This document provides guidance on developing a research proposal, including selecting a topic, writing objectives, conducting a literature review, and referencing sources. It discusses selecting a topic based on relevance, feasibility, and other criteria. It emphasizes that objectives should be focused, ordered logically, and measurable. The literature review should synthesize prior work and identify gaps. Sources must be properly referenced following a recognized style like APA or Vancouver. Overall, the document outlines the key components and best practices for constructing a strong research proposal.

1. Responsibilities of Module
Leader
How do you going to select research
topics?
1

2. Topic Selection
The researcher interest on the phenomena may
arise from:
Own experience
Literature reading
Talking to knowledgeable people
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3. Criteria for topic selection (1)
1. Relevance: priority, magnitude of problem
2. Avoidance of duplication
3. Feasibility: complexity, manpower, time,
equipment, money…
4. Political commitment: interest and support
to utilize results
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4. Criteria for topic selection (2)
5. Applicability (cost-effectiveness): availability of
resources
6. Timeliness: urgency of data needed for making
decision
7. Ethical acceptability: Consider the different
ethical principles
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5. Criteria for topic selection (3)
1. Relevance
• The topic should be a priority problem
• How large or widespread is the problem?
• Who is affected?
• How severe is the problem?
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6. Criteria for topic selection (4)
2. Avoidance of duplication
• Find out whether the suggested topic has been
investigated before
• If topic has been researched, the results should be
reviewed to explore whether major questions that
deserve further investigation remain unanswered
• If not, another topic should be chosen
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7. Criteria for topic selection (5)
3. Feasibility
• Consider complexity, manpower, time,
equipment, money…
4. Political commitment
• Interest and support of the local/ national
authorities
 This will increase the chance that the results of the study
will be implemented
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8. Criteria for topic selection (6)
5. Applicability of possible results/ recommendations
• Is it likely that the recommendations from the study
will be applied?
• This will depend on:
– Management capacity within the team
– the blessing of the authorities
– availability of resources for implementing the
recommendations
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9. Criteria for topic selection (7)
6. Timeliness (urgency)
• urgency of data needed for making decision
7. Ethical acceptability
• Consider the different ethical principles
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10. Titles should:
– Describe contents clearly and precisely,
so that readers can decide whether to
read the report
Titles should NOT:
– Include wasted words such as "studies
on," "an investigation of"
– Use abbreviations and jargon
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11. Example
• Administrative System of Local NGOs, the
case of Southern Nations Nationalities and
Peoples, South Ethiopia.
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12. Assignment
By forming a group identify a research topic
that potentially is used in the proposal work.
• Final date of topic submission: _______
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13. Planning Research
/Developing Proposal/
A written proposal is important:
• To clearly define the problem under study
• To avoid reinventing the wheel
• To clearly depict the methodology to be used
• To be cost and time conscious
• To be clear about what to expect in the end
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14. Components of Research Proposal
1. Summary
2. Introduction
3. Literature review
4. Objectives
5. Methodology
6. Work plan
7.Cost of the Project
• References
• Annex
– Questionnaire
– Assurance of the
investigator
– Advisor (approval)
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15. Summary
• Summary of proposal includes:
–Statement of the problem(introduction)
–Objective
–Hypothesis
–Methods
–Study period, and total cost
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16. Introduction
• Can be divided into 3 sections or the concepts
of the 3 sections can be merged together
• Sections:
– Background of the study
– Statement of the problem
– Justification of the study
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17. Background of the study
• should address the foundation of knowledge
about the issue
– Definitions
– Basic facts
– Principles
– Scientifics explanations
• Different literatures should be revised.
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18. Statement of the problem (1)
Includes:
• Size, distribution, and severity of the problem
• Major factors that influence the problem
• Solutions that have been tried in the past
• How well the solutions worked
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19. Statement of the problem (2)
• Why further research is needed (more in the
justification)
• If necessary a short list of definitions of crucial
concepts
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20. Justification (1)
• Why your research is needed?
E.gs of possible answers…
Others not large enough
Different populations
Different method/intervention
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21. Justification (2)
Questions addressed before writing the
significance of the study:
• Are there gaps in evidence?
• Will results influence programs, methods, and/or
interventions?
• Will results contribute to the solution of the problems?
• Will results influence the decision making of organizations or
companies?
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22. Justification (3)
Questions addressed before writing the
significance of the study…..
• What will be improved or changed as a result of the
research?
• How will results of the study be implemented, and
what innovations will come about?
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23. Literature review (1)
• Search widely
• Reference all literature that you refer to in your review
• Evaluate the relevance of the literature to your study
• Include information directly relevant to your study
• There should be logical sequence in writing literature
review (you can also create sub-sections)
• Be concise
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24. Literature review (2)
Steps of literature review
Step 1: Identifying key words or phrases
useful in locating materials in an academic library at
• a college/university and/or websites.
Step 2: Searching
the library catalog for holding
• journals and books
– internet center for searching.
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25. Literature review (3)
Step 3: locate about 20 reports of research in
articles or books related to research on your topic.
Step 4: Look at the articles and select those central
to your topic.
– look over the abstract and
– skim the article or chapter
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26. Literature review (4)
Step 5: Designing the literature map on your topic.
Step 6: Organize the literature into your literature
map.
• Continue to draft summaries of the most relevant
articles.
• Summaries are then combined into the final
literature review that you write for proposal.
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27. Literature review (5)
 Discuss the magnitude of the problem:
globally, then regionally, and finally locally
 Discuss causes of the problem
 Discuss risk factors:
 Discuss any methodological issues: what is the best or
alternative approach to study the proposed problem, why?
Are there ethical challenges in conducting the proposed
study?
