RES/724 Research Protocol
Create a research protocol by writing a paragraph or two for each section below providing the required information.
1. Background of the Problem and Rationale
- Provide background information for your study.
- In what ways will your research contribute to understanding the phenomenon?
- What is the justification for doing this study?
- What do we already know about this topic?
- Why do we need to learn more?
- What are the gaps in the literature that you plan to explore?
- What is the theoretical/conceptual framework for this study?
- Why will the approach you propose to use be most suitable to answering the gaps in the literature?
- Show the relevance of the conceptual framework to your own research.
3. Objectives
- What are the objectives of your study?
4. Study Setting
- Where will your study be held?
- Are permissions needed to do the study in this location?
- Discuss issues of confidentiality given the study setting. Study design
- Give an overview of the study design and its relevance to your research.
- Why is this design appropriate given the problem and purpose of your research?
- How will the research be carried out?
- What data collection approaches will you use?
- What activities will you undertake?
- Complete a section below for each type of field activity you plan to use.
- Interviews
- Observations
- Focus groups
- Panel of Experts
- Collection of artefacts
5.1 In-depth interviews, Observations, Focus Groups, Expert Panel
5.1.1 Purpose
- Why will you be doing interviews?
- Who will you be doing interviews with?
- Why will you be doing observations? Of What?
- Why will you use focus groups? Who will participate?
- Why will you use an expert panel, Who will be the experts?
- Who will be the interview, focus group, expert panel respondents? Be sure to describe them in detail and explain relevance to your study.
- How will you access your participants? Discuss method for sampling, i.e. Nonrandom, purposive, snowball sampling etc.
- List Inclusion criteria for participants.
- List exclusion criteria for participants.
5.1.3 Sample size
- List the proposed sample size.
- If using more than one group, list sample size for each group.
- Explain reasons for the proposed sample size
- Discuss data saturation.
5.1.4 Permission
- Give details on permissions needed from organizations to do your study
- Give details on permissions needed from individuals.
5.1.5 Consent process
- What information will be given to participants prior to participation?
- When will informed consent be given to the participant?
- How will informed consent be given to the participant?
- What information is on the Informed Consent form?
5.1.6 Organizing the interview, focus group, observation, expert panel
- When will the interview, focus group, observation, expert panel take place?
- How will you arrange a date and time for the Interview etc. with the participants?
- If done via telephone, skype etc. how will this be arranged?
- If done via other media such as survey monkey, how will this be done?
- If doing observations, who are the gatekeepers? How will observations be arranged?
5.1.7 Introduction to the interview
- How will you set up the interview, focus group, observation, expert panel?
- What information will you give the participant prior to starting the data collection?
- Will you give any incentives for being part of the research?
5.1.8 Interview Script or Guide
- What questions will you be asking?
- You should have an interview script in an appendix of your protocol. (This is not necessary for this assignment)
5.1.9 Validating questions
- How will you validate your questions?
- Who will be participants?
- What will you ask them to do?
- What will you do with the results?
5.1.10 Recording Interviews
- How will you record the interviews? You must justify your methods chosen.
- Audio recording
- Video recording
- Note taking
6. Data Management and Analysis
6.1 Data Handling and Data Entry
- How will interviews and other documentation be noted and transcribed?
- How will you code individual participants to maintain confidentiality?
- How will all data (recordings, transcripts, informed consent, contact summary forms) be stored to maintain confidentiality when doing the interviews or observations...?
- How will you handle and enter any demographic data.
- Where will you keep this information?
- What demographic data will you collect?
6.1.3 Interviews and Observations
- How will you maintain confidentiality of participants names during the interview or observation i.e. use of codes on all recorded interviews and notes? Name of person will never be recorded.
- How will you maintain confidentiality of the expert panel?
- How will you store the transcripts, recordings, informed consent, after the interviews or observations?
- Describe how the interviews will be transcribed.
- If someone else is doing the transcribing, you must have a confidentiality agreement with that person.
- Will any non-verbal data be included in the transcription? I.e. Observations.
- How will the data be analyzed?
- How will the data be coded and developed into meaningful themes and constructs?
- If using software to help with analysis, provide a clear understanding on how this software will be used.
- This should be a step-by-step approach to how the data will be coded and analyzed.
- If doing a Delphi study, how will subsequent rounds of data be analyzed.
6.2.2 Organizing the data
- How will the data be stored and managed? If using software, explain in detail.
- How will you develop the initial codes for the data?
- How will you arrive at the general themes?
- Will you use software such as NVivo? How?
6.2.4 Development of theoretical constructs and narratives
- How will the coded material be arranged to develop theoretical constructs and themes
- How will results be related to existing literature and the conceptual framework of the study to develop conclusions?
- Discuss member checking
7. Ensuring ethics and quality
- How will research participants be protected?
- What are potential risks?
- Issues of confidentiality
- How will the research act in an ethical manner?
- Approval by IRB(s)
7.2 Rigor and quality
- How will you maintain transparency?
- How will you assure that your research is dependable and credible?
- Discuss things such as maintaining an audit trail, personal journals, and research journal.
- How will you minimize researcher bias? Discuss things such as bracketing and epoch.
- Discuss how you will maintain quality and rigor in each stage of the research study and how this will be monitored.
- Provide a timeline for each stage of the research? Consider how long each phase will take
- When will participants be solicited?
- When will data be collected?
- Time frame for transcription?
- Time frame for member checking
- When will data be analyzed
- When will narrative and write-up be completed?
Field of study:
