how to write research project

• About University of Sheffield
• Campus life
• Accommodation
• Student support
• International Foundation Year
• Pre-Masters
• Pre-courses
• Entry requirements
• Fees, accommodation and living costs
• Scholarships
• Semester dates
• Student visa
• Before you arrive
• Enquire now

How to do a research project for your academic study

• Link copied!

Writing a research report is part of most university degrees, so it is essential you know what one is and how to write one. This guide on how to do a research project for your university degree shows you what to do at each stage, taking you from planning to finishing the project.

What is a research project? 

The big question is: what is a research project? A research project for students is an extended essay that presents a question or statement for analysis and evaluation. During a research project, you will present your own ideas and research on a subject alongside analysing existing knowledge. 

How to write a research report 

The next section covers the research project steps necessary to producing a research paper. 

Developing a research question or statement 

Research project topics will vary depending on the course you study. The best research project ideas develop from areas you already have an interest in and where you have existing knowledge. 

The area of study needs to be specific as it will be much easier to cover fully. If your topic is too broad, you are at risk of not having an in-depth project. You can, however, also make your topic too narrow and there will not be enough research to be done. To make sure you don’t run into either of these problems, it’s a great idea to create sub-topics and questions to ensure you are able to complete suitable research. 

A research project example question would be: How will modern technologies change the way of teaching in the future? 

Finding and evaluating sources 

Secondary research is a large part of your research project as it makes up the literature review section. It is essential to use credible sources as failing to do so may decrease the validity of your research project.

Examples of secondary research include:

• Peer-reviewed journals
• Scholarly articles
• Newspapers 

Great places to find your sources are the University library and Google Scholar. Both will give you many opportunities to find the credible sources you need. However, you need to make sure you are evaluating whether they are fit for purpose before including them in your research project as you do not want to include out of date information. 

When evaluating sources, you need to ask yourself:

• Is the information provided by an expert?
• How well does the source answer the research question?
• What does the source contribute to its field?
• Is the source valid? e.g. does it contain bias and is the information up-to-date?

It is important to ensure that you have a variety of sources in order to avoid bias. A successful research paper will present more than one point of view and the best way to do this is to not rely too heavily on just one author or publication. 

Conducting research 

For a research project, you will need to conduct primary research. This is the original research you will gather to further develop your research project. The most common types of primary research are interviews and surveys as these allow for many and varied results. 

Examples of primary research include: 

• Interviews and surveys 
• Focus groups 
• Experiments 
• Research diaries 

If you are looking to study in the UK and have an interest in bettering your research skills, The University of Sheffield is a  world top 100 research university  which will provide great research opportunities and resources for your project. 

Research report format  

Now that you understand the basics of how to write a research project, you now need to look at what goes into each section. The research project format is just as important as the research itself. Without a clear structure you will not be able to present your findings concisely. 

A research paper is made up of seven sections: introduction, literature review, methodology, findings and results, discussion, conclusion, and references. You need to make sure you are including a list of correctly cited references to avoid accusations of plagiarism. 

Introduction 

The introduction is where you will present your hypothesis and provide context for why you are doing the project. Here you will include relevant background information, present your research aims and explain why the research is important. 

Literature review  

The literature review is where you will analyse and evaluate existing research within your subject area. This section is where your secondary research will be presented. A literature review is an integral part of your research project as it brings validity to your research aims. 

What to include when writing your literature review:

• A description of the publications
• A summary of the main points
• An evaluation on the contribution to the area of study
• Potential flaws and gaps in the research 

Methodology

The research paper methodology outlines the process of your data collection. This is where you will present your primary research. The aim of the methodology section is to answer two questions: 

• Why did you select the research methods you used?
• How do these methods contribute towards your research hypothesis? 

In this section you will not be writing about your findings, but the ways in which you are going to try and achieve them. You need to state whether your methodology will be qualitative, quantitative, or mixed. 

• Qualitative – first hand observations such as interviews, focus groups, case studies and questionnaires. The data collected will generally be non-numerical. 
• Quantitative – research that deals in numbers and logic. The data collected will focus on statistics and numerical patterns.
• Mixed – includes both quantitative and qualitative research.

The methodology section should always be written in the past tense, even if you have already started your data collection. 

Findings and results 

In this section you will present the findings and results of your primary research. Here you will give a concise and factual summary of your findings using tables and graphs where appropriate. 

Discussion 

The discussion section is where you will talk about your findings in detail. Here you need to relate your results to your hypothesis, explaining what you found out and the significance of the research. 

It is a good idea to talk about any areas with disappointing or surprising results and address the limitations within the research project. This will balance your project and steer you away from bias.

Some questions to consider when writing your discussion: 

• To what extent was the hypothesis supported?
• Was your research method appropriate?
• Was there unexpected data that affected your results?
• To what extent was your research validated by other sources?

Conclusion 

The conclusion is where you will bring your research project to a close. In this section you will not only be restating your research aims and how you achieved them, but also discussing the wider significance of your research project. You will talk about the successes and failures of the project, and how you would approach further study. 

It is essential you do not bring any new ideas into your conclusion; this section is used only to summarise what you have already stated in the project. 

References 

As a research project is your own ideas blended with information and research from existing knowledge, you must include a list of correctly cited references. Creating a list of references will allow the reader to easily evaluate the quality of your secondary research whilst also saving you from potential plagiarism accusations. 

The way in which you cite your sources will vary depending on the university standard.

If you are an international student looking to  study a degree in the UK , The University of Sheffield International College has a range of  pathway programmes  to prepare you for university study. Undertaking a Research Project is one of the core modules for the  Pre-Masters programme  at The University of Sheffield International College.

Frequently Asked Questions 

What is the best topic for research .

It’s a good idea to choose a topic you have existing knowledge on, or one that you are interested in. This will make the research process easier; as you have an idea of where and what to look for in your sources, as well as more enjoyable as it’s a topic you want to know more about.

What should a research project include? 

There are seven main sections to a research project, these are:

• Introduction – the aims of the project and what you hope to achieve
• Literature review – evaluating and reviewing existing knowledge on the topic
• Methodology – the methods you will use for your primary research
• Findings and results – presenting the data from your primary research
• Discussion – summarising and analysing your research and what you have found out
• Conclusion – how the project went (successes and failures), areas for future study
• List of references – correctly cited sources that have been used throughout the project. 

How long is a research project? 

The length of a research project will depend on the level study and the nature of the subject. There is no one length for research papers, however the average dissertation style essay can be anywhere from 4,000 to 15,000+ words. 

How To Write A Research Paper

Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + FREE Template

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | March 2024

For many students, crafting a strong research paper from scratch can feel like a daunting task – and rightly so! In this post, we’ll unpack what a research paper is, what it needs to do , and how to write one – in three easy steps. 🙂 

Overview: Writing A Research Paper

What (exactly) is a research paper.

• How to write a research paper
• Stage 1 : Topic & literature search
• Stage 2 : Structure & outline
• Stage 3 : Iterative writing
• Key takeaways

Let’s start by asking the most important question, “ What is a research paper? ”.

Simply put, a research paper is a scholarly written work where the writer (that’s you!) answers a specific question (this is called a research question ) through evidence-based arguments . Evidence-based is the keyword here. In other words, a research paper is different from an essay or other writing assignments that draw from the writer’s personal opinions or experiences. With a research paper, it’s all about building your arguments based on evidence (we’ll talk more about that evidence a little later).

Now, it’s worth noting that there are many different types of research papers , including analytical papers (the type I just described), argumentative papers, and interpretative papers. Here, we’ll focus on analytical papers , as these are some of the most common – but if you’re keen to learn about other types of research papers, be sure to check out the rest of the blog .

With that basic foundation laid, let’s get down to business and look at how to write a research paper .

Overview: The 3-Stage Process

While there are, of course, many potential approaches you can take to write a research paper, there are typically three stages to the writing process. So, in this tutorial, we’ll present a straightforward three-step process that we use when working with students at Grad Coach.

These three steps are:

• Finding a research topic and reviewing the existing literature
• Developing a provisional structure and outline for your paper, and
• Writing up your initial draft and then refining it iteratively

Let’s dig into each of these.

Need a helping hand?

Step 1: Find a topic and review the literature

As we mentioned earlier, in a research paper, you, as the researcher, will try to answer a question . More specifically, that’s called a research question , and it sets the direction of your entire paper. What’s important to understand though is that you’ll need to answer that research question with the help of high-quality sources – for example, journal articles, government reports, case studies, and so on. We’ll circle back to this in a minute.

The first stage of the research process is deciding on what your research question will be and then reviewing the existing literature (in other words, past studies and papers) to see what they say about that specific research question. In some cases, your professor may provide you with a predetermined research question (or set of questions). However, in many cases, you’ll need to find your own research question within a certain topic area.

Finding a strong research question hinges on identifying a meaningful research gap – in other words, an area that’s lacking in existing research. There’s a lot to unpack here, so if you wanna learn more, check out the plain-language explainer video below.

Once you’ve figured out which question (or questions) you’ll attempt to answer in your research paper, you’ll need to do a deep dive into the existing literature – this is called a “ literature search ”. Again, there are many ways to go about this, but your most likely starting point will be Google Scholar .

If you’re new to Google Scholar, think of it as Google for the academic world. You can start by simply entering a few different keywords that are relevant to your research question and it will then present a host of articles for you to review. What you want to pay close attention to here is the number of citations for each paper – the more citations a paper has, the more credible it is (generally speaking – there are some exceptions, of course).

Ideally, what you’re looking for are well-cited papers that are highly relevant to your topic. That said, keep in mind that citations are a cumulative metric , so older papers will often have more citations than newer papers – just because they’ve been around for longer. So, don’t fixate on this metric in isolation – relevance and recency are also very important.

Beyond Google Scholar, you’ll also definitely want to check out academic databases and aggregators such as Science Direct, PubMed, JStor and so on. These will often overlap with the results that you find in Google Scholar, but they can also reveal some hidden gems – so, be sure to check them out.

