveling. You will have to define what you want to study in addition to what you don’t. Be very specific both in areas for the readers to obviously understand your intents on levels.

Limitations by comparison are what elements will modify the ability for the study to generalize the outcomes. What conclusions are you in a position to tap into your study in your specific limitations? Let’s think about your sample population for instance. Is the sample big enough? Keep in mind that Creswell (2002) established that “approximately 30 participants for any correlational study that relates variables (p. 168) could be acceptable being an appropriate sample size. Anything less which may potentially limit the validity of the study to grow much beyond its initial population sample.

Remember our goal is exactly what our study can increase the general body of understanding at its conclusion. What’s going to we have the ability to offer about our study because of our various choices regarding the glory of the study’s problem statement, purpose statement, methodology, sample size, and population?

Make sure to spend time in thought regarding these areas.

Creswell, J. (2002). Educational research: Planning, performing, and evaluation quantitative and qualitative research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Nekolaichuk, C. Fainsinger, R. Lawlor, P. (2005, October). A validation study of the discomfort classification system for advanced cancer patients using content experts: The Edmonton Classification System for cancer discomfort. Palliative Medicine, 19 (6), 466-476.

Allow me to once more invite you to identify a minimum of three sample studies out of your particular college that mirrors your study that you should carefully follow its logic, format, and overall organization, presentation, subheading titles, and possibly design. The sample studies will offer you delimitations and limitations for the study to think about further.

For additional tips about effective publish graduate writing, to incorporate both videos and transcripts, check out my blog at refractivethinker.com/wordpress .

Appreciate joining me. Again i’m Dr. Cheryl Lentz. I’ve enjoyed our time together and I think you’ll find these recommendations for crafting a highly effective doctorate dissertation or graduate thesis in this particular video useful. Much ongoing success and luck for you as the academic and professional journeys continue.

**For additional useful tips about doctorate publishing, please come along for any free web seminar (a $97 value!) by visiting world wide web.FreeRefractiveThinker.com. Don’t hesitate to share your comments!

Remember, there’s frequently confusion in what is intended by delimitations (individuals characteristics and information regarding your study that could limit the scope or define your particular limitations) of the particular study and limitations (individuals factors that may limit what you could say concerning the results). Simply by defining your condition statement in almost any particular way, you’re potentially restricting the scope, limitations, or parameters for the study. There are lots of approaches you could look at. If you take your unique approach, you’re committing to particular scope of action and path that you’ll be traveling. You will have to define what you want to study in addition to what you don’t. Be very specific both in areas for the readers to obviously understand your intents on levels.

Remember our goal is exactly what our study can increase the general body of understanding at its conclusion. What’s going to we have the ability to offer about our study because of our various choices regarding the glory of the study’s problem statement, purpose statement, methodology, sample size, and population? Make sure to spend time in thought regarding these areas.

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Defining the Scope and Limitations in a Thesis

When writing a thesis, there are many essential elements to develop in order to give the reader a clear understanding of the research. Two of these components are the scope and the limitations.

In a thesis, the scope defines exactly what will be covered in a study, while the limitations are the constraining aspects that may have influenced or affected the research. For example, if the study covers the native population of a particular region, that specific population is the scope. If the researcher has a bias due to inclusion in this population, then this is a limitation.

The scope is very important to the overall quality of a thesis. It should be developed at the beginning of the study because it will need to be referenced to guide the research along the way. Developing a strong scope is a matter of striking a balance. The researcher will need to hone in on a very specific topic, as studying one question in depth is generally more useful than surface-level coverage of a broader subject. Simultaneously, a topic cannot be so narrow as to leave little to be researched or answered. In addition, the scope should address a question that has not yet been answered in depth, yet is not so obscure as to leave the researcher with a complete lack of reference material with which to work.

Researchers can start developing a scope with a single overarching research question. Though a few additional subheadings may be desired, a one-question limit forces the research to stay focused. Question words such as “how,” “why” and “which” are useful for a thesis, as they encourage a deeper, more critical thought process during research.

The Limitations

All studies are limited by various factors, and like the scope, limitations should also be considered early on. Any controllable limitations, such as a flaw in the research design, can then be adjusted or removed before finishing the thesis. Regardless, the completed research will have limitations, and these must be mentioned in the thesis. The researcher should approach it honestly and realistically, neither over- or understating the limitations.

