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DEVELOPING AND SUBMITTING A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Associate Professor Dr. Sabarul A. Mokhtar MD(UKM),MS(Orth),FRCS(Edinburgh),Fellowship of Spine Surgery(Japan)

PhD(Australian School of Advanced Medicine) Spine Surgery Unit

Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

BENGKEL EPIDEMIOLOGI KLINIKAL & KAEDAH PENYELIDIKAN SEMPENA MINGGU PENYELIDIKAN PERUBATAN & KESIHATAN KE-16

What is a proposal? “A  research  proposal  provides  a  preview  of  why  a  study  will  

be  undertaken  and  how  it  will  be  conducted.    

A  research  project  is  often  required  to  get  permission  or  

necessary  resources.  Even  when  not  required,  a  proposal  is  

a  useful  device  for  planning.”            

 

 

(Earl  Babbie,  The  Basics  of  Social  Research  2002:  110)  

INTRODUCTION

What is a research proposal? •  document you will submit ± present

Ø  for approval for your research project. •  use for the development and planning of

your research proposal Ø  to refine the commencement of your

proposed project. •  funds application $£¥

INTRODUCTION •  Regardless of your research area and the

methodology you choose, all research proposals

must address the following questions:

o What do you plan to achieve in the proposed

research?

o Why does this research need to be done?

o How would you carry out the research?

“ A BLUE PRINT FOR RESEARCH”

INTRODUCTION

Just like dissertation/thesis but

a lot more thinner, concise and without the results

How to start a research?

Literature Review

Experiences/ Discussions

Research Proposal

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL

•  CONTENTS

o Title

o Background/Introduction.

o Objectives

o Hypothesis

o Literature Review.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL •  CONTENTS

o Methodology

o Gantt Chart

o References

o Budget List

o Appendix: Consent form , Subject Information

sheet, Questionnaire items

TITLE •  The decision to read a proposal often rests on the

appeal of its title.

•  Title should correctly represent the content and

breath of the proposed study and should not be

misleading.

•  An effective title not only attracts the reader's

interest, but also influence the decision making.

TITLE •  It should be clear, concise and informative.

•  “Catchy and interesting”.

•  Not too “generalised”

•  It should contain keywords that capture attention

of the reader.

•  No abbreviations are used in the title.

•  Often in the form of relationship between

dependent and independent variables.

TITLE TITLE

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TITLE

TITLE

could be the

last thing

that you can finalize.

TABLE OF CONTENTS •  Optional - but essential in long detailed

proposals.

•  Provides an outline to the reviewer in finding

his way through the proposal.

•  It includes the main sections and divisions of

the proposal and page numbers for reference.

•  It may include a list of illustrations

e.g figures, pictures, graphs and tables

BACKGROUND OF STUDY •  The idea and purpose of the study must be

clearly stated.

•  Should contain detailed information about the

problem being studied and about the specific

research question

•  The intention of the statement of the problem

is to “attract” the reader and convince the

research committee of the importance of the

project.

BACKGROUND OF STUDY •  The statement of the problem consists of one or

two sentences that clarify the research

question;

o  based on what is known and unknown in

reference to the subject matter.

“Unknown ààà Research Questions”

BACKGROUND OF STUDY •  Research Questions :

o  Basis for the statement of the problem, rationale (overall

objective), specific aims and hypotheses.

o  should be specific, measurable and precise

o  should guide all phases of the study.

•  the selection of the study population

•  sampling (e.g. inclusion and exclusion criteria)

•  methods of the study(e.g. outcome measurement )

•  statistical analysis

•  form of presentation.

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OBJECTIVE

•  The general and specific objectives constitute the

central pillar of the research.

•  The researcher will design the methods and will

eventually analyze the results in the discussion,

formulating the conclusions in order to comply

with the command of each specific objective.

OBJECTIVE

•  For practical reasons,

Ø it is sensible to formulate no more than

four or five clear, precise and short

objectives.

HYPOTHESIS

•  Hypothesis constitutes provisional explanations

for an observation, phenomenon or scientific

question;

o  they apply specifically to analytical studies.

HYPOTHESIS

•  Initially, the researcher formulates a working

hypothesis as a provisional assumption to guide

the investigation; the research will eventually

prove or put the validity of the hypothesis to test.

LITERATURE REVIEW

•  The systematic review of the literature includes

search by themes and keywords in databases of

peer-reviewed publications.

•  The aim of the search is to be sufficiently

sensitive to detect relevant articles to the

research question, and sufficiently specific to

discard non-relevant ones.

LITERATURE REVIEW •  After critically analyzing the abstracts - select

original articles to perform a thorough scientific scrutiny of design, execution, reporting and interpretation.

•  Assess the methods of subject selection, power

and size of samples, randomization, control groups, blinding, materials and techniques, instruments, outcome measures, follow-up, statistical analysis, results and interpretation.

•  Tables are prepared to facilitate the comparison

of different publications.