Once you’ve worked your way through all the literature, you’ll want to catalogue all this information in some sort of spreadsheet so that you can easily recall who said what, when and within what context. If you’d like, we’ve got a free literature spreadsheet that helps you do exactly that.

Step 2: Develop a structure and outline

With your research question pinned down and your literature digested and catalogued, it’s time to move on to planning your actual research paper .

It might sound obvious, but it’s really important to have some sort of rough outline in place before you start writing your paper. So often, we see students eagerly rushing into the writing phase, only to land up with a disjointed research paper that rambles on in multiple

Now, the secret here is to not get caught up in the fine details . Realistically, all you need at this stage is a bullet-point list that describes (in broad strokes) what you’ll discuss and in what order. It’s also useful to remember that you’re not glued to this outline – in all likelihood, you’ll chop and change some sections once you start writing, and that’s perfectly okay. What’s important is that you have some sort of roadmap in place from the start.

At this stage you might be wondering, “ But how should I structure my research paper? ”. Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, but in general, a research paper will consist of a few relatively standardised components:

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology

Let’s take a look at each of these.

First up is the introduction section . As the name suggests, the purpose of the introduction is to set the scene for your research paper. There are usually (at least) four ingredients that go into this section – these are the background to the topic, the research problem and resultant research question , and the justification or rationale. If you’re interested, the video below unpacks the introduction section in more detail. 

The next section of your research paper will typically be your literature review . Remember all that literature you worked through earlier? Well, this is where you’ll present your interpretation of all that content . You’ll do this by writing about recent trends, developments, and arguments within the literature – but more specifically, those that are relevant to your research question . The literature review can oftentimes seem a little daunting, even to seasoned researchers, so be sure to check out our extensive collection of literature review content here .

With the introduction and lit review out of the way, the next section of your paper is the research methodology . In a nutshell, the methodology section should describe to your reader what you did (beyond just reviewing the existing literature) to answer your research question. For example, what data did you collect, how did you collect that data, how did you analyse that data and so on? For each choice, you’ll also need to justify why you chose to do it that way, and what the strengths and weaknesses of your approach were.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that for some research papers, this aspect of the project may be a lot simpler . For example, you may only need to draw on secondary sources (in other words, existing data sets). In some cases, you may just be asked to draw your conclusions from the literature search itself (in other words, there may be no data analysis at all). But, if you are required to collect and analyse data, you’ll need to pay a lot of attention to the methodology section. The video below provides an example of what the methodology section might look like.

By this stage of your paper, you will have explained what your research question is, what the existing literature has to say about that question, and how you analysed additional data to try to answer your question. So, the natural next step is to present your analysis of that data . This section is usually called the “results” or “analysis” section and this is where you’ll showcase your findings.

Depending on your school’s requirements, you may need to present and interpret the data in one section – or you might split the presentation and the interpretation into two sections. In the latter case, your “results” section will just describe the data, and the “discussion” is where you’ll interpret that data and explicitly link your analysis back to your research question. If you’re not sure which approach to take, check in with your professor or take a look at past papers to see what the norms are for your programme.

Alright – once you’ve presented and discussed your results, it’s time to wrap it up . This usually takes the form of the “ conclusion ” section. In the conclusion, you’ll need to highlight the key takeaways from your study and close the loop by explicitly answering your research question. Again, the exact requirements here will vary depending on your programme (and you may not even need a conclusion section at all) – so be sure to check with your professor if you’re unsure.

Step 3: Write and refine

Finally, it’s time to get writing. All too often though, students hit a brick wall right about here… So, how do you avoid this happening to you?

Well, there’s a lot to be said when it comes to writing a research paper (or any sort of academic piece), but we’ll share three practical tips to help you get started.

First and foremost , it’s essential to approach your writing as an iterative process. In other words, you need to start with a really messy first draft and then polish it over multiple rounds of editing. Don’t waste your time trying to write a perfect research paper in one go. Instead, take the pressure off yourself by adopting an iterative approach.

Secondly , it’s important to always lean towards critical writing , rather than descriptive writing. What does this mean? Well, at the simplest level, descriptive writing focuses on the “ what ”, while critical writing digs into the “ so what ” – in other words, the implications . If you’re not familiar with these two types of writing, don’t worry! You can find a plain-language explanation here.

Last but not least, you’ll need to get your referencing right. Specifically, you’ll need to provide credible, correctly formatted citations for the statements you make. We see students making referencing mistakes all the time and it costs them dearly. The good news is that you can easily avoid this by using a simple reference manager . If you don’t have one, check out our video about Mendeley, an easy (and free) reference management tool that you can start using today.

Recap: Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. To recap, the three steps to writing a high-quality research paper are:

• To choose a research question and review the literature
• To plan your paper structure and draft an outline
• To take an iterative approach to writing, focusing on critical writing and strong referencing

Remember, this is just a b ig-picture overview of the research paper development process and there’s a lot more nuance to unpack. So, be sure to grab a copy of our free research paper template to learn more about how to write a research paper.

Can you help me with a full paper template for this Abstract:

Background: Energy and sports drinks have gained popularity among diverse demographic groups, including adolescents, athletes, workers, and college students. While often used interchangeably, these beverages serve distinct purposes, with energy drinks aiming to boost energy and cognitive performance, and sports drinks designed to prevent dehydration and replenish electrolytes and carbohydrates lost during physical exertion.

Objective: To assess the nutritional quality of energy and sports drinks in Egypt.

Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study assessed the nutrient contents, including energy, sugar, electrolytes, vitamins, and caffeine, of sports and energy drinks available in major supermarkets in Cairo, Alexandria, and Giza, Egypt. Data collection involved photographing all relevant product labels and recording nutritional information. Descriptive statistics and appropriate statistical tests were employed to analyze and compare the nutritional values of energy and sports drinks.

Results: The study analyzed 38 sports drinks and 42 energy drinks. Sports drinks were significantly more expensive than energy drinks, with higher net content and elevated magnesium, potassium, and vitamin C. Energy drinks contained higher concentrations of caffeine, sugars, and vitamins B2, B3, and B6.

Conclusion: Significant nutritional differences exist between sports and energy drinks, reflecting their intended uses. However, these beverages’ high sugar content and calorie loads raise health concerns. Proper labeling, public awareness, and responsible marketing are essential to guide safe consumption practices in Egypt.

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Print Friendly

Dissertations and research projects

• Sessions and recordings
• Skill guide
• Finding the gap
• Developing research questions
• Epistemology
• Ethical approval
• Methodology and Methods
• Recruiting participants
• Planning your analysis
• Writing your research proposal
• Hypothesis testing
• Reliability and validity
• Approaches to quantitative research
• Developing a theoretical framework
• Reflecting on your position
• Extended literature reviews
• Presenting qualitative data
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology
• Conclusions
• 5) Working with a supervisor
• e-learning and books
• Quick resources
• SkillsCheck This link opens in a new window
• Review this resource

Writing up your research project

In this section on Writing up your research you can find out about the following aspects:

You might also want to consult our other sections on  Planning your research  (including Writing your research proposal ),  Quantitative research ,  Qualitative research , and check out the Additional resources .

• << Previous: Presenting qualitative data
• Next: Abstracts >>

Adsetts Library

Collegiate library, sheffield hallam university, city campus, howard street, sheffield s1 1wb, contact us / live chat, +44 (0)114 225 2222, [email protected], accessibility, legal information, privacy and gdpr, login to libapps.

• Research Process
• Manuscript Preparation
• Manuscript Review
• Publication Process
• Publication Recognition

Language Editing Services

• Translation Services

Writing a Scientific Research Project Proposal

• 5 minute read

Table of Contents

The importance of a well-written research proposal cannot be underestimated. Your research really is only as good as your proposal. A poorly written, or poorly conceived research proposal will doom even an otherwise worthy project. On the other hand, a well-written, high-quality proposal will increase your chances for success.

In this article, we’ll outline the basics of writing an effective scientific research proposal, including the differences between research proposals, grants and cover letters. We’ll also touch on common mistakes made when submitting research proposals, as well as a simple example or template that you can follow.

What is a scientific research proposal?

The main purpose of a scientific research proposal is to convince your audience that your project is worthwhile, and that you have the expertise and wherewithal to complete it. The elements of an effective research proposal mirror those of the research process itself, which we’ll outline below. Essentially, the research proposal should include enough information for the reader to determine if your proposed study is worth pursuing.

It is not an uncommon misunderstanding to think that a research proposal and a cover letter are the same things. However, they are different. The main difference between a research proposal vs cover letter content is distinct. Whereas the research proposal summarizes the proposal for future research, the cover letter connects you to the research, and how you are the right person to complete the proposed research.

There is also sometimes confusion around a research proposal vs grant application. Whereas a research proposal is a statement of intent, related to answering a research question, a grant application is a specific request for funding to complete the research proposed. Of course, there are elements of overlap between the two documents; it’s the purpose of the document that defines one or the other.

Scientific Research Proposal Format

Although there is no one way to write a scientific research proposal, there are specific guidelines. A lot depends on which journal you’re submitting your research proposal to, so you may need to follow their scientific research proposal template.

