Outline for a scientific project description (research proposal with a model) - 5 pages (2000-2500words)
Introduction
Topic
Problem statement/research question(s)
Relevance
- Significance to knowledge/research
- Significance to society/practice
Literature review
Previous research
Highlight important findings and unanswered questions (gaps)
Relate unanswered questions (and how they inter-connect) to research question(s)
Methodology
What is your general approach/research design?
Which data and how to get them?
Specific technique(s) used to analyze data
Plan for interpreting the results (how they are expected to answer your RQ)
(Budget not relevant, don't do this!)
Model is needed to explain the variables...
Expected results
Explain how the outcome of your study relates to theory and RQ (restate/sum up)
References
Note that the outline of your project description is almost identical to a standard
research paper. You may choose to do a bit differently - but your project description
should cover the above mentioned areas.
Course literature:
Fowler, Floyd. J. (2009.). Survey research method. (4th ed.). SAGE. [ISBN 9781452230184, 216 pages]
Pallant, Julie (2010). SPSS survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS. McGraw-Hil. [ISBN 978-0-335-24240-5, 352 pages]
Van de Ven, Andrew. H. (2007). Engaged scholarship :a guide for organizational and social research. Oxford University Press. [ISBN 9780199226306, 352 pages]
Wrench, Jason S. (red) (2013). Quantitative research methods for communication: a hands-on approach. (2. ed.). Oxford University Press. Chapters 4 -10, 13-21 [ISBN 9780199931804, 400 pages]
An article compendium on research design and survery method is added to the literature list (approx 100 pages).