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The 10 Elements of Academic Research (10P s )

• Candauda Arachchige Saliya 2  
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References/Further Reading

Alvesson, M., & Sköldberg, K. (2009). Reflexive methodology: New vistas for qualitative research . Sage.

Google Scholar  

Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (2005). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In: N. K. Denzin, Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The landscape of qualitative Research: theories and issues . London. Sage, 1–6.

Gournelos, T., Hammonds, J. R., & Wilson, M. A. (2019). Doing academic research: A practical guide to research methods and analysis . Thousand Oak, Taylor & Francis Group/Routledge.

Gray, E. D. (2018). Doing research in the real world (4th ed.). Sage.

van Rooij, E., Fokkens-Bruinsma, M., & Jansen, E. (2019). Factors that influence PhD candidates’ success: The importance of PhD project characteristics. Studies in Continuing Education . https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2019.1652158 .

Saliya, C. A. (2021a). Conducting case study research: Practical guidance for management students. International Journal of KIU , 2(1), 1–13. https://ij.kiu.ac.lk/article/read/9 .

Varga, L. (2018). Mixed methods research: A method for complex systems. In E. Mitleton-Kelly, A. Paraskevas, & C. Day (Eds.), Edward Elgar handbook of research methods in complexity science (pp. 34–39). Edward Elgar Publishing.

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The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project

• Zina O'Leary - The Australia and New Zealand School of Government
• Description

Packed with pragmatic guidance for tackling research in the real world, this fourth edition:

• Offers support for diving into a project using digital data, with how-to guidance on conducting online and social media research
• Empowers you to confidently disseminate your work and present with impact
• Helps you map out your research journey and put a plan in place with decision trees in every chapter
• Challenges you to be reflective and critical about the research you consume and undertake

Zina O'Leary's detailed and down-to-earth approach gives you the research skills and momentum you need to successfully complete your research project.

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The writing style is appropriate to all levels and is totally accessible to the students I teach. Overall, this is a very welcome book for research.

Very user-friendly and interactive – an easy read for my students.

I have added this to the Dissertation Module, for the BA Education Studies. A very good guide in completing research.

This text is a stalwart in approaching independent projects and dissertations. The fourth edition keeps it sharp and current.

I so enjoyed reading this book because I felt like Zina was in the room talking to me and I was her student. She clearly understands undertaking research from a student's perspective. She has obviously drawn on a rich and lengthy experience demonstrated by the relevant questions she poses throughout the book and her writing is so easily accessible and understandable, even the bits students often find tricky. All aspects the process are covered, from preliminary thinking to actually getting started to finally sharing your research with others. A book I will definitely include in our reading list for next year.

This a very useful and comprehensive book for students studying research methods and/or dissertations students.

Simple and easy to use for my MSc Students especially those that have never done a dissertation.

Really useful text, accurate, brief and clear direction for students and staff. I do not manage research but supervise researchers and this is an excellent framework for creating excellence in this essential discipline.

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How to plan a research project

Whether for a paper or a thesis, define your question, review the work of others – and leave yourself open to discovery.

by Brooke Harrington   + BIO

is professor of sociology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Her research has won international awards both for scholarly quality and impact on public life. She has published dozens of articles and three books, most recently the bestseller Capital without Borders (2016), now translated into five languages.

Edited by Sam Haselby

Need to know

‘When curiosity turns to serious matters, it’s called research.’ – From Aphorisms (1880-1905) by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Planning research projects is a time-honoured intellectual exercise: one that requires both creativity and sharp analytical skills. The purpose of this Guide is to make the process systematic and easy to understand. While there is a great deal of freedom and discovery involved – from the topics you choose, to the data and methods you apply – there are also some norms and constraints that obtain, no matter what your academic level or field of study. For those in high school through to doctoral students, and from art history to archaeology, research planning involves broadly similar steps, including: formulating a question, developing an argument or predictions based on previous research, then selecting the information needed to answer your question.

Some of this might sound self-evident but, as you’ll find, research requires a different way of approaching and using information than most of us are accustomed to in everyday life. That is why I include orienting yourself to knowledge-creation as an initial step in the process. This is a crucial and underappreciated phase in education, akin to making the transition from salaried employment to entrepreneurship: suddenly, you’re on your own, and that requires a new way of thinking about your work.

What follows is a distillation of what I’ve learned about this process over 27 years as a professional social scientist. It reflects the skills that my own professors imparted in the sociology doctoral programme at Harvard, as well as what I learned later on as a research supervisor for Ivy League PhD and MA students, and then as the author of award-winning scholarly books and articles. It can be adapted to the demands of both short projects (such as course term papers) and long ones, such as a thesis.

At its simplest, research planning involves the four distinct steps outlined below: orienting yourself to knowledge-creation; defining your research question; reviewing previous research on your question; and then choosing relevant data to formulate your own answers. Because the focus of this Guide is on planning a research project, as opposed to conducting a research project, this section won’t delve into the details of data-collection or analysis; those steps happen after you plan the project. In addition, the topic is vast: year-long doctoral courses are devoted to data and analysis. Instead, the fourth part of this section will outline some basic strategies you could use in planning a data-selection and analysis process appropriate to your research question.

Step 1: Orient yourself

Planning and conducting research requires you to make a transition, from thinking like a consumer of information to thinking like a producer of information. That sounds simple, but it’s actually a complex task. As a practical matter, this means putting aside the mindset of a student, which treats knowledge as something created by other people. As students, we are often passive receivers of knowledge: asked to do a specified set of readings, then graded on how well we reproduce what we’ve read.

Researchers, however, must take on an active role as knowledge producers . Doing research requires more of you than reading and absorbing what other people have written: you have to engage in a dialogue with it. That includes arguing with previous knowledge and perhaps trying to show that ideas we have accepted as given are actually wrong or incomplete. For example, rather than simply taking in the claims of an author you read, you’ll need to draw out the implications of those claims: if what the author is saying is true, what else does that suggest must be true? What predictions could you make based on the author’s claims?

In other words, rather than treating a reading as a source of truth – even if it comes from a revered source, such as Plato or Marie Curie – this orientation step asks you to treat the claims you read as provisional and subject to interrogation. That is one of the great pieces of wisdom that science and philosophy can teach us: that the biggest advances in human understanding have been made not by being correct about trivial things, but by being wrong in an interesting way . For example, Albert Einstein was wrong about quantum mechanics, but his arguments about it with his fellow physicist Niels Bohr have led to some of the biggest breakthroughs in science, even a century later.

Step 2: Define your research question

Students often give this step cursory attention, but experienced researchers know that formulating a good question is sometimes the most difficult part of the research planning process. That is because the precise language of the question frames the rest of the project. It’s therefore important to pose the question carefully, in a way that’s both possible to answer and likely to yield interesting results. Of course, you must choose a question that interests you, but that’s only the beginning of what’s likely to be an iterative process: most researchers come back to this step repeatedly, modifying their questions in light of previous research, resource limitations and other considerations.

Researchers face limits in terms of time and money. They, like everyone else, have to pose research questions that they can plausibly answer given the constraints they face. For example, it would be inadvisable to frame a project around the question ‘What are the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict?’ if you have only a week to develop an answer and no background on that topic. That’s not to limit your imagination: you can come up with any question you’d like. But it typically does require some creativity to frame a question that you can answer well – that is, by investigating thoroughly and providing new insights – within the limits you face.

In addition to being interesting to you, and feasible within your resource constraints, the third and most important characteristic of a ‘good’ research topic is whether it allows you to create new knowledge. It might turn out that your question has already been asked and answered to your satisfaction: if so, you’ll find out in the next step of this process. On the other hand, you might come up with a research question that hasn’t been addressed previously. Before you get too excited about breaking uncharted ground, consider this: a lot of potentially researchable questions haven’t been studied for good reason ; they might have answers that are trivial or of very limited interest. This could include questions such as ‘Why does the area of a circle equal π r²?’ or ‘Did winter conditions affect Napoleon’s plans to invade Russia?’ Of course, you might be able to make the argument that a seemingly trivial question is actually vitally important, but you must be prepared to back that up with convincing evidence. The exercise in the ‘Learn More’ section below will help you think through some of these issues.

Finally, scholarly research questions must in some way lead to new and distinctive insights. For example, lots of people have studied gender roles in sports teams; what can you ask that hasn’t been asked before? Reinventing the wheel is the number-one no-no in this endeavour. That’s why the next step is so important: reviewing previous research on your topic. Depending on what you find in that step, you might need to revise your research question; iterating between your question and the existing literature is a normal process. But don’t worry: it doesn’t go on forever. In fact, the iterations taper off – and your research question stabilises – as you develop a firm grasp of the current state of knowledge on your topic.

Step 3: Review previous research

In academic research, from articles to books, it’s common to find a section called a ‘literature review’. The purpose of that section is to describe the state of the art in knowledge on the research question that a project has posed. It demonstrates that researchers have thoroughly and systematically reviewed the relevant findings of previous studies on their topic, and that they have something novel to contribute.

Your own research project should include something like this, even if it’s a high-school term paper. In the research planning process, you’ll want to list at least half a dozen bullet points stating the major findings on your topic by other people. In relation to those findings, you should be able to specify where your project could provide new and necessary insights. There are two basic rhetorical positions one can take in framing the novelty-plus-importance argument required of academic research:

• Position 1 requires you to build on or extend a set of existing ideas; that means saying something like: ‘Person A has argued that X is true about gender; this implies Y, which has not yet been tested. My project will test Y, and if I find evidence to support it, that will change the way we understand gender.’
• Position 2 is to argue that there is a gap in existing knowledge, either because previous research has reached conflicting conclusions or has failed to consider something important. For example, one could say that research on middle schoolers and gender has been limited by being conducted primarily in coeducational environments, and that findings might differ dramatically if research were conducted in more schools where the student body was all-male or all-female.

Your overall goal in this step of the process is to show that your research will be part of a larger conversation: that is, how your project flows from what’s already known, and how it advances, extends or challenges that existing body of knowledge. That will be the contribution of your project, and it constitutes the motivation for your research.

Two things are worth mentioning about your search for sources of relevant previous research. First, you needn’t look only at studies on your precise topic. For example, if you want to study gender-identity formation in schools, you shouldn’t restrict yourself to studies of schools; the empirical setting (schools) is secondary to the larger social process that interests you (how people form gender identity). That process occurs in many different settings, so cast a wide net. Second, be sure to use legitimate sources – meaning publications that have been through some sort of vetting process, whether that involves peer review (as with academic journal articles you might find via Google Scholar) or editorial review (as you’d find in well-known mass media publications, such as The Economist or The Washington Post ). What you’ll want to avoid is using unvetted sources such as personal blogs or Wikipedia. Why? Because anybody can write anything in those forums, and there is no way to know – unless you’re already an expert – if the claims you find there are accurate. Often, they’re not.

Step 4: Choose your data and methods

Whatever your research question is, eventually you’ll need to consider which data source and analytical strategy are most likely to provide the answers you’re seeking. One starting point is to consider whether your question would be best addressed by qualitative data (such as interviews, observations or historical records), quantitative data (such as surveys or census records) or some combination of both. Your ideas about data sources will, in turn, suggest options for analytical methods.

You might need to collect your own data, or you might find everything you need readily available in an existing dataset someone else has created. A great place to start is with a research librarian: university libraries always have them and, at public universities, those librarians can work with the public, including people who aren’t affiliated with the university. If you don’t happen to have a public university and its library close at hand, an ordinary public library can still be a good place to start: the librarians are often well versed in accessing data sources that might be relevant to your study, such as the census, or historical archives, or the Survey of Consumer Finances.

