SY 326 Research Methods Week 5 Guidance

Welcome to the final week of the course! This week, you will apply what you have learned about appropriate research methods by proposing a future research study on the topic you chose in Week 1. Required resources are two videos about preparing a research proposal, Creating Your Research Proposal (essary10, 2013), and How to Write a Research Proposal? 11 Things to Include in a Thesis Proposal (Zhang, 2017). In addition, an example research proposal (Murphy, 2016) is provided to give you an idea of how your final paper should look.

Assignments for the week include a discussion, an interactive learning activity and quiz, and the final written assignment. To see how your assignments will be graded, look at the rubrics accessible through a link on the screen for each discussion or assignment.

The Week 5 discussion is a Preliminary Research Proposal. Your initial post is due by Day 3, and all replies are due by Day 7. To prepare for the discussion, read this instructor guidance and view the required videos. You may also find it helpful to skim through the example research proposal. In your initial post, describe the purpose and parts of a research proposal. Then, present your research question (and a hypothesis if you plan to use quantitative methods), discuss the findings of one or two published studies on the topic, identify the research design you are thinking of using for your proposal, and explain why this design is a good choice for your research question. Also, discuss ethical concerns that might apply to your proposed study. This discussion gives you the opportunity to start putting together your research plan and to get some feedback from others that may be helpful in preparing the final paper. In turn, you will give constructive feedback to at least two classmates about their research proposal ideas.

The interactive learning activity and quiz are called Research Proposal Components. The interactive activity consists of 10 drag-and-drop items. The items are components which belong in either a research proposal or a report of a completed research study. There are some components that are required in a research report that should not be in a research proposal. Each item in the activity should be dragged to either the In Proposal bin or the Not In Proposal bin. When you are satisfied with your mastery of the activity, take the graded quiz. As with all quizzes in this course, you may retake it as many times as you wish to improve your score. Your highest score will be retained when the final grade is calculated.

In the final Research Proposal paper due this week, you will prepare a research proposal for a new study on the topic you selected in Week 1. Carefully review the final paper instructions and the example research proposal provided in the Course Materials. Use what you have learned about different research methods and the feedback in the discussion forum to help you decide on a research design and prepare the details of your research plan. Use the section headings from the assignment instructions to organize the paper and ensure that you have included all of the required information. There is no template for this assignment. If you need assistance with APA formatting, consult the APA Style information in the Ashford Writing Center.

After completing this instructional unit, you will:

· Explain the purpose of a research proposal.

· Describe the components of a research proposal.

· Prepare a research proposal on a selected topic.

Keep these objectives in mind as you go through this week’s learning activities.

In a real life situation, a person wanting to do research with living participants must make a detailed and coherent plan for the study, and get approval from an ethics review board or committee. The research proposal is a document that explains the need for the research, what will be done in the study if it is approved, and how the rights and wellbeing of the participants will be protected.

A research proposal is NOT a report of a completed study, a work of fiction, or a critique of a previously published study. It is a plan describing how you would design and conduct a study to address your research question if approval is given by the appropriate authorities. It should demonstrate that you know what was covered in this course – how to formulate a research question (and a hypothesis if quantitative methods are proposed), how to find and evaluate previously published studies on the topic, how to select appropriate methods to investigate the research question, and how to assess ethical concerns that may come up in the proposed research.

The specific sections of a research proposal are an Introduction, a brief Literature Review, a description of the proposed Methods including ethical considerations, and a Conclusion that summarizes the plan and reiterates why it is important for the study to be done.

The Introduction section of a research proposal gives some background information explaining what the problem is and why the reader should care about it. At the end of this section, the specific research question should be presented. If the proposed study is quantitative, a research hypothesis should also be stated.

The Literature Review section of a proposal is brief. It should summarize the findings and methods of a few previous primary research studies on the topic, just enough so the reader will understand what is already known about the topic, how it has been researched before, and what aspects need further research. A more comprehensive Literature Review section would be used in a doctoral dissertation or a report of completed research.

The Methods section is the main focus of the proposal and should be the largest part of the proposal. It contains several sub-sections for the different choices that have to be made about how the proposed study would be carried out. Specific sub-sections may vary, but the final assignment for this course includes five sub-sections that are typical: Design , Participants , Procedure/Measures , Data Analysis , and Ethical Issues .

For the Design sub-section, the researcher names and describes the chosen research design. This is not a description of the process by which the researcher considered various alternatives and came to a decision about which one to accept and which ones to reject. The decision about the design must be made before writing the proposal. The focus of everything in the Methods section should be what the researcher has decided to do in the planned research. The decision should be supported by a brief explanation of why the chosen design is appropriate for the research question with one or more citations of scholarly/peer-reviewed sources about the chosen design and methods.

In the Participants sub-section, the researcher identifies the sampling strategy. Is it random sampling, another probability sampling strategy (such as cluster or stratified), purposive sampling (such as theoretical, maximum variation, or snowball sampling), or convenience sampling? There should be a description of how the recruiting of participants would be done using the identified sampling strategy. For quantitative proposals, a target sample size should be mentioned, along with any information about why that sample size was chosen. For qualitative proposals, the researcher may state a typical sample size for the research design and indicate that the final sample size will depend on when data saturation is reached.

The Procedure/Measures sub-section should contain a step-by-step description of what will be done in the study, along with information about any measurement instruments (physical or psychological) that are to be used. If the researcher is using psychometric instruments such as established tests or questionnaires, validity and reliability ratings should be included and the source of that information should be cited. If the researcher is creating a new questionnaire for the study, the questions should be provided in an appendix. It should be clear in this sub-section what the participants are supposed to do and how data about the research topic will be collected from either observing them or asking them questions.

In the Data Analysis sub-section, the researcher identifies the techniques that will be used to analyze the data collected in the study. The research design and the form of the data will determine what analysis procedure can and should be used. For quantitative studies, one or more statistical tests must be identified. Sections 3.5 (for descriptive), 4.4 (for correlational), and 5.5 (for experimental) of the Newman (2016) textbook will be helpful in identifying appropriate tests for quantitative studies. For qualitative studies, the type of coding and analysis procedures recommended for the research design should be identified. Sources of information about the data analysis should be cited in APA format.

The final sub-section of the Methods section is Ethical Issues . The researcher should be proactive by anticipating concerns that might come up and making preparations to address those issues if and when they arise. Plans for obtaining informed consent from participants, protecting their confidentiality, and avoiding potential harm to participants should be provided in detail. If the study requires any type or level of deception, this must be explained and the need for it justified. Debriefing is required when there is any deception, and plans for how the debriefing will be done must be included. Any potential conflicts of interest involving the researchers must be revealed. The IRB may request additional information about potential conflicts or other ethical issues before deciding whether or not to approve the study.

A research proposal does not have a Results or Findings section. This is because it is not a report of a study that has already been done. Recruitment of participants, data collection, and data analysis must not begin until after the Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent ethical authority has approved the research proposal. In many institutions, another office in addition to the IRB must approve the proposal. The IRB focuses on the ethical issues, and the other office focuses on the research design and data sources. At Ashford University, the Office of Research and Creative Scholarship (ORCS) provides advice to faculty and staff on appropriate research procedures for proposals. ORCS also must approve the research design and analysis procedures before the proposal can go to the IRB for ethical approval.

The Conclusion section of a research proposal does not make any conclusion about the answer to the research question because there are no results yet. There is no Discussion section in a research proposal, either, because the Discussion section of a research report explains the results of the analysis and connects the results or findings with the original research question. In a research proposal, the Conclusion section summarizes the main points of the research plan and reminds the reader of why this proposed research matters and should be allowed to be conducted.

If you have any questions about this week’s readings or assignments, email your instructor or post your question on the “Ask Your Instructor” forum. Remember, use the forum

To prepare for this discussion, read the instructor guidance and watch the videos Creating Your Research Proposal(Links to an external site.) and How to Write a Research Proposal? 11 Things to Include in a Thesis Proposal(Links to an external site.). Your initial post should be 250 to 300 words. Utilize a minimum of two peer-reviewed sources that were published within the last 10 years and are documented in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
The purpose of this discussion assignment is to familiarize you with the purpose and components of a research proposal, and to allow an opportunity for you to get some feedback on your ideas for the Final Paper.
In your initial post,

Briefly describe the purpose of a research proposal and its components.
Present your research question and/or hypothesis.
Give some background information on the topic, including citing one or two previous related studies with their references.
Name the research design you would like to use.
Defend why you feel it is the most appropriate way to study your research question.
Discuss potential ethical issues that might arise and what you would do to address them.

Document your sources in APA style(Links to an external site.), with in-text citations and references listed at the end of the post. For additional guidance see the Citing Within Your Paper(Links to an external site.) and Formatting Your References List(Links to an external site.) resources from the Ashford Writing Center.
Guided Response: Read several classmates’ posts and respond to at least two of them. Do you agree with your colleague’s choice of research design for investigating the proposed research question? Why or why not? Can you suggest another approach or provide additional background information on the topic that could be useful in your colleague’s final proposal? Can you see any ethical concerns that were not mentioned by your colleague? Check your own thread for replies and respond to suggestions from others.