Different types of study may be prone to certain types of limitations. The research methods must be carefully considered to avoid unnecessary limitations. For example, case studies are typically focused on one person or group, which may or may not be indicative of other similar scenarios. Most case studies will therefore naturally limit the researcher’s ability to generalize without further research. Studies that require instrumentation for measurements are limited by the ability and quality of the instruments. Survey-based research can be limited by the participants’ ability to answer the question precisely. In other words, the questions, available answers, or space available can limit or even change the participants’ desired answers.

A solid limitations section in a thesis will directly state all of the potential limitations but will not stop there. It should also justify how research design decisions were made, as well as why certain limitations were deemed acceptable over others. Ideally, the researcher will provide suggestions on how the limitations of the current study might be avoided in future research.

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Sample Scope and Delimitation

What is Scope of Study Section?

The Scope of study in the thesis or research paper is contains the explanation of what information or subject is being analyzed. It is followed by an explanation of the limitation of the research. Research usually limited in scope by sample size, time and geographic area.  While the delimitation of study is the description of the scope of study. It will explain why definite aspects of a subject were chosen and why others were excluded. It also mention the research method used as well as the certain theories that applied to the data.

Sample Scope and Delimitations The main focus of this project was the design of an efficient Energy Recovery System of Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant.  The system will be using pressure technology by application of pressure exchanger as an energy recovery device.  Pressure exchanger transfer pressure from a high pressure stream to slow pressure stream in a ceramic motor. The proposed system is limited only in reducing high power consumption of the high pressure pump. The project can be used in all existing Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant in the Philippines.  Some calculations, assumptions, and selections were made as a consideration of a proper and realistic design.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Administrative and leadership requirements for implementing evidence-based practices in special education programs: the perspective of special education teachers.

• 1 Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Management, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• 2 Faculty of Education, Department of Special Education, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• 3 Faculty of Education, Department of Special Education, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Administrative and leadership requirements are crucial to the application of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in special education. Therefore, the current study aimed to assess the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for applying EBPs in special education programs from the teachers’ perspective, as well as determine the differences in their availability depending on the variables of disability category (intellectual disability (ID), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and learning disabilities (LDs)) and school stage (e.g., primary or middle school). The sample included 243 special education teachers working in the city of Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire on the administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs in special education programs (prepared by the researchers) was used to collect data. The results revealed the availability (which ranged from moderate to high) of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs. Moreover, there were differences in the availability of administrative and leadership requirements according to students’ disability category; these differences were in favor of the learning disability group. However, there were no differences according to the academic stage. We recommend conducting further research on administrative and leadership requirements using different methods.

1 Introduction

EBPs have a positive impact on the performance of students with disabilities ( Torres et al., 2012 ); further, their application has become an essential requirement for educational systems. This requires the availability of competencies for their application among teachers, a motivating school environment, an appropriate educational climate, support from educational departments and decision-makers, and the availability of legislation that regulates their use ( Bubb-McKinnie, 2017 ; Locke et al., 2021 ; Moore et al., 2021 ). Meanwhile, administrative and leadership requirements are one of the basic guarantees for EBPs’ implementation ( Pauling et al., 2023 ).

EBPs originated in the United States, where they were stipulated in the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004). These practices have been strengthened and have become more widely used since 2013, when the Council for Exceptional Children pledged to adhere to them. Several standards related to their use have been developed, including quality indicators and a classification of practices ( Cook et al., 2014 ). Four sets of criteria have been identified for special education teachers to evaluate the practice used: research design, quality, supporting quantitative studies, and the size of the effect associated with the practice used ( Alnaim, 2021 ).

In the field of special education, EBPs are instructional techniques designed to achieve predetermined outcomes based on various research design paradigms that provide the greatest opportunities for achieving beneficial outcomes for students with disabilities ( Cook et al., 2018 ). EBPs help teachers in planning, implementing, and evaluating their activities. These practices include specific and clear teaching methods that have proven effective through controlled research, and have led to desirable results for students with disabilities under different circumstances ( Mitchell, 2020 ).