Because your task at this point is to plan research, rather than conduct it, the purpose of this step is not to commit you irrevocably to a course of action. Instead, your goal here is to think through a feasible approach to answering your research question. You’ll need to find out, for example, whether the data you want exist; if not, do you have a realistic chance of gathering the data yourself, or would it be better to modify your research question? In terms of analysis, would your strategy require you to apply statistical methods? If so, do you have those skills? If not, do you have time to learn them, or money to hire a research assistant to run the analysis for you?

Please be aware that qualitative methods in particular are not the casual undertaking they might appear to be. Many people make the mistake of thinking that only quantitative data and methods are scientific and systematic, while qualitative methods are just a fancy way of saying: ‘I talked to some people, read some old newspapers, and drew my own conclusions.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. In the final section of this guide, you’ll find some links to resources that will provide more insight on standards and procedures governing qualitative research, but suffice it to say: there are rules about what constitutes legitimate evidence and valid analytical procedure for qualitative data, just as there are for quantitative data.

Circle back and consider revising your initial plans

As you work through these four steps in planning your project, it’s perfectly normal to circle back and revise. Research planning is rarely a linear process. It’s also common for new and unexpected avenues to suggest themselves. As the sociologist Thorstein Veblen wrote in 1908 : ‘The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.’ That’s as true of research planning as it is of a completed project. Try to enjoy the horizons that open up for you in this process, rather than becoming overwhelmed; the four steps, along with the two exercises that follow, will help you focus your plan and make it manageable.

Key points – How to plan a research project

• Planning a research project is essential no matter your academic level or field of study. There is no one ‘best’ way to design research, but there are certain guidelines that can be helpfully applied across disciplines.
• Orient yourself to knowledge-creation. Make the shift from being a consumer of information to being a producer of information.
• Define your research question. Your question frames the rest of your project, sets the scope, and determines the kinds of answers you can find.
• Review previous research on your question. Survey the existing body of relevant knowledge to ensure that your research will be part of a larger conversation.
• Choose your data and methods. For instance, will you be collecting qualitative data, via interviews, or numerical data, via surveys?
• Circle back and consider revising your initial plans. Expect your research question in particular to undergo multiple rounds of refinement as you learn more about your topic.

Good research questions tend to beget more questions. This can be frustrating for those who want to get down to business right away. Try to make room for the unexpected: this is usually how knowledge advances. Many of the most significant discoveries in human history have been made by people who were looking for something else entirely. There are ways to structure your research planning process without over-constraining yourself; the two exercises below are a start, and you can find further methods in the Links and Books section.

The following exercise provides a structured process for advancing your research project planning. After completing it, you’ll be able to do the following:

• describe clearly and concisely the question you’ve chosen to study
• summarise the state of the art in knowledge about the question, and where your project could contribute new insight
• identify the best strategy for gathering and analysing relevant data

In other words, the following provides a systematic means to establish the building blocks of your research project.

Exercise 1: Definition of research question and sources

This exercise prompts you to select and clarify your general interest area, develop a research question, and investigate sources of information. The annotated bibliography will also help you refine your research question so that you can begin the second assignment, a description of the phenomenon you wish to study.

Jot down a few bullet points in response to these two questions, with the understanding that you’ll probably go back and modify your answers as you begin reading other studies relevant to your topic:

• What will be the general topic of your paper?
• What will be the specific topic of your paper?

b) Research question(s)

Use the following guidelines to frame a research question – or questions – that will drive your analysis. As with Part 1 above, you’ll probably find it necessary to change or refine your research question(s) as you complete future assignments.

• Your question should be phrased so that it can’t be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
• Your question should have more than one plausible answer.
• Your question should draw relationships between two or more concepts; framing the question in terms of How? or What? often works better than asking Why ?

c) Annotated bibliography

Most or all of your background information should come from two sources: scholarly books and journals, or reputable mass media sources. You might be able to access journal articles electronically through your library, using search engines such as JSTOR and Google Scholar. This can save you a great deal of time compared with going to the library in person to search periodicals. General news sources, such as those accessible through LexisNexis, are acceptable, but should be cited sparingly, since they don’t carry the same level of credibility as scholarly sources. As discussed above, unvetted sources such as blogs and Wikipedia should be avoided, because the quality of the information they provide is unreliable and often misleading.

To create an annotated bibliography, provide the following information for at least 10 sources relevant to your specific topic, using the format suggested below.

Name of author(s):

Publication date:

Title of book, chapter, or article:

If a chapter or article, title of journal or book where they appear:

Brief description of this work, including main findings and methods ( c 75 words):

Summary of how this work contributes to your project ( c 75 words):

Brief description of the implications of this work ( c 25 words):

Identify any gap or controversy in knowledge this work points up, and how your project could address those problems ( c 50 words):

Exercise 2: Towards an analysis

Develop a short statement ( c 250 words) about the kind of data that would be useful to address your research question, and how you’d analyse it. Some questions to consider in writing this statement include:

• What are the central concepts or variables in your project? Offer a brief definition of each.
• Do any data sources exist on those concepts or variables, or would you need to collect data?
• Of the analytical strategies you could apply to that data, which would be the most appropriate to answer your question? Which would be the most feasible for you? Consider at least two methods, noting their advantages or disadvantages for your project.

Links & books

One of the best texts ever written about planning and executing research comes from a source that might be unexpected: a 60-year-old work on urban planning by a self-trained scholar. The classic book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) by Jane Jacobs (available complete and free of charge via this link ) is worth reading in its entirety just for the pleasure of it. But the final 20 pages – a concluding chapter titled ‘The Kind of Problem a City Is’ – are really about the process of thinking through and investigating a problem. Highly recommended as a window into the craft of research.

Jacobs’s text references an essay on advancing human knowledge by the mathematician Warren Weaver. At the time, Weaver was director of the Rockefeller Foundation, in charge of funding basic research in the natural and medical sciences. Although the essay is titled ‘A Quarter Century in the Natural Sciences’ (1960) and appears at first blush to be merely a summation of one man’s career, it turns out to be something much bigger and more interesting: a meditation on the history of human beings seeking answers to big questions about the world. Weaver goes back to the 17th century to trace the origins of systematic research thinking, with enthusiasm and vivid anecdotes that make the process come alive. The essay is worth reading in its entirety, and is available free of charge via this link .

For those seeking a more in-depth, professional-level discussion of the logic of research design, the political scientist Harvey Starr provides insight in a compact format in the article ‘Cumulation from Proper Specification: Theory, Logic, Research Design, and “Nice” Laws’ (2005). Starr reviews the ‘research triad’, consisting of the interlinked considerations of formulating a question, selecting relevant theories and applying appropriate methods. The full text of the article, published in the scholarly journal Conflict Management and Peace Science , is available, free of charge, via this link .

Finally, the book Getting What You Came For (1992) by Robert Peters is not only an outstanding guide for anyone contemplating graduate school – from the application process onward – but it also includes several excellent chapters on planning and executing research, applicable across a wide variety of subject areas. It was an invaluable resource for me 25 years ago, and it remains in print with good reason; I recommend it to all my students, particularly Chapter 16 (‘The Thesis Topic: Finding It’), Chapter 17 (‘The Thesis Proposal’) and Chapter 18 (‘The Thesis: Writing It’).

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Research Project – Definition, Writing Guide and Ideas

Table of Contents

Research Project

Definition :

Research Project is a planned and systematic investigation into a specific area of interest or problem, with the goal of generating new knowledge, insights, or solutions. It typically involves identifying a research question or hypothesis, designing a study to test it, collecting and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions based on the findings.

Types of Research Project

Types of Research Projects are as follows:

Basic Research

This type of research focuses on advancing knowledge and understanding of a subject area or phenomenon, without any specific application or practical use in mind. The primary goal is to expand scientific or theoretical knowledge in a particular field.

Applied Research

Applied research is aimed at solving practical problems or addressing specific issues. This type of research seeks to develop solutions or improve existing products, services or processes.

Action Research

Action research is conducted by practitioners and aimed at solving specific problems or improving practices in a particular context. It involves collaboration between researchers and practitioners, and often involves iterative cycles of data collection and analysis, with the goal of improving practices.

Quantitative Research

This type of research uses numerical data to investigate relationships between variables or to test hypotheses. It typically involves large-scale data collection through surveys, experiments, or secondary data analysis.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research focuses on understanding and interpreting phenomena from the perspective of the people involved. It involves collecting and analyzing data in the form of text, images, or other non-numerical forms.

Mixed Methods Research

Mixed methods research combines elements of both quantitative and qualitative research, using multiple data sources and methods to gain a more comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon.

Longitudinal Research

This type of research involves studying a group of individuals or phenomena over an extended period of time, often years or decades. It is useful for understanding changes and developments over time.

Case Study Research

Case study research involves in-depth investigation of a particular case or phenomenon, often within a specific context. It is useful for understanding complex phenomena in their real-life settings.

Participatory Research

Participatory research involves active involvement of the people or communities being studied in the research process. It emphasizes collaboration, empowerment, and the co-production of knowledge.

Research Project Methodology

Research Project Methodology refers to the process of conducting research in an organized and systematic manner to answer a specific research question or to test a hypothesis. A well-designed research project methodology ensures that the research is rigorous, valid, and reliable, and that the findings are meaningful and can be used to inform decision-making.

There are several steps involved in research project methodology, which are described below:

Define the Research Question

The first step in any research project is to clearly define the research question or problem. This involves identifying the purpose of the research, the scope of the research, and the key variables that will be studied.

Develop a Research Plan

Once the research question has been defined, the next step is to develop a research plan. This plan outlines the methodology that will be used to collect and analyze data, including the research design, sampling strategy, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques.

Collect Data

The data collection phase involves gathering information through various methods, such as surveys, interviews, observations, experiments, or secondary data analysis. The data collected should be relevant to the research question and should be of sufficient quantity and quality to enable meaningful analysis.

Analyze Data

Once the data has been collected, it is analyzed using appropriate statistical techniques or other methods. The analysis should be guided by the research question and should aim to identify patterns, trends, relationships, or other insights that can inform the research findings.

Interpret and Report Findings

The final step in the research project methodology is to interpret the findings and report them in a clear and concise manner. This involves summarizing the results, discussing their implications, and drawing conclusions that can be used to inform decision-making.

Research Project Writing Guide

Here are some guidelines to help you in writing a successful research project:

• Choose a topic: Choose a topic that you are interested in and that is relevant to your field of study. It is important to choose a topic that is specific and focused enough to allow for in-depth research and analysis.
• Conduct a literature review : Conduct a thorough review of the existing research on your topic. This will help you to identify gaps in the literature and to develop a research question or hypothesis.
• Develop a research question or hypothesis : Based on your literature review, develop a clear research question or hypothesis that you will investigate in your study.
• Design your study: Choose an appropriate research design and methodology to answer your research question or test your hypothesis. This may include choosing a sample, selecting measures or instruments, and determining data collection methods.
• Collect data: Collect data using your chosen methods and instruments. Be sure to follow ethical guidelines and obtain informed consent from participants if necessary.
• Analyze data: Analyze your data using appropriate statistical or qualitative methods. Be sure to clearly report your findings and provide interpretations based on your research question or hypothesis.
• Discuss your findings : Discuss your findings in the context of the existing literature and your research question or hypothesis. Identify any limitations or implications of your study and suggest directions for future research.
• Write your project: Write your research project in a clear and organized manner, following the appropriate format and style guidelines for your field of study. Be sure to include an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.
• Revise and edit: Revise and edit your project for clarity, coherence, and accuracy. Be sure to proofread for spelling, grammar, and formatting errors.
• Cite your sources: Cite your sources accurately and appropriately using the appropriate citation style for your field of study.

