Writing a research plan
Just as rare are programs designed to help doctoral students and postdocs learn how to create a research plan. We interviewed and corresponded with faculty and research scientists who have served on hiring committees. From your immediate point of view, the purpose of a research plan is to help get you research plan, however, serves another, very important function: it contributes to your development as a scientist. As will become apparent later in this document, one of the functions of a research plan is to demonstrate your intellectual vision and aspirations. Writing a research plan casts your gaze forward and prompts you to begin planning for when you have your own laboratory. And if you've already started to think about your own lab, it will help you to refine your plans. So take a stab at writing a research plan, even if you don't expect to be on the job market for a while. The aim of your research plan, then, as of the rest of your application, is to assure the hiring committee that life with you will be do you do this? Provide the committee a compelling, reassuring, believable image of what their life will be like when you are working down the them a story--a believable, credible story--about what your lab will be like 5 years from now: well-funded, vibrant, productive, pursuing a valuable, ambitious but realistic research agenda that meshes well with the department's mission and with the other research going on in the don't misunderstand: you shouldn't tell them this ("in 5 years my lab will be vibrant, productive, and well-funded ... Rather, you need to lead them to believe it by describing a research agenda that persuades them that you will succeed. If the research you plan is not compelling, no rhetorical skill will make it compelling to a committee of smart scientists. If the research you propose is not manifestly, obviously important, if you don't know why it's important, or if you can't convey its importance effectively, convincing the committee to hire you won't be easy. It isn't easy to change gears midcourse, but getting yourself into an important area of research will be well worth the effort in the long term--to your hirability, to your fundability, to your tenurability, and also to your career satisfaction. Curing cancer is not a suitable goal for one individual's research plan--exciting, yes, but much too big to be believable. That kind of research] can travel down several different mechanistic routes," this respondent says, "i. Angiogenesis, breakdown of extracellular matrix, gene activation, induction of molecules involved--it can use different models--implanting tumors, using different tumor models, in vivo, in vitro, etc. The combination of a manifestly important goal with manifestly interesting, feasible approaches is the foundation of the research specific is not the same thing as including loads of detail. Superfluous details are not just unnecessary, they are often the hallmark of a poor plan. Constructing a research plan along these lines strengthens your application in three ways: you avoid alienating the committee by boring them; you tell the committee precisely what you intend to do; and you show that you have a subtle mind and a deep knowledge of your 't do this yet? And by all means have several people--preferably senior colleagues who have served on hiring committees--critique your research there were two parts to this, remember? You not only have to tell a good story--you also have to make it seem real, to make them expect it to come do i make my research plan seem real? If you want to get a job at an institution that takes its research seriously, you'll have to convince your future colleagues that you've gotten past the young, impressionable phase, where every idea glitters with promise despite the fact that it isn't feasible and isn't likely to work. In the words of one scholar, "you can tell a 'building castles in the sky' research plan. One of my sources was unequivocal on this point: "does the research question build on the preliminary data the person has generated? No matter how knowledgeable you are, no matter how well considered your research plan, you can't predict the future. Think of it as a continuum: at one end sit well-established researchers with strong research records, many first-author (or last-author) publications, and their own research funding. Most candidates for entry-level tenure-track faculty jobs at institutions that require research (that is, most of the people who write research plans for job applications) are somewhere in the middle. You probably won't get hired anywhere if you aren't well prepared to start a productive research program at a scale appropriate for the these days some institutions and departments are looking for more than that. Increasingly, especially in the biomedical field, universities are hiring established researchers, even at the "entry" (assistant professor) level. Increasingly, senior postdocs are being promoted to research associate or research faculty positions during what the grantdoctor calls the "postpostdoc" phase of their research career. In that position, they write research grants in their own names and their host institutions sponsor them.