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LITERATURE REVIEW •  At this stage, you must give evidence of your own

competence. You should emphasize differences and similarities of results among studies; in particular, evaluating the validity of the claimed findings, and formulating a short conclusion(s).

•  Based on the critical analysis of this review,

derives the objectives and hypotheses (if applicable). These constitute the actual guide through all the subsequent aspects of the research.

“Effect of approach side during anterior cervical discectomy and fusion on the incidence of dysphonia/ hoarseness”

LITERATURE REVIEW

Searchable question “Does the side of the approach during anterior cervical surgery have an effect on the incidence of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury?” Databases •  Medline – using MeSH

•  Cochrane for systematic reviews or clinical trials

•  Scopus using keywords

Medline •  21 articles. •  7 highly relevant. •  8 not relevant. Scopus •  85 articles total. •  further 4 highly relevant. Cochrane •  No reviews •  2 clinical trials – ETT cuff pressures

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METHODOLOGY

•  This section is a comprehensive explanation of

the actions that the researcher will perform in

order to obtain, process and interpret the data in

harmony with the objectives and hypotheses.

•  It may contain several subsections, and is the

primary concern for the technical reviewers.

•  UKM - Maximum up to 5 pages. Consisting

research questions to be answered that related to

research objectives.

METHODOLOGY

•  The selection of the subjects for the study has to

be described clearly. o  Inclusion and exclusion criteria are to be mentioned with method of

allocation to groups.

•  Methods, apparatus and procedures are to be

identified in detailed to allow other individuals to

reproduce the results (if necessary).

•  Give references of all the methods used including

statistical methods.

•  Methods of elimination of errors (eg. blinding,

introduction of control group and placebo,

randomization) are to be mentioned distinctly.

•  Measurement instrument (eg. questionnaire)

including its psychometric qualities (validity,

reliability, objectivity and precision) must be

described clearly.

METHODOLOGY •  Data collection and analysis procedure are to be

clearly described.

•  The setting in which the study will take place is

described (whether results can be applied to the

research setting).

•  Study Period (does not exceed 3 years): o  Expected date of the study to be started until completed

o  can be written in month e.g August 2012 – August 2014

METHODOLOGY

•  Sample size calculation.

•  Statistical tests and significance level.

o  Variables – dependant or independent

•  Administrative plan (time line) – Gantt Chart.

o  This chart will illustrate the proposed tasks in a detailed

working calendar, with starting and ending dates of the

principal activities; either on a daily, weekly or monthly

basis. It also indicates the resource(s) responsible for

each task.

METHODOLOGY GANTT CHART

ACTION / TIME

2012

M A M J J A

LITERATURE REVIEW

ETHICS COMMITTEE APPROVAL

DATA COLLECTION FROM PATIENTS IN ORTHOPAEDICS CLINIC

DATA ANALYSIS

WRITING REPORT

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT

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GANTT CHART •  Research ethics

o  research in human subjects, requirements of the Research and Ethics Committee respective institutional.

•  Budget o  typical divisions of the tabular budget are:

•  Personnel - RAs •  Equipment – laptop, software •  Materials and equipments supplies •  Travel - conferences •  other costs (publication, statistic, typist)

METHODOLOGY

REFERENCES •  Science and continuation of knowledge relies on

previous research - provide the background of

information essential for the defense of

deductions and conclusions.

•  it is imperative to make citations directly from the

original source; conclusions from secondary

sources multiply the chances for error.

•  The list of references constitutes formal evidence

of the original sources used.

Vancouver style: •  This style uses superscript numerals in the

text and the references are in the order in which they appear in the text.

Harvard style:

•  This style uses the name of the first author and the date (year) of the paper and the references are then in alphabetical order.

UKM style

REFERENCES

Vancouver Style Vancouver style:

•  This style uses superscript numerals in the text and the references are in the order in which they appear in the text.

Harvard style:

•  This style uses the name of the first author and the date (year) of the paper and the references are then in alphabetical order.

UKM style

REFERENCES

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Harvard Style Vancouver style:

•  This style uses superscript numerals in the text and the references are in the order in which they appear in the text.

Harvard style:

•  This style uses the name of the first author and the date (year) of the paper and the references are then in alphabetical order.

UKM style •  Sistem Pengarang-tarikh

REFERENCES

UKM Style UKM Style

UKM Style APPENDIX •  Should be limited only to essential text, required

to complete the documents of the proposal. o  Patient’s information sheet

o  Informed consent forms

o  Questionnaire

o  Letters of endorsement or promises of participation.

•  Should be designated Appendix A, Appendix B,

and so forth.

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And now…Writing the proposal •  Use Times Roman for your body text.

•  Set the size to 12 point and 1½ space

•  Be “careful” using the grammar checker and spelling

checker.

•  “Oh my English” – grammar (prove read)

•  Abbreviation and terminology list

Sekretariat Penyelidikan Perubatan &

Inovasi(SPPI)

http://www.ukm.my/sppi/

CONCLUSION

Having a good proposal is like completing two-

third of your research works!

Thank you Terima kasih