Example:
In this article about bugs I focus primarily on 7-legged bugs and purposely not consider spiders as it would require me to [look into and explain the details I don't want to here] them which is not the point here.
In a way, it's close to to dirty one's hands with smh but without a negative connotation.
I'm quite confident there's a word for it, but I just can't remember it. I think to dip into is close, but too casual (slang-ish), I'm looking for something for more formal writing.
"To look into something else" and "get sidetracked" is to fall down a rabbit hole.
Merriam-Webster calls a rabbit hole
a...situation...in which the pursuit of something (such as an answer or solution) leads to other questions, problems, or pursuits
You don’t want to be distracted:
dis·tract (dĭ-străkt)
tr.v. dis·tract·ed, dis·tract·ing, dis·tracts
To cause (someone) to have difficulty paying attention to something: The voices in the other room distracted him, so he couldn't concentrate on his homework.
To attract (the attention) away from its original focus; divert.
To cause to feel worried or uneasy; unsettle: The company's workforce was distracted by the prospect of a takeover.
The second definition is the most pertinent, as it notes that you want to keep the focus on the current topic.
From American Heritage Dictionary. https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=distract
It is common to use the phrase “beyond the scope” when describing the content of a paper and also setting out the limits of your discussion. See this discussion on Academia Stack Exchange: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/143708/beyond-the-scope-of-this-paper-phrase
So, I would reword your example sentence as follows:
In this article about bugs, I focus primarily on 7-legged bugs. Spiders are beyond the scope of this article.
(Just curious: What 7-legged bugs???)
(OALD) not bother yourself/your head with/about something
(especially British English) to not spend time/effort on something, because it is not important or you are not interested in it
This term is not informal but belongs to a neutral register.
The synonym "to trouble sb with sth" belongs also to a neutral register.
(OALD) trouble somebody with something
I don't want to trouble the doctor with such a small problem.
delve into:
to examine something carefully in order to discover more information about someone or something:
- It's not always a good idea to delve too deeply into someone's past. (Cambridge)
Delve is used here metaphorically. It literally means:
reach inside a receptacle and search for something. (OxfordL)
Here are examples of metaphorical use provided by Freedictionary:
- Because I was eager to delve into that novel further, I decided to write about it for my term paper.
- I am just now delving into a study of the Trojan War.
And some formal contexts:
- ... researchers in technology assisted in making sense of the collected artifacts as we delved deeper into the technical aspects of the technical agents. (Beyond Interpretivism? New Encounters with Technology and Organization, Lucas Introna, Donncha Kavanagh, Séamas Kelly)
- The first incarnation of the ASU internship assessment effort did not delve into these subsidiary areas, but focused instead on central questions... (Assessing Media Education: A Resource Handbook for Educators and Administrators, William G. Christ)
Your sentence would then be
In this article about bugs I focus primarily on 7-legged bugs and purposely not consider spiders as it would require me to delve into details about them which is not the point here.