EBPs may be described according to the following criteria: their results are not guaranteed for every learner with disabilities; when implemented on a large scale, they face clear and tangible challenges; they are not the only variable taken into consideration in the educational decision-making process; and they require different standards and requirements to be applied, which may lead to difficulties within the schools where they are implemented ( Scheeler et al., 2016 ; Spooner et al., 2019 ).

EBPs assist special education teachers in many ways: they help them select the elements that should be taught and motivate them to support students with disabilities ( Alnaim, 2021 ). Moreover, they provide teachers with an alternative perspective on evidence grounded in the realities of classroom teaching, which they find compelling when making instructional decisions for students with disabilities ( Cook and Cook, 2016 ). EBPs have been used to teach arithmetic skills to students with various types of disabilities, including moderate and severe developmental disabilities ( Spooner et al., 2019 ).

1.1 Administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs

Administrative and leadership requirements are crucial for the successful implementation of EBPs in classrooms for students with disabilities ( Pauling et al., 2023 ). They are critical drivers of EBPs’ implementation ( Stadnick et al., 2019 ; Harvey et al., 2020 ). School leaders play an essential role in using implementation strategies which, in turn, support special education teachers in implementing EBPs ( Moore et al., 2024 ). Because of the high significance of these requirements, school leaders must pay special attention to periodically reviewing training levels and the school staff’s ability to implement EBPs in their schools, as they are the ones who make decisions or provide input regarding professional development opportunities for school staff, as well as the impact of their decisions on students in aspects such as placement and services provided ( Alicyn Ferrell, 2006 ).

The requirements associated with the implementation of EBPs can be divided as follows. The first category pertains to pre-implementation requirements, namely, the affordability of the intervention, its feasibility, requirements, validity, reliability, appropriateness, cost savings, positive outcomes, adequacy of information, availability of funding, support from external sources, adequacy of technical assistance, staff availability and attitude toward EBPs, organizational capacity, alignment between EBPs and the organization’s mission, previous implementation experience, experience in evidence search, and development. The second category pertains to implementation-phase requirements, which include the flexibility of the intervention and its requirements, availability of funding, adequacy of training and technical assistance, access to sufficient and appropriate referrals, and faithful employment and implementation. The third category pertains to sustainability-phase requirements, which include the costs and benefits of the intervention, availability of financing, support from external sources, the need for planning, and compatibility between EBPs and the organization’s mission. One of the most important factors facilitating the implementation of EBPs is easy access to resources related to intervention, collaboration, and teamwork ( Palinkas et al., 2018 ; Silveira-Zaldivar and Curtis, 2019 ; Moore et al., 2024 ).

Both general organizational requirements (namely, organizational culture, organizational environment, and transformational leadership, and strategic requirements)—represented by the implementation environment and leadership—play an important role in EBPs’ implementation ( Powell et al., 2017 ). The organizational context, represented by the institutional climate, culture, and resources, can hinder or enhance EBPs’ implementation in general or special education. Moreover, recognizing the role and importance of paraprofessionals charged with implementing EBPs plays an important role in implementing these practices ( Bubb-McKinnie, 2017 ; Moore et al., 2021 ). Another set of organizational factors that influences the use of EBPs includes attitudes toward these practices, self-efficacy, norms related to them, intention to use them, and teachers’ and students’ dissatisfaction with these practices ( Locke et al., 2021 ). Moreover, it has become clear that there is a positive relationship among teachers’ application of EBPs, their self-efficacy, and the way they are prepared to apply these practices ( Fortson, 2018 ).

School leadership is an element of the educational environment that can hinder EBPs’ implementation. Failing to encourage teachers and provide them with support during implementation may lead to EBPs not being implemented, as their application requires great effort from the teacher, as well as support from the school administration ( Hornby et al., 2013 ). Moreover, the leadership characteristics of school principals involved in implementing EBPs with students with disabilities play a crucial role: the optimal leadership style is associated with a more favorable climate for implementing EBPs, compared with the undifferentiated and unintegrated leadership styles ( Stadnick et al., 2019 ).

