DEVELOPING RESEARCH PROPOSALS

Purpose of research proposals

Why do I need a research proposal?

• To convince others of the value of your research

• To demonstrate competency• To assist you - as a planning

tool

When should the proposal be written?

When should the proposal be written?

• Start thinking now• A substantial amount of work has to be

done before a proposal can be written• Seek advice on your draft from me, and

peers

Titles

• This can come later• Descriptive and informative• Avoid bland titles!

– Bland: Library Needs Analysis

• Better: Effects of Household Income on Use and Perceptions of Library Services

Core components of research proposals

Make sure that these are meaningful, not mechanistic

Core elements• An indication of why the problem

is important • A description of the research

question

• A review of relevant literature

• A description of the proposed methodology

Or in plain English...

• What do you want to do?• Why do you want to do it?• Why is it important?• Who has done similar work?• How are you going to do it?• How long will it take?

Additional components of

research proposals

Depending on the research...• A description of how the research

findings will be disseminated• Reliability and validity• Ethical statement• Possible problems

Ethics in Research

• CONSENT 

• HARM 

• DECEPTION 

• PRIVACY 

Consent

• Informed consent – Subjects must know potential risks, benefits,

conditions of participation, and ability to withdraw without penalty

• If consent is not informed, it can be as bad as (or worse than) not getting consent at all

• Two types – Direct or Substitute (3rd party) – If the person has a legal guardian, need substitute

• When in doubt, ask for permission • Consent should always be obtained in writing

Harm

• Subjects must be protected from harm, or at the least fully informed about the potential costs and benefits resulting from the harm

• Research that is physically or psychologically dangerous is generally considered unethical

• Care needs to be taken with subjects who are, or consider themselves to be, relatively powerless – Children, elderly, w/ disabilities

Privacy

• Sensitivity of topic &/or data • Can responses/results affect the

subject’s life if known by others • How public/private is the setting? • Public display of the data

– Personally identifiable information should be removed or changed

Deception

• Often tied to the informed part of consent

• Omission: withhold information • Commission: provide false information

– i.e., lying • Establishing false intimacy: subject feels

a high degree of comfort because he/she does not know is “on the record”

• Using accomplices: someone helping the researcher that the subject doesn’t know is helping

Do not fabricate, falsify or plagiarize!

Success and failure indicators for

proposals

Success indicators• Clearly defined research question• Appropriate literature provides a

background to the problem• Use of other sources to

identify/support the problem• Objectives clearly specified

Success indicators• Conceptual framework and

theoretical assumptions clearly stated

• Appropriate design and methodology

• Promotes further research• Preliminary data/pilot study• Necessary resources available

Failure indicators• Too long• Poor structure, language use• Inappropriate use of technical terms• Research too ambitious• No literature review• No integration of theory in literature

review• Literature review copied• No theoretical foundation

Failure indicators (cont.)

• Weak research design

• Methods not clear• Methods inappropriate• No references or bibliography• Plagiarized work

Core componentsWe will do this in week 13

Describing the research question

First find a research question!

• Researchers get their questions from many different places...

• Observation of the world• Concern with theory• Previous research• Practical concerns• Personal interest

Choosing a research question

• A broad research area is not a research question

• Formulate a number of possible questions, and weigh up the pros and cons

• The proposal must reflect that the issues have been thought through

Criteria for choosing include...• Access to information• Access to resources• Theoretical background• Value of research• Researcher’s skills• Is question big/small enough• Overall probability of successful

completion• Interest to researcher

Setting the limits: definitions• Provide explicit definitions for

key concepts• Terms don’t always have single

meanings understood in the same way by all

• Don’t under- or overestimate your readers

• Don’t provide mechanistic dictionary definitions of all terms

Sample definitions

• “A dependent variable is a variable that is influenced by another variable.” - weak

• The term “social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting” (SEAAR) has been used to describe a variety of practices relating to corporate social responsibility. For purposes of this study, the term will be used to refer specifically to the formal set of procedures outlined in AccountAbility 1000, while “social audit” will be used to describe the broader set of practices.- better

Setting the limits: boundaries

• Specify the limits of the research in a way which makes in clear what is and is not to be studied, through, for example,

– definitions – time span– geographical boundaries– other limits as appropriate to the

field of study

Literature review

What purpose does the literature review serve?

