Research Plan Structure

The eight fields

• Context (background) — why are you considering research, what have you found out so far? [long-form]
• Goal — how will you use the results, what decisions will you make? [long-form]
• Learning outcomes — what do you want to understand, what questions should the research answer? [list]
• Target participant / subject profile — who will you ask, what will you study? [list of characteristics]
• Method (overview) — what approach, methods and tools will you choose? [long-form]
• Recruiting & screening — how will you reach participants/subjects? [list]
• Pilot — how will you test your approach, methods, tools? [short-form]
• Data collection — how will you collect data, and how many samples? [short-form]
• Data analysis — how will you analyse the data? [list of steps]
• Findings & recommendations sharing — who will you report to, and in what form?

Filling it in

Work through: data sources (qualitative/quantitative, secondary/primary), contact methods (phone, mail, web, social media, face-to-face), data collection techniques (observations, interviews, experiments), data analysis (statistics, economic and math models), a sampling plan (unit, sample size, method), and a budget (responsibilities, time-table, control).