1.2 Obstacles to implementing EBPs with students with disabilities

Expectations for EBPs to be used are increasing; however, the most difficult step in this process is to determine whether these practices can be implemented while maintaining a high standard of quality ( Cullen and Adams, 2012 ). However, EBPs’ implementation has limitations, which may include issues related to the training and readiness of teachers to teach students with disabilities; the lack of programs to prepare them as teachers; the lack of encouragement from the educational culture to use EBPs; the lack of executive support provided to overcome the obstacles facing the application of these practices ( Barry, 2022 ); and the lack of supplies, support, resources, time, and appropriate intervention features for students with disabilities ( Barry et al., 2020 ; Almutlaq, 2022 ). Additionally, many EBPs are overrepeated by teachers, which contradicts reality ( Hepburn and Beamish, 2019 ). Other issues include inconsistent understanding among general education teachers, special education teachers, and paraeducators regarding the definitions and uses of EBPs ( Locke et al., 2022 ), as well as teachers’ lack of knowledge about how to use online resource centers and employ them when implementing EBPs ( Gapsis, 2017 ). Training, time, support, prioritization, materials, employee mindset, and attitudes toward EBPs are the most important barriers to their successful implementation ( Silveira-Zaldivar and Curtis, 2019 ). Some EBPs require more time and effort from teachers to implement them due to the way they are designed ( Alghamdi, 2021a ).

School leaders have reported various barriers to implementing EBPs within schools, ranging from moderate to severe: time, staff acceptance of these practices, problems in preparing master schedules, costs, implementing complex intervention procedures, lack of support from key stakeholders, inappropriate school environment, disconnection between school policy and what students actually need, ineffective/unsupportive leadership, and issues related to adopting and abandoning programs and practices quickly ( Pauling et al., 2023 ), in addition to inappropriate culture/environment and inappropriate organizational factors such as lack of communication ( Moore et al., 2024 ). The relationship between the organizational context and the individual characteristics of administrative or service-providing leaders in schools that implement EBPs has been studied; prior findings have shown considerable cultural pressure in special education schools, where implementation leadership was positively associated with the implementation environment, while the size of enrollment in special education schools was negatively associated with the availability of resources and the implementation environment ( Moore et al., 2021 ), while they have also revealed a significant correlation between transformational leadership and the demotivating environments for agents implementing EBPs ( Brimhall et al., 2016 ).

Despite the significant role played by administrative and leadership requirements in the success of these practices, some studies have shown shortcomings and weaknesses of these requirements. In terms of school principals’ ability to implement EBPs, prior studies have reported the absence or limited training provided to school principals in the pre-service stage to implement EBPs, inadequacy of in-service training to implement these practices, and lack of knowledge and competence regarding the basic implementation concepts related to these practices ( Pauling et al., 2023 ). Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase school leaders’ knowledge and skills related to implementation science to better utilize implementation strategies that address the shortcomings of implementing these practices ( Moore et al., 2024 ).

High-performance implementation teams formed by school leaders comprise a powerful resource for administrators to support teachers’ effective implementation of EBPs. Unfortunately, many of these teams are traditionally organized and lack communication, coordination, and synergy among their members to achieve substantive results. In other words, when strong and trained teams are prepared, they create conditions for team members to effectively support EBP implementation, analyze performance data, bridge research to practice, and work together to bridge achievement gaps ( Mainzer et al., 2022 ).

1.3 Training programs

The training programs received by EBPs implementers play an important role in their success ( Alhossein, 2021 ). Research indicates the urgent need for targeted training in leading and implementing EBPs ( Stadnick et al., 2019 ). Although these programs are significant, they have limitations. For instance, in one study, school leaders, teachers, and student service officials who received scarce training showed a clear decline in the frequency of EBPs’ use, while a high percentage of educational professionals reported that they did not feel confident in their ability to implement EBPs ( Alicyn Ferrell, 2006 ). Additionally, teachers described in-service EBP training programs as “inappropriate” or “not appropriate at all” ( Larraceleta et al., 2022 ), which means that most training programs have left novice teachers unprepared to implement EBPs ( Alghamdi, 2021b ). Thus, training programs should be subject to rigorous controls and standards to achieve their goals ( Stephenson et al., 2023 ).

Several strategies have been used in EBP training. A prior study indicated that the implementation strategy providing ongoing consultation/training was rated as very important, the monitoring progress strategy used in implementation efforts was rated as important but less feasible, conducting educational meetings and changing the environment was rated as feasible but less important, and building partnerships to support implementation was rated as less important and feasible; meanwhile, there was both convergence and divergence in mixed methods results ( Moore et al., 2024 ). Additionally, the evidence-based dialogic practices in which special education teachers are trained have been found to play a positive role in integrating students with disabilities into classrooms, which enhances inclusive education ( Rodríguez-Oramas et al., 2021 ).