Examples of Research Projects

Some Examples of Research Projects are as follows:

• Investigating the effects of a new medication on patients with a particular disease or condition.
• Exploring the impact of exercise on mental health and well-being.
• Studying the effectiveness of a new teaching method in improving student learning outcomes.
• Examining the impact of social media on political participation and engagement.
• Investigating the efficacy of a new therapy for a specific mental health disorder.
• Exploring the use of renewable energy sources in reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change.
• Studying the effects of a new agricultural technique on crop yields and environmental sustainability.
• Investigating the effectiveness of a new technology in improving business productivity and efficiency.
• Examining the impact of a new public policy on social inequality and access to resources.
• Exploring the factors that influence consumer behavior in a specific market.

Characteristics of Research Project

Here are some of the characteristics that are often associated with research projects:

• Clear objective: A research project is designed to answer a specific question or solve a particular problem. The objective of the research should be clearly defined from the outset.
• Systematic approach: A research project is typically carried out using a structured and systematic approach that involves careful planning, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
• Rigorous methodology: A research project should employ a rigorous methodology that is appropriate for the research question being investigated. This may involve the use of statistical analysis, surveys, experiments, or other methods.
• Data collection : A research project involves collecting data from a variety of sources, including primary sources (such as surveys or experiments) and secondary sources (such as published literature or databases).
• Analysis and interpretation : Once the data has been collected, it needs to be analyzed and interpreted. This involves using statistical techniques or other methods to identify patterns or relationships in the data.
• Conclusion and implications : A research project should lead to a clear conclusion that answers the research question. It should also identify the implications of the findings for future research or practice.
• Communication: The results of the research project should be communicated clearly and effectively, using appropriate language and visual aids, to a range of audiences, including peers, stakeholders, and the wider public.

Importance of Research Project

Research projects are an essential part of the process of generating new knowledge and advancing our understanding of various fields of study. Here are some of the key reasons why research projects are important:

• Advancing knowledge : Research projects are designed to generate new knowledge and insights into particular topics or questions. This knowledge can be used to inform policies, practices, and decision-making processes across a range of fields.
• Solving problems: Research projects can help to identify solutions to real-world problems by providing a better understanding of the causes and effects of particular issues.
• Developing new technologies: Research projects can lead to the development of new technologies or products that can improve people’s lives or address societal challenges.
• Improving health outcomes: Research projects can contribute to improving health outcomes by identifying new treatments, diagnostic tools, or preventive strategies.
• Enhancing education: Research projects can enhance education by providing new insights into teaching and learning methods, curriculum development, and student learning outcomes.
• Informing public policy : Research projects can inform public policy by providing evidence-based recommendations and guidance on issues related to health, education, environment, social justice, and other areas.
• Enhancing professional development : Research projects can enhance the professional development of researchers by providing opportunities to develop new skills, collaborate with colleagues, and share knowledge with others.

Research Project Ideas

Following are some Research Project Ideas:

Field: Psychology

• Investigating the impact of social support on coping strategies among individuals with chronic illnesses.
• Exploring the relationship between childhood trauma and adult attachment styles.
• Examining the effects of exercise on cognitive function and brain health in older adults.
• Investigating the impact of sleep deprivation on decision making and risk-taking behavior.
• Exploring the relationship between personality traits and leadership styles in the workplace.
• Examining the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for treating anxiety disorders.
• Investigating the relationship between social comparison and body dissatisfaction in young women.
• Exploring the impact of parenting styles on children’s emotional regulation and behavior.
• Investigating the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for treating depression.
• Examining the relationship between childhood adversity and later-life health outcomes.

Field: Economics

• Analyzing the impact of trade agreements on economic growth in developing countries.
• Examining the effects of tax policy on income distribution and poverty reduction.
• Investigating the relationship between foreign aid and economic development in low-income countries.
• Exploring the impact of globalization on labor markets and job displacement.
• Analyzing the impact of minimum wage laws on employment and income levels.
• Investigating the effectiveness of monetary policy in managing inflation and unemployment.
• Examining the relationship between economic freedom and entrepreneurship.
• Analyzing the impact of income inequality on social mobility and economic opportunity.
• Investigating the role of education in economic development.
• Examining the effectiveness of different healthcare financing systems in promoting health equity.

Field: Sociology

• Investigating the impact of social media on political polarization and civic engagement.
• Examining the effects of neighborhood characteristics on health outcomes.
• Analyzing the impact of immigration policies on social integration and cultural diversity.
• Investigating the relationship between social support and mental health outcomes in older adults.
• Exploring the impact of income inequality on social cohesion and trust.
• Analyzing the effects of gender and race discrimination on career advancement and pay equity.
• Investigating the relationship between social networks and health behaviors.
• Examining the effectiveness of community-based interventions for reducing crime and violence.
• Analyzing the impact of social class on cultural consumption and taste.
• Investigating the relationship between religious affiliation and social attitudes.

Field: Computer Science

• Developing an algorithm for detecting fake news on social media.
• Investigating the effectiveness of different machine learning algorithms for image recognition.
• Developing a natural language processing tool for sentiment analysis of customer reviews.
• Analyzing the security implications of blockchain technology for online transactions.
• Investigating the effectiveness of different recommendation algorithms for personalized advertising.
• Developing an artificial intelligence chatbot for mental health counseling.
• Investigating the effectiveness of different algorithms for optimizing online advertising campaigns.
• Developing a machine learning model for predicting consumer behavior in online marketplaces.
• Analyzing the privacy implications of different data sharing policies for online platforms.
• Investigating the effectiveness of different algorithms for predicting stock market trends.

Field: Education

• Investigating the impact of teacher-student relationships on academic achievement.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of different pedagogical approaches for promoting student engagement and motivation.
• Examining the effects of school choice policies on academic achievement and social mobility.
• Investigating the impact of technology on learning outcomes and academic achievement.
• Analyzing the effects of school funding disparities on educational equity and achievement gaps.
• Investigating the relationship between school climate and student mental health outcomes.
• Examining the effectiveness of different teaching strategies for promoting critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Investigating the impact of social-emotional learning programs on student behavior and academic achievement.
• Analyzing the effects of standardized testing on student motivation and academic achievement.

Field: Environmental Science

• Investigating the impact of climate change on species distribution and biodiversity.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of different renewable energy technologies in reducing carbon emissions.
• Examining the impact of air pollution on human health outcomes.
• Investigating the relationship between urbanization and deforestation in developing countries.
• Analyzing the effects of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems and biodiversity.
• Investigating the impact of land use change on soil fertility and ecosystem services.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of different conservation policies and programs for protecting endangered species and habitats.
• Investigating the relationship between climate change and water resources in arid regions.
• Examining the impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems and biodiversity.
• Investigating the effects of different agricultural practices on soil health and nutrient cycling.

Field: Linguistics

• Analyzing the impact of language diversity on social integration and cultural identity.
• Investigating the relationship between language and cognition in bilingual individuals.
• Examining the effects of language contact and language change on linguistic diversity.
• Investigating the role of language in shaping cultural norms and values.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of different language teaching methodologies for second language acquisition.
• Investigating the relationship between language proficiency and academic achievement.
• Examining the impact of language policy on language use and language attitudes.
• Investigating the role of language in shaping gender and social identities.
• Analyzing the effects of dialect contact on language variation and change.
• Investigating the relationship between language and emotion expression.

Field: Political Science

• Analyzing the impact of electoral systems on women’s political representation.
• Investigating the relationship between political ideology and attitudes towards immigration.
• Examining the effects of political polarization on democratic institutions and political stability.
• Investigating the impact of social media on political participation and civic engagement.
• Analyzing the effects of authoritarianism on human rights and civil liberties.
• Investigating the relationship between public opinion and foreign policy decisions.
• Examining the impact of international organizations on global governance and cooperation.
• Investigating the effectiveness of different conflict resolution strategies in resolving ethnic and religious conflicts.
• Analyzing the effects of corruption on economic development and political stability.
• Investigating the role of international law in regulating global governance and human rights.

Field: Medicine

• Investigating the impact of lifestyle factors on chronic disease risk and prevention.
• Examining the effectiveness of different treatment approaches for mental health disorders.
• Investigating the relationship between genetics and disease susceptibility.
• Analyzing the effects of social determinants of health on health outcomes and health disparities.
• Investigating the impact of different healthcare delivery models on patient outcomes and cost effectiveness.
• Examining the effectiveness of different prevention and treatment strategies for infectious diseases.
• Investigating the relationship between healthcare provider communication skills and patient satisfaction and outcomes.
• Analyzing the effects of medical error and patient safety on healthcare quality and outcomes.
• Investigating the impact of different pharmaceutical pricing policies on access to essential medicines.
• Examining the effectiveness of different rehabilitation approaches for improving function and quality of life in individuals with disabilities.

Field: Anthropology

• Analyzing the impact of colonialism on indigenous cultures and identities.
• Investigating the relationship between cultural practices and health outcomes in different populations.
• Examining the effects of globalization on cultural diversity and cultural exchange.
• Investigating the role of language in cultural transmission and preservation.
• Analyzing the effects of cultural contact on cultural change and adaptation.
• Investigating the impact of different migration policies on immigrant integration and acculturation.
• Examining the role of gender and sexuality in cultural norms and values.
• Investigating the impact of cultural heritage preservation on tourism and economic development.
• Analyzing the effects of cultural revitalization movements on indigenous communities.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Frequently asked questions

What is a research project.

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.

Frequently asked questions: Writing a research paper

The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.

Formulating a main research question can be a difficult task. Overall, your question should contribute to solving the problem that you have defined in your problem statement .

However, it should also fulfill criteria in three main areas:

• Researchability
• Feasibility and specificity
• Relevance and originality

Research questions anchor your whole project, so it’s important to spend some time refining them.

In general, they should be:

• Focused and researchable
• Answerable using credible sources
• Complex and arguable
• Feasible and specific
• Relevant and original

All research questions should be:

• Focused on a single problem or issue
• Researchable using primary and/or secondary sources
• Feasible to answer within the timeframe and practical constraints
• Specific enough to answer thoroughly
• Complex enough to develop the answer over the space of a paper or thesis
• Relevant to your field of study and/or society more broadly

A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.

Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.

Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement .

Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.

I will compare …

Your research objectives indicate how you’ll try to address your research problem and should be specific:

Research objectives describe what you intend your research project to accomplish.

They summarize the approach and purpose of the project and help to focus your research.

Your objectives should appear in the introduction of your research paper , at the end of your problem statement .

The main guidelines for formatting a paper in Chicago style are to:

• Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman
• Use 1 inch margins or larger
• Apply double line spacing
• Indent every new paragraph ½ inch
• Include a title page
• Place page numbers in the top right or bottom center
• Cite your sources with author-date citations or Chicago footnotes
• Include a bibliography or reference list

To automatically generate accurate Chicago references, you can use Scribbr’s free Chicago reference generator .

The main guidelines for formatting a paper in MLA style are as follows:

• Use an easily readable font like 12 pt Times New Roman
• Set 1 inch page margins
• Include a four-line MLA heading on the first page
• Center the paper’s title
• Use title case capitalization for headings
• Cite your sources with MLA in-text citations
• List all sources cited on a Works Cited page at the end

To format a paper in APA Style , follow these guidelines:

• Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman or 11 pt Arial
• If submitting for publication, insert a running head on every page
• Apply APA heading styles
• Cite your sources with APA in-text citations
• List all sources cited on a reference page at the end

No, it’s not appropriate to present new arguments or evidence in the conclusion . While you might be tempted to save a striking argument for last, research papers follow a more formal structure than this.