Agood research plan
Very often these folks have an r01 before they begin applying for a tenure-track key objective if you’re applying to one of these institutions is securing research grants: if you have a grant in your own name, you'll be a strong candidate; if you don't have your own grant, you are less competitive. It's a cynical cop out on the institution’s part, really, taking a pass on the difficult job of evaluating talent and capitulating to the reality of big-time biomedical research: it's all about the cash. Indeed, second-tier research institutions tend to expect the most experience; harvard and johns hopkins do not expect you to have your own research grant. Few people applying for tenure-track jobs have had the opportunity to start their own research programs. As not, all your data were collected in someone else's lab, as a part of someone else's research agenda. One respondent said it beautifully: "the best plans usually build on the prior experience of the applicant but are not direct extensions of their postdoctoral work. M going to type that phrase again, it's so important: the best plans usually build on the prior experience of the applicant but are not direct extensions of their postdoctoral you're one of the select few applicants with lots of experience leading your own lab, that's the key to your rhetorical strategy. It's different enough to be original, but similar enough that your years of training aren't r respondent wrote, "most candidates (95%) stick to extensions of what they are most familiar with, but the key is, have they figured out some rather creative new directions for the research and have they done a good job convincing us that they can do it based on what is already known? Once we have a short list of candidates," writes yet another source, "the research proposals are looked at more carefully for imaginative ideas that differ from the candidates’ ph. Decide what turf is his or hers, what turf is yours, and what story you intend to tell in your research plan and his or her letter of recommendation. Talk to your adviser about carving out your own research niche within the larger research effort, where you do work motivated by your own original ideas, something related but oblique to what your adviser is doing in the rest of the the research plan more important in the screening phase or late in the game? General, research plans are weighed more heavily later in the game, with more readily comprehensible evidence (especially pedigree, letters of recommendation, impact factor of journals, etc. Being weighed more heavily in the early r, your research plan must be designed to serve more than one purpose. One person i spoke to said that a research plan should be "about three pages of 1. Some will think it's a bit too long, others a bit too short, but no one will throw it out because of its er that we said that a research plan needs to help you through initial screening and withstand careful scrutiny in the later do you make a good first impression? The idea is to present, up front, in half a page or so, the information that the committee is most likely to be looking for in the early, screening phase of the search: clearly stated research goals, the most compelling motivation, and the general approach you intend to attention to the layout. A research plan should tell how great the science is, not how great you are. Focus on contributions to scientific knowledge, not research experience and expertise," writes one obvious mistakes. In her list of fatal errors, one respondent wrote: "poorly covering or misstating the literature, grammatical or spelling errors, and, near the top of the list, writing research plans that ask for too much effort on the part of the reader--they should be clear and concise. You want the value of your research to speak for itself--avoid exaggerated claims of its importance. Is it big enough, but with answerable individual questions so that the question generates a research path that could be followed for some time? Your research plan should be coherent, with a theme common to all your work, but not so close that they seem to be shades of the same ize your research plan to the institution you're applying for. It's pretty obvious, but you wouldn't send the same research plan to johns hopkins university and to swarthmore college. And speaking of swarthmore: research plans sent to predominantly undergraduate institutions should be carefully designed to coexist with substantial teaching loads and to benefit from the participation of undergraduate ts, suggestions? Aaas is a partner of hinari, agora, oare, chorus, clockss, crossref and sity of southern zing your social sciences research g a research zing your social sciences research paper: writing a research purpose of this guide is to provide advice on how to develop and organize a research paper in the social of research flaws to ndent and dependent ry of research terms. Choosing a research ing a topic ning a topic ing the timeliness of a topic idea. An oral g with g someone else's to manage group of structured group project survival g a book le book review ing collected g a field informed g a policy g a research goal of a research proposal is to present and justify the need to study a research problem and to present the practical ways in which the proposed study should be conducted. The design elements and procedures for conducting the research are governed by standards within the predominant discipline in which the problem resides, so guidelines for research proposals are more exacting and less formal than a general project proposal. In addition to providing a rationale, a proposal describes detailed methodology for conducting the research consistent with requirements of the professional or academic field and a statement on anticipated outcomes and/or benefits derived from the study's ohl, david r. Syracuse, ny: syracuse university press, to approach writing a research professor may assign the task of writing a research proposal for the following reasons:Develop your skills in thinking about and designing a comprehensive research study;. How to conduct a comprehensive review of the literature to ensure a research problem has not already been answered [or you may determine the problem has been answered ineffectively] and, in so doing, become better at locating scholarship related to your topic;.
