Allan Ninyesiga

Format of Research Proposals

i. Preliminary pages
 Title Page (not numbered)
 Declaration
 Approval
 Table of Contents
 List of Tables
 List of Figures
 List of Appendices
 Glossary of Terms and Acronyms (where applicable)
ii. Layout

STRUCTURE OF RESEARCH PROPOSALS

Contents of Research Proposals
The Research Proposal is a plan of the intended research work. The Research Proposal shall
contain the following sections:
1. General Introduction.
The problem or issue being investigated shall be clearly articulated. A typical proposal
will set out research questions or hypotheses that become the focus of the study. After
reading the proposal, the supervisor or committee should have no difficulty in
understanding the student’s objective in pursuing the research study and why this
particular study is important. The generally agreed elements of this chapter/section are:
 Background to the Study
 Statement of the Problem
 Purpose and Objectives
 Research Questions/Hypotheses
 Scope of the Study
 Justification
 Significance
  Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

2. Literature Review.
The proposal provides evaluative assessment of the literature that is relevant to the topic
being investigated. The literature review is not an exhaustive history of everything ever
written on the research topic. Rather, it is a focused examination of the literature that
leads the reader to understand and appreciate the research questions, hypotheses and
propositions to be investigated. The chapter/section should as far as possible have the
following features:
 Introduction
 Sub-headings under which the literature is reviewed
 The review of the related literature should be guided by the objectives and the
research questions/hypotheses
 It should be a substantial, selective, balanced, comprehensive and evaluative review
of the relevant literature on or around the subject of the current investigation
 It should identify the gap in the literature that the research seeks to address

3. Methodology.
This chapter/section provides an explicit description of how the study will be conducted.
The reader will use this description to evaluate the appropriateness of the data gathering
and analysis procedure to determine if the results will yield information that is reliable
and valid.
Where relevant, this chapter/section includes (usually as an appendix) either a copy of a
validated, research instrument, or a draft of a customized instrument designed for data
collection.
This section/chapter generally comprises the following:
 Research design
 Area of study
 Sources of Information
 Population and sampling techniques
  Variables and indicators
 Measurement levels (where necessary)
 Procedure/protocols for data collection
 Data collection instruments and equipment
 Quality/Error control
 Strategy for data processing and analysis
 Ethical considerations
 Anticipated methodological constraints
 Work plan/Timeline
 Budget (optional)
4. References
APA / IEEE style