Research / statement question What do you want to examine or explore?

What is the main question / statement you wish to answer/ explore?

Have you included a specific health issue, target population and context (location) in your
research question / statement?
Have you considered the appropriate policies/ strategies/interventions, and time frames?
Introduction What are the key areas which will be addressed in this research proposal?
Background and Rationale for the study (please do not introduce additional subheadings under
this section) Have you read around your research topic?
Have you provided background information of important historical and contextual events/
research which informs the reader about why and how the health issue you are interested in
exists as a problem?
Have you evidenced the health issue with relevant statistics showing the nature and extent of the
problem including past and current statistical variation in terms of age, sex, geography and
ethnicity supported by relevant literature sources? What other studies have been conducted and
what is their relevance to your research topic? Have you identified and given a brief overview of
the policy/ strategy or policies/ strategies whose outcomes in terms of interventions you will
critical assess in the project? Why is this research topic important to your field of practice? Have
you presented a Justification Statement? i.e. objectively justifying the research topic using
relevant literature sources?
Aim and Objectives What is the aim of the study – what do you want to achieve? (Identify one
aim)
Does the aim of the study resonate with your research question/ statement?
What are the objectives of the study? (Identify 4 objectives. The first objective should focus on
epidemiology i.e. prevalence of the health issue & the last one should focus on the impact of
policy/ strategy initiatives put in place to tackle the health issue). Overall, all objectives should
be geared towards addressing the aim of the study.
Methodology
You have a choice of conducting either Secondary Research OR Primary Research.

If considering conducting Secondary Research you are required to address the following:
Have you explained the selected methodological approach- i.e. secondary research versus
primary research? Have you discussed the strengths and limitations of selected methodological
approach supported by relevant literature?
Have you justified the selected methodology approach supported by relevant literature?

Literature Search Strategy

How will you conduct your literature search, i.e. literature search strategy?
What search engines will be used to search for the literature?
What academic data bases will be accessed?
What organisations, if any will be accessed for literature?
What relevant key words and Boolean operators will be used in the literature search?
What is your literature search exclusion and inclusion criteria and have you justified it?
If considering conducting Primary Research, you required to address the following:

Have you explained the selected methodological approach-i.e. Primary versus secondary
research?
Have you discussed the strengths and limitations of selected methodological approach supported
by relevant literature?
Have you justified the selected methodology approach supported by relevant literature?
Have you explained your: a) Data collection methods b) Study participants (including Sampling
techniques -how you will recruit them?) c) Data analysis method
Have you justified the data collection method/s & analysis method and supported this with
relevant literature?

Literature Search Strategy

How will you conduct your literature search, i.e. literature search strategy?
What search engines will be used to search for the literature
What academic data bases will be accessed?
What organisations, if any will be accessed for literature?
What relevant key words and Boolean operators will be used in the literature search?
What is your literature search exclusion and inclusion criteria and have you justified it?

Have you justified the selected methodology approach supported by relevant literature?

Literature Search Strategy

How will you conduct your literature search, i.e. literature search strategy?
What search engines will be used to search for the literature?
What academic data bases will be accessed?
What organisations, if any will be accessed for literature?
What relevant key words and Boolean operators will be used in the literature search?
What is your literature search exclusion and inclusion criteria and have you justified it?
If considering conducting Primary Research, you required to address the following:

Have you explained the selected methodological approach-i.e. Primary versus secondary
research?
Have you discussed the strengths and limitations of selected methodological approach supported
by relevant literature?
Have you justified the selected methodology approach supported by relevant literature?
Have you explained your: a) Data collection methods b) Study participants (including Sampling
techniques -how you will recruit them?) c) Data analysis method
Have you justified the data collection method/s & analysis method and supported this with
relevant literature?

Literature Search Strategy

How will you conduct your literature search, i.e. literature search strategy?
What search engines will be used to search for the literature
What academic data bases will be accessed?
What organisations, if any will be accessed for literature?
What relevant key words and Boolean operators will be used in the literature search?
What is your literature search exclusion and inclusion criteria and have you justified it?
Ethical Considerations
For those considering primary research, this includes seeking ethical approval (informed consent,
voluntary participation, confidentiality, data protection making appropriate citations &
plagiarism issues etc. *Please speak to your group tutor regarding applying for ethical approval
as a starting point.)
For those considering secondary research – making appropriate citations & plagiarism issues etc.
Project outline Have you considered the contents of each chapter? Depending on whether you are
conducting Secondary Research OR Primary Research, the dissertation will have the following
chapters
Secondary Research Based Dissertation
1. Title Page
2. Abstract
3. Contents Page
4. Chapter 1 Introduction, background and Rationale, Aim and Objectives
5. Chapter 2 Methodology (including literature search strategy and Ethical considerations)
6. Chapter 3 Literature Review Discussion (based on your objectives)
7. Chapter 4 Conclusion and Recommendations Primary Research Based Dissertation
1. Title Page
2. Abstract
3. Contents Page
4. Chapter 1 Introduction, Background and Rationale, Aim and Objectives
5. Chapter 2 Methodology (including Literature search strategy and Ethical considerations)
6. Chapter 3 Literature Review (based on your objectives)
7. Original Findings (based on results from field work)
8. Discussion, Conclusions & Recommendations

Research Time table When will your research project start and finish?
Have you identified specific targets/ actions for completion within specific time frames? (e.g. a
table with two columns and list your targets/ actions and timeframes, i.e. specific dates.
Consider time for supervision sessions and acting on feedback within proposed time table
References Have you provided a comprehensive reference list of all cited literature sources?