Review, examine, and consider the use of different methods for gathering and analyzing data related to the research problem; and,Nurture a sense of inquisitiveness within yourself and to help see yourself as an active participant in the process of doing scholarly research. Proposal should contain all the key elements involved in designing a completed research study, with sufficient information that allows readers to assess the validity and usefulness of your proposed study. The only elements missing from a research proposal are the findings of the study and your analysis of those results. Finally, an effective proposal is judged on the quality of your writing and, therefore, it is important that your writing is coherent, clear, and less of the research problem you are investigating and the methodology you choose, all research proposals must address the following questions:What do you plan to accomplish? Be clear and succinct in defining the research problem and what it is you are proposing to do you want to do it? In addition to detailing your research design, you also must conduct a thorough review of the literature and provide convincing evidence that it is a topic worthy of study. If you're having trouble formulating a research problem to propose investigating, go mistakes to e to be concise; being "all over the map" without a clear sense of e to cite landmark works in your literature e to delimit the contextual boundaries of your research [e. To develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the proposed e to stay focused on the research problem; going off on unrelated or imprecise writing, or poor much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on major r, margaret. University of illinois at ure and writing ing the proposal with writing a regular academic paper, research proposals are generally organized the same way throughout most social science disciplines. However, before you begin, read the assignment carefully and, if anything seems unclear, ask your professor whether there are any specific requirements for organizing and writing the proposal. Exactly should i plan to do, and can i get it done in the time available? General, a compelling research proposal should document your knowledge of the topic and demonstrate your enthusiasm for conducting the study. General your proposal should include the following sections:In the real world of higher education, a research proposal is most often written by scholars seeking grant funding for a research project or it's the first step in getting approval to write a doctoral dissertation. Even if this is just a course assignment, treat your introduction as the initial pitch of an idea or a thorough examination of the significance of a research problem. Note that most proposals do not include an abstract [summary] before the about your introduction as a narrative written in one to three paragraphs that succinctly answers the following four questions:What is the central research problem? Is this important research, what is its significance, and why should someone reading the proposal care about the outcomes of the proposed study? Approach writing this section with the thought that you can’t assume your readers will know as much about the research problem as you do. Note that this section is not an essay going over everything you have learned about the topic; instead, you must choose what is relevant to help explain the goals for your that end, while there are no hard and fast rules, you should attempt to address some or all of the following key points:State the research problem and give a more detailed explanation about the purpose of the study than what you stated in the introduction. Be sure to note how your proposed study builds on previous assumptions about the research n how you plan to go about conducting your research. Clearly identify the key sources you intend to use and explain how they will contribute to your analysis of the the boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus. Literature ted to the background and significance of your study is a section of your proposal devoted to a more deliberate review and synthesis of prior studies related to the research problem under investigation. Think about what questions other researchers have asked, what methods they have used, and what is your understanding of their findings and, where stated, their recommendations. Assess what you believe is missing and state how previous research has failed to adequately examine the issue that your study addresses. For more information on writing literature reviews, go a literature review is information dense, it is crucial that this section is intelligently structured to enable a reader to grasp the key arguments underpinning your study in relation to that of other researchers. Generally, you can have confidence that all of the significant conceptual categories have been identified if you start to see repetition in the conclusions or recommendations that are being help frame your proposal's literature review, here are the "five c’s" of writing a literature review:Cite, so as to keep the primary focus on the literature pertinent to your research e the various arguments, theories, methodologies, and findings expressed in the literature: what do the authors agree on? The literature to your own area of research and investigation: how does your own work draw upon, depart from, synthesize, or add a new perspective to what has been said in the literature? Research design and section must be well-written and logically organized because you are not actually doing the research, yet, your reader has to have confidence that it is worth pursuing. Thus, the objective here is to convince the reader that your overall research design and methods of analysis will correctly address the problem and that the methods will provide the means to effectively interpret the potential results. Your design and methods should be unmistakably tied to the specific aims of your be the overall research design by building upon and drawing examples from your review of the literature. Consider not only methods that other researchers have used but methods of data gathering that have not been used but perhaps could be. Be specific about the methodological approaches you plan to undertake to obtain information, the techniques you would use to analyze the data, and the tests of external validity to which you commit yourself [i.