All your findings and arguments should be presented in the body of the text (more specifically in the results and discussion sections if you are following a scientific structure). The conclusion is meant to summarize and reflect on the evidence and arguments you have already presented, not introduce new ones.

The conclusion of a research paper has several key elements you should make sure to include:

• A restatement of the research problem
• A summary of your key arguments and/or findings
• A short discussion of the implications of your research

Don’t feel that you have to write the introduction first. The introduction is often one of the last parts of the research paper you’ll write, along with the conclusion.

This is because it can be easier to introduce your paper once you’ve already written the body ; you may not have the clearest idea of your arguments until you’ve written them, and things can change during the writing process .

The way you present your research problem in your introduction varies depending on the nature of your research paper . A research paper that presents a sustained argument will usually encapsulate this argument in a thesis statement .

A research paper designed to present the results of empirical research tends to present a research question that it seeks to answer. It may also include a hypothesis —a prediction that will be confirmed or disproved by your research.

The introduction of a research paper includes several key elements:

• A hook to catch the reader’s interest
• Relevant background on the topic
• Details of your research problem

and your problem statement

• A thesis statement or research question
• Sometimes an overview of the paper

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3.4: Components of a Research Project

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Learning Objectives

• Describe useful strategies to employ when searching for literature.
• Describe why sociologists review prior literature and how they organize their literature reviews.
• Identify the main sections contained in scholarly journal articles.
• Identify and describe the major components researchers need to plan for when designing a research project.
• Describe the importance of a research proposal.

In this section, we’ll examine the most typical components that make up a research proposal and research project, bringing in a few additional components to those we have already discussed. Keep in mind that our purpose at this stage is simply to provide a general overview of research design. The specifics of each of the following components will vary from project to project. Further, the stage of a project at which each of these components comes into play may vary.

Searching for Literature

Familiarizing yourself with research that has already been conducted on your topic is one of the first stages of conducting a research project and is crucial for coming up with a good research design. But where to start? How to start? As you search for literature, you may have to be fairly broad in your search for articles.

I’m guessing you may feel you’ve heard enough about electronic gadget addiction in this chapter, so let’s consider a different example here. On my campus, much to the chagrin of a group of student smokers, smoking was recently banned. These students were so upset by the idea that they would no longer be allowed to smoke on university grounds that they staged several smoke-outs during which they gathered in populated areas around campus and enjoyed a puff or two together.

A student in my research methods class wanted to understand what motivated this group of students to engage in activism centered around what she perceived to be, in this age of smoke-free facilities, a relatively deviant act. Were the protesters otherwise politically active? How much effort and coordination had it taken to organize the smoke-outs? The student researcher began her research by attempting to familiarize herself with the literature on her topic. Yet her search in Sociological Abstracts for “college student activist smoke-outs,” yielded no results. Concluding there was no prior research on her topic, she informed me that she would need an alternative assignment to the annotated bibliography I required since there was no literature for her to review. How do you suppose I responded to this news? What went wrong with this student’s search for literature?

In her first attempt, the student had been too narrow in her search for articles. But did that mean she was off the hook for completing the annotated bibliography assignment? Absolutely not. Instead, she went back to Sociological Abstracts and searched again using different combinations of search terms. Rather than searching for “college student activist smoke-outs” she tried, among other sets of terms, “college student activism.” This time her search yielded a great many articles. Of course, they were not focused on prosmoking activist efforts, but they were focused on her population of interest, college students, and on her broad topic of interest, activism. I suggested that reading articles on college student activism might give her some idea about what other researchers have found in terms of what motivates college students to become involved in activist efforts. I also suggested she could play around with her search terms and look for research on activism centered on other sorts of activities that are perceived by some as deviant, such as marijuana use or veganism. In other words, she needed to be broader in her search for articles.

While this student found success by broadening her search for articles, her reading of those articles needed to be narrower than her search. Once she identified a set of articles to review by searching broadly, it was time to remind herself of her specific research focus: college student activist smoke-outs. Keeping in mind her particular research interest while reviewing the literature gave her the chance to think about how the theories and findings covered in prior studies might or might not apply to her particular point of focus. For example, theories on what motivates activists to get involved might tell her something about the likely reasons the students she planned to study got involved. At the same time, those theories might not cover all the particulars of student participation in smoke-outs. Thinking about the different theories then gave the student the opportunity to focus her research plans and even to develop a few hypotheses about what she thought she was likely to find.

Reviewing the Literature

Developing an annotated bibliography is often one of the early steps that researchers take as they begin to familiarize themselves with prior research on their topic. A second step involves a literature review in which a researcher positions his or her work within the context of prior scholarly work in the area. A literature review addresses the following matters: What sorts of questions have other scholars asked about this topic? What do we already know about this topic? What questions remain? As the researcher answers these questions, he or she synthesizes what is contained in the literature, possibly organizing prior findings around themes that are relevant to his or her particular research focus.

I once advised an undergraduate student who conducted a research project on speciesism, the belief that some species are superior to or have more value and rights than others. Her research question was “Why and how do humans construct divisions between themselves and animals?” This student organized her review of literature around the two parts of her research question: the why and the how. In the “why” section of her literature review, she described prior research that addressed questions of why humans are sometimes speciesist. She organized subsections around the three most common answers that were presented in the scholarly literature. She used the same structure in the “how” section of her literature review, arranging subsections around the answers posed in previous literature about how humans construct divisions between themselves and animals. This organizational scheme helped readers understand what we already know about the topic and what theories we rely on to help make sense of the topic. In addition, by also highlighting what we still don’t know, it helped the student set the stage for her own empirical research on the topic

The preceding discussion about how to organize a review of scholarly literature assumes that we all know how to read scholarly literature. Yes, yes, I understand that you must know how to read. But reading scholarly articles can be a bit more challenging than reading a textbook. Here are a few pointers about how to do it successfully. First, it is important to understand the various sections that are typically contained in scholarly journals’ reports of empirical research. One of the most important and easiest to spot sections of a journal article is its abstract , the short paragraph at the beginning of an article that summarizes the author’s research question, methods used to answer the question, and key findings. The abstract may also give you some idea about the theoretical proclivities of the author. As a result, reading the abstract gives you both a framework for understanding the rest of the article and the punch line. It tells you what the author(s) found and whether the article is relevant to your area of inquiry.

After the abstract, most journal articles will contain the following sections (although exact section names are likely to vary): introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and discussion. Of course, there will also be a list of references cited, lists of references cited are a useful source for finding additional literature in an area. and there may be a few tables, figures, or appendices at the end of the article as well. While you should get into the habit of familiarizing yourself with articles you wish to cite in their entirety , there are strategic ways to read journal articles that can make them a little easier to digest. Once you have read the abstract and determined that this is an article you’d like to read in full, read through the discussion section at the end of the article next. Because your own review of literature is likely to emphasize findings from previous literature, you should make sure that you have a clear idea about what those findings are. Reading an article’s discussion section helps you understand what the author views as the study’s major findings and how the author perceives those findings to relate to other research.

As you read through the rest of the article, think about the elements of research design that we have covered. What approach does the researcher take? Is the research exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory? Is it inductive or deductive? Idiographic or nomothetic? What claims does the author make about causality? What are the author’s units of analysis and observation? Use what you have learned about the promise and potential pitfalls associated with each of these research elements to help you responsibly read and understand the articles you review. Future chapters of this text will address other elements of journal articles, including choices about measurement, sampling, and research method. As you learn about these additional items, you will increasingly gain more knowledge that you can apply as you read and critique the scholarly literature in your area of inquiry.

Additional Important Components

Thinking about the overarching goals of your research project and finding and reviewing the existing literature on your topic are two of the initial steps you’ll take when designing a research project. Forming a clear research question, is another crucial step. There are a number of other important research design components you’ll need to consider, and we will discuss those here.

At the same time that you work to identify a clear research question, you will probably also think about the overarching goals of your research project. Will it be exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory? Will your approach be idiographic or nomothetic, inductive or deductive? How you design your project might also be determined in part by whether you aim for your research to have some direct application or if your goal is to contribute more generally to sociological knowledge about your topic. Next, think about what your units of analysis and units of observation will be. These will help you identify the key concepts you will study. Once you have identified those concepts, you’ll need to decide how to define them, and how you’ll know that you’re observing them when it comes time to collect your data. Defining your concepts, and knowing them when you see them, has to do with conceptualization and operationalization, the focus of a later chapter. Of course, you also need to know what approach you will take to collect your data. Thus identifying your research method is another important part of research design. You also need to think about who your research participants will be and what larger group(s) they may represent. These topics will be the focus of a later chapter too. Last, but certainly not least, you should consider any potential ethical concerns that could arise during the course of your research project. These concerns might come up during your data collection, but they might also arise when you get to the point of analyzing or sharing your research results.

Decisions about the various research components do not necessarily occur in sequential order. In fact, you may have to think about potential ethical concerns even before zeroing in on a specific research question. Similarly, the goal of being able to make generalizations about your population of interest could shape the decisions you make about your method of data collection. Putting it all together, the following list shows some of the major components you’ll need to consider as you design your research project:

• Research question
• Literature review
• Research strategy (idiographic or nomothetic, inductive or deductive)
• Research goals (basic or applied)
• Units of analysis and units of observation
• Key concepts (conceptualization and operationalization)
• Method of data collection
• Research participants (sample and population)
• Ethical concerns

Research Proposal

At the stage before actually starting the research it is often a good idea to write a research proposal detailing all of the decisions made in the preceding stages of the research process and the rationale behind each decision. This multi-part proposal should address what research questions you wish to study and why, the prior literature, theories you wish to employ along with hypotheses to be tested (if you are doing deductive research, how measurement will be done, what research method to be employed and why, and desired sampling strategy (or who the subjects are.  Also, do not forget to include a budget.  Funding agencies typically require such a proposal in order to select the best proposals for funding. Even if funding is not sought for a research project, a proposal may serve as a useful vehicle for seeking feedback from other researchers and identifying potential problems with the research project (e.g., whether some important constructs were missing from the study) before starting data collection. This initial feedback is invaluable because it is often too late to correct critical problems after data is collected in a research study.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When identifying and reading relevant literature, be broad in your search for articles, but be narrower in your reading of articles.
• Writing an annotated bibliography can be a helpful first step to familiarize yourself with prior research in your area of interest.
• Literature reviews summarize and synthesize prior research.
• Literature reviews are typically organized around substantive ideas that are relevant to one’s research question rather than around individual studies or article authors.
• When designing a research project, be sure to think about, plan for, and identify a research question, a review of literature, a research strategy, research goals, units of analysis and units of observation, key concepts, method(s) of data collection, population and sample, and potential ethical concerns.
• A research proposal is also important to consider.
• Find and read a complete journal article that addresses a topic that is of interest to you. In four to eight sentences, summarize the author’s research question, theoretical framing, methods used, and major findings. Reread the article, and see how close you were in reporting these key elements. What did you understand and remember best? What did you leave out? What reading strategies may have helped you better recall relevant details from the article?
• Using the example of students’ electronic gadget addictions, design a hypothetical research project by identifying a plan for each of the nine components of research design that are presented in this section.

Elements of Research: Important, Elements, Conducting & More

Want to know everything about elements of research, then you are at the right place. Research is an essential part of any academic or scientific endeavor. Whether you are a student writing a thesis, a researcher conducting a study, or a scientist working on a new discovery, research is the foundation of your work. However, conducting research can be a daunting task, especially if you are new to the field. 

In this blog, we will explore the key elements of research and provide a guide to help you understand the building blocks of a successful study.

What is Research?

Table of Contents

Research involves a systematic process of proving a relationship between variables. This can be done through statistical methods, qualitative methods or a combination of both.