1.4 The current situation in Saudi Arabia

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, many studies have been conducted to assess teachers’ knowledge and use of EBPs; their results have indicated that the level of the former ranged between moderate and high ( Alhossein, 2021 ; Almalki, 2021 ; Alrubaian, 2022 ), while that of the latter was high ( Alturaifi and Alhossein, 2022 ); additionally, teachers’ attitudes toward EBPs have been found to be positive ( Alotaibi, 2022 ).

The administrative and leadership structure of special education schools and programs consists of the school leader, the school vice dean for educational affairs, the school vice dean for school affairs, and the school vice dean for student activity affairs ( Saudi Ministry of Education, 2016 ). Students who receive special education are provided with an individualized education program that identifies their needs, goals, and services ( Reich, 2010 ), while school-based providers are encouraged to achieve individualized education program goals using EBPs. The individual educational plan team is formed and headed by the school leader or their representative, the vice dean for educational affairs, special education teachers, general education teachers, student counselors, social workers and other specialists, students’ guardians, and the students themselves, provided that some special student conditions are met ( Saudi Ministry of Education, 2016 ).

Accordingly, research addressing the administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs is scarce. Little is known about the types of administrative and leadership behaviors that school leaders exhibit and how these behaviors affect the context of implementing these practices, as well as the types of leadership roles that are essential for enhancing implementation ( Stadnick et al., 2019 ; Harvey et al., 2020 ). However, the importance of leadership in implementation science has received only limited attention in the field of EBPs ( Reichenpfader et al., 2015 ), which means that there is an urgent need for research that uses quantitative methods to develop a more complete understanding of the barriers and facilitators that affect their implementation ( Barry et al., 2020 ). Moreover, research on the training of school principals to implement these practices and identify their knowledge about them and barriers related to their implementation is limited ( Pauling et al., 2023 ), as there is a lack of research on EBPs’ implementation for classroom management ( Hepburn and Beamish, 2019 ).

Therefore, the current study aims to fill this gap in the literature by identifying the administrative and leadership requirements necessary for the successful implementation of EBPs with students with disabilities, from teachers’ perspective. Therefore, this study addresses EBPs in a different cultural environment with its own determinants, which are reflected in the application of these practices, as there is a difference in the method of selecting leaders and school principals and training them during service. There are differences in the educational environment, administrative regulations, legislation, and decisions regarding the application of these practices, in addition to the organizational structure of school administration; different organizational, leadership, and administrative contexts; and the culture of families of students with disabilities in relation to EBPs. Additionally, students’ education level and disability category may influence administrative and leadership decision-making.

Therefore, this study aimed to determine the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs with students with disabilities, from teachers’ perspective, to determine the differences in the availability of these requirements, depending on students’ disability category and academic stage. Accordingly, this study aimed to answer the following questions: (1) “What is the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs in special education programs?” (2) “Does the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs in special education programs differ vis-à-vis teachers’ perspective depending on students’ disability category?” and (3) “Does the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for applying EBPs in special education programs differ vis-à-vis teachers’ perspective depending on students’ academic stage?”

2 Materials and methods

2.1 participants.

The study sample ( N  = 243) was randomly selected from male and female special education teachers in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All participants worked in government schools during the academic year 2023–2024. Table 1 shows participants’ demographic characteristics.

Table 1 . Teachers’ demographic characteristics.

Table 1 shows the number of male and female teachers, their distribution in the primary and middle levels, their distribution according to disability category (ID, ASD, LDs), the number of years of experience, and the educational qualifications they hold.

2.2 Instrument

A questionnaire on the administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs in special education programs was prepared to determine the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs, from teachers’ perspective. Its preparation involved several steps, including a review of previous studies. Various tools were used, including the 24-item Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire, which assesses health professionals’ attitudes toward, knowledge of, and use of EBPs ( Rice et al., 2010 ); the 15-item Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale, which was developed based on consultation with mental health service providers and researchers working in children’s services ( Merle et al., 2023 ); the 50-item Evidence-based Practice Attitude Scale, which was developed to assess mental health and social service providers’ attitudes toward EBPs ( Rye et al., 2017 ); and the Implementation Climate Scale ( Ehrhart et al., 2019 ), which consists of 18 items and measures six dimensions of implementation climate; they focus on EBP, educational support for EBP, recognition for EBP, rewards for EBP, selection for EBP, and selection for openness.

