Develop a focused research proposal
A proposal must connect an interesting question to a practical investigation. Use Citation to develop that connection while keeping the literature, proposed method and remaining uncertainties visible in the draft.
- Audience
- Researchers
- Role
- Project researcher
- Project
- Research proposal
- Reading time
- 2 min read
Write the research question in one sentence before expanding the background section. Specify what the project would examine and what it would leave outside its scope.
Keep a separate list of decisions that still need an answer. A missing decision should remain visible while the proposal develops.
Narrow the topic
Identify the population, setting or material you want to study. Explain why this boundary matters rather than presenting a broad area as a finished question.
Use the literature to test whether the question is already answered, disputed or insufficiently defined. Revise the question when that reading changes its premise.
Explain the research gap
Connect each background claim to a checked source record. Describe what the existing studies establish and the limits of their findings.
Avoid treating the absence of one paper in your search as proof that no research exists. State the scope of your reading and the specific uncertainty you can support.
Make the method explicit
Describe what evidence you would collect and how you would analyze it. Connect each methodological choice to the question.
Record feasibility, access and ethical approval needs. Citation can hold the plan, but approval and permission must come from the appropriate institution.
Review the reasoning
Ask an invited editor to challenge the link between the question and method. Use comments to discuss a specific assumption or unsupported step.
If you use AI to clarify a passage, compare the suggestion with your intended design. Do not accept a more confident claim merely because it reads smoothly.
Check the proposal as a whole
Read the question, method and expected contribution together. They should describe the same project at the same scale.
Review the exported proposal against the application requirements, including references, word limits and required sections.