• Provides a conceptual framework for the research

• Provides an integrated overview of the field of study

• Helps establish a need for the research• May help clarify the research problem• Helps to demonstrate researcher’s

familiarity with the area under consideration (theory and / or methods)

Skills involved in producing a literature review

• Surveying a comprehensive range of existing material and sources in the general areas of your study

• Selecting those that will be most relevant and significant for your particular project

• Understanding and analyzing the central findings and arguments

• Synthesizing the findings and integrating them into the research proposal

• A good literature review generally contains an argument

How to write a literature review• Indicate the ways in which the authors you are

reviewing will be relevant to your research (information, theory, methodology)

• Demonstrate that you understand the similarities and differences between these works and paradigms (Where do they stand in relation to each other? Where does your research stand in relation to them?)

• If the study is cross-disciplinary or comparative you need to describe how the different areas of research can be drawn together in a meaningful way

Questions to help you in compiling a literature review

• What are the broad bodies of literature that have relevance for your research topic (local and international)?

• What theoretical model/s relate to your research topic?

• What theories, methods & results have previous researchers in your field produced? What is the history of your area of study? (cont.)

Questions to help you in compiling a literature review (cont.)

• What are the most recent findings in your area of study?

• What gaps or contradictions exist among these findings?

• What new research questions do these findings suggest?

• What structure suits my literature review best?

• What should I leave out?

Draw a literature map

Support

Time and Access

FactorsInfluencingTechnology

Integration inschools

Anxiety

Training

Attitude

Product Awareness

Pedagogy Training

TechnologyTraining

Availability

Workload

Technical Support

Collegial support

Administrativesupport

The literature review is not

• A bibliography

• A series of descriptions of pieces of previous research with no apparent connection to each other or your project

Significance of the research

The research must be of value, e.g.

• Practical value in solving problems

• Value to policy development

• Contribution to theory • Contribution to body of knowledge

within discipline

Methodology

What does the methodology section do? What should it contain?

• The methodology section shows the reader how you are going to set about looking for answers to the research question (including materials and methods to be used)– enough detail to demonstrate that you are

competent and the project is feasible

• The proposed methods must be appropriate to the type of research

What does the methodology section do? What should it contain?

• The instrument– Provide a copy of the questionnaire/ interview

protocols in the appendices

• The types of data you are going to collect– Quantitative data

• Will be tabulated/ graphed etc..

– Qualitative data• Narrative, descriptive

• Reliability and validity of instrument

Methodology section: “traditional” empirical social

research• Hypothesis• Research design• Sampling• Measurement instruments• Data collection procedures• Data analysis

Methodology section: “qualitative” research

• Research design• Research site• Participants• Researcher as the instruments

– “bracket oneself, refrain from…..”

• Data collection procedures• Data analysis

Sample evaluation criteria

Sample evaluation criteriaProblem Identification: • Is the problem/line of inquiry clearly identified?

• Has appropriate literature been examined in order to provide a background to the problem?

• Have other relevant sources been used to identify the problem?

• Are the aims and/or objectives of the inquiry clearly specified?

Sample evaluation criteria (cont.)

Approach:

• To what extent are the conceptual framework and theoretical assumptions clearly stated?

• Are the research design, methods of data collection and analysis appropriate to the aims of the research?

Sample evaluation criteria (cont.)

• Significance:– To what extent will the research make an

original contribution or be an innovative application of knowledge to its disciplinary field and/or across disciplines?

– Is the proposed research likely to promote further investigation within and/or across disciplines and fields?

Sample evaluation criteria (cont.)

• Feasibility– Do the preliminary data and the

available resources support the feasibility of the project?

• Impact– Does the research project have a

potential social impact, i.e. promote problem solving, social /educational policy development or evaluation, etc.?

Referencing

• Use APA style of referencing• OWL at Purdue University

Again,..please don’t

Proposals due at the end of the semester