Research proposal

Research Methodology

Seppo Karrila

September 2017

Executive summary

• Viewpoints of student, advisor, and committee

• Proposal is like thesis but without having done the lab work

• Logical evaluation criteria can be easily listed for the substance of a research proposal

• Once accepted, the proposal effectively turns into a contract

Some perspectives• The research proposal is

– For student often a short intensive project• Read a lot to know what is already in literature• Propose a question/study doable in reasonable time with

equipment available• Explain plan of experiments and how to analyze them• Present and defend to a faculty committee

– For advisor a plan and contract with the student• Once it is accepted and in effect, this is the project committed to,

with timeline, budget, and expected results

– For committee members• An opportunity to prevent failures early on, influence another

advisor, help the student with constructive criticism, exchange research ideas

• And, of course, an opportunity to be frustrated… “I’ve said this so many times…”

Note that the work can be “re-used”

• The eventual thesis usually includes much of the proposal, perhaps in revised form

• Partly for this reason, partly to maintain standards, the language should be equally good as in a thesis (near flawless)

• Similarly, plagiarism by copy/paste is not acceptable

• Citations and reference bibliography should follow same standards as in thesis

Evaluation criteria for substance• Proposal describes the background and issue (research question)

clearly, and explains its importance or significance– The question (or hypothesis) posed is clearly stated

• The question is testable (or hypothesis is falsifiable) in this student project– Time limitations, equipment, skill level, available support

• There are detailed plans for experiments and analysis– How could you estimate the time it will take if there is no plan? Is the

estimate for time realistic or, as usual, too optimistic? – Do expected results match the research question properly? If not,

which one needs to change?

• What effects could the analysis results have?

• Note that this follows the universal scheme: issue, significance, approach, results, conclusions

A serious suggestion

• Have a “progress report” session with your advisor weekly, discuss also with others who might be helpful– The advisor has given at least a rough topic or

scope, (s)he is the most important support to you

– Find out about available measurement techniques, and how elaborate they are. You might think a measurement only takes 5 minutes, but maybe the sample preparation takes a whole day.

Outline template

• Title• Abstract

– Issue, significance, approach, expected results

• Introduction– Explain scope (what is included and what is not) and give some

background for the study

• Literature review– Show you know what is already known, and lead to the question

• Research question(s)/hypotheses• Methods

– Include detailed plan of experiments

• Expected results• References

In totality…

• MS research proposal could be about 4 pages long with about 10 cited references

• In correctness of language and other presentation and formatting, it should be comparable to the eventual thesis

Students are individuals

• Mismatch of student and project (and probably the advisor also)– Some are willing to spend only little time in the

lab, but then lots of time with analysis, literature, and theory

– Others are happy with test tubes and unhappy with equations

– In the best case, the student and advisor are a good match, and the project can be planned so it fits both well

About optimism• Typically old experienced people have become cautious and

risk-averse (colloquially they are labeled “old farts”, although mature people call it maturity)– If you show them a plan with 8 steps, they see 8 places where it

can fail: the probability that none fails is then very small, like winning a lottery

• In contrast, young people tend to have hubris and optimism (colloquially they are labeled “reckless hotheads”, although young people consider it normal and use no label at all)– If their own glorious idea is the 9th step, it is logical to include the

8 preceding steps in the plan and assume it will all work out fine

• The big surprise is that sometimes (although rarely) the latter approach works– But a student should not be allowed to bet all his chips on such

gamble. The advisor and committee should make sure there are other primary goals for the study, and winning the lottery can be nice but is not required

Reference

• Parts of the discussion were influenced by Chapter 3 in Lowe: A first textbook of research methodology… , 2016Available online at www.scientificlanguage.com