In general, however, there are fairly universal sections to every scientific research proposal. These include:

• Title: Make sure the title of your proposal is descriptive and concise. Make it catch and informative at the same time, avoiding dry phrases like, “An investigation…” Your title should pique the interest of the reader.
• Abstract: This is a brief (300-500 words) summary that includes the research question, your rationale for the study, and any applicable hypothesis. You should also include a brief description of your methodology, including procedures, samples, instruments, etc.
• Introduction: The opening paragraph of your research proposal is, perhaps, the most important. Here you want to introduce the research problem in a creative way, and demonstrate your understanding of the need for the research. You want the reader to think that your proposed research is current, important and relevant.
• Background: Include a brief history of the topic and link it to a contemporary context to show its relevance for today. Identify key researchers and institutions also looking at the problem
• Literature Review: This is the section that may take the longest amount of time to assemble. Here you want to synthesize prior research, and place your proposed research into the larger picture of what’s been studied in the past. You want to show your reader that your work is original, and adds to the current knowledge.
• Research Design and Methodology: This section should be very clearly and logically written and organized. You are letting your reader know that you know what you are going to do, and how. The reader should feel confident that you have the skills and knowledge needed to get the project done.
• Preliminary Implications: Here you’ll be outlining how you anticipate your research will extend current knowledge in your field. You might also want to discuss how your findings will impact future research needs.
• Conclusion: This section reinforces the significance and importance of your proposed research, and summarizes the entire proposal.
• References/Citations: Of course, you need to include a full and accurate list of any and all sources you used to write your research proposal.

Common Mistakes in Writing a Scientific Research Project Proposal

Remember, the best research proposal can be rejected if it’s not well written or is ill-conceived. The most common mistakes made include:

• Not providing the proper context for your research question or the problem
• Failing to reference landmark/key studies
• Losing focus of the research question or problem
• Not accurately presenting contributions by other researchers and institutions
• Incompletely developing a persuasive argument for the research that is being proposed
• Misplaced attention on minor points and/or not enough detail on major issues
• Sloppy, low-quality writing without effective logic and flow
• Incorrect or lapses in references and citations, and/or references not in proper format
• The proposal is too long – or too short

Scientific Research Proposal Example

There are countless examples that you can find for successful research proposals. In addition, you can also find examples of unsuccessful research proposals. Search for successful research proposals in your field, and even for your target journal, to get a good idea on what specifically your audience may be looking for.

While there’s no one example that will show you everything you need to know, looking at a few will give you a good idea of what you need to include in your own research proposal. Talk, also, to colleagues in your field, especially if you are a student or a new researcher. We can often learn from the mistakes of others. The more prepared and knowledgeable you are prior to writing your research proposal, the more likely you are to succeed.

One of the top reasons scientific research proposals are rejected is due to poor logic and flow. Check out our Language Editing Services to ensure a great proposal , that’s clear and concise, and properly referenced. Check our video for more information, and get started today.

Research Fraud: Falsification and Fabrication in Research Data

Research Team Structure

You may also like.

Descriptive Research Design and Its Myriad Uses

Five Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Biomedical Research Paper

Making Technical Writing in Environmental Engineering Accessible

To Err is Not Human: The Dangers of AI-assisted Academic Writing

When Data Speak, Listen: Importance of Data Collection and Analysis Methods

Choosing the Right Research Methodology: A Guide for Researchers

Why is data validation important in research?

Writing a good review article

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

How to write a research plan: Step-by-step guide

Last updated

30 January 2024

Reviewed by

Short on time? Get an AI generated summary of this article instead

Today’s businesses and institutions rely on data and analytics to inform their product and service decisions. These metrics influence how organizations stay competitive and inspire innovation. However, gathering data and insights requires carefully constructed research, and every research project needs a roadmap. This is where a research plan comes into play.

Read this step-by-step guide for writing a detailed research plan that can apply to any project, whether it’s scientific, educational, or business-related.

• What is a research plan?

A research plan is a documented overview of a project in its entirety, from end to end. It details the research efforts, participants, and methods needed, along with any anticipated results. It also outlines the project’s goals and mission, creating layers of steps to achieve those goals within a specified timeline.

Without a research plan, you and your team are flying blind, potentially wasting time and resources to pursue research without structured guidance.

The principal investigator, or PI, is responsible for facilitating the research oversight. They will create the research plan and inform team members and stakeholders of every detail relating to the project. The PI will also use the research plan to inform decision-making throughout the project.

• Why do you need a research plan?

Create a research plan before starting any official research to maximize every effort in pursuing and collecting the research data. Crucially, the plan will model the activities needed at each phase of the research project .

Like any roadmap, a research plan serves as a valuable tool providing direction for those involved in the project—both internally and externally. It will keep you and your immediate team organized and task-focused while also providing necessary definitions and timelines so you can execute your project initiatives with full understanding and transparency.

External stakeholders appreciate a working research plan because it’s a great communication tool, documenting progress and changing dynamics as they arise. Any participants of your planned research sessions will be informed about the purpose of your study, while the exercises will be based on the key messaging outlined in the official plan.

Here are some of the benefits of creating a research plan document for every project:

Project organization and structure

Well-informed participants

All stakeholders and teams align in support of the project

Clearly defined project definitions and purposes

Distractions are eliminated, prioritizing task focus

Timely management of individual task schedules and roles

Costly reworks are avoided

• What should a research plan include?

The different aspects of your research plan will depend on the nature of the project. However, most official research plan documents will include the core elements below. Each aims to define the problem statement , devising an official plan for seeking a solution.

Specific project goals and individual objectives

Ideal strategies or methods for reaching those goals

Required resources

Descriptions of the target audience, sample sizes , demographics, and scopes

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Project background

Research and testing support

Preliminary studies and progress reporting mechanisms

Cost estimates and change order processes

Depending on the research project’s size and scope, your research plan could be brief—perhaps only a few pages of documented plans. Alternatively, it could be a fully comprehensive report. Either way, it’s an essential first step in dictating your project’s facilitation in the most efficient and effective way.

• How to write a research plan for your project

When you start writing your research plan, aim to be detailed about each step, requirement, and idea. The more time you spend curating your research plan, the more precise your research execution efforts will be.

Account for every potential scenario, and be sure to address each and every aspect of the research.

Consider following this flow to develop a great research plan for your project:

Define your project’s purpose

Start by defining your project’s purpose. Identify what your project aims to accomplish and what you are researching. Remember to use clear language.

Thinking about the project’s purpose will help you set realistic goals and inform how you divide tasks and assign responsibilities. These individual tasks will be your stepping stones to reach your overarching goal.

Additionally, you’ll want to identify the specific problem, the usability metrics needed, and the intended solutions.

Know the following three things about your project’s purpose before you outline anything else:

What you’re doing

Why you’re doing it

What you expect from it

Identify individual objectives

With your overarching project objectives in place, you can identify any individual goals or steps needed to reach those objectives. Break them down into phases or steps. You can work backward from the project goal and identify every process required to facilitate it.

Be mindful to identify each unique task so that you can assign responsibilities to various team members. At this point in your research plan development, you’ll also want to assign priority to those smaller, more manageable steps and phases that require more immediate or dedicated attention.

Select research methods

Once you have outlined your goals, objectives, steps, and tasks, it’s time to drill down on selecting research methods . You’ll want to leverage specific research strategies and processes. When you know what methods will help you reach your goals, you and your teams will have direction to perform and execute your assigned tasks.

Research methods might include any of the following:

User interviews : this is a qualitative research method where researchers engage with participants in one-on-one or group conversations. The aim is to gather insights into their experiences, preferences, and opinions to uncover patterns, trends, and data.

Field studies : this approach allows for a contextual understanding of behaviors, interactions, and processes in real-world settings. It involves the researcher immersing themselves in the field, conducting observations, interviews, or experiments to gather in-depth insights.

Card sorting : participants categorize information by sorting content cards into groups based on their perceived similarities. You might use this process to gain insights into participants’ mental models and preferences when navigating or organizing information on websites, apps, or other systems.

Focus groups : use organized discussions among select groups of participants to provide relevant views and experiences about a particular topic.

Diary studies : ask participants to record their experiences, thoughts, and activities in a diary over a specified period. This method provides a deeper understanding of user experiences, uncovers patterns, and identifies areas for improvement.

Five-second testing: participants are shown a design, such as a web page or interface, for just five seconds. They then answer questions about their initial impressions and recall, allowing you to evaluate the design’s effectiveness.

Surveys : get feedback from participant groups with structured surveys. You can use online forms, telephone interviews, or paper questionnaires to reveal trends, patterns, and correlations.

Tree testing : tree testing involves researching web assets through the lens of findability and navigability. Participants are given a textual representation of the site’s hierarchy (the “tree”) and asked to locate specific information or complete tasks by selecting paths.

Usability testing : ask participants to interact with a product, website, or application to evaluate its ease of use. This method enables you to uncover areas for improvement in digital key feature functionality by observing participants using the product.

Live website testing: research and collect analytics that outlines the design, usability, and performance efficiencies of a website in real time.

There are no limits to the number of research methods you could use within your project. Just make sure your research methods help you determine the following:

What do you plan to do with the research findings?

What decisions will this research inform? How can your stakeholders leverage the research data and results?

Recruit participants and allocate tasks

Next, identify the participants needed to complete the research and the resources required to complete the tasks. Different people will be proficient at different tasks, and having a task allocation plan will allow everything to run smoothly.

Prepare a thorough project summary

Every well-designed research plan will feature a project summary. This official summary will guide your research alongside its communications or messaging. You’ll use the summary while recruiting participants and during stakeholder meetings. It can also be useful when conducting field studies.

Ensure this summary includes all the elements of your research project . Separate the steps into an easily explainable piece of text that includes the following:

An introduction: the message you’ll deliver to participants about the interview, pre-planned questioning, and testing tasks.

Interview questions: prepare questions you intend to ask participants as part of your research study, guiding the sessions from start to finish.

An exit message: draft messaging your teams will use to conclude testing or survey sessions. These should include the next steps and express gratitude for the participant’s time.

Create a realistic timeline

While your project might already have a deadline or a results timeline in place, you’ll need to consider the time needed to execute it effectively.

Realistically outline the time needed to properly execute each supporting phase of research and implementation. And, as you evaluate the necessary schedules, be sure to include additional time for achieving each milestone in case any changes or unexpected delays arise.

For this part of your research plan, you might find it helpful to create visuals to ensure your research team and stakeholders fully understand the information.

Determine how to present your results

A research plan must also describe how you intend to present your results. Depending on the nature of your project and its goals, you might dedicate one team member (the PI) or assume responsibility for communicating the findings yourself.

