Research Project Proposal

Checklist for Preparing a Research Proposal

A good research proposal should impress someone (e.g., a teacher, a faculty committee, an Institutional

Review Board [IRB], or a funding agency) with the project’s worthiness, feasibility, ethical treatment of

participants and the community, and appropriateness of its design. The following items usually, but not

always, appear in a research proposal.

I. A Title- A title captures the theme or thesis of the proposed project in a nutshell.

II. A Statement of the Project’s Problem or Objective - In this section, you should answer questions

such as

1. What exactly will you study?

2. Why is it worth studying?

3. Does the proposed study have practical significance?

III. Literature Review - In general, a good literature review justifies the pro- posed research.

(See Appendix C for a discussion of literature reviews in research reports. Literature

reviews in research proposals should do the same things that literature reviews in

research reports do.) In a literature review, one normally cites references that appear in

the proposal’s ref- erence section (see later) using a style that is appropriate to one’s

disci- pline (e.g., American Sociological Association style for sociology, American

Psychological Association style for psychology and educa- tion). It is often appropriate to

end the literature review with a state- ment of a research question (or research

questions) or of a hypothesis (or hypotheses) that will guide the research.

The literature review normally accomplishes this goal (of justifica- tion) by addressing

some of the following:

1. What have others said about this topic and related topics? 2. What research, if any, has been done previously on the topic? 3. Have other researchers used techniques that can be adapted for the purposes of the

proposed study? 4. References used 5. Statement of research question or hypothesis

IV. Methods- In a methods section, you should answer questions such as:

1. Whom or what will you study to collect data?

2. How will you select your sample?

3. What, if any, ethical considerations are relevant?

4. What method(s) of data collection will you use—a questionnaire, an interview, an

observation, and/or an available data?

You might also, depending on the nature of the study (e.g., whether it is quantitative or

qualitative), want to answer questions such as

1. What are the key variables in your study?

2. How will you define and measure them?

3. Will you be borrowing someone else’s measures or using a modified form of

measures that have been used before?

4. What kind of data analysis, or comparisons, do you intend to do, or make, with the

data you collect?

V. Plan for Sharing Your Findings- In this section, you will want to answer questions like

these:

1. Will you write up your results in the form of a paper (or book) to be shared with

others? 2. What kinds of reporting outlets might you use: a journal or maga- zine, a conference,

or some other audience? (If you might prepare a book manuscript, what publisher

might be interested in the material?) 3. With whom will you share your findings?

VI. Budget

1. What are the major foreseeable costs of your project? 2. Sources of funding or contributions?

VII. References- List of the references (books, articles, websites) already cited in the proposal,

using some standard style format appropriate for your discipline (e.g., American Sociological

Association style for sociology).