Limitations are the cornerstone of any research article. More than just an act of scholarly humility, ideally written by authors who are aware of how much they have to be humble about, limitations can provide the outline of what we do not know. Early advocates for including limitations in research articles worried, correctly, that authors would minimise the limitations of their study for fear of making their research seem less publishable to reviewers. 1 Research limitations and the necessity of reporting them.

Am J Health Educ. 2004; 35: 66-67

Of course, limitations do not limit the value of research; on the contrary, transparency around the mechanics, ethics, and scope of our scientific methods allows scientists to scrutinise what we are doing, what we know, and what we still need to know.