Reference no: EM133175821

Preparing Your Research Proposal

Proposal on The importance of microinsurance and the low-income group

The purpose of this document is to provide you with guidance in preparing your research proposal. It is important that you read and familiarise yourself with the requirements outlined. It is expected that you will discuss and get feedback on your proposal from you supervisorprior to submitting this.

The whole point of a dissertation is that you are attempting to contribute to a ‘conversation', a body of knowledge. Before you can do that, you must coherently show the current conversation and why it needs your extension. It is therefore imperative you find a ‘research gap'. However, always remember that what remains important (if not more), is that the research is achievable. For this reason, each proposed research programme must be scrutinised on the basis of how feasible it is to find information and data to address it.

It is advisable not to attempt to construct the rest of the research design until you are familiar with the research issues, questions and objectives. Take your time in understanding the basis of the research and become familiar (as far as you can) with some of the wider literature, your research setting, the specific problem you wish to address and the questions which arise from this. The research questions will guide you on how you will conduct the study. This is the blueprint for your thesis. In a good research proposal, the research questions are ‘threaded' throughout the key areas - everything should revolve around the research questions, which are formulated as a result of exploring an issue and what could be done to address it.

The role of the proposal is to show clearly what you wish to research. By examining the issue and carrying out an initial exploration of current literature you are able to think about the topic in a detailed way and establish whether or not it is feasible to carry out a suitable project in this area. Furthermore, the purpose of a proposal is to explain and justify your proposed study to an audience of non-experts on your topic. In summary, the proposal is an argument for your study. It needs to explain the logic behind the proposed research, rather than simply describe or summarise the study, and to do so in a way that non-specialists will understand.

A key element in ensuring that the dissertation runs smoothly is effective planning. Before the dissertation starts, an outline needs to be developed, the methodology and data sources defined, the dissertation mapped out with chapter headings and sub-headings, and a work programme specified with timetable. This ‘plan' is known as the research proposal.

A discussion and review of this proposal forms the basis of your initial meetings with your supervisor. You should work with feedback from your supervisor to revise and improve your research proposal prior to submission. You also need to discuss the research ethic checklist with your supervisor before including it in your research proposal, as an appendix.
A copy of the final, agreed proposal should be submitted with the dissertation as Appendix A. In essence, your proposal is an initial statement of intent and feasibility for your project.

A research proposal should contain the following elements:
• On the Cover page: Your name, UB number and the words ‘Research Proposal' and the title of the proposed research.
• An outline of the scope and rationale of the dissertation (setting the context).
• A brief literature review that identifies the core theories and models that forms the foundation for your research. These are few key texts/articles on the subject in order to give you a start in your literature search and review later on.
• Aim/s and research question/s
• A description of your proposed methodology and data sources to be used
• Proposed chapter headings and sub-headings for the dissertation
• A work programme with timetable, presented in a Gantt Chart
• An initial list of references to be utilised
• Research Ethics Checklist (as part of the appendix to the research proposal)

The maximum length of the proposal should be no longer than 3000 words (excluding appendix, references,tables and figures).
Dissertations submitted without the proposal as an appendix will lose this element of the final dissertation mark.

In the outline and rationale, you need to give the background to the proposed study. This might be (but is not limited to) a personal discussion of why you are interested in this area, data and/or information from trade and academic journals, books, professional magazines/newspapers/news media, secondary research reports on the area you are studying, internet sources and so on. The purpose of this section is to show why your area of study is valuable or interesting and to give some background on the context of your study. This should link to a set aim or objective, to tell the reader what you aim at achieving in your dissertation.

The literature reviewshould look at the peer reviewed academic literature (books and journal articles) on your area of study. This is the place you begin to look at the academic conversations about your area of interest, identify the key writers and the main arguments and suggest a possible contribution that your research might make. There is no clear cut answer to the question "how many sources do I need?" the answer is enough to show an appreciation of the area you are studying and the main academic discussions taking place.

A research question follows on from the outline/rationale and literature review and should turn the interest stimulated through those sections into a question (or series of questions). Questions should have a question mark at the end! Your research questions must clearly tackle the engagement with the literature that you have claimed. Try not to write too many questions, 3 should be the maximum, 1 is acceptable as long as it clearly tackles the engagement with the literature.

In the methodology you need to establish the ways and approaches you are taking to investigate your research questions. Starting with defining who are relevant to your research, i.e., sampling decisions.