In this part of the research plan, you’ll articulate how you’ll share the results. Detail any materials you’ll use, such as:

Presentations and slides

A project report booklet

A project findings pamphlet

Documents with key takeaways and statistics

Graphic visuals to support your findings

• Format your research plan

As you create your research plan, you can enjoy a little creative freedom. A plan can assume many forms, so format it how you see fit. Determine the best layout based on your specific project, intended communications, and the preferences of your teams and stakeholders.

Find format inspiration among the following layouts:

Written outlines

Narrative storytelling

Visual mapping

Graphic timelines

Remember, the research plan format you choose will be subject to change and adaptation as your research and findings unfold. However, your final format should ideally outline questions, problems, opportunities, and expectations.

• Research plan example

Imagine you’ve been tasked with finding out how to get more customers to order takeout from an online food delivery platform. The goal is to improve satisfaction and retain existing customers. You set out to discover why more people aren’t ordering and what it is they do want to order or experience. 

You identify the need for a research project that helps you understand what drives customer loyalty . But before you jump in and start calling past customers, you need to develop a research plan—the roadmap that provides focus, clarity, and realistic details to the project.

Here’s an example outline of a research plan you might put together:

Project title

Project members involved in the research plan

Purpose of the project (provide a summary of the research plan’s intent)

Objective 1 (provide a short description for each objective)

Objective 2

Objective 3

Proposed timeline

Audience (detail the group you want to research, such as customers or non-customers)

Budget (how much you think it might cost to do the research)

Risk factors/contingencies (any potential risk factors that may impact the project’s success)

Remember, your research plan doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel—it just needs to fit your project’s unique needs and aims.

Customizing a research plan template

Some companies offer research plan templates to help get you started. However, it may make more sense to develop your own customized plan template. Be sure to include the core elements of a great research plan with your template layout, including the following:

Introductions to participants and stakeholders

Background problems and needs statement

Significance, ethics, and purpose

Research methods, questions, and designs

Preliminary beliefs and expectations

Implications and intended outcomes

Realistic timelines for each phase

Conclusion and presentations

How many pages should a research plan be?

Generally, a research plan can vary in length between 500 to 1,500 words. This is roughly three pages of content. More substantial projects will be 2,000 to 3,500 words, taking up four to seven pages of planning documents.

What is the difference between a research plan and a research proposal?

A research plan is a roadmap to success for research teams. A research proposal, on the other hand, is a dissertation aimed at convincing or earning the support of others. Both are relevant in creating a guide to follow to complete a project goal.

What are the seven steps to developing a research plan?

While each research project is different, it’s best to follow these seven general steps to create your research plan:

Defining the problem

Identifying goals

Choosing research methods

Recruiting participants

Preparing the brief or summary

Establishing task timelines

Defining how you will present the findings

Should you be using a customer insights hub?

Do you want to discover previous research faster?

Do you share your research findings with others?

Do you analyze research data?

Start for free today, add your research, and get to key insights faster

Editor’s picks

Last updated: 18 April 2023

Last updated: 27 February 2023

Last updated: 6 February 2023

Last updated: 6 October 2023

Last updated: 5 February 2023

Last updated: 16 April 2023

Last updated: 9 March 2023

Last updated: 12 December 2023

Last updated: 11 March 2024

Last updated: 4 July 2024

Last updated: 6 March 2024

Last updated: 5 March 2024

Last updated: 13 May 2024

Latest articles

Related topics, .css-je19u9{-webkit-align-items:flex-end;-webkit-box-align:flex-end;-ms-flex-align:flex-end;align-items:flex-end;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;-webkit-box-flex-wrap:wrap;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;row-gap:0;text-align:center;max-width:671px;}@media (max-width: 1079px){.css-je19u9{max-width:400px;}.css-je19u9>span{white-space:pre;}}@media (max-width: 799px){.css-je19u9{max-width:400px;}.css-je19u9>span{white-space:pre;}} decide what to .css-1kiodld{max-height:56px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}@media (max-width: 1079px){.css-1kiodld{display:none;}} build next, decide what to build next.

Users report unexpectedly high data usage, especially during streaming sessions.

Users find it hard to navigate from the home page to relevant playlists in the app.

It would be great to have a sleep timer feature, especially for bedtime listening.

I need better filters to find the songs or artists I’m looking for.

Log in or sign up

Get started for free

• Locations and Hours
• UCLA Library
• Research Guides
• Research Tips and Tools

Advanced Research Methods

• Writing a Research Proposal
• What Is Research?
• Library Research

What Is a Research Proposal?

Reference books.

• Writing the Research Paper
• Presenting the Research Paper

When applying for a research grant or scholarship, or, just before you start a major research project, you may be asked to write a preliminary document that includes basic information about your future research. This is the information that is usually needed in your proposal:

• The topic and goal of the research project.
• The kind of result expected from the research.
• The theory or framework in which the research will be done and presented.
• What kind of methods will be used (statistical, empirical, etc.).
• Short reference on the preliminary scholarship and why your research project is needed; how will it continue/justify/disprove the previous scholarship.
• How much will the research project cost; how will it be budgeted (what for the money will be spent).
• Why is it you who can do this research and not somebody else.

Most agencies that offer scholarships or grants provide information about the required format of the proposal. It may include filling out templates, types of information they need, suggested/maximum length of the proposal, etc.

Research proposal formats vary depending on the size of the planned research, the number of participants, the discipline, the characteristics of the research, etc. The following outline assumes an individual researcher. This is just a SAMPLE; several other ways are equally good and can be successful. If possible, discuss your research proposal with an expert in writing, a professor, your colleague, another student who already wrote successful proposals, etc.

• Author, author's affiliation
• Explain the topic and why you chose it. If possible explain your goal/outcome of the research . How much time you need to complete the research?
• Give a brief summary of previous scholarship and explain why your topic and goals are important.
• Relate your planned research to previous scholarship. What will your research add to our knowledge of the topic.
• Break down the main topic into smaller research questions. List them one by one and explain why these questions need to be investigated. Relate them to previous scholarship.
• Include your hypothesis into the descriptions of the detailed research issues if you have one. Explain why it is important to justify your hypothesis.
• This part depends of the methods conducted in the research process. List the methods; explain how the results will be presented; how they will be assessed.
• Explain what kind of results will justify or  disprove your hypothesis. 
• Explain how much money you need.
• Explain the details of the budget (how much you want to spend for what).
• Describe why your research is important.
• List the sources you have used for writing the research proposal, including a few main citations of the preliminary scholarship.

• << Previous: Library Research
• Next: Writing the Research Paper >>
• Last Updated: Jul 24, 2024 1:23 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.ucla.edu/research-methods

We use essential cookies to make Venngage work. By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

Manage Cookies

Cookies and similar technologies collect certain information about how you’re using our website. Some of them are essential, and without them you wouldn’t be able to use Venngage. But others are optional, and you get to choose whether we use them or not.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are always on, as they’re essential for making Venngage work, and making it safe. Without these cookies, services you’ve asked for can’t be provided.

Show cookie providers

• Google Login

Functionality Cookies

These cookies help us provide enhanced functionality and personalisation, and remember your settings. They may be set by us or by third party providers.

Performance Cookies

These cookies help us analyze how many people are using Venngage, where they come from and how they're using it. If you opt out of these cookies, we can’t get feedback to make Venngage better for you and all our users.

• Google Analytics

Targeting Cookies

These cookies are set by our advertising partners to track your activity and show you relevant Venngage ads on other sites as you browse the internet.

• Google Tag Manager
• Infographics
• Daily Infographics
• Popular Templates
• Accessibility
• Graphic Design
• Graphs and Charts
• Data Visualization
• Human Resources
• Beginner Guides

Blog Business How to Write a Research Proposal: A Step-by-Step

How to Write a Research Proposal: A Step-by-Step

Written by: Danesh Ramuthi Nov 29, 2023

A research proposal is a structured outline for a planned study on a specific topic. It serves as a roadmap, guiding researchers through the process of converting their research idea into a feasible project. 

The aim of a research proposal is multifold: it articulates the research problem, establishes a theoretical framework, outlines the research methodology and highlights the potential significance of the study. Importantly, it’s a critical tool for scholars seeking grant funding or approval for their research projects.

Crafting a good research proposal requires not only understanding your research topic and methodological approaches but also the ability to present your ideas clearly and persuasively. Explore Venngage’s Proposal Maker and Research Proposals Templates to begin your journey in writing a compelling research proposal.

What to include in a research proposal?

In a research proposal, include a clear statement of your research question or problem, along with an explanation of its significance. This should be followed by a literature review that situates your proposed study within the context of existing research. 

Your proposal should also outline the research methodology, detailing how you plan to conduct your study, including data collection and analysis methods.

Additionally, include a theoretical framework that guides your research approach, a timeline or research schedule, and a budget if applicable. It’s important to also address the anticipated outcomes and potential implications of your study. A well-structured research proposal will clearly communicate your research objectives, methods and significance to the readers.

How to format a research proposal?

Formatting a research proposal involves adhering to a structured outline to ensure clarity and coherence. While specific requirements may vary, a standard research proposal typically includes the following elements:

• Title Page: Must include the title of your research proposal, your name and affiliations. The title should be concise and descriptive of your proposed research.
• Abstract: A brief summary of your proposal, usually not exceeding 250 words. It should highlight the research question, methodology and the potential impact of the study.
• Introduction: Introduces your research question or problem, explains its significance, and states the objectives of your study.
• Literature review: Here, you contextualize your research within existing scholarship, demonstrating your knowledge of the field and how your research will contribute to it.
• Methodology: Outline your research methods, including how you will collect and analyze data. This section should be detailed enough to show the feasibility and thoughtfulness of your approach.
• Timeline: Provide an estimated schedule for your research, breaking down the process into stages with a realistic timeline for each.
• Budget (if applicable): If your research requires funding, include a detailed budget outlining expected cost.
• References/Bibliography: List all sources referenced in your proposal in a consistent citation style.

