Portsmouth Business School
Your research proposal
Your proposal should clearly identify the research problem to be studied and the aims (general and specific) of the intended research. Typical questions you should seek to address in your proposal might include:
A. The research problem to be studied
- What is the nature of the problem?
- Why is it problematic?
- What is its significance?
- To whom is it significant, and why?
- Why is it appropriate to study this topic at this time?
- What academic research has been undertaken in this area so far?
- Which authors and which models have been most influential in this area, and why?
- How will the intended research build upon this academic work?
B. Definition of research aims
- What are the general and specific aims of the intended research?
- How will these aims contribute to understanding?
C. Research methodology
- What methodologies have you considered?
- What authors have influenced your consideration of methodologies, and in what ways?
- What would be the most useful methodology to adopt for this investigation and what kinds of data will it yield?
- What kinds of hypotheses will you establish?
- How would you expect to test these hypotheses?
D. Access to data
- How will you gain access to any data relevant to your study?
- Will such access be conditional upon paying a fee? If so, how much?
E. Ethics
- Have you considered the ethical issues arising from your proposed research? If so, how do you propose to address them?