Sampling population - identify the group (or set of things) that you will be making your knowledge claims about, your population. You need to identify this group (who/what are they and why are they interesting), consider issues of access (a realistic outline of how you are going to get to them/it) and why you have excluded other groups (who/what you will not be studying and why).

Sampling procedure and size -You need to explain the procedure you will use or have used to select your sample, the size and makeup of the sample and a justification of your choices - why have you chosen to use your sample selection procedure?

For guidance on what constitutes an appropriate sample please see "dissertation standards with respect to sampling" below.

Methodology - Philosophy - here you will discuss your particular philosophy, and give a justification of why it is appropriate to answer your research question (e.g. phenomenology, positivist research)

Methodology - Design - here you explain how you will collect your data, your method (e.g. focus groups, techniques, questionnaire, experiment). Again, you must justify your choices, why are they the most useful ones to answer your research question?

Methodology - proposed data analysis - here you explain how you will analyse your data, once collected. This should be appropriate to the methodology, methods chosen and your question.

Methodology - limitations - here you show that you understand the limitations of your proposed research. You need to discuss the limitations of your philosophy and design

Research ethical considerations - here you highlight the considerations you have taken to ensure ethical practice in your research design. This should also be reflected in the research ethic checklist. You should discuss with your supervisor about completing the research ethic checklist and have it approved by your supervisor before including it in the appendix (Please note that 10% of the mark on your research proposal will be deducted if you failed to complete and submit the ethic checklist with your proposal).

All these sections need to make sense when looked at as a whole. You need to ensure that there is a consistent narrative thread throughout.

Dissertation Standards with Respect to Sampling

Whilst this section outlines indicative guidance in respect of what constitutes an appropriate sample, the most important person to talk to and get advice and agreement from is your supervisor who will be able to advise on the specifics of your proposed research directly. For example, whilst normal or typical sample sizes are indicated below, if you are undertaking research on a small company with a relatively small population this would affect these as well.

The following guidelines should be employed:

1. MSc dissertations should ideally include the analysis of primary or secondary data.

2. However, if this is not possible in the current circumstances due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, there will be NO PENALTY.In discussion with the dissertation supervisor students can opt for example to:

a. Conduct a comprehensive review of the literature with an extended research methodology proposition as directions for future research which will include everything until the data collection.

b. Conduct an extensive and systematic review of the literature based on meta-analysis, co-citation analysis or other relevant bibliometric analysis tools.

3. Please remember that all MSc dissertations will need the Ethics form signed and agreed by the supervisor BEFORE data collection is due to take place.

In case of Quantitative research with primary or secondary data:
Your sample size should be such that it allows for the analysis needed to demonstrate outcomes appropriate for the postgraduate level of work you are undertaking. For example, you are likely to need 100 as the unit of analysis to allow for multivariate analyses.

In case of primary data collection, the questionnaires should ideally be designed to include already existing measures of the relevant concepts that have already been tested for reliability and validity. It may be necessary or appropriate to adapt these, but generally, you should avoid developing your own questions as a way of measuring concept (doing this effectively is a time consuming and laborious process). Supervisors need to approve any questionnaire before data collection, and this forms part of the ethics approval submission.

For time series data, the coverage should be "adequate" i.e. several decades for annual data, but far fewer years are needed if weekly or daily data is used. Again, please speak to your supervisor about what is appropriate.

In case of Qualitative research from primary data:
Typically, you should be looking to undertake around 12 individual interviews; or 5 - 7 focus groups with 7-9 individuals each, but the exact number that is appropriate will depend on the detail of these, your questions and the context of the research. As before, please speak to your supervisor for guidance on what is and is not appropriate.

It is expected that you develop an interview protocol with the interview questions, which needs to be approved by the supervisor prior to data collection and again, this forms part of the ethics approval submission. Analyses should be in-depth and detailed and you should be able to demonstrate your analytical process effectively. In many cases this is likely to involve the use of NVivo, but other apaches, advised by supervisors may be acceptable.

In case of Qualitative research from secondary data:
There should be a minimum timeline for a comprehensive and/or systematic review of the literature, of no less than the last 5years up to the current date of published academic material on a topic area. The exact timeline is likely to depend on how extensive the literature you are covering is. In following this approach, it is expected that a methodology is described in which the relevant literature has been identified, critically reviewed and integrated.

In case of mix-method research
Speak to your supervisor about how the different elements of your research and interaction between them will affect expectations of an appropriate sample size.