How to write a research proposal in 11 steps?

Writing a research proposal template in structured steps ensures a comprehensive and coherent presentation of your research project. Let’s look at the explanation for each of the steps here:  

Step 1: Title and Abstract Step 2: Introduction Step 3: Research objectives Step 4: Literature review Step 5: Methodology Step 6: Timeline Step 7: Resources Step 8: Ethical considerations Step 9: Expected outcomes and significance Step 10: References Step 11: Appendices

Step 1: title and abstract.

Select a concise, descriptive title and write an abstract summarizing your research question, objectives, methodology and expected outcomes​​. The abstract should include your research question, the objectives you aim to achieve, the methodology you plan to employ and the anticipated outcomes. 

Step 2: Introduction

In this section, introduce the topic of your research, emphasizing its significance and relevance to the field. Articulate the research problem or question in clear terms and provide background context, which should include an overview of previous research in the field.

Step 3: Research objectives

Here, you’ll need to outline specific, clear and achievable objectives that align with your research problem. These objectives should be well-defined, focused and measurable, serving as the guiding pillars for your study. They help in establishing what you intend to accomplish through your research and provide a clear direction for your investigation.

Step 4: Literature review

In this part, conduct a thorough review of existing literature related to your research topic. This involves a detailed summary of key findings and major contributions from previous research. Identify existing gaps in the literature and articulate how your research aims to fill these gaps. The literature review not only shows your grasp of the subject matter but also how your research will contribute new insights or perspectives to the field.

Step 5: Methodology

Describe the design of your research and the methodologies you will employ. This should include detailed information on data collection methods, instruments to be used and analysis techniques. Justify the appropriateness of these methods for your research​​.

Step 6: Timeline

Construct a detailed timeline that maps out the major milestones and activities of your research project. Break the entire research process into smaller, manageable tasks and assign realistic time frames to each. This timeline should cover everything from the initial research phase to the final submission, including periods for data collection, analysis and report writing. 

It helps in ensuring your project stays on track and demonstrates to reviewers that you have a well-thought-out plan for completing your research efficiently.

Step 7: Resources

Identify all the resources that will be required for your research, such as specific databases, laboratory equipment, software or funding. Provide details on how these resources will be accessed or acquired. 

If your research requires funding, explain how it will be utilized effectively to support various aspects of the project. 

Step 8: Ethical considerations

Address any ethical issues that may arise during your research. This is particularly important for research involving human subjects. Describe the measures you will take to ensure ethical standards are maintained, such as obtaining informed consent, ensuring participant privacy, and adhering to data protection regulations. 

Here, in this section you should reassure reviewers that you are committed to conducting your research responsibly and ethically.

Step 9: Expected outcomes and significance

Articulate the expected outcomes or results of your research. Explain the potential impact and significance of these outcomes, whether in advancing academic knowledge, influencing policy or addressing specific societal or practical issues. 

Step 10: References

Compile a comprehensive list of all the references cited in your proposal. Adhere to a consistent citation style (like APA or MLA) throughout your document. The reference section not only gives credit to the original authors of your sourced information but also strengthens the credibility of your proposal.

Step 11: Appendices

Include additional supporting materials that are pertinent to your research proposal. This can be survey questionnaires, interview guides, detailed data analysis plans or any supplementary information that supports the main text. 

Appendices provide further depth to your proposal, showcasing the thoroughness of your preparation.

Research proposal FAQs

1. how long should a research proposal be.

The length of a research proposal can vary depending on the requirements of the academic institution, funding body or specific guidelines provided. Generally, research proposals range from 500 to 1500 words or about one to a few pages long. It’s important to provide enough detail to clearly convey your research idea, objectives and methodology, while being concise. Always check

2. Why is the research plan pivotal to a research project?

The research plan is pivotal to a research project because it acts as a blueprint, guiding every phase of the study. It outlines the objectives, methodology, timeline and expected outcomes, providing a structured approach and ensuring that the research is systematically conducted. 

A well-crafted plan helps in identifying potential challenges, allocating resources efficiently and maintaining focus on the research goals. It is also essential for communicating the project’s feasibility and importance to stakeholders, such as funding bodies or academic supervisors.

Mastering how to write a research proposal is an essential skill for any scholar, whether in social and behavioral sciences, academic writing or any field requiring scholarly research. From this article, you have learned key components, from the literature review to the research design, helping you develop a persuasive and well-structured proposal.

Remember, a good research proposal not only highlights your proposed research and methodology but also demonstrates its relevance and potential impact.

For additional support, consider utilizing Venngage’s Proposal Maker and Research Proposals Templates , valuable tools in crafting a compelling proposal that stands out.

Whether it’s for grant funding, a research paper or a dissertation proposal, these resources can assist in transforming your research idea into a successful submission.

Discover popular designs

Infographic maker

Brochure maker

White paper online

Newsletter creator

Flyer maker

Timeline maker

Letterhead maker

Mind map maker

Ebook maker

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Ann R Coll Surg Engl
• v.94(5); 2012 Jul

How to undertake a research project and write a scientific paper

University of East Anglia,, UK

Research and publishing are essential aspects of lifelong learning in a surgical career. Many surgeons, especially those in training, ask for guidance on how they might start a simple project that may lead to a publication. This short paper offers some practical guidelines on the subject.

How to get started with a project

How to get started varies depending on whether the project is suggested by a trainer or educational supervisor. Projects suggested by a senior are always offered as an encouragement to a trainee, who should be careful not to respond in a negative way by ignoring the suggestion, coming up with a string of excuses or doing the project badly! Here are some simple steps that may contribute to an organised start on the project. You need a protocol but first you must be clear about what the project will involve.

• Undertake a literature search on the suggested topic.
• Read all the papers from the last ten years and summarise them on a single page of A4.
• Make a note of how many similar series have been produced, their size, the length of follow-up and any special aspects of the subject that have already been addressed.
• List aspects of the topic that have not been well covered, perhaps morbidity or surgery for rare indications, or long-term outcomes.
• Discuss your thoughts on the subject with your colleagues.
• With the strengths and weaknesses of the current literature clear in your own mind, summarise your thoughts in bullet points on a single side of A4 and arrange ten minutes to discuss them with the senior who suggested the topic.

The six steps listed above can be easily completed within a couple of weeks. Once you have discussed and agreed the aims of the project as well as how they can be achieved, you can write your protocol. It is also possible that having studied the literature you decide the suggested project is unlikely to add to our current knowledge and that another topic might be better studied.

A protocol and approval from your trust’s research and development (R&D) department as well as from the research ethics committee (REC) are needed before you begin a research project. If you are planning a service evaluation, REC approval may not be needed. When you have secured the approvals, the process of collecting the data begins.

Examining a case series, there may be hundreds of medical records that need to be studied and it is crucial to draw up a ‘proforma’ on which to record patient data. This should ideally fill no more than one or two sides of A4 and needs to include all the data that you have decided to collect for your particular study. It is crucial not to leave out a dataset you might later wish to look at but on the other hand it is also important not to collect too many data. Because of this fine balance, it is important to draw up a proforma and agree its composition with your supervisor and any co-workers on the project before starting to collect data from the medical records.

Data collection can be time consuming and it may be that several colleagues can work on this to speed the project along. Once all the data proformas are filled in, the data need to be entered into the database, spreadsheet or statistical package of your choice. It is best to use the software favoured by the department or colleagues in medical statistics.

Having looked at the data, discipline yourself to produce a succinct summary on one side of A4. Again, arrange a meeting with your supervisor and any other co-workers to discuss the findings, and give everyone the opportunity to comment and correct the summary. Once the findings are agreed, you are ready to write up the project.

Self-generated projects

Sometimes you will want to develop an idea of your own. It is even more important with a self-generated project to do a thorough literature search to make sure that your ideas will contribute to our knowledge. The discussion of a more ambitious project like a randomised trial should be with as many colleagues as possible, both for advice and also to garner support for your idea. Having produced a single side of A4 summarising your idea, identify a senior colleague who can advise you and proceed as described above.

As noted previously, REC approval is needed for any clinical research involving patients or their data. You will need to prepare an application on the Integrated Research Application System website ( https://www.myresearchproject.org.uk/ ). If you have never done this before, seek advice from your trust’s R&D department. REC approval is time consuming; the following comments may help:

• Much of your initial work producing a summary of your idea will be helpful in completing the ethics committee form. It is crucial that submission to your local ethics committee is checked by all your co-workers.
• Colleagues from medical statistics and any other parallel disciplines such as radiology or medical chemistry need to be involved right at the start of this formal submission so that all aspects of the study are academically correct. It is especially important to have expert statistical input because it is very demoralising to finish a trial only to be told that your study is woefully underpowered and cannot answer the question that it set out to address!
• It is wise to present your idea to the committee in person as this can save time and iron out minor misunderstandings. These ‘glitches’ in an ethics submission can soak up months of precious time and a personal meeting with the REC can help to avoid them.
• Many institutions also have research governance or internal review boards that must also pass a project after it has gained ethical approval. Their role is often to assess the financial and organisational impact of a study.

This process seldom takes less than 3 months and may take nearly 12 months. Do not be disheartened by this. If your study is worth doing, then it is worth persevering.

The recording of data using a concise proforma, entry into appropriate computer software and production of a summary of your findings are all conducted in the same way as in the first section of these guidelines.

Writing up a study

One of the most challenging aspects of surgical research is writing a paper. Putting together a manuscript for submission to a journal can be broken down into several simple and relatively self-contained steps:

• Journal guidelines : All journals have a set of instructions for potential authors. The suggestions below are an overall guide to writing a paper but should be viewed in the context of the specific guidelines on submission to the journal you have chosen for your work.
• Title : Keep this simple and concise.
• Authorship : This topic may be a source of some problems. My own observation about authorship is that if you leave somebody out who feels they have contributed to your project, you can make an enemy for life! It is easy to forget colleagues, especially when a project has run for several years. Try, within the internationally agreed authorship guidelines, to include all colleagues who have contributed significantly to your study.