The questionnaire consisted of two main parts: the first part obtained general data and such as the educational stage in which the teachers work, the category of disability that they teach, their years of experience, their academic qualifications, and their consent to participate. For the purposes of the current study, while the second part included items related to the administrative and leadership dimensions, the final version of the questionnaire consisted of 20 items, with scores ranging between 20 and 100. All items in the questionnaire were positive and were answered on a five-point scale (1–5) regarding requirements’ availability: “non-availability,” “low availability,” “moderate availability,” “high availability,” and “very high availability.” A high score indicates high availability of the administrative and leadership requirements for EBPs, while a low score indicates a low availability. Questionnaires were administered to a sample of (136) male and female teachers of students with disabilities. They were randomly selected from the society of the study for the sake of validating the psychometric properties of the questionnaire; it is noteworthy to mention that they were latter on discarded form the final application of the tools of the study in order not to be impacted by the calculations of the psychometric properties. Thus, the final sample of the study consisted of 243 male and female teachers, on whom the questionnaire was applied after verifying its psychometric properties. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were verified by calculating the internal consistency of the questionnaire items and the correlation coefficients between each item and the total questionnaire score. Statistical analysis of the scores using SPSS-25 software showed that the values of the correlation coefficients ranged between 0.504 and 0.771. The score of each item and the total score were significant at a level of 0.01, which indicated the internal consistency of the questionnaire. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was calculated using the split-half method; the overall reliability coefficient of the questionnaire reached 0.892, while this value, when corrected by the Spearman-Brown equation, reached 0.940, which confirms the stability of the questionnaire.

2.3 Data collection and analysis

This study relied on a descriptive approach, and related data were collected by preparing an electronic questionnaire in Google Forms, after obtaining the approval of the Saudi Ministry of Education to use it with teachers. The link to the questionnaire was sent to school principals through the school’s official email, and the Ministry of Education sent a link to the questionnaire to schools through its official mail, where school principals distributed it to the teachers. After completing data collection, the data were statistically analyzed using SPSS-25 software. Statistical methods such as the arithmetic mean and standard deviation were employed to identify the availability of administrative and leadership requirements, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to identify differences between groups, and the Mann–Whitney test was employed as well.

Regarding question 1 (“What is the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs in special education programs?”) The arithmetic means and standard deviations of the teachers’ responses to the questionnaire were calculated. The cell length for each level was set at 0.8, while the availability of the requirements was determined as follows: unavailability (1 to 1.79), low availability (1.80 to 2.59), moderate availability (2.60 to 3.39), high availability (3.40 to 4.19), and very high availability (4.20 to 5). The results are summarized in Table 2 .

Table 2 . Arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and availability of the requirements.

It is clear from Table 2 that the degree of availability of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs from the perspective of special education teachers ranged from moderate to high.

Regarding question 2 (“Does the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs in special education programs differ vis-à-vis teachers’ perspective depending on students’ disability category?”), nonparametric statistics were used because of the lack of conditions for parametric statistics, the most prominent of which are the homogeneity of the sample members and the normality of the distribution, using the Kruskal-Wallis test for independent samples. Table 3 presents the pertinent results.

Table 3 . Results of the Kruskal-Wallis test and its level of significance.

The level of significance was 0.027. This means that there were statistically significant differences ( p  < 0.05) between the average grades of the three groups (ID, ASD, LDs). To determine the administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs in special education programs and to identify the differences between the three groups, the groups were compared using the Mann–Whitney U test. Table 4 shows these results.

Table 4 . Mann–Whitney test results for differences between groups according to the disability category.

It is evident from Table 4 that there were no statistically significant differences between the mean rank of the scores of the ID and ASD groups, as well as the absence of statistically significant differences between the average ranks of the ID and LDs groups on the Administrative and Leadership Requirements Questionnaire. In addition, there were statistically significant differences at the 0.01 level of significance between the average scores of the ASD and LD groups on the questionnaire, in favor of the LD group.

