Research Proposal Guidelines

Research Proposal: A 8-10 page research proposal/plan using APA citation guidelines. This proposal should clearly define research aims, significance, background and justification, innovation, approach, expected outcomes, potential problems and difficulties and alternative approaches. For this assignment, your literature review will serve as your “preliminary data”. Be clear and concise in your writing. Use Times New Roman, Size 12 Font, double spaced.
For submission: One document should be submitted which clearly outlines all the below sections. The total proposal should be between 8-10 pages, Times New Roman, Size 12 font, double spaced.
Aims: Clearly define the goals of your research proposal. What are you research questions? Should consist of 2-3 succinct, clear goals of your proposed research project. (~1/2 page)
Significance: Why should this research be done? What would the impact be on the field? How are the aims supported based on the significance of this work? (~1 page)
Background and Justification: Use a pared down version of your literature review to give the reader an introduction to the field and other past research that has been done on your topic. This is information that will support your proposed ideas in the next section. (~2 pages)
Approach: How do you plan to answer this research question? Describe what experiments you would perform and how they would answer your questions. You should have a specific approach for each aim. (~2 pages)
Innovation: How is this approach innovative? What cutting edge technologies will you use? How is this different then what others in the field are doing? (~1/2 page)
Expected outcomes, potential problems, and difficulties: What do you expect the outcomes of your proposed experiments to be? What are some potential problems with the research project you proposed? (~1 page)
Alternative Approaches: If you face some of the difficulties above, what are other experimental approaches you can use to answer your research questions? (~1 page)