The order of authorship may also cause problems. It is generally agreed that the main researcher who also produced the first draft of the paper is the first author. The second author has usually been the second main contributor to the project. The last author is the senior person supervising the work. Between these positions come all other authors who fulfil the guidelines for authorship. If in any doubt about who should or should not be in the authorship, discuss it with your senior author.

All papers have a corresponding author responsible for answering queries after submission of the manuscript. It is best if he or she is a permanent member of the department as queries may arrive several years after a paper is published.

• Abstract : This is usually 200–250 words and should be written in the style of the journal. Generally, this includes sections on background, methods, results and conclusions.
• Introduction : This should introduce the reader to the subject covered in the study and explain why this particular study has been undertaken. It should be kept to two or three paragraphs. The first paragraph sets the scene and summarises the current literature. The second paragraph should justify why this particular study or series of cases has been put together.
• Patients and methods : The most frequent mistake in this section is to include results as well as patient details. It is important to stick to describing the study population, how they were collected and, crucially, how any analyses were undertaken. Always describe what statistical tests were used and justify why they were appropriate.
• Results : These should be presented concisely with as few tables or figures as possible. Use a logical sequence and follow the same sequence in the methods and discussion sections.
• What are the main findings of your work? State clearly what you can conclude from your observations, taking care not to overestimate what you can conclude.
• Why are these findings valid (sample size, methods etc)? Explain what leads you to conclude that your findings may be relied on. Also make sure you highlight any potential weaknesses in your data and consider other potential confounding variables that might invalidate your conclusions.
• How do your observations compare with other work in the same area? Discuss how results from your work compare with other papers on the same subject, either explaining similarities or examining differences.
• Any other business? Are there any unexpected side observations that merit separate discussion? This might include unexpected complications in a trial or a unique subset of patients in a clinical series.
• Restate your main findings and suggest what further work might be helpful in providing more information on the topic of your project.
• References : Make sure these are presented in the style of the journal you have selected.

Publication of the paper

This can be the biggest hurdle you have to clear! Some basic rules will help to make this easier. First, never submit a paper without all authors having read it and agreed to the content. Second, never submit a paper to more than one journal at a time. Finally, remember that submission is not the end of your paper but just the beginning.

Selection of the right journal is important. On the basis of their impact factor, journals may be divided into four divisions. Think of it like the football league! The premier division contains journals with impact factors greater than 10, the second division those with impact factors from 5 to 10, the third division with impact factors from 1 to 5 and, finally, the fourth division with impact factors less than 1. Just as with football, journals may be promoted or relegated so it is wise to check online for a journal’s current impact factor.

Discuss with your co-workers what your target journal should be. It is acceptable to aim just higher than you think your paper ranks but obviously pointless sending a small case series to one of the premiership journals. A second consideration is which articles have appeared in your target journal over the last 12 months. If there have been one or more papers on the same subject as your work, it may be better to select an equally ranked journal that has not had a paper on your topic for several years.

Peer review is the process used by journals to select papers for publication. Many papers are rejected immediately but those deemed of potential interest are sent out for peer review. This process usually takes 3–4 months (although some journals such as the Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England have a much quicker turnaround). There are four potential outcomes:

• Accept without corrections – this is very rare!
• Minor corrections needed followed by resubmission for publication
• Major corrections needed and resubmission invited but without any promise to publish
• Major criticisms and rejection (for most major journals this is the single largest category of outcomes)

When you receive the reviewer’s comments don’t take them personally! The best way to regard the reviewer’s criticisms is as helpful suggestions to improve your paper. It is crucial to deal with each of the reviewer’s comments carefully, systematically and politely. If possible, respond to the comments within a few days of receiving them.

If your paper has been rejected, then the reviewer’s comments are an excellent set of suggestions to improve the manuscript for submission to another journal. This should probably be in one division lower than your first submission. Again, there is no reason to delay resubmission to another journal more than a few days. Make sure that all possible advice on rewriting and correcting your paper is taken and your work will almost certainly get published eventually!

Project 2025’s Plan to Eliminate Public Schools Has Already Started

P roject 2025, the policy agenda for Former President Trump’s potential first year back in the White House published by the far right conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, has been making waves recently. Some of the many destructive proposals within the agenda include the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education —along with federal education funding and any civil rights protections—and the diversion of public money to private school voucher programs instead.

Make no mistake: The goal is to end public education. But dismantling our public schools isn’t just the plan if Trump is reelected—it is already happening.

We are on the brink of a new wave of public school closures , another step in the decades-long project to divest and dismantle the institution of public school. Disguised as “school choice,” federal, state, local, and private actors have prioritized paying for  private and charter schools, hoarding educational resources for the haves and depleting resources for the have-nots.

The policies that Project 2025 plans to prioritize—government payments to families sending their children to private school and creation of new charter schools that are run like businesses—have expanded in the last few years, starving public school districts that serve all students of already insufficient resources. In the 2023-24 school year, at least 70 school districts, including in San Antonio, Texas , Jackson, Mississippi , and Wichita, Kansas , announced permanent closures of public schools, impacting millions of students. These districts are resorting to the harmful, discriminatory, and ineffective so-called ‘solution’ of closing schools in Black and Latine communities, stripping those communities of their local public schools.

Read More: Everything Biden and Trump Have Said About the Controversial Project 2025

Here’s how it works: Concerned about shrinking enrollments and budget crises, district leaders conclude that they must close schools, often without any evidence or analysis that it would save money—and, indeed, it hasn’t been shown to save money unless coupled with mass layoffs. They hire consultants who come up with “utilization” rates and then recommend closing schools with the lowest rates to “rightsize” the district—their euphemism for their misguided belief that school facility usage should be guided by arbitrary numbers instead of meeting communities where they are.

The problem is that “utilization”—a school’s enrollment over its supposed capacity—is stacked against schools that have experienced historic underfunding and disinvestment in facilities repairs, curricula, extracurricular opportunities, and staff. These same schools disproportionately serve Black and Latine students, English Learner students, students with disabilities, and students living in poverty.

Closing schools is demonstrably harmful—and has real-life impact. Research on the mass urban school closures from 2012 to 2014 overwhelmingly found that academic outcomes suffered , particularly for low-performing students. A May 2024 study from Brown University linked the experience of a school closure to “decreases in post-secondary education attainment, employment, and earnings at ages 25–27.” Additionally, closures force families to travel farther to get to schools that are not in their communities, making it harder to form relationships with staff, join extracurriculars, or get involved in parent organizations.

These communities are also often the first to lose access to the benefits of neighborhood public schools, which act as essential gathering places for social services and community resources like adult education, polling locations, a place to hold community meetings, and access to democratic community control through school board elections.

There are more equitable and educationally sound approaches than the lazy, unjust, self-sabotaging—and all too common—approach of spending money on consultants to tell districts what they have already decided to do: close the schools they value least, relying on metrics that target symptoms of their systemic neglect, and playing into the conservative agenda to make public schools obsolete.

Districts have better options to address budget woes. They can start a community-driven process to reshape the budget, wherein multiple stakeholders—rather than a selected few—play an active role in setting district budget priorities. Districts can also employ community-led assessments of how they use buildings, allowing school communities, particularly those historically marginalized, to request the resources, support, and spaces they need.

At the very least, districts should integrate equity requirements into school closure proposals, for instance, by incorporating community-based equity audits into decision-making. States can also follow California’s lead by requiring and robustly enforcing equity safeguards for any decisions to close schools.

Young people and their communities deserve better than districts repeatedly making the same mistakes. District leaders must stop listening to expensive consultants and closing much-loved and needed schools, and instead, must listen to the communities they serve and focus on solutions that put students first. Local, state and federal governments must fully and equitably fund public schools—schools obligated to take and educate everyone—and stop diverting money to a system of charter and private schools where students and families are forced to compete for a limited pool of high quality resources for a select few.

Project 2025 is not an inevitability—it is a call to action for anyone who cares about public education in this country. Our public school system requires more resources to create better school environments for everyone. We need investment in our public schools—not closures.

More Must-Reads from TIME

• The Rise of a New Kind of Parenting Guru
• The 50 Best Romance Novels to Read Right Now
• The Uneasy Alliance Between Kamala Harris and Volodymyr Zelensky
• The Young Women Challenging Iran’s Regime
• Ilona Maher TikToks Through the Olympics
• Can Food Really Change Your Hormones?
• Column: The Prosecutor Versus Felon Narrative Helps No One
• Get Our Paris Olympics Newsletter in Your Inbox

Contact us at [email protected]

Teaching Research Skills That Transfer to Future Projects

Exploratory research teaches skills that have lifelong use..

Posted July 22, 2024 | Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer

• Why Education Is Important
• Take our ADHD Test
• Find a Child Therapist

This post is the fourth in a series.

When helping students become researchers, the goal is not only to equip students to tackle a current research project but also to ensure the learned skills will stay with them for future endeavors. Students must understand which research staples must be applied under any circumstances (like critically evaluating sources or following ethical guidelines) while maintaining the flexibility to try different approaches and make new connections. Students at Laguna Beach High School (LBHS) are learning to do just that.

In Part I of this series I spoke to Jun Shen, the passionate teacher and ed-tech coordinator who runs LBHS’s Authentic Exploratory Research (AER) program . AER is an independent research course inspired by Palo Alto Unified School District’s Advanced Authentic Research program . The program pairs students with adult mentors (such as LBUSD staff, industry experts, and academics) who assist the teens in researching their big questions in fields of their choice.

Former LBHS student Carter Ghere was the third teenager to give us an account of his experience in AER and the findings that his AER research produced. A benefit to meeting with Ghere was that he has since moved on to projects outside the AER program, such as promoting physical and mental health . The research skills Ghere honed in AER, combined with his passion for his new endeavors, show us how students can learn research skills in a way that has lasting benefits.