A good research design must contain a clear statement, techniques for data collection, processing and analysis.

Elements of Research: Important, Elements, Conducting & More

Here in this section you get to know about elements of research: Important, Elements, Conducting & More:

Why is Research Important?

If you want to know the Elements of Research then you must first know why Research is important. Then here are some reasons why research is important which are as follows:

1. Advancing Knowledge

Research helps to advance knowledge by generating new ideas, theories, and concepts. It helps to build on existing knowledge and expand our understanding of the world.

2. Solving Problems

Research is used to solve problems and to find solutions to complex issues. It helps to identify the root causes of problems and to develop effective strategies for addressing them.

3. Informing Decision-Making

Research provides valuable information that can be used to inform decision-making. It helps to identify the potential risks and benefits of different courses of action, and to determine the most effective approach to solving problems.

4. Improving Quality Of Life

Research has the potential to improve the quality of life for individuals and communities. It can lead to the development of new technologies, medicines, and treatments, and can help to address social and environmental issues.

5. Economic Development

Research can contribute to economic development by driving innovation, creating new jobs, and generating new industries. It can help to create a more competitive and dynamic economy.

6. Personal Growth

Conducting research can also contribute to personal growth by providing opportunities for learning, developing new skills, and gaining a deeper understanding of a particular subject.

The Elements of Research – Things You Need To Know

Here in this section we will tell you some of the elements of research that you must know:

Research is a systematic process of finding evidence to support a knowledge claim. It involves a variety of methods, including observation, experimentation and logical reasoning, which are used to gather data.

Researchers work to develop new concepts and ideas that are relevant, useful and practical. They also explore gaps in current knowledge to identify needs for more research and improve how people think about a problem.

There are a few different types of research, which can be classified into basic and applied research. Fundamental research aims to understand the reasons behind something, whereas applied research seeks to find solutions to problems and create commercially viable applications.

Both methods are based on a systematic approach to capture accurate data. Researchers must practice a code of conduct and follow ethical guidelines to ensure that their research is valid and reliable. This is why it is so important to make sure that all of the data collected has been accurately analyzed and there are no anomalies in the results. This is the first elements of research.

2. Variable

A variable is an element of research that can be measured, manipulated or controlled. It can be any property or characteristic that changes over time, can be a number or can take on different values (such as height, age, temperature or test scores).

In experiments, independent and dependent variables are manipulated to test causal relationships between them. In an experiment where you give one group of people an active drug and another group a placebo, the dependent variable is the response of each person to the drug.

The independent variable is the one you manipulate in the experiment to test its effect on the dependent variable. It’s called an independent variable because it’s not affected by other factors that are being measured in your experiment.

In a study where you want to see how the amount of fertilizers affects plant growth, the independent variable is the amount of fertilizers. The dependent variable is the plant’s growth.

3. Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a statement that explains the predictions and reasoning of your research–an “educated guess” about how your scientific experiments will end. It is the foundation of your research, which should be as clear, specific and testable as possible.

A research hypothesis can be either simple or complex. A simple hypothesis looks at a relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable, while a complex hypothesis explores the effects of multiple variables on each other.

In science, researchers often use a null hypothesis to confirm if the results of an experiment are due to chance or if they support a theory. A null hypothesis states that no relationship exists between two variables, and any changes that occur when the independent variable is manipulated are not due to chance.

A researcher can also choose an alternative hypothesis to narrow down the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. This is called deductive research.

4. Operational Definition

The operational definition of research is a detailed specification of how you will go about measuring a variable. It includes what instrument you will use, how you plan to interpret the data and how you will make comparisons.

A good operational definition will eliminate ambiguity, ensure consistency and reduce measurement errors. It will also be consistent with the theoretical constructs being studied and the methodology used in the study.

For example, if a researcher wants to measure the relationship between age and substance abuse they would define their variable as age measured in years.

Similarly, if they want to measure the relationship between hot weather and violent crime they would define their variable as temperature.

It’s important to have an operational definition of a concept because it helps other researchers to understand the method you used in your study and makes it more replicable. It also helps to avoid misinterpreting your findings, which can lead to erroneous conclusions and poor outcomes. This is the last elements of research.

• Accounting Research Topics
• How To Write a Statistical Research Paper

Ways of Conducting Research?

After knowing the elements of research now you have to know the ways to conduct research. On the other hand, there is a systematic approach to be adopted while conducting research. It involves the following:

1. Defining the Research Problem

The first step in conducting research is to identify the research problem. The research problem is the question or issue that you want to investigate. It should be clearly defined and focused, so that you can design a study that will provide meaningful results. To identify the research problem, you need to start by asking questions about the topic you want to investigate. These questions should be open-ended and designed to help you explore the issue in depth.

Once you have identified the research problem, you can start to develop a research question. The research question should be specific and focused, and should outline the main objective of your study. It should also be clear and concise, so that it can be easily communicated to others.

2. Reviewing the Literature

Before you start to design your study, you need to conduct a literature review. A literature review is a comprehensive analysis of the existing research on your topic. It involves identifying and analyzing relevant literature, including books, articles, and other sources of information.

The purpose of a literature review is to identify the gaps in the existing research and to determine the most effective research methods to use in your study. It also helps you to refine your research question and to develop hypotheses that can be tested in your study.

3. Designing the Study

Once you have identified the research problem and reviewed the literature, you can start to design your study. The study design is the blueprint for your research, and it outlines the methods and procedures that you will use to collect and analyze data.

There are several different types of study designs, including experimental studies, observational studies, and surveys. The type of study design that you choose will depend on the research question, the available resources, and the nature of the data that you want to collect.

4. Collecting Data

The next step in conducting research is to collect data. There are several different methods that you can use to collect data, including surveys, interviews, observations, and experiments. The method that you choose will depend on the nature of your research question and the type of data that you want to collect.

When collecting data, it is important to ensure that the data is accurate and reliable. This involves using appropriate sampling methods, ensuring that the data is collected in a consistent manner, and taking steps to minimize bias and error.

5. Analyzing the Data

Once you have collected the data, you need to analyze it. Data analysis involves examining the data to identify patterns, trends, and relationships. There are several different methods that you can use to analyze data, including descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and qualitative analysis .

The method that you choose will depend on the nature of your research question and the type of data that you have collected. It is important to use appropriate statistical techniques and to ensure that the results are reliable and valid.

6. Reporting the Results

The final step in conducting research is to report the results. The purpose of reporting the results is to communicate the findings of your study to others. This involves writing a research report that outlines the research question, the methods that were used, the results that were obtained, and the conclusions that were drawn.

The research report should be written in a clear and concise manner, and should be organized in a logical and coherent manner. It should also be accompanied by appropriate tables, graphs, and figures to enhance the clarity and visualization of the results. Additionally, the research report should include a discussion section that interprets the results and discusses their implications.

It is important to use appropriate language and to avoid making unsupported claims. The research report should also include a reference list that provides a complete list of the sources that were used in the study.

7. Ethical Considerations in Research

When conducting research, it is important to consider ethical issues. Ethical considerations involve ensuring that the rights and welfare of research participants are protected, and that the research is conducted in a responsible and ethical manner.

Some of the key ethical considerations in research include obtaining informed consent from participants, maintaining confidentiality, minimizing risks to participants, and ensuring that the benefits of the research outweigh any potential harms.

In addition, researchers should be aware of potential conflicts of interest and should disclose any conflicts of interest to ensure that the research is conducted in an impartial and unbiased manner.

Ways How To Find And Use Research Resources

Here are some ways to find and use research resources: 

1. Start With Your Library

Your library is a great place to find research resources, including books, articles, databases, and websites. The librarians at your library can help you find the resources you need and teach you how to use them.

2. Use Online Databases

Many online databases provide access to scholarly articles, books, and other research materials. Some of these websites are free to use, but you have to pay to use the others.

3. Search The Web

You can also find research resources on the web. However, it is important to be critical of the information you find online, as not all websites are created equal.

4. Talk To Experts

If you are stuck, talk to experts in your field. They may be able to point you to helpful resources or provide you with insights that you would not have found on your own.

5. Use Social Media

Social media can be a great way to connect with experts in your field and find research resources. Many experts have their own blogs or Twitter accounts where they share their research and insights.

6. Attend Conferences

Conferences are a great way to learn about new research and meet experts in your field. You can also find research resources such as books, articles, and posters at conferences.

7. Use Government Websites

Government websites can be a great source of research resources. Many government agencies publish reports, studies, and data that can be helpful for research projects.

Tips For Writing Effective Research Paper In 2023

Here are some tips for writing effective research paper in 2023 : 

1. Choose A Topic That You Are Interested In And That You Know Something About

This will make it easier and more fun to study. When choosing a topic, it is important to consider your interests, your skills, and your knowledge. You should also consider the length and scope of the paper you must write.

2. Do Your Research Thoroughly

This means reading a variety of sources and carefully evaluating their credibility. When doing your research, it is important to use a variety of sources, including books, articles, websites, and interviews. You should also be critical of your sources and evaluate their credibility.

3. Take Notes On Your Research

This will help you to keep track of your findings and to organize your thoughts. When taking notes, it is important to be selective and only to include the most important information. You should also organize your notes in a way that makes sense to you.

4. Write An Outline For Your Paper

This will help you to structure your paper and to make sure that all of your points are covered. When writing an outline, it is important to include an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. You should also include subheadings to help organize your thoughts.

5. Write A Strong Introduction

Your introduction should grab the reader’s attention and introduce the topic of your paper. A strong introduction should include a clear thesis statement, which is a sentence that states the main point of your paper.

6. Write A Clear And Concise Body Text

Your body text should present your findings and arguments logically and easily. When writing the body of your paper, it is important to use evidence to support your claims. You should also use transition words to help guide your reader through your argument.

7. Write A Strong Conclusion

Your conclusion should clarify your thesis statement and proceed over your important points. A strong conclusion should also leave the reader with something to think about.

8. Proofread Your Paper Carefully

This will help you find any mistakes in writing, grammar, or punctuation. When proofreading your paper, it is helpful to read it aloud. This will help you find errors you might not have noticed otherwise.

Conducting research can be a challenging and complex process. However, by understanding the key elements of research, you can develop a successful study that provides meaningful results. The key elements of research include defining the research problem, reviewing the literature, designing the study, collecting data, analyzing the data, and reporting the results.

Additionally, it is important to consider ethical issues when conducting research to ensure that the rights and welfare of research participants are protected. By following these guidelines, you can conduct research that makes a valuable contribution to your field of study.

Q 1. Why is defining the research problem important?

Defining the research problem is essential because it sets the direction and focus of the study. It helps researchers stay on track and investigate a specific issue effectively.

Q 2. What is the importance of a literature study in research?

The literature review is important as it provides an overview of existing knowledge on the research topic. It helps researchers identify gaps, build on previous work, and ensure their study is relevant and contributes to the existing body of knowledge.

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How to write a research proposal?

Department of Anaesthesiology, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Devika Rani Duggappa

Writing the proposal of a research work in the present era is a challenging task due to the constantly evolving trends in the qualitative research design and the need to incorporate medical advances into the methodology. The proposal is a detailed plan or ‘blueprint’ for the intended study, and once it is completed, the research project should flow smoothly. Even today, many of the proposals at post-graduate evaluation committees and application proposals for funding are substandard. A search was conducted with keywords such as research proposal, writing proposal and qualitative using search engines, namely, PubMed and Google Scholar, and an attempt has been made to provide broad guidelines for writing a scientifically appropriate research proposal.

