I am trying to fill in the blank in this sentence: "There is a(n) ___ of research on this topic."
Using the word paucity would imply, to me, that I feel there is definitely not enough research and more needs to be done. However, what I am trying to say is that I know some amount of research has been done on the topic, and while there are certainly gaps in the knowledge yet to be filled, there is enough to justify a systematic review of the literature on the topic.
The best word I've been able to come up with is abundance, but I don't think it's quite what I am looking for because I feel it implies that the topic is very well understood and further research is not necessary.
Another possible answer would be "good amount". I think this fits my needs, but doesn't sound formal enough, as this is for an academic paper.
A practical example of what I mean is this:
Suppose you are driving on the highway with about 1/8 a tank of gas left and approaching an exit that has a gas station but no restaurant. Your passenger asks if you should stop for gas at this exit or wait for the next one so you can get lunch at the same time. Being away from home, you don't actually know how far the next exit with a gas station is, but because your car gets pretty good mileage and the area isn't extraordinarily rural you assume you have enough gas to get to the next exit and decide to stay on the highway. How could you describe this amount of fuel?
Best Answer
The problem is that you've written a sentence form that appears in many introductions of technical manuscripts with a different meaning: "There was a sparsity/paucity of research in this area[, motivating me to work on it]."
It's a given that more research can be performed; it's not necessary to inform the reader of this. It sounds like you mean something like the following:
Does this match the intended meaning?