Type: Assignment - Written Assignment Learning Objectives Assessed: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Due Dates: 5pm, 1 Jun 2016 Weight: 50% Word Limit: 2000 to 2500. Your assignment must be between 2000 and 2500 words, there is not an additional +/- 10% Task Description: Researching health and social issues is extremely important to our work. Effective research means we can bring about change for our clients at a much wider level than our daily practice often allows. The findings, results, and conclusions can lead to practical recommendations for practitioners, policy-makers, and the community. It can result in genuine changes at an individual, community, organisational and policy level. It therefore provides practitioners with great opportunities to make a wide-ranging difference. However, to conduct research, we need to have a good grasp of research methods and start by writing a proposal. The skills you develop through this process will be directly transferable to practice. To develop your skills in research, this assessment requires you to write a research proposal on your topic of choice, covering the following points: Project title Background (incorporating a concise literature review) Aims of the study Significance and innovation of the proposed study Expected outcomes / implications for practice Research plan: Methodology (including sampling, data collection, and data analysis) Ethical considerations Study limitations Administration of the research (including resource requirements / budget, timetable) Note: Although replication studies are a valuable approach to research, a research proposal for an original study is needed for this assignment in order to demonstrate your knowledge of research methods. Also, while it is acceptable and even expected that your question/topic will develop over the course of the semester you cannot completely change topics between assignments without prior approval of your lecturer. You will not be required to implement this research proposal. However, you are encouraged to choose a topic that is relevant to your current or future work practice. Masters/Honours students may use this proposal to prepare for their thesis. Students are strongly encouraged to talk with their student colleagues and the course convenor to develop a research topic into a feasible, relevant study. This is because it is extremely difficult to develop a well-thought, plausible research proposal without discussion with others about it. Material will be provided in your study guide and on Learning@Griffith, which will assist you in completing the research proposal. Criteria & Marking: Criteria for assessment: Literature review is integrated into the research proposal well with clear links made between the research topic and practice (8 marks) Methodology is appropriate to the research aims and demonstrates an understanding of all relevant aspects including sampling, data collection and data analysis methods (16 marks) Ethical issues are clearly identified and ways of satisfactorily addressing the ethical concerns are described (12 marks) Research process is realistically considered within organisational and social context (8 marks) Academic standards of writing and referencing (6 marks) Research proposal tips Below are some tips to help you with your research proposal: Copying and pasting the literature review or paraphrasing You will need to include a condensed literature review in your research proposal (which is included in your word count). However, you should not copy and paste parts of your review from assessment two. Unfortunately, this is considered plagiarism. You will need to paraphrase what you've already written. Please also make sure you read the feedback about your review and incorporate that. Consistency between research questions, methodology, methods etc. It is important that you ensure there is consistency between each section of your research proposal, and that your research design, methods and data analysis techniques fit together well. Not all research designs, methods and data analysis techniques will answer all research questions. So please keep thinking critically as you construct your proposal and consider whether your methods will achieve your aims/questions. Ethics You must consider the ethical implications of your research. This is extremely important, because so often research is conducted in unethical and unhelpful ways. This is unacceptable. Topic 2 looks at ethics in detail. Please refer to this. Also it is strongly advised that you refer to the Office for Research website at Griffith University (www.griffith.edu.au/or). Once you're at this website, click on "ethics" and then click on "human research ethics". Take some time to explore this website. It has manuals, templates, resources and tips. In your proposal you will need to consider how your research will meet the requirements of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. References You should have at least fifteen references in your proposal. It will enhance your proposal if the research design, methods, and data analysis techniques (amongst other sections) are referenced, as it will show that your proposal is well thought-through. Appendix (surveys, information packages etc) Inclusion of surveys, questionnaires, information packages, recruitment letters etc are not necessary. However, they will enhance your proposal if they are well thought-through and well constructed. So we would encourage you to include this material in an appendix. Budget In your budget you do not need to say that your study has been funded, you just need to show that you are aware of the costs associated with research and are realistic about them (research proposals are often constructed, in part, to seek funding). Cost are usually split into the following categories: personnel (eg research assistants, practitioners, transcriber etc), equipment (eg. digital voice recorder, computer, statistical software packages etc), maintenance (eg. venue, telephone, stationary, photocopying expenses etc), travel (eg. care hire, conference attendance, travel to interviews etc), and other (eg. if you need child care expenses for participants covered etc). Some of these expenses will be covered 'in-kind' from the agency you work for (or from the university if you work in or a uni you are partnering with a uni to complete the research). For example, the costs of printing and stationary might be covered 'in-kind' by the organisation, that is, you won't have to pay for them separately as the organisation will cover the costs in the overall budget. Salary rates for researchers can be found on the Griffith University website. Please make sure your budget is considered and justified, ie. don't make up costs without doing some investigation to determine the likely costs. Headings Please make sure you use headings in your research proposal. This will make it easy to follow. Suggested headings can be found in the course profile in the assignment description. You can use these or a variation of these headings. Timeline Please make sure you include a timeline that is well thought-through. In your timeline you need to include all parts of the research proposal, from seeking ethical clearance, to conducting a more comprehensive literature review, to recruiting participants, analysing data, writing up your findings etc etc. Be as detailed and realistic as possible.