INTRODUCTION

A clean, well-thought-out proposal forms the backbone for the research itself and hence becomes the most important step in the process of conduct of research.[ 1 ] The objective of preparing a research proposal would be to obtain approvals from various committees including ethics committee [details under ‘Research methodology II’ section [ Table 1 ] in this issue of IJA) and to request for grants. However, there are very few universally accepted guidelines for preparation of a good quality research proposal. A search was performed with keywords such as research proposal, funding, qualitative and writing proposals using search engines, namely, PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus.

Five ‘C’s while writing a literature review

BASIC REQUIREMENTS OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

A proposal needs to show how your work fits into what is already known about the topic and what new paradigm will it add to the literature, while specifying the question that the research will answer, establishing its significance, and the implications of the answer.[ 2 ] The proposal must be capable of convincing the evaluation committee about the credibility, achievability, practicality and reproducibility (repeatability) of the research design.[ 3 ] Four categories of audience with different expectations may be present in the evaluation committees, namely academic colleagues, policy-makers, practitioners and lay audiences who evaluate the research proposal. Tips for preparation of a good research proposal include; ‘be practical, be persuasive, make broader links, aim for crystal clarity and plan before you write’. A researcher must be balanced, with a realistic understanding of what can be achieved. Being persuasive implies that researcher must be able to convince other researchers, research funding agencies, educational institutions and supervisors that the research is worth getting approval. The aim of the researcher should be clearly stated in simple language that describes the research in a way that non-specialists can comprehend, without use of jargons. The proposal must not only demonstrate that it is based on an intelligent understanding of the existing literature but also show that the writer has thought about the time needed to conduct each stage of the research.[ 4 , 5 ]

CONTENTS OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

The contents or formats of a research proposal vary depending on the requirements of evaluation committee and are generally provided by the evaluation committee or the institution.

In general, a cover page should contain the (i) title of the proposal, (ii) name and affiliation of the researcher (principal investigator) and co-investigators, (iii) institutional affiliation (degree of the investigator and the name of institution where the study will be performed), details of contact such as phone numbers, E-mail id's and lines for signatures of investigators.

The main contents of the proposal may be presented under the following headings: (i) introduction, (ii) review of literature, (iii) aims and objectives, (iv) research design and methods, (v) ethical considerations, (vi) budget, (vii) appendices and (viii) citations.[ 4 ]

Introduction

It is also sometimes termed as ‘need for study’ or ‘abstract’. Introduction is an initial pitch of an idea; it sets the scene and puts the research in context.[ 6 ] The introduction should be designed to create interest in the reader about the topic and proposal. It should convey to the reader, what you want to do, what necessitates the study and your passion for the topic.[ 7 ] Some questions that can be used to assess the significance of the study are: (i) Who has an interest in the domain of inquiry? (ii) What do we already know about the topic? (iii) What has not been answered adequately in previous research and practice? (iv) How will this research add to knowledge, practice and policy in this area? Some of the evaluation committees, expect the last two questions, elaborated under a separate heading of ‘background and significance’.[ 8 ] Introduction should also contain the hypothesis behind the research design. If hypothesis cannot be constructed, the line of inquiry to be used in the research must be indicated.

Review of literature

It refers to all sources of scientific evidence pertaining to the topic in interest. In the present era of digitalisation and easy accessibility, there is an enormous amount of relevant data available, making it a challenge for the researcher to include all of it in his/her review.[ 9 ] It is crucial to structure this section intelligently so that the reader can grasp the argument related to your study in relation to that of other researchers, while still demonstrating to your readers that your work is original and innovative. It is preferable to summarise each article in a paragraph, highlighting the details pertinent to the topic of interest. The progression of review can move from the more general to the more focused studies, or a historical progression can be used to develop the story, without making it exhaustive.[ 1 ] Literature should include supporting data, disagreements and controversies. Five ‘C's may be kept in mind while writing a literature review[ 10 ] [ Table 1 ].

Aims and objectives

The research purpose (or goal or aim) gives a broad indication of what the researcher wishes to achieve in the research. The hypothesis to be tested can be the aim of the study. The objectives related to parameters or tools used to achieve the aim are generally categorised as primary and secondary objectives.

Research design and method

The objective here is to convince the reader that the overall research design and methods of analysis will correctly address the research problem and to impress upon the reader that the methodology/sources chosen are appropriate for the specific topic. It should be unmistakably tied to the specific aims of your study.

In this section, the methods and sources used to conduct the research must be discussed, including specific references to sites, databases, key texts or authors that will be indispensable to the project. There should be specific mention about the methodological approaches to be undertaken to gather information, about the techniques to be used to analyse it and about the tests of external validity to which researcher is committed.[ 10 , 11 ]

The components of this section include the following:[ 4 ]

Population and sample

Population refers to all the elements (individuals, objects or substances) that meet certain criteria for inclusion in a given universe,[ 12 ] and sample refers to subset of population which meets the inclusion criteria for enrolment into the study. The inclusion and exclusion criteria should be clearly defined. The details pertaining to sample size are discussed in the article “Sample size calculation: Basic priniciples” published in this issue of IJA.

Data collection

The researcher is expected to give a detailed account of the methodology adopted for collection of data, which include the time frame required for the research. The methodology should be tested for its validity and ensure that, in pursuit of achieving the results, the participant's life is not jeopardised. The author should anticipate and acknowledge any potential barrier and pitfall in carrying out the research design and explain plans to address them, thereby avoiding lacunae due to incomplete data collection. If the researcher is planning to acquire data through interviews or questionnaires, copy of the questions used for the same should be attached as an annexure with the proposal.

Rigor (soundness of the research)

This addresses the strength of the research with respect to its neutrality, consistency and applicability. Rigor must be reflected throughout the proposal.

It refers to the robustness of a research method against bias. The author should convey the measures taken to avoid bias, viz. blinding and randomisation, in an elaborate way, thus ensuring that the result obtained from the adopted method is purely as chance and not influenced by other confounding variables.

Consistency

Consistency considers whether the findings will be consistent if the inquiry was replicated with the same participants and in a similar context. This can be achieved by adopting standard and universally accepted methods and scales.

Applicability

Applicability refers to the degree to which the findings can be applied to different contexts and groups.[ 13 ]

Data analysis

This section deals with the reduction and reconstruction of data and its analysis including sample size calculation. The researcher is expected to explain the steps adopted for coding and sorting the data obtained. Various tests to be used to analyse the data for its robustness, significance should be clearly stated. Author should also mention the names of statistician and suitable software which will be used in due course of data analysis and their contribution to data analysis and sample calculation.[ 9 ]

Ethical considerations

Medical research introduces special moral and ethical problems that are not usually encountered by other researchers during data collection, and hence, the researcher should take special care in ensuring that ethical standards are met. Ethical considerations refer to the protection of the participants' rights (right to self-determination, right to privacy, right to autonomy and confidentiality, right to fair treatment and right to protection from discomfort and harm), obtaining informed consent and the institutional review process (ethical approval). The researcher needs to provide adequate information on each of these aspects.

Informed consent needs to be obtained from the participants (details discussed in further chapters), as well as the research site and the relevant authorities.

When the researcher prepares a research budget, he/she should predict and cost all aspects of the research and then add an additional allowance for unpredictable disasters, delays and rising costs. All items in the budget should be justified.

Appendices are documents that support the proposal and application. The appendices will be specific for each proposal but documents that are usually required include informed consent form, supporting documents, questionnaires, measurement tools and patient information of the study in layman's language.

As with any scholarly research paper, you must cite the sources you used in composing your proposal. Although the words ‘references and bibliography’ are different, they are used interchangeably. It refers to all references cited in the research proposal.

Successful, qualitative research proposals should communicate the researcher's knowledge of the field and method and convey the emergent nature of the qualitative design. The proposal should follow a discernible logic from the introduction to presentation of the appendices.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

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The Project Description/Research Plan describes the project work to be performed on a research project or sponsored activity.  On a subagreement, a similar document is known as the Statement of Work.  Each sponsor has specified guidelines for these sections.  

Statement of Work (SOW) 

One of the most critical elements of a Harvard proposal that is a subaward, is the Statement of Work (SOW).  At a minimum, the SOW should provide a full and detailed explanation of the proposed activity, typically including project goals, specific aims, methodology, and Investigator responsibilities. It should be no shorter than a paragraph in length.  

Sponsor Specific Requirements  

Research plan , source: nih .

A description of the rationale for your research and your experiments.  Your Research Strategy is the nuts and bolts of your application, where you describe your research rationale and the experiments you will conduct to accomplish each aim. Information you put in the Research Plan affects just about every other application part. This section will vary in length determined by the sponsor and the particular RFA to which you are applying. You'll need to keep everything in sync as your plans evolve during the writing phase. 

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Project Description 

Source: nsf  .

The Project Description must contain, as a separate section within the narrative, a section labeled “Intellectual Merit”. The Project Description should provide a clear statement of the work to be undertaken and must include the objectives for the period of the proposed work and expected significance; the relationship of this work to the present state of knowledge in the field, as well as to work in progress by the PI under other support.  

The Project Description should outline the general plan of work, including the broad design of activities to be undertaken, and, where appropriate, provide a clear description of experimental methods and procedures. Proposers should address what they want to do, why they want to do it, how they plan to do it, how they will know if they succeed, and what benefits could accrue if the project is successful. The project activities may be based on previously established and/or innovative methods and approaches, but in either case must be well justified. These issues apply to both the technical aspects of the proposal and the way in which the project may make broader contributions.  

 The Project Description also must contain, as a separate section within the narrative, a section labeled “Broader Impacts”. This section should provide a discussion of the broader impacts of the proposed activities. Broader impacts may be accomplished through the research itself, through the activities that are directly related to specific research projects, or through activities that are supported by, but are complementary to the project. NSF values the advancement of scientific knowledge and activities that contribute to the achievement of societally relevant outcomes. Such outcomes include, but are not limited to: full participation of women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); improved STEM education and educator development at any level; increased public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology; improved well-being of individuals in society; development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce; increased partnerships between academia, industry, and others; improved national security; increased economic competitiveness of the U.S.; and enhanced infrastructure for research and education.  

Plans for data management and sharing of the products of research, including preservation, documentation, and sharing of data, samples, physical collections, curriculum materials and other related research and education products should be described in the Special Information and Supplementary Documentation section of the proposal (see Chapter II.C.2.j for additional instructions for preparation of this section). For proposals that include funding to an International Branch Campus of a U.S. IHE or to a foreign organization (including through use of a subaward or consultant arrangement), the proposer must provide the requisite explanation/justification in the project description. See Chapter I.E for additional information on the content requirements. 

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GMAS Requirement 

The SOW/ Project Description/ Research Plan must be uploaded to the GMAS request document repository.   

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Research Project Work Breakdown Structure Template

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Embarking on a research project can be both thrilling and overwhelming. With so many moving parts and tasks to tackle, it's crucial to stay organized and focused. That's where ClickUp's Research Project Work Breakdown Structure Template comes in handy!

The Research Project Work Breakdown Structure Template helps you break down your research project into manageable tasks, ensuring that you:

• Plan and structure your project effectively, from data collection to analysis
• Assign and track tasks, so everyone knows their responsibilities
• Stay on top of deadlines and milestones, keeping your project on track

Whether you're conducting scientific research or working on a market study, this template will help you stay organized and achieve research success—all in one place! So why wait? Dive into your next research project today with ClickUp!

Benefits of Research Project Work Breakdown Structure Template

When it comes to managing a research project, having a clear and organized plan is essential. The Research Project Work Breakdown Structure Template can help you:

• Break down complex research projects into smaller, manageable tasks
• Assign responsibilities to team members and track progress
• Ensure that all necessary research components are accounted for
• Identify potential bottlenecks or areas of concern
• Streamline communication and collaboration among team members
• Stay on track and meet project deadlines
• Improve overall project efficiency and success.