Describing the methods you will use, be sure to cover the following:Specify the research operations you will undertake and the way you will interpret the results of these operations in relation to the research problem. In mind that a methodology is not just a list of tasks; it is an argument as to why these tasks add up to the best way to investigate the research problem. This is an important point because the mere listing of tasks to be performed does not demonstrate that, collectively, they effectively address the research problem. Be sure you explain pate and acknowledge any potential barriers and pitfalls in carrying out your research design and explain how you plan to address them. The purpose of this section is to argue how and in what ways you believe your research will refine, revise, or extend existing knowledge in the subject area under investigation. Depending on the aims and objectives of your study, describe how the anticipated results will impact future scholarly research, theory, practice, forms of interventions, or policymaking. The purpose is to reflect upon gaps or understudied areas of the current literature and describe how your proposed research contributes to a new understanding of the research problem should the study be implemented as conclusion reiterates the importance or significance of your proposal and provides a brief summary of the entire study. This section should be only one or two paragraphs long, emphasizing why the research problem is worth investigating, why your research study is unique, and how it should advance existing e reading this section should come away with an understanding of:Why the study should be done,The specific purpose of the study and the research questions it attempts to answer,The decision to why the research design and methods used where chosen over other options,The potential implications emerging from your proposed study of the research problem, and. Sense of how your study fits within the broader scholarship about the research with any scholarly research paper, you must cite the sources you used in composing your proposal. In a standard research proposal, this section can take two forms, so consult with your professor about which one is nces -- lists only the literature that you actually used or cited in your graphy -- lists everything you used or cited in your proposal, with additional citations to any key sources relevant to understanding the research either case, this section should testify to the fact that you did enough preparatory work to make sure the project will complement and not duplicate the efforts of other researchers. Cited works should always use a standard format that follows the writing style advised by the discipline of your course [i. This section normally does not count towards the total page length of your research p a research proposal: writing the proposal. University of southern enter a search term in the text t for science buddies provided by:Science fair project background research ensure you have javascript enabled in your browser. Here's a background research ound research is necessary so that you know how to design and understand your experiment. To make a background research plan — a roadmap of the research questions you need to answer — follow these steps:Identify the keywords in the question for your science fair project. Brainstorm additional keywords and a table with the "question words" (why, how, who, what, when, where) to generate research questions from your keywords. Out irrelevant to your background research plan a list of mathematical formulas or equations (if any) that you will need to describe the results of your should also plan to do background research on the history of similar experiments or k with other people with more experience than yourself: your mentors, parents, and teachers. That you can design an experiment, you need to research what techniques and equipment might be best for investigating your topic. Rather than starting from scratch, savvy investigators want to use their library and internet research to help them find the best way to do things. You do library and internet research so that you can make a prediction of what will occur in your experiment, and then whether that prediction is right or wrong, you will have the knowledge to understand what caused the behavior you a background research plan: how to know what to look you are driving a car there are two ways to find your destination: drive around randomly until you finally stumble upon what you're looking for or look at a map before you start. To avoid getting lost, you need a background research place to start building your background research plan is with the question for your science fair project (see, we did that first for a reason). Look like pretty good questions to research because they would enable us to make some predictions about an experiment. Can always find more information to research, but some questions just don't have anything to do with the experiment you will define and perform. Our table of question words is a great way to generate ideas for your background research, but some of them will be irrelevant and we just throw those out. We have to focus our efforts on what we feel is most important, or another way of looking at it, let's not spend time researching anything we don't need to. We research every one of those questions we'll be studying farms, cows, cow udders, baby cows, and what cows eat. So, in that crazy list of cow science, there are two questions that look relevant for your background research:What is milk composed of? In fact, the background research plan is a very important step of your science fair project and two or three heads are always better than one! Instead of asking, "how do airplanes fly," try asking, "what physical forces are involved in the flight of an airplane," or "what role do propellers play in the flight of a helicopter? If you ask someone who has studied physics in high school or college, they will tell you to ask the research question, "what is centripetal force? Often a good topic for your background research is simply the specialized area of science that covers your project.
