A formal proposal is required for admission to a research degree. It is one means by which university committees assess and approve your research candidature.

The process of developing the proposal can be a valuable exercise, one which can help you determine your focus, clarify what is involved in your research project and plan its development. A developed proposal is an important way in which you can demonstrate your understanding of research and communicate your ‘research thinking’ to others.

These guidelines are provided to help you draw out your ideas. They state the requirements of a sound proposal.

1 Topic and problematic

The research topic formulates a problem that is worthy of research. The topic should:

• be stated clearly and succinctly in one or two sentences.
• be determined after consultation with potential supervisors.

The topic is usually framed as a ‘problem’ or question in need of an answer. The topic statement will invite your reader to ask why it is significant and ‘worth doing’. A good research proposal identifies in the research topic a ‘problematic’ to be investigated. Needless to say, your statement of this will result from discussion of your area of interest with potential supervisors, mentors and others.

Framing the question is not always easy, and you need to ask yourself whether your proposed ‘problem’ or ‘research question’ is really the question to be asked and answered. The framing of the problematic is crucial in setting up the research, though it is a common for researchers to revise and reformulate this as the research progresses.

An important issue is how you theorise or conceptualise the topic—what needs to come through is your understanding of the problematic you are exploring.

2 Background and context

Your research topic needs to be located in its context and background. In sketching this background, you need to show how and why does the topic come to be important and why is it worth researching? This means:

• contextualising the research problem—how does it arise?
• outlining its significance—what will be the outcomes, and for whom?
• referring to key issues that are associated with the topic

Background can be provided in several ways. Your theoretical interests or concerns may have generated the research, and its justification is to be found in a theoretical developments or related literature. Where professional practice is the focus, you may want to describe and analyse the context of policy or organisational changes.

In any case, you should summarise the influences which come into play to shape your research. The analysis should lead you to interrogate your own assumptions about why the problem is significant. You need to ask what interests are driving the research, from whose point of view the problem is ‘significant’?

3 Conceptual framework and related literature

A conceptual framework elaborates the research problematic in relation to relevant literature. It should deal with such matters as:

• existing research and its relevance for your topic
• relevant theoretical perspective or perspectives
• key ideas or constructs in your approach
• possible lines of inquiry you might pursue

Your proposal needs to show how the proposed research relates to a body of related studies, or literature. The orthodox way to do this is to write a brief version of the literature review on a traditional science model. This is not always possible, especially if there is little related past research. Another is to outline the kinds of theoretical sources that will inform your research—the available research perspectives.

Though not all proposals need to include an elaborated conceptual framework, a well-developed proposal will do so. This can take up so-called ‘conceptual issues’ which express your understanding of the topic and the problems in researching it.

4 Methodology and ethics

Methodology put simply is the research methods you intend to develop or employ and their justification. It is more than a description of the techniques or procedures proposed, and should outline the key assumptions your approach makes. It may foreshadow some of the ‘methodological issues’ which you anticipate will arise in developing your research approach.

How you describe your methodology will depend on what kind of approach you are taking. The methodology section typically might:

• refer to a accepted method or approach
• highlight problems in developing a suitable approach (methodological issues)
• describe how information will be generated, analysed and reported
• document ethical issues in view of UTS Ethics Committee requirements (see the guidelines on ethics included in this handbook)

If you plan a quantitative study, you will refer to method, data collection and analysis. Qualitative methodology will need to describe issues in managing qualitative data. An action research methodology needs to be described in terms of planning a process and the outcomes of different phases of the process, and so on.

5 Research plan and timeline

An important part of the proposal is planning the research in all its stages up to completion. Your plan should specify what tasks you will complete at each stage – literature review, research framework, description of method, writing up of findings and conclusions and so on. These tasks should specify what writing tasks will be accomplished and when. It is helpful to:

• diagram the research as a semester by semester timeline
• state semester writing objectives for each semester
• state other outcomes at a given stage, such as seminar or conference papers
• allow a semester for revising the thesis

You do not have an indefinite amount of time to complete the degree. Plan to complete in the minimum time, and plan how you will achieve this. A suggested way to describe the timeline is shown on the attached planner.

Thesis preparation is a challenging writing task. It will be helpful for you to specify what writing outcomes there will be at each stage. The Faculty encourages students to understand their research in terms of scholarly writing, whether or not field research is involved. Early completion is more likely if the thesis develops through specific writing commitments including short papers which may be presented at seminars and conferences. UTS requires doctoral candidates complete a doctoral assessment seminar (see guidelines elsewhere in this handbook).

7 Research Timeline

The following illustrates how a research degree thesis might be planned over six semesters:

Note:
The research proposal which is submitted with an application is used primarily for making a decision about admission. It is not expected that this will be definitive or final. After commencing a research degree, it is normal for research proposals to be modified as a result of further study and investigation, sometimes in substantial ways.

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