Jenny Grant Rankin: What can teachers do to help students research effectively, not only for current projects but also for future research endeavors?

Carter Ghere: Teachers can encourage students to think about minor aspects of the project that greatly influence the thesis rather than just the thesis question itself. When I researched car design and why it varies, I had to consider each factor that could help me build a strong argument. What started as research on cars very quickly turned into research into socioeconomics, societal upbringing, and government involvement in diplomatic events and conflict. Automotive design changed because manufacturers were competing against each other to sell more cars or improve efficiency, but mass appeal is the biggest driving aspect of change, so I had to research what changes mass appeal and where interests originate from. Laterally, researching aspects of influence opens up much research to apply to your projects, instead of searching for the answer most people already know. Teachers can teach their students how to see the hidden influences, draw conclusions themselves to strengthen their arguments, and accelerate the research process. Knowing how to do research effectively carries over a lifetime, making every new learning endeavor exciting for students instead of monotonous.

JGR: What was the most significant thing you learned about conducting research?

CG: Relevance and impact. The biggest thing I learned while I was conducting research was keeping in mind how your study affects the current information already available. It’s easy to research and quote what most people know, but genuinely effective research isn’t commonly known or even thought of; the research is supposed to question the current knowledge to create new knowledge.

JGR: What was the most significant thing you learned about communicating research or other work?

CG: Knowing your audience is the biggest thing I learned about communicating my work. Putting myself in the shoes of someone reading my work helped me curate my research to better explain my findings to someone who may need to learn about my topic or why this is important. The last thing you want your audience to feel is confusion; a clear, simple explanation of your findings helps the reader draw their connections and relate them to what they already know.

JGR: What lessons learned in AER do you find yourself applying in your current efforts to promote mental health?

CG: The research experience I have from AER accelerated the work I’ve done beyond high school. In terms of research and the actual information I give out, I know that what I’m discovering isn’t new, but the personal opinion that I have is, and that’s what AER taught me. The thoughts that I have on the subject matter of lifestyle and self-development have more relevance than just plain information.

Learning through apprenticeship and embracing the guidance of a mentor profoundly expanded my understanding. This experience made me realize the vast opportunities I still have to learn and grow. At AER, I had the chance to engage in research, connect with experts in the field, develop personal convictions that I am passionate about, ensure these ideas resonate with others, and communicate them effectively.

Ghere demonstrates what we want students to be able to do with the knowledge and skills we teach: to remember, apply, and develop them perpetually. Ideally, as in Ghere’s case, students also use their research skills to help others and improve our world.

Jenny Grant Rankin, Ph.D., is a Fulbright Specialist for the U.S. Department of State.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• International
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Switzerland
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

Sticking up for yourself is no easy task. But there are concrete skills you can use to hone your assertiveness and advocate for yourself.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

Unfortunately we don't fully support your browser. If you have the option to, please upgrade to a newer version or use Mozilla Firefox , Microsoft Edge , Google Chrome , or Safari 14 or newer. If you are unable to, and need support, please send us your feedback .

We'd appreciate your feedback. Tell us what you think! opens in new tab/window

Sharing research data

As a researcher, you are increasingly encouraged, or even mandated, to make your research data available, accessible, discoverable and usable.

Sharing research data is something we are passionate about too, so we’ve created this short video and written guide to help you get started.

Research Data

What is research data.

While the definition often differs per field, generally, research data refers to the results of observations or experiments that validate your research findings. These span a range of useful materials associated with your research project, including:

Raw or processed data files

Research data  does not  include text in manuscript or final published article form, or data or other materials submitted and published as part of a journal article.

Why should I share my research data?

There are so many good reasons. We’ve listed just a few:

How you benefit

You get credit for the work you've done

Leads to more citations! 1

Can boost your number of publications

Increases your exposure and may lead to new collaborations

What it means for the research community

It's easy to reuse and reinterpret your data

Duplication of experiments can be avoided

New insights can be gained, sparking new lines of inquiry

Empowers replication

And society at large…

Greater transparency boosts public faith in research

Can play a role in guiding government policy

Improves access to research for those outside health and academia

Benefits the public purse as funding of repeat work is reduced

How do I share my research data?

The good news is it’s easy.

Yet to submit your research article?  There are a number of options available. These may vary depending on the journal you have chosen, so be sure to read the  Research Data  section in its  Guide for Authors  before you begin.

Already published your research article?  No problem – it’s never too late to share the research data associated with it.

Two of the most popular data sharing routes are:

Publishing a research elements article

These brief, peer-reviewed articles complement full research papers and are an easy way to receive proper credit and recognition for the work you have done. Research elements are research outputs that have come about as a result of following the research cycle – this includes things like data, methods and protocols, software, hardware and more.

You can publish research elements articles in several different Elsevier journals, including  our suite of dedicated Research Elements journals . They are easy to submit, are subject to a peer review process, receive a DOI and are fully citable. They also make your work more sharable, discoverable, comprehensible, reusable and reproducible.

The accompanying raw data can still be placed in a repository of your choice (see below).

Uploading your data to a repository like Mendeley Data

Mendeley Data is a certified, free-to-use repository that hosts open data from all disciplines, whatever its format (e.g. raw and processed data, tables, codes and software). With many Elsevier journals, it’s possible to upload and store your data to Mendeley Data during the manuscript submission process. You can also upload your data directly to the repository. In each case, your data will receive a DOI, making it independently citable and it can be linked to any associated article on ScienceDirect, making it easy for readers to find and reuse.

View an article featuring Mendeley data opens in new tab/window  (just select the  Research Data  link in the left-hand bar or scroll down the page).

What if I can’t submit my research data?

Data statements offer transparency.

We understand that there are times when the data is simply not available to post or there are good reasons why it shouldn’t be shared.  A number of Elsevier journals encourage authors to submit a data statement alongside their manuscript. This statement allows you to clearly explain the data you’ve used in the article and the reasons why it might not be available.  The statement will appear with the article on ScienceDirect. 

View a sample data statement opens in new tab/window  (just select the  Research Data  link in the left-hand bar or scroll down the page).

Showcasing your research data on ScienceDirect

We have 3 top tips to help you maximize the impact of your data in your article on ScienceDirect.

Link with data repositories

You can create bidirectional links between any data repositories you’ve used to store your data and your online article. If you’ve published a data article, you can link to that too.

Enrich with interactive data visualizations

The days of being confined to static visuals are over. Our in-article interactive viewers let readers delve into the data with helpful functions such as zoom, configurable display options and full screen mode.

Cite your research data

Get credit for your work by citing your research data in your article and adding a data reference to the reference list. This ensures you are recognized for the data you shared and/or used in your research. Read the  References  section in your chosen journal’s  Guide for Authors  for more information.

Ready to get started?

If you have yet to publish your research paper, the first step is to find the right journal for your submission and read the  Guide for Authors .

Find a journal by matching paper title and abstract of your manuscript in Elsevier's  JournalFinder opens in new tab/window

Find journal by title opens in new tab/window

Already published? Just view the options for sharing your research data above.

1 Several studies have now shown that making data available for an article increases article citations.

Transforming the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses.

Información en español

Celebrating 75 Years! Learn More >>

• Research Funded by NIMH
• Research Conducted at NIMH (Intramural Research Program)
• Priority Research Areas
• Research Resources

Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)

Learn about the RDoC Framework

Developing an RDoC Study

Learn about developing an RDoC study

RDoC Resources

Access RDoC webinars, publications, and other resources

Get answers to frequently asked questions about RDoC

• RDoC Unit and Workgroup Members
• Connect with RDoC

• Current students
• News and events

Reading and creative writing can help improve healing from domestic abuse, project suggests

• News and events home
• Press Office contacts

Posted on 29 July 2024

Reading and creative writing can help survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence in working through experiences of trauma and assist in the healing process, according to new research.

Top of the class - new research shows the success of University of York-led science education programme

Wednesday 31 July 2024

Monday 29 July 2024

Sodium channels in breast cancer cells a promising target for future treatments, study reveals

Thursday 25 July 2024

Researchers to measure the impact of hot weather on UK classrooms

Wednesday 24 July 2024

Hunter-gatherers kept an 'orderly home' in the earliest known British dwelling, study shows

Tuesday 23 July 2024

Read more news

Media enquiries

Related research themes.

• Culture and Communication

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base

Methodology

• What Is a Research Design | Types, Guide & Examples

What Is a Research Design | Types, Guide & Examples

Published on June 7, 2021 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023 by Pritha Bhandari.

A research design is a strategy for answering your   research question  using empirical data. Creating a research design means making decisions about:

• Your overall research objectives and approach
• Whether you’ll rely on primary research or secondary research
• Your sampling methods or criteria for selecting subjects
• Your data collection methods
• The procedures you’ll follow to collect data
• Your data analysis methods

A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research objectives and that you use the right kind of analysis for your data.

Table of contents

Step 1: consider your aims and approach, step 2: choose a type of research design, step 3: identify your population and sampling method, step 4: choose your data collection methods, step 5: plan your data collection procedures, step 6: decide on your data analysis strategies, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about research design.

• Introduction

Before you can start designing your research, you should already have a clear idea of the research question you want to investigate.

There are many different ways you could go about answering this question. Your research design choices should be driven by your aims and priorities—start by thinking carefully about what you want to achieve.

The first choice you need to make is whether you’ll take a qualitative or quantitative approach.

Qualitative research designs tend to be more flexible and inductive , allowing you to adjust your approach based on what you find throughout the research process.

Quantitative research designs tend to be more fixed and deductive , with variables and hypotheses clearly defined in advance of data collection.

It’s also possible to use a mixed-methods design that integrates aspects of both approaches. By combining qualitative and quantitative insights, you can gain a more complete picture of the problem you’re studying and strengthen the credibility of your conclusions.