 Put forward the rationale of the proposed study by indicating
the gaps in knowledge that is not addressed in the literature
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28. Referencing (1)
• What is referencing?
– Referencing is a standardized way of
acknowledging sources of information and ideas
that you have used in your assignments and which
allows the sources to be identified.
– It is important to be consistent when you are
referencing.
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29. Referencing (2)
• Why reference?
– Referencing is important
to avoid plagiarism,
to verify quotations and
to enable readers to follow up what you have
written
to give credit to other people’s work.
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30. Referencing (3)
• Types of referencing styles
• Harvard referencing style
• Vancouver referencing style
• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• American Psychological Association (APA)
• Chicago Manual of Style
• Royal Society of Chemistry
• Before you write your list of references, check with your
lecturer or tutor for the bibliographic style preferred by
the School.
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31. Referencing (4)
Possible sources of references
Journals or other published materials
Books
Websites
Grey literature
 use only for statement of the problem
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32. Referencing (5)
Steps in referencing
 Record the full bibliographic details and relevant page
numbers of the source from which information is taken.
 Punctuation marks and spaces in the reference list and
citations are very important.
 Insert the citation at the appropriate place in the text of
your document.
 Include a reference list that includes all in-text citations at
the end of your document.
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33. Referencing (6)
Citing References
Reference to a journal should include:
– The name(s) of the author(s)
– Years of publication
– Title of the article
– Journal abbreviation (according to the index
medicus usage)
– Volume number
– first and last page numbers.
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34. • Example:
–Hart CA, Kariuki S; (1998); Anti microbial
resistance in developing countries. Br Med
J; 317: 647-650.
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35. Referencing (7)
Reference to a book
Should contain:-
 The name(s) of the author(s)
 Year of publication
 Full title
 Place of publication
 Name of editor (s) and edition
 If applicable, name and domicile of publishers, first and
last page number.
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36. • Example:
–Perry AG. Potter PA, eds. 1994. Clinical
Nursing skills and Techniques, 3rd ed St.
Lonis, Mosby. 390-408.
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37. Referencing (8)
Reference to website
should contain:-
– the name(s) of the author (s)
– years of publication,
– full title (online),
– the website address ,and
– the date of information retrieved.
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38. Example:
• Snell, we (1997). The stereotypes about AIDS
questionnaire (on line), Available:
http://wwwsemo.edu./Snell/Scales/SAAQ.
Htm (2006, may 2).
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39. Referencing (9)
Vancouver style
• Is the type of referencing predominantly used in the
medical field.
• When referencing your work in the Vancouver style, it
is very important that you use the right punctuation
and that the order of details in the reference is also
correct.
• In the Vancouver Style, citations within the text of the
essay/paper are identified by Arabic numbers in round
brackets or Arabic numbers in superscript.
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40. Referencing (10)
• The Vancouver System assigns a number to each
reference as it is cited.
• The original number assigned to the reference is
reused each time the reference is cited in the text,
regardless of its previous position in the text.
• When multiple references are cited at a given place in
the text, use a hyphen to join the first and last numbers
that are inclusive. Use commas (without spaces) to
separate non-inclusive numbers in a multiple citation
e.g. (2,3,4,5,7,10) is abbreviated to (2-5,7,10).
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41. Referencing (11)
Examples (books)
 Butler SW. Secrets from the Black Bag. London: The
Royal College of General Practitioners; 2005.
 Cheers B, Darracott R, Lonne B. Social care practice in
rural communities. Sydney: The Federation Press;
2007.
 Hofmeyr GJ, Neilson JP, Alfirevic Z, Crowther CA,
Gulmezoglu AM, Hodnett ED et al. A Cochrane
pocketbook: Pregnancy and childbirth. Chichester,
West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd; 2008.
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42. Referencing (12)
• Examples (Journals)
– Snowdon J. Severe depression in old age. Medicine Today.
2002 Dec;3(12):40-47.
– Hanna JN, McBride WJ, Brookes DL, Shield J, Taylor CT,
Smith IL, Craig SB, Smith GA. Hendra virus infection in a
veterinarian. Med J Aust. 2006 Nov 20;185(10):562-64.
Electronic article
• Lemanek K. Adherence issues in the medical
management of asthma. J Pediatr Psychol [ Internet].
1990 [cited 2010 Apr 22]; 15(4):437-58. Available from:
http://jpepsy.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint /15/4/437
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43. Objectives (1)
• General objective:
– summarizes what is to be achieved by the study
– should be clearly related to the statement of the
problem.
• Specific objectives:
– logically connected parts of the general objective
– focus the study on the essentials
– direct the design of the investigation
– orient collection, analysis and interpretation of the data
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44. Objectives (2)
Criteria for setting research objectives
• Focused, each covering a single point
• Ordered in a logical sequence
• Realistic and feasible to answer
• Operational, using action verbs such as:
– determine - verify -identify
– describe - assess - compare
– calculate - establish -explore
• Measurable outcomes at the end of the research
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45. Objectives (3)
• The study proposal is primarily judged by the clarity
of the study objectives
• You don’t have to write too many objectives but if
your objective is comprehensive and requires
assessing/measuring more than one aspect then
divide your objective into general and specific.
• Advisable not to set more than 3 specific objectives
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46. Objectives (4)
Examples:
General objective
To assess factors which influence for low hemoglobin level
among pregnant women.
Specific objectives
• To determine hemoglobin level variation among pregnant
women by income.
• To identify the type of food offered during gestation which
makes influence Hgb.
• To examine the relation between infection and hgb.
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47. Objectives (5)
Research questions VS Hypotheses
• A hypothesis requires sufficient knowledge of the problem
to be able to predict relationships among factors which
then can be explicitly tested.
• Research questions are formulated when the investigators
do not have enough insight into the problem being studied.
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48. .
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