scope

Research

The boundary of what a study covers — and, just as importantly, what it deliberately leaves out.

Sources

1. Merriam-Webster — scope merriam-webster.com accessed 23 September 2026

Merriam-Webster: “intention, object”; “space or opportunity for unhampered motion, activity, or thought”; and the sense a methods section uses, “extent of treatment, activity, or influence”. From Greek skopos, a watcher or goal, through Italian scopo; first recorded 1549 meaning intention. Both senses matter in research writing — scope is what the study set out to do and how far its treatment reaches, which is why a scope statement and a limitations statement are different things.

Merriam-Webster is cited as the dictionary of record: where an entry defines a word rather than a position, a dictionary is the primary source for it. The research usage above is this lexicon’s own.

Related terms

• Abbreviation
• Abstract
• Abstraction
• Academic Database
• Analysis
• Annotation

From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).