Please write up your introduction in the following five paragraphs, and do not make use of subheadings
Practical phenomenon / problem
- Establish the importance of the area of interest and the phenomenon
- Mention your research question indirectly
- do not explicitly formulate your problem statement, e.g., “therefore, the following problem statement is formulated: […]”
- instead, define your problem statement indirectly: “therefore, it is crucial to study the drivers affecting […]". This is much more engaging!
Why to study it?
- Motivate your research question
- Start with something like “Studying [ xyz ] is crucial to […]” or “The […] is worth studying because”
What we know
- Indicate in general terms what has been done in this area
- Start with something like “My research relates to extant literature… (in at least three ways): First, […]” / “My research contributes to two literature streams: […]”
What we don’t know
- Identify important gaps, inconsistencies, and/or controversies in the relevant literature
- Provide a concise statement of the manuscript’s purpose(s) and the contributions the manuscript makes to the literature
- Start with something like… “Our research extends extant research by…” / “Therefore, as a first contribution, we […]”
What you will do
- Describe which data you will use, and
- which methods you will use to study your research question.
- Then, describe the flow of the next sections (“In what follows, we first review the extant literature on […]. Subsequently, we […]")