To answer question 3 (“Does the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for applying EBPs in special education programs differ vis-à-vis teachers’ perspective depending on students’ academic stage?”), the Mann–Whitney U test was used as a non-parametric test owing to the nature of the sample. Table 5 presents the pertinent results.

Table 5 . Mann–Whitney test results for differences in administrative and leadership requirements according to the educational level (primary/middle school).

It is clear from Table 5 that there were no statistically significant differences between the mean of rank of the sample members’ scores on the Administrative and Leadership Requirements Questionnaire due to school stage (primary and middle school).

4 Discussion

This study examined special education teachers’ views on the availability of the administrative and leadership requirements necessary to implement EBPs in special education programs, and identified the differences in the availability of these requirements based on students’ school stage and disability category. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to identify the availability of requirements for administrative and leadership implementation of EBPs in special education programs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The participating teachers reported that the availability of administrative and leadership requirements ranged between moderate and high, which may indicate the interest of officials and educational decision-makers in applying EBPs, as well as the presence of positive trends toward them.

The availability of administrative and leadership requirements to this degree may be due to the professional development programs that school workers participated in during services related to the application of EBPs—this is reflected in their effective application, in which experience plays a key role. School principals and educational leaders have spent a large amount of time as teachers, which has made them more knowledgeable and aware of EBPs and ways to overcome obstacles to their application. This may have led to the formation of positive attitudes toward them, as well as their adoption of modern methods and strategies in teaching students with disabilities, including EBPs. Alhossein’s (2021) study conducted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia indicated that the training programs in which officials implementing EBPs have participated play an important role in their success; additionally, professional development programs for teachers are considered a predictor of the use of EBPs, as 33.8% of teachers of students with ASD participated in more than five professional development programs, while 33.3% of 3 to 5 participated in professional development programs. Thus, it is assumed that school principals and educational leaders participate in such programs because they are teachers who have been promoted to leadership positions. Winkler (2010) indicated that leadership behaviors are interactions and activities that leaders carry out with their subordinates and other people in their lives to influence the environment, their workplace, and culture in general. Moreover, leadership role theory explains that behaviors are influenced by leaders’ previous experiences and their efforts to influence subordinates to achieve institutional goals. Similarly, Stadnick et al. (2019) indicated that the availability of administrative and leadership requirements necessary for the successful implementation of EBPs for people with disabilities is owed to the availability of a set of leadership behaviors linked to the organizational context and its connection to the climate of strategic implementation.

Teachers and administrative staff, their qualifications, experiences, and in-service training may play an important role in meeting administrative and leadership requirements, as the trained human element—i.e., teachers or administrators—is paramount for the success of EBP implementation, thus contributing to the availability of administrative and leadership requirements. Alhossein (2016 , 2021) and Almalki (2021) showed that teachers of students with ASD and emotional and behavioral disorders exhibited average knowledge and use of EBPs, early childhood teachers exhibited an average knowledge of EBPs, and the level of the application of EBP parameters was high. Holmberg et al. (2008) found that employees’ views on leadership behavior are related to their perceptions of the innovative organizational environment, job satisfaction, work outcomes, workload-related problems, and team and managerial support. Johansson et al. (2010) found that direct superiors ‘support was significantly and positively associated with increased use of EBPs.

Furthermore, the support provided by the Saudi Ministry of Education to implement EBPs, as well as the interest of school administrators and educational departments that have students with disabilities led to the fulfillment of these requirements. The Ministry of Education sought to achieve the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 in the field of education for people with disabilities; consequently, the Saudi Ministry of Education published a new executive framework for reforming teacher preparation programs ( Planning and Development Agency Department, Ministry of Education, 2018 ), which aims to improve the quality of special education teachers’ training by developing teacher training programs and focusing on the use of EBPs, which is beneficial for students with disabilities, as shown by prior research ( Alghamdi, 2021a ) and the present study.

Regarding the question of whether there are differences in the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs in special education programs, from special education teachers’ perspective, due to students’ disability category (ID, ASD, and LDs), the results of the statistical analyses showed that there were significant differences (0.05). This may be due to the characteristics of students’ disabilities, the degree of their severity, the comorbid disorders of the disability, the medications that students take, the availability of resources they need as disability severity increases, and the educational, training, and rehabilitation needs of students. The severity of students’ disability imposes multiple restrictions on the application of EBPs, which requires the availability of additional resources—such as a highly trained staff—which may represent a burden on the management and leadership vis-à-vis EBPs.

The results showed that there were statistically significant differences (0.01) between the average scores of the ASD and LDs groups on the administrative and leadership requirements questionnaire, in favor of the LDs group. This may be because ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects various aspects of students’ development, as students with ASD require more specific educational, training, rehabilitative, transitional, self-care services, and independence skills than students with LDs, which represents a burden on the planning and implementation of EBPs. ASD imposes significant restrictions on the implementation of EBPs because it requires specific sources, means, and quality resources; a large amount of time to implement EBPs; and appropriate intervention characteristics ( Barry et al., 2020 ; Almutlaq, 2022 ). Some EBPs require more time and effort from teachers to implement ( Silveira-Zaldivar and Curtis, 2019 ; Alghamdi, 2021b ). Applying complex intervention procedures poses significant limitations to the implementation of EBPs, while problems related to the rapid adoption and abandonment of programs and practices involving ASD are common because of the ambiguity of various factors ( Pauling et al., 2023 ). Meanwhile, the size of student enrollment in special education schools is negatively related to the availability of resources and implementation climate ( Moore et al., 2021 ).

Moreover, the results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences in participants’ grades according to school stage (primary or middle school). This can be explained by the fact that the students in both groups were in childhood; thus, their needs did not differ significantly, as is the case in later stages. We found it difficult to administer the questionnaire to high school teachers; thus, we limited its application to primary and middle school teachers, due to the few numbers of the programs dedicated to students with disabilities in this stage, which lead to a small number of teachers of students with disabilities.

It is worth noting that this study has several limitations. The administrative and leadership requirements necessary to implement EBPs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are specific to this region, which is an environment with its own cultural, social, and economic characteristics. There are various factors that affect the availability of these requirements, including the general educational environment, the organizational environment, the method of selecting and preparing school principals and educational leaders, and their training during service. These factors play an important role in the availability of these requirements. Additionally, decisions related to the application of EBPs and the support provided by the Ministry of Education and Educational Administration may have a direct impact on the generalization of the study results to different cultural contexts. Future research should include a wide range of studies in diverse cultural contexts.

5 Conclusions and recommendations

This study is one of the first in the Arab world—in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specifically—to examine the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs in special education programs. This study provides a clear perception of the availability of these requirements from teachers’ perspective, as they are the agents directly implementing these practices. Additionally, it provides a clear visualization of the variables that may affect the availability of these requirements: students’ school stage and disability category. This study developed a questionnaire through which the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for implementing EBPs could be identified from teachers’ perspective.

The study highlights the significance of administrative and leadership requirements in successfully implementing EBPs with students with disabilities. It emphasizes the necessity of training employees in these practices and providing leadership that supports their application. The results offer educational leaders, decision-makers, and policymakers insights into the administrative and leadership requirements essential for implementing EBPs for students with disabilities.

The results of the study emphasize the importance of conducting further research on the availability of the aforementioned requirements from school principals’ and educational leaders’ perspective. Moreover, future studies should include larger samples, at different educational levels, and with different categories of teachers of students with disabilities. Future studies could also use methodologies other than the descriptive approach, such as the qualitative approach and the mixed method. Additionally, researchers could examine the availability of administrative and leadership requirements for applying EBPs at the high school level.

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics statement

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent from the participants was not required to participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

Author contributions

AA: Writing – review & editing. MA: Writing – review & editing. ME: Writing – review & editing.

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported and funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) (grant number IMSIU-RG23160).

Acknowledgments

The researchers are grateful to the teachers who participated in this study and contributed to their accomplishments.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: administrative, evidence-based practices, institutional requirements, Saudi Arabia, school leadership, special education teachers, students with disabilities

Citation: Alsuhaymi A, Alhammadi M and Eltantawy MM (2024) Administrative and leadership requirements for implementing evidence-based practices in special education programs: the perspective of special education teachers. Front. Educ . 9:1411968. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1411968

Received: 05 May 2024; Accepted: 01 August 2024; Published: 14 August 2024.

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*Correspondence: Abdulaziz Alsuhaymi, [email protected] ; [email protected]

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