Main Elements of Research Project Work Breakdown Structure Template

ClickUp's Research Project Work Breakdown Structure template is designed to help you efficiently manage and track your research projects. Here are the main elements of this template:

• Custom Statuses: Keep track of the progress of your research tasks with 6 different statuses, including Open, Cancelled, Complete, Delayed, In Progress, and Needs Input.
• Custom Fields: Utilize 9 custom fields such as Project Phase, Allocated Budget, Consulted, Progress, Remaining Effort Hours, Responsible, Accountable, Cost Type, and Informed to capture important information about each task and ensure accurate project tracking.
• Custom Views: Access 5 different views to visualize and manage your research project, including Activities List View, Status List View, Gantt Chart View, Getting Started Guide, and Timeline View.
• Project Management: Leverage ClickUp's powerful project management features, including task dependencies, time tracking, collaboration tools, and integrations, to streamline your research project workflow and improve productivity.

How to Use Work Breakdown Structure for Research Project

Completing a research project can be a complex task, but with the help of ClickUp's Research Project Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) template, you can break it down into manageable steps. Follow these five steps to effectively use the template and stay organized throughout your research project:

1. Define your project scope

Start by clearly defining the scope of your research project. Determine the objectives, deliverables, and expected outcomes. This will help you understand the specific tasks and activities that need to be included in your WBS.

Use the Goals feature in ClickUp to outline the scope and objectives of your research project.

2. Break down the project into phases

Divide your research project into logical phases. Each phase should represent a major milestone or stage of your project. Examples of phases could include literature review, data collection, data analysis, and report writing.

Use the Board view in ClickUp to create columns for each phase and organize your tasks accordingly.

3. Identify the key tasks and activities

Within each phase, identify the key tasks and activities that need to be completed. These tasks should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Consider the resources and time required for each task.

Create tasks in ClickUp and assign them to team members responsible for completing each task.

4. Create dependencies and set deadlines

Determine the dependencies between tasks. Some tasks may need to be completed before others can begin. Establishing these dependencies will help you plan your project timeline effectively.

Use the Gantt chart feature in ClickUp to visualize task dependencies and set realistic deadlines.

5. Monitor progress and make adjustments

Regularly monitor the progress of your research project and make adjustments as needed. Update task statuses, track time spent on each task, and communicate with your team to ensure everyone is on track.

Use the Dashboards feature in ClickUp to track the progress of your research project at a glance and identify any bottlenecks or areas that require attention.

By following these five steps and utilizing ClickUp's Research Project Work Breakdown Structure template, you can effectively plan, execute, and complete your research project with ease.

Get Started with ClickUp's Research Project Work Breakdown Structure Template

Researchers and project managers can use this Research Project Work Breakdown Structure Template to help everyone stay organized and on track when conducting research projects.

First, hit “Get Free Solution” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to manage your research project effectively:

• Use the Activities View to break down your project into smaller tasks and assign them to team members
• The Status View will help you track the progress of each task and keep everyone updated
• The Gantt View will provide you with a visual representation of your project timeline and dependencies
• Reference the Getting Started Guide View for an overview of the template and how to use it effectively
• Utilize the Timeline View to see a chronological view of your project and make adjustments as needed
• Organize tasks into six different statuses: Open, Cancelled, Complete, Delayed, In Progress, Needs Input, to track project milestones and progress
• Update statuses as tasks progress to keep stakeholders informed and ensure project success
• Monitor and analyze tasks to ensure maximum productivity and meet research project goals.

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

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Title: leave no context behind: efficient infinite context transformers with infini-attention.

Abstract: This work introduces an efficient method to scale Transformer-based Large Language Models (LLMs) to infinitely long inputs with bounded memory and computation. A key component in our proposed approach is a new attention technique dubbed Infini-attention. The Infini-attention incorporates a compressive memory into the vanilla attention mechanism and builds in both masked local attention and long-term linear attention mechanisms in a single Transformer block. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on long-context language modeling benchmarks, 1M sequence length passkey context block retrieval and 500K length book summarization tasks with 1B and 8B LLMs. Our approach introduces minimal bounded memory parameters and enables fast streaming inference for LLMs.

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From Research to Reality: Recruiting More Women into the Policing Profession: Preliminary Results of an NIJ-funded Applied Research Project

This webinar presents early work on a research project aimed at developing and testing recruitment strategies to attract more women into the policing profession.

This webinar features the work of Dr. Jen Ranier, a research psychologist who studies workplace and workforce issues at RTI International. The project presented in this webinar had the goal of identifying ways to help law enforcement agencies recruit more women. The research was divided into three phases that first aimed to understand current practices and identify strategies for improving recruitment of women into policing; it next utilized those findings to conduct a large-scale online experiment with both a general population sample and students to test those potential solutions; the final phase implemented those findings in a field study with two agencies to test some of the findings and strategies. The webinar discusses the research efforts, findings, and implications for practice, providing evidence-based examples of how law enforcement agencies can recruit and retain more women in policing careers.

Additional Details

Related topics, similar publications.

• Determining the Age-At-Death of Infants, Children, and Teens
• Evaluating the Robustness and Ruggedness of a Statistical Model for Comparison of Mass Spectral Data for Seized Drug Identification
• Visibility of Inflicted Bruises by Alternate Light: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

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Preparing for institutional audits in Worktribe

15 April 2024

This month an institutional audit began to prepare for year-end financial statements with research being a key area of focus. If an amendment or change to a project has been made, PIs and departments should ensure evidence to support the changes is uploaded to Worktribe.

Funders and external auditors regularly visit UCL to check compliance with regulatory and institutional policies and prepare the university's annual financial statements.

This month an audit on institutional financial statements began and several samples from ongoing and closed projects are being checked.

During audits, our Award Services Post-Award team submit evidence on the financial management of projects, such as how and when costs were charged, staff posts were approved, and justifications for inter-departmental transfers (IDTs) and intra-departmental journals (IDJs). 

Some of the samples requested can date back several years. With staff turnover and different filing systems across departments, it can be particularly challenging to retrieve the required documents. 

What do I need to do?

To support the audit process, Principal Investigators (PIs) and departments should keep records of all required evidence for projects in a structured and accessible way. 

When making changes to a project that affect the original contract, such as end dates, budget supplements, or virements, you should ensure any third-party or funder agreements and/or communication with the funder are uploaded to the Documents tab in Worktribe. 

You should add as much detail to the name of the document as possible and include collaborator names, if applicable. This will help our Post-Award team and research support staff in departments to provide evidence requested by auditors on time. 

Who can I contact about the audit process?

If you have any questions about audit processes or the financial management of your research project get in touch with our Post-Award team for advice.   

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Zambia visit shows SSW’s global impact

A UNC School of Social Work delegation saw how their research helped a nonprofit create jobs in rural areas.

A small delegation from the UNC School of Social Work visited the growing rural town of Solwezi (population 90,000) in the North-Western Province of Zambia in March. They came to learn about the impact of local women’s savings and credit groups and their financial literacy training.

The trip was coordinated by Gina Chowa and Rain Masa from the school’s center for  Global Social Development Innovations in partnership with longtime collaborator Mathias Zimba, executive director of  Rising Fountains Development Program in Zambia.

“As partners, we work together to identify ideas and practices that will change lives for the better,” Masa said. “Researchers and graduate students at the school can help build the evidence needed to demonstrate to policymakers, officials and the business community what is needed to  improve the lives of rural Zambians .”

Improving lives in six countries

Masa is an associate professor who also serves as GSDI’s research director. He has worked collaboratively on both economic security and HIV treatment projects with Rising Fountains, a Zambian nonprofit dedicated to improving the livelihoods of women and children in rural areas.

Masa emphasized how community involvement localizes these economic programs and increases their chance of success and relevance.

“Economic security is the focal point of our work,” said Masa. “We provide funding and, maybe more importantly, we are available to Mathias and his team for ongoing capacity support as well.”

Paving career paths

During the visit to her native Zambia, Chowa was visibly moved at the end of a day spent at a teen center and a church. The delegation heard from over a dozen enthusiastic groups of about 20 women each and the men who had joined in support of them.

“These people. This is why I do the work I do,” Chowa said.

Following the presentations, the delegation went to see the small business owners in action. These included a man who bought spare parts for just one bicycle and now runs a repair shop with several assistants, craftswomen who purchased a sewing machine and yarn to create and sell clothing, and a woman who uses a mobile phone and SIM cards to help townspeople make financial transactions.

“This is not about politics,” said one Solwezi community leader. “I stand in the middle in support of our people helping better their lives and those of their families.”

At the end of the visit, local residents piled baskets full of sweet melons, gourds and pineapples at the front of a small church as parting gifts.

“The bounty and generosity of spirit of the nearly 150 people of Solwezi whom we visited with earlier this month made a lasting impression,” said Alice Washington, a longtime member of the school’s advisory board.

Read more about the Zambia trip and support the UNC School of Social Work’s global partnerships by making a gift to the  Global Social Development Innovations Fund .

In a campus email, Lee H. Roberts wrote it's a privilege to interact with students and inspiring to learn about the diverse range of interests they're working on.

Career Treks event highlights public professions

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Global studies scholar aspires to diplomacy

After earning a master’s degree, Kat Goodpaster became assistant director of Carolina’s Russian Flagship Program.

Public Service Awards go to 7 people, 2 groups

The Carolina Center for Public Service honored work on health disparities, refugee aid and more.

UNC-Chapel Hill graduate programs ranked among best in nation

U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 “Best Graduate Schools” list named multiple Carolina graduate degree programs in the top 10, including UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at No. 1.

Broadway writer brings new comedy to PlayMakers

Fresh off the debut of her musical adaptation of “The Notebook,” Bekah Brunstetter ’04 will debut “The Game” in Chapel Hill.

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Improving water usage in the craft beer industry is the focus of a UNC Environmental Finance Center project.

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Medical resident Danae Smart created a program to encourage minority students to pursue health careers.

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2024 MRIWA PhD scholarships winners supporting minerals innovation in WA

Four new awardees for 2024 will be working on challenges including decarbonisation of mining and finding new resources to maintain the industry’s productivity.

Mines and Petroleum Minister David Michael today welcomed four new awardees to a PhD scholarship program funded by the State Government through the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA).

The recipients recognised by Minister Michael join a cohort of talented research students working across WA’s universities to support the future of the State’s mining industry.

Emad Al-Hemyari has been awarded the 2024 MRIWA Odwyn Jones PhD Scholarship, named in honour of pioneering Western Australian mining educator Professor Odwyn Jones AO.

Emad is investigating how sound waves and AI can visualise geology below the surface in real-time, making it easier for miners to discover and target hidden ore bodies.

Yamini Kannappan has been awarded the 2024 MRIWA PhD Scholarship for Women to support her work on developing cost-effective and environmentally friendly methods for extracting rare earth elements from low-grade host rocks.

Due to the exceptional quality of applications received this year, MRIWA has awarded additional PhD Scholarships to Sistine Sun , for her work on the impact of CO 2 emissions reduction targets on the WA mining industry, and to Muzammil Khan for his research into technologies supporting low-carbon steel production.

More information about the MRIWA Scholarships program is available on our website .

Media statement: Expanded scholarship program supporting innovation in WA mining

Page was last reviewed 17 April 2024

5.4 Components of a Research Project

Learning objectives.

• Describe useful strategies to employ when searching for literature.
• Describe why sociologists review prior literature and how they organize their literature reviews.
• Identify the main sections contained in scholarly journal articles.
• Identify and describe the major components researchers need to plan for when designing a research project.

