1- Title
Descriptive title of the research project.

2- Research Question/ Hypothesis
What question are you hoping to answer by conducting this line of research?

3- Significance/ Justification
Literature review. Using the literature, establish any previous work that is related to your research question.  The literature review answers the following:

• What is already known about the topic?
• Why is the topic important?
• What answers will the current study provide?
• Cites previous research, points out problems with that research and indicates what questions remain.

4- Research Design
What research design will be used to address your research question?  Examples include: experimental and quasi-experimental designs (e.g., one group-posttest only, randomized clinical trial, case control cohort). 

5- Methods & Procedures
Methods are techniques in which data are collected; these include retrospective chart review, secondary data abstraction, survey, focus group, and interviewing.  Procedures are what subjects will be exposed to as part of your study.  If your study involves a treatment or intervention, describe it here.

6- Population under study/Subjects
You must identify your unit of analysis.  In most cases this will be individuals but could include a classroom, a school, a clinic, a neighborhood, or a hospital unit.  Special attention to the study of human subjects is of great importance ethically and empirically.  This includes having a well thought out plan for Recruitment (including informed consent), Selection criteria  (Inclusion/Exclusion), Sampling strategy/design (how will individuals or charts be selected), and how you will maintain Data privacy and protection.

7- Statistical Analyses
The analytic plan is more than the statistical techniques to be used but also includes the hypotheses, limitations of the analytic approach or design, and sample size determination/power estimate.

8- Data Collection form
This standardized form is used to capture the data; it could be a medical record abstraction form, a survey, a focus group protocol, or a scripted structured interview. Don’t forget to include this form with your IRB application.

9- Informed Consent Form
This is a necessary component for IRB review.  Not all studies will require an informed consent process (i.e., studies using methods that obtain secondary data).  For those studies that do require an informed consent process (i.e., studies using primary data collection methods), please use the templates provided by Synergy at the IRB web link.

10- Administrative concerns

11- Ethical Considerations

12- References

Include all bibliographic references cited in your proposal/research design. Arrange each reference by alphabetical order in descending order.

Click here to download a Word version of the Research Project Outline