Practical and ethical considerations when designing research

As well as scientific considerations, you need to think practically when designing your research. If your research involves people or animals, you also need to consider research ethics .

• How much time do you have to collect data and write up the research?
• Will you be able to gain access to the data you need (e.g., by travelling to a specific location or contacting specific people)?
• Do you have the necessary research skills (e.g., statistical analysis or interview techniques)?
• Will you need ethical approval ?

At each stage of the research design process, make sure that your choices are practically feasible.

Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services

Discover proofreading & editing

Within both qualitative and quantitative approaches, there are several types of research design to choose from. Each type provides a framework for the overall shape of your research.

Types of quantitative research designs

Quantitative designs can be split into four main types.

• Experimental and   quasi-experimental designs allow you to test cause-and-effect relationships
• Descriptive and correlational designs allow you to measure variables and describe relationships between them.

With descriptive and correlational designs, you can get a clear picture of characteristics, trends and relationships as they exist in the real world. However, you can’t draw conclusions about cause and effect (because correlation doesn’t imply causation ).

Experiments are the strongest way to test cause-and-effect relationships without the risk of other variables influencing the results. However, their controlled conditions may not always reflect how things work in the real world. They’re often also more difficult and expensive to implement.

Types of qualitative research designs

Qualitative designs are less strictly defined. This approach is about gaining a rich, detailed understanding of a specific context or phenomenon, and you can often be more creative and flexible in designing your research.

The table below shows some common types of qualitative design. They often have similar approaches in terms of data collection, but focus on different aspects when analyzing the data.

Your research design should clearly define who or what your research will focus on, and how you’ll go about choosing your participants or subjects.

In research, a population is the entire group that you want to draw conclusions about, while a sample is the smaller group of individuals you’ll actually collect data from.

Defining the population

A population can be made up of anything you want to study—plants, animals, organizations, texts, countries, etc. In the social sciences, it most often refers to a group of people.

For example, will you focus on people from a specific demographic, region or background? Are you interested in people with a certain job or medical condition, or users of a particular product?

The more precisely you define your population, the easier it will be to gather a representative sample.

• Sampling methods

Even with a narrowly defined population, it’s rarely possible to collect data from every individual. Instead, you’ll collect data from a sample.

To select a sample, there are two main approaches: probability sampling and non-probability sampling . The sampling method you use affects how confidently you can generalize your results to the population as a whole.

Probability sampling is the most statistically valid option, but it’s often difficult to achieve unless you’re dealing with a very small and accessible population.

For practical reasons, many studies use non-probability sampling, but it’s important to be aware of the limitations and carefully consider potential biases. You should always make an effort to gather a sample that’s as representative as possible of the population.

Case selection in qualitative research

In some types of qualitative designs, sampling may not be relevant.

For example, in an ethnography or a case study , your aim is to deeply understand a specific context, not to generalize to a population. Instead of sampling, you may simply aim to collect as much data as possible about the context you are studying.

In these types of design, you still have to carefully consider your choice of case or community. You should have a clear rationale for why this particular case is suitable for answering your research question .

For example, you might choose a case study that reveals an unusual or neglected aspect of your research problem, or you might choose several very similar or very different cases in order to compare them.

Data collection methods are ways of directly measuring variables and gathering information. They allow you to gain first-hand knowledge and original insights into your research problem.

You can choose just one data collection method, or use several methods in the same study.

Survey methods

Surveys allow you to collect data about opinions, behaviors, experiences, and characteristics by asking people directly. There are two main survey methods to choose from: questionnaires and interviews .

Observation methods

Observational studies allow you to collect data unobtrusively, observing characteristics, behaviors or social interactions without relying on self-reporting.

Observations may be conducted in real time, taking notes as you observe, or you might make audiovisual recordings for later analysis. They can be qualitative or quantitative.

Other methods of data collection

There are many other ways you might collect data depending on your field and topic.

If you’re not sure which methods will work best for your research design, try reading some papers in your field to see what kinds of data collection methods they used.

Secondary data

If you don’t have the time or resources to collect data from the population you’re interested in, you can also choose to use secondary data that other researchers already collected—for example, datasets from government surveys or previous studies on your topic.

With this raw data, you can do your own analysis to answer new research questions that weren’t addressed by the original study.

Using secondary data can expand the scope of your research, as you may be able to access much larger and more varied samples than you could collect yourself.

However, it also means you don’t have any control over which variables to measure or how to measure them, so the conclusions you can draw may be limited.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

As well as deciding on your methods, you need to plan exactly how you’ll use these methods to collect data that’s consistent, accurate, and unbiased.

Planning systematic procedures is especially important in quantitative research, where you need to precisely define your variables and ensure your measurements are high in reliability and validity.

Operationalization

Some variables, like height or age, are easily measured. But often you’ll be dealing with more abstract concepts, like satisfaction, anxiety, or competence. Operationalization means turning these fuzzy ideas into measurable indicators.

If you’re using observations , which events or actions will you count?

If you’re using surveys , which questions will you ask and what range of responses will be offered?

You may also choose to use or adapt existing materials designed to measure the concept you’re interested in—for example, questionnaires or inventories whose reliability and validity has already been established.

Reliability and validity

Reliability means your results can be consistently reproduced, while validity means that you’re actually measuring the concept you’re interested in.

For valid and reliable results, your measurement materials should be thoroughly researched and carefully designed. Plan your procedures to make sure you carry out the same steps in the same way for each participant.

If you’re developing a new questionnaire or other instrument to measure a specific concept, running a pilot study allows you to check its validity and reliability in advance.

Sampling procedures

As well as choosing an appropriate sampling method , you need a concrete plan for how you’ll actually contact and recruit your selected sample.

That means making decisions about things like:

• How many participants do you need for an adequate sample size?
• What inclusion and exclusion criteria will you use to identify eligible participants?
• How will you contact your sample—by mail, online, by phone, or in person?

If you’re using a probability sampling method , it’s important that everyone who is randomly selected actually participates in the study. How will you ensure a high response rate?

If you’re using a non-probability method , how will you avoid research bias and ensure a representative sample?

Data management

It’s also important to create a data management plan for organizing and storing your data.

Will you need to transcribe interviews or perform data entry for observations? You should anonymize and safeguard any sensitive data, and make sure it’s backed up regularly.

Keeping your data well-organized will save time when it comes to analyzing it. It can also help other researchers validate and add to your findings (high replicability ).

On its own, raw data can’t answer your research question. The last step of designing your research is planning how you’ll analyze the data.

Quantitative data analysis

In quantitative research, you’ll most likely use some form of statistical analysis . With statistics, you can summarize your sample data, make estimates, and test hypotheses.

Using descriptive statistics , you can summarize your sample data in terms of:

• The distribution of the data (e.g., the frequency of each score on a test)
• The central tendency of the data (e.g., the mean to describe the average score)
• The variability of the data (e.g., the standard deviation to describe how spread out the scores are)

The specific calculations you can do depend on the level of measurement of your variables.

Using inferential statistics , you can:

• Make estimates about the population based on your sample data.
• Test hypotheses about a relationship between variables.

Regression and correlation tests look for associations between two or more variables, while comparison tests (such as t tests and ANOVAs ) look for differences in the outcomes of different groups.

Your choice of statistical test depends on various aspects of your research design, including the types of variables you’re dealing with and the distribution of your data.

Qualitative data analysis

In qualitative research, your data will usually be very dense with information and ideas. Instead of summing it up in numbers, you’ll need to comb through the data in detail, interpret its meanings, identify patterns, and extract the parts that are most relevant to your research question.

Two of the most common approaches to doing this are thematic analysis and discourse analysis .

There are many other ways of analyzing qualitative data depending on the aims of your research. To get a sense of potential approaches, try reading some qualitative research papers in your field.

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A research design is a strategy for answering your   research question . It defines your overall approach and determines how you will collect and analyze data.

A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research aims, that you collect high-quality data, and that you use the right kind of analysis to answer your questions, utilizing credible sources . This allows you to draw valid , trustworthy conclusions.

Quantitative research designs can be divided into two main categories:

• Correlational and descriptive designs are used to investigate characteristics, averages, trends, and associations between variables.
• Experimental and quasi-experimental designs are used to test causal relationships .

Qualitative research designs tend to be more flexible. Common types of qualitative design include case study , ethnography , and grounded theory designs.

The priorities of a research design can vary depending on the field, but you usually have to specify:

• Your research questions and/or hypotheses
• Your overall approach (e.g., qualitative or quantitative )
• The type of design you’re using (e.g., a survey , experiment , or case study )
• Your data collection methods (e.g., questionnaires , observations)
• Your data collection procedures (e.g., operationalization , timing and data management)
• Your data analysis methods (e.g., statistical tests  or thematic analysis )

A sample is a subset of individuals from a larger population . Sampling means selecting the group that you will actually collect data from in your research. For example, if you are researching the opinions of students in your university, you could survey a sample of 100 students.

In statistics, sampling allows you to test a hypothesis about the characteristics of a population.

Operationalization means turning abstract conceptual ideas into measurable observations.

For example, the concept of social anxiety isn’t directly observable, but it can be operationally defined in terms of self-rating scores, behavioral avoidance of crowded places, or physical anxiety symptoms in social situations.

Before collecting data , it’s important to consider how you will operationalize the variables that you want to measure.

A research project is an academic, scientific, or professional undertaking to answer a research question . Research projects can take many forms, such as qualitative or quantitative , descriptive , longitudinal , experimental , or correlational . What kind of research approach you choose will depend on your topic.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, November 20). What Is a Research Design | Types, Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved July 31, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/research-design/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, guide to experimental design | overview, steps, & examples, how to write a research proposal | examples & templates, ethical considerations in research | types & examples, "i thought ai proofreading was useless but..".

I've been using Scribbr for years now and I know it's a service that won't disappoint. It does a good job spotting mistakes”