In this section, we’ll examine the most typical components that make up a research project, bringing in a few additional components to those we have already discussed. Keep in mind that our purpose at this stage is simply to provide a general overview of research design. The specifics of each of the following components will vary from project to project. Further, the stage of a project at which each of these components comes into play may vary. In later chapters, we will consider more specifically how these components work differently depending on the research method being employed.

Searching for Literature

Familiarizing yourself with research that has already been conducted on your topic is one of the first stages of conducting a research project and is crucial for coming up with a good research design. But where to start? How to start? In Chapter 4 "Beginning a Research Project" , you learned about some of the most common databases that house information about published sociological research. As you search for literature, you may have to be fairly broad in your search for articles.

I’m guessing you may feel you’ve heard enough about electronic gadget addiction in this chapter, so let’s consider a different example here. On my campus, much to the chagrin of a group of student smokers, smoking was recently banned. These students were so upset by the idea that they would no longer be allowed to smoke on university grounds that they staged several smoke-outs during which they gathered in populated areas around campus and enjoyed a puff or two together.

A student in my research methods class wanted to understand what motivated this group of students to engage in activism centered around what she perceived to be, in this age of smoke-free facilities, a relatively deviant act. Were the protesters otherwise politically active? How much effort and coordination had it taken to organize the smoke-outs? The student researcher began her research by attempting to familiarize herself with the literature on her topic. Yet her search in Sociological Abstracts for “college student activist smoke-outs,” yielded no results. Concluding there was no prior research on her topic, she informed me that she would need an alternative assignment to the annotated bibliography A list of sources relevant to a person’s research project. The list is usually presented in alphabetical order, using the citation format of the researcher’s profession. It includes a brief summary of each source’s point of focus, theoretical argument, and major findings underneath each citation. Some annotated bibliographies also contain a brief critique or evaluation of each source. I required since there was no literature for her to review. How do you suppose I responded to this news? What went wrong with this student’s search for literature?

In her first attempt, the student had been too narrow in her search for articles. But did that mean she was off the hook for completing the annotated bibliography assignment? Absolutely not. Instead, she went back to Sociological Abstracts and searched again using different combinations of search terms. Rather than searching for “college student activist smoke-outs” she tried, among other sets of terms, “college student activism.” This time her search yielded a great many articles. Of course, they were not focused on prosmoking activist efforts, but they were focused on her population of interest, college students, and on her broad topic of interest, activism. I suggested that reading articles on college student activism might give her some idea about what other researchers have found in terms of what motivates college students to become involved in activist efforts. I also suggested she could play around with her search terms and look for research on activism centered on other sorts of activities that are perceived by some as deviant, such as marijuana use or veganism. In other words, she needed to be broader in her search for articles.

While this student found success by broadening her search for articles, her reading of those articles needed to be narrower than her search. Once she identified a set of articles to review by searching broadly, it was time to remind herself of her specific research focus: college student activist smoke-outs. Keeping in mind her particular research interest while reviewing the literature gave her the chance to think about how the theories and findings covered in prior studies might or might not apply to her particular point of focus. For example, theories on what motivates activists to get involved might tell her something about the likely reasons the students she planned to study got involved. At the same time, those theories might not cover all the particulars of student participation in smoke-outs. Thinking about the different theories then gave the student the opportunity to focus her research plans and even to develop a few hypotheses about what she thought she was likely to find.

Reviewing the Literature

Developing an annotated bibliography is often one of the early steps that researchers take as they begin to familiarize themselves with prior research on their topic. A second step involves a literature review in which a researcher positions his or her work within the context of prior scholarly work in the area. A literature review addresses the following matters: What sorts of questions have other scholars asked about this topic? What do we already know about this topic? What questions remain? As the researcher answers these questions, he or she synthesizes what is contained in the literature, possibly organizing prior findings around themes that are relevant to his or her particular research focus.

I once advised an undergraduate student who conducted a research project on speciesism, the belief that some species are superior to or have more value and rights than others. Her research question was “Why and how do humans construct divisions between themselves and animals?” This student organized her review of literature around the two parts of her research question: the why and the how. In the “why” section of her literature review, she described prior research that addressed questions of why humans are sometimes speciesist. She organized subsections around the three most common answers that were presented in the scholarly literature. She used the same structure in the “how” section of her literature review, arranging subsections around the answers posed in previous literature about how humans construct divisions between themselves and animals. This organizational scheme helped readers understand what we already know about the topic and what theories we rely on to help make sense of the topic. In addition, by also highlighting what we still don’t know, it helped the student set the stage for her own empirical research on the topic.

The preceding discussion about how to organize a review of scholarly literature assumes that we all know how to read scholarly literature. Yes, yes, I understand that you must know how to read. But reading scholarly articles can be a bit more challenging than reading a textbook. Here are a few pointers about how to do it successfully. First, it is important to understand the various sections that are typically contained in scholarly journals’ reports of empirical research. One of the most important and easiest to spot sections of a journal article is its abstract A short paragraph at the beginning of a journal article that summarizes the author’s research question(s), research method(s), and key findings. , the short paragraph at the beginning of an article that summarizes the author’s research question, methods used to answer the question, and key findings. The abstract may also give you some idea about the theoretical proclivities of the author. As a result, reading the abstract gives you both a framework for understanding the rest of the article and the punch line. It tells you what the author(s) found and whether the article is relevant to your area of inquiry.

After the abstract, most journal articles will contain the following sections (although exact section names are likely to vary): introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and discussion. Of course, there will also be a list of references cited, Lists of references cited are a useful source for finding additional literature in an area. and there may be a few tables, figures, or appendices at the end of the article as well. While you should get into the habit of familiarizing yourself with articles you wish to cite in their entirety , there are strategic ways to read journal articles that can make them a little easier to digest. Once you have read the abstract and determined that this is an article you’d like to read in full, read through the discussion section at the end of the article next. Because your own review of literature is likely to emphasize findings from previous literature, you should make sure that you have a clear idea about what those findings are. Reading an article’s discussion section helps you understand what the author views as the study’s major findings and how the author perceives those findings to relate to other research.

As you read through the rest of the article, think about the elements of research design that we have covered in this chapter. What approach does the researcher take? Is the research exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory? Is it inductive or deductive? Idiographic or nomothetic? Qualitative or quantitative? What claims does the author make about causality? What are the author’s units of analysis and observation? Use what you have learned in this chapter about the promise and potential pitfalls associated with each of these research elements to help you responsibly read and understand the articles you review. Future chapters of this text will address other elements of journal articles, including choices about measurement, sampling, and research method. As you learn about these additional items, you will increasingly gain more knowledge that you can apply as you read and critique the scholarly literature in your area of inquiry.

Additional Important Components

Thinking about the overarching goals of your research project and finding and reviewing the existing literature on your topic are two of the initial steps you’ll take when designing a research project. Forming a clear research question, as discussed in Chapter 4 "Beginning a Research Project" , is another crucial step. There are a number of other important research design components you’ll need to consider, and we will discuss those here.

At the same time that you work to identify a clear research question, you will probably also think about the overarching goals of your research project. Will it be exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory? Will your approach be idiographic or nomothetic, inductive or deductive? How you design your project might also be determined in part by whether you aim for your research to have some direct application or if your goal is to contribute more generally to sociological knowledge about your topic. Next, think about what your units of analysis and units of observation will be. These will help you identify the key concepts you will study. Once you have identified those concepts, you’ll need to decide how to define them, and how you’ll know that you’re observing them when it comes time to collect your data. Defining your concepts, and knowing them when you see them, has to do with conceptualization and operationalization, the focus of Chapter 6 "Defining and Measuring Concepts" . Of course, you also need to know what approach you will take to collect your data. Thus identifying your research method is another important part of research design. You also need to think about who your research participants will be and what larger group(s) they may represent. These topics will be the focus of Chapter 7 "Sampling" . Last, but certainly not least, you should consider any potential ethical concerns that could arise during the course of your research project. These concerns might come up during your data collection, but they might also arise when you get to the point of analyzing or sharing your research results.

Decisions about the various research components do not necessarily occur in sequential order. In fact, you may have to think about potential ethical concerns even before zeroing in on a specific research question. Similarly, the goal of being able to make generalizations about your population of interest could shape the decisions you make about your method of data collection. Putting it all together, the following list shows some of the major components you’ll need to consider as you design your research project:

• Research question
• Literature review
• Research strategy (idiographic or nomothetic, inductive or deductive)
• Research goals (basic or applied)
• Units of analysis and units of observation
• Key concepts (conceptualization and operationalization)
• Method of data collection
• Research participants (sample and population)
• Ethical concerns

Key Takeaways

• When identifying and reading relevant literature, be broad in your search for articles, but be narrower in your reading of articles.
• Writing an annotated bibliography can be a helpful first step to familiarize yourself with prior research in your area of interest.
• Literature reviews summarize and synthesize prior research.
• Literature reviews are typically organized around substantive ideas that are relevant to one’s research question rather than around individual studies or article authors.
• When designing a research project, be sure to think about, plan for, and identify a research question, a review of literature, a research strategy, research goals, units of analysis and units of observation, key concepts, method(s) of data collection, population and sample, and potential ethical concerns.
• Find and read a complete journal article that addresses a topic that is of interest to you (perhaps using Sociological Abstracts, which is introduced in Chapter 4 "Beginning a Research Project" ). In four to eight sentences, summarize the author’s research question, theoretical framing, methods used, and major findings. Reread the article, and see how close you were in reporting these key elements. What did you understand and remember best? What did you leave out? What reading strategies may have helped you better recall relevant details from the article?
• Using the example of students’ electronic gadget addictions, design a hypothetical research project by identifying a plan for each of the nine components of research design that are presented in this section.

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SwRI begins work on ‘spacecraft bus’

Southwest research institute has won a position on denver-based astroscale u.s.’s contract with the u.s. space force.

Zoe Gottlieb , San Antonio Business Journal

SAN ANTONIO – Local researchers are developing a refueling vehicle to extend the lifespan of spacecraft in Earth’s orbit .

Southwest Research Institute has won a position on Denver-based Astroscale U.S.’s contract with the U.S. Space Force to build and test a small demonstration spacecraft as part of a $25.5 million Space Mobility and Logistics prototyping project. The spacecraft, called the Astroscale Prototype Servicer for Refueling, will refuel other compatible vehicles while in geostationary orbit.

“It’s a servicing mission; It’s a demonstration mission. It’s intended to provide a service that the Space Command really wants to have in orbit,” said Michael Epperly, senior program manager within the SwRI Space Systems Directorate.

In-space refueling is essential to ensuring the longevity of critical infrastructure in space . Nearly every major communications satellite is somewhere in geosynchronous orbit, according to Epperly, and the satellites cost hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy. When they run out of fuel, they lose orbital altitude, causing them to reenter and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

The aerospace industry is working toward standards for refueling ports, meaning satellites currently in orbit do not have refueling capabilities. Therefore, the purpose of the demonstration, said Epperly, is to prove that the next generation of satellites and other payloads in orbit can be refueled.

“You wouldn’t want to design a future car that doesn’t have the ability to get the gas tank refilled. So (researchers) are trying to make sure the spacecraft being put in orbit next have a refillable tank and the common fixtures and technology to transfer the fuel between the depot, ourselves and another spacecraft,” Epperly said.

Over the next 16 months, SwRI engineers will build the space vehicle, integrate it with Astroscale’s sensor package, and test it at the institute’s new 74,000-square-foot Space System Spacecraft and Payload Processing Facility.

Read the full stories and more stories like this in the San Antonio Business Journal.

Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between KSAT and the San Antonio Business Journal.

Copyright 2024 by KSAT - All rights reserved.

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