You should have some special questions in your background research background research ound research plan for the science fair project question: does drinking milk help decrease spiciness better than water or pepsi? Research plan 's a background research plan worksheet to help you develop your own ound research plan makes a good background research plan? A good background research plan, you should answer "yes" to every you identified all the keywords in your science fair project question? The answers to your research questions give you the information you need to design an experiment and predict the outcome? One or more of your research questions specifically ask about any equipment or techniques you will need to perform an experiment? Retrieved september 22, 2003, from http:///okuref/research/t for science buddies provided by:You may print and distribute up to 200 copies of this document annually, at no charge, for personal and classroom educational use. All rights uction of material from this website without written permission is strictly of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair video is queuequeuewatch next video is chplan2 writing a research cribe from newmedia centre? Autoplay is enabled, a suggested video will automatically play ping a research plan some is a research plan, and why do you need one? Research school western sydney to include in your five-year research plan: advice and an speech-language-hearing g a research to write a great research to develop a good research g a research ng your research proposal for uwa honours and masters five year plan | mardi getty | ch methodology course (self-study). Tips on selecting a supervisor, writing a proposal and research proposal g a research the gantt chart in my research t planning template: how to develop a basic project planning work toolbox to write your research ng a genealogy research g more suggestions... Ch director, graduate program lling y western students and beginning researchers do understand what a research proposal means, nor do they importance. A y proposal, on the other hand, not only promises success project, but also impresses your thesis committee about ial as a researcher. Research proposal is intended to that you have a worthwhile research project and that the competence and the work-plan to complete it. Generally,A research proposal should contain all the key elements the research process and include sufficient information for s to evaluate the proposed less of your research area and the choose, all research proposals must address the following questions:What you plan to accomplish, why you want to do it and how you proposal should have sufficient convince your readers that you have an important research idea,That you have a good grasp of the relevant literature and the , and that your methodology is quality of your research proposal only on the quality of your proposed project, but also on y of your proposal writing. A good research project may risk of rejection simply because the proposal is poorly ore, it pays if your writing is coherent, clear and paper focuses on proposal writing on the development of research should be concise and descriptive. Are stated in terms of a functional relationship, titles clearly indicate the independent and dependent r, if possible, think of an informative but catchy effective title not only pricks the reader's interest, but poses him/her favourably towards the is a brief summary of approximately 300 should include the research question, the rationale for the study,The hypothesis (if any), the method and the main findings. The method may include the design, procedures, the sample instruments that will be main purpose of the introduction is to necessary background or context for your research problem. Frame the research problem is perhaps the biggest problem the research problem is framed in the a general, rambling literature review, then the research appear trivial and uninteresting. However, if the same placed in the context of a very focused and current , its significance will become unately, there are no hard and fast how to frame your research question just as there is no how to write an interesting and informative opening paragraph. Lot depends on your creativity, your ability to think the depth of your understanding of problem r, try to place your research the context of either a current "hot" area, or an older remains viable. Thirdly, provide the contemporary context your proposed research question occupies the central y, identify "key players" and refer to the most relevant entative publications. The introduction generally covers the the research problem, which is ed to as the purpose of the e the context and set the stage research question in such a way as to show its t the rationale of your proposed clearly indicate why it is worth y describe the major issues and be addressed by your fy the key independent and les of your experiment. Alternatively, specify the your hypothesis or theory, if exploratory or phenomenological research, you may not hypotheses. The delimitation or boundaries of ed research in order to provide a clear e definitions of key concepts. However, most professors prefer te section, which allows a more thorough review of the literature review serves several s that you are not "reinventing credits to those who have laid work for your trates your knowledge of the trates your understanding of the research issues related to your research your ability to critically nt literature tes your ability to integrate and existing es new theoretical insights or develops. Students' literature reviews suffer following problems:Lacking organization and g focus, unity and repetitive and g to cite influential g to keep up with recent g to critically evaluate cited irrelevant or trivial ing too much on secondary scholarship and research competence questioned if any of the above applies to your are different ways to organize your . Remember: professors and scientists method section is very important tells your research committee how you plan to tackle your m. It will provide your work plan and describe the ary for the completion of your guiding principle for writing the n is that it should contain sufficient information for to determine whether methodology is sound. Some even a good proposal should contain sufficient details for ied researcher to implement the need to demonstrate your knowledge of s and make the case that your approach is the most most valid way to address your research note that your research question best answered by qualitative research. However, since most logists are still biased against qualitative research, phenomenological variety, you may need to justify your rmore, since there are no widely accepted canons in qualitative analysis, your n needs to be more elaborate than what is required for tative research. More importantly, the data collection qualitative research has a far greater impact on the compared to quantitative research.
However, you need to have some idea about what kind of will be collecting, and what statistical procedures will in order to answer your research question or test you is important to convince your reader of ial impact of your proposed research. That is why you also need to mention the weaknesses of the proposed research, which may be time and financial constraints as well as by the early of your research mistakes in proposal e to provide the proper context the research e to delimit the boundary e to cite landmark e to accurately present the empirical contributions by other e to stay focused on the research e to develop a coherent and nt for the proposed much detail on minor issues, but detail on major much rambling -- going "all over " without a clear sense of direction.
