Research proposal

Your proposal for this class should consist of the following sections:

1) Introduction: (~1 pages)

· Guide your reader to your research topic.

· Explicitly state your research question

· Explain why it is important to address this question.

2) Theory and Hypotheses ( ~ 2-3 pages)

You need a least 6 scholarly resources for this section.

a. Research problem:

i. Briefly describe your research problem and its overall relevance. Discuss recent trends or overall prevalence of your phenomenon. Ideally you can talk about recent statistics if available. By the end of this section, your reader should understand clearly what you are studying.

ii. Research Gap : What is about the phenomena that you would like to investigate further? You should introduce the reader to the “puzzle” that you want to address in your proposal. A puzzle could be contradicting results, or unanswered questions in the literature.

b. Theoretical Frame and Hypotheses

i. Identify important theory(s) that provide possible answers to the puzzle you just presented. Describe core statements of that theory. Here you should draw on the classical pieces in the field.

ii. Critically discuss recent empirical evidence that supports the theory. Here you should find recent (< 20 years) empirical papers that have applied/ tested this theory. Explain to the reader how these studies support your theory.

iii. Now apply the theory to your research question and your specific context: What expectations do you have for your results based on this theory. Explain your thinking to the reader. Then, summarize your explanation by stating your research hypothesis based on the evidence previously discussed. Note hypotheses are often highlighted in italic font. For example

… Based on the evidence above, I have the following expectation:

Hypothesis 1: Women’s pay will be lower than men’s pay.

3) Data and Measures (~7 pages)

a) What data collection method will you use to answer your research question?

· Define your data collection method. Write as if the reader is not familiar with different research methods and explain what your method is. E.g. if you are doing an experiment – explain what an experiment is in general.

· Explain WHY this method is most appropriate one to address your question.

· What are the main advantages and disadvantages of using this data collection method?

· Describe your procedure of your data collection method step-by-step. (i.e. what will you do first, second,… ect.)

c) Participants and Sample.

· What is your targeted population? Why is this population appropriate?

· How will you go about sampling? What is your sampling frame? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using this frame? What is your sampling strategy (e.g. simple random, systematic random, stratified random, or cluster sampling)? Are you using non-probability samples? Why is your strategy appropriate? If you are using secondary data explain what sampling method the original authors used.

· If applicable: When, where, how will you go about actual recruitment?

· Scope: How many units are / will be included in your study? Are recruiting from a specific geographic area and time frame?

d) Measures

Describe your measures with a level of detail needed to replicate your measurement strategy. If you are using self-reported measures, include your complete questionnaire or interview guide as an appendix. If you are adopting items from previous studies, indicate your sources and explain how you changed the measures. For your key IVs & DVs, discuss potential advantages and disadvantages of your measurement strategy. Your discussion of measures should be divided into three sections:

· Dependent variable(s)

· Key explanatory variable(s) (including important moderator variables)

· If non-experimental designs: Control variables

4) References

Please list all your references. You are free to choose your citation style as long as you are consistent and as long as that style provides all important reference information (authors, names, titles, publishers/ journals, vol/ issue, page number). I strongly recommend using citation software such as Zotero or Endnote.

For examples of citation styles see:

· American Sociological Association Style guide: https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/documents/teaching/pdfs/Quick_Tips_for_ASA_Style.pdf

· American Psychological Association Style guide: https://apastyle.apa.org/

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