How to write a research proposal - a guide for PhD applicants in the social sciences

How do you write a research proposal? How do you structure it, how do you lay it out?

Keep reading because in this blogpost, I’m going to share a basic outline of a research proposal with you.

I’m Dr Elizabeth Yardley and here on my Degree Doctor website, I’m sharing my 20 years’ experience of supporting social science graduate students to help you get the most out of your doctoral journey.

Now, before we get into it, if you are writing a research proposal and you’ve stumbled across this blogpost, it’s probably going to have some useful stuff in it, even if I do say so myself.

But the most important – by far the most important - thing you need to be paying attention to is the guidance and advice provided by your university. So, if you don’t have that info to hand, please go get hold of it before you write anything else.

All universities will want things done in a slightly different ways to others. Whilst the overall basic structure is highly likely to be the same or very similar (and that’s what you’ll get in this blogpost), the devil is in the detail. So always, always refer to your university’s guidance, because that’s always going to override any advice that I give you. Okay?! Good!

Okay, so basic outline structure of a research proposal. Research proposals essentially boil down to four main sections, each of which look at a specific element of the proposed research and tackle particular questions that relate to it. Let’s take them one at a time.

(1) Introduction: What’s this all about and why should anyone care?

In the introduction section of your research proposal, you are essentially laying out what the proposed research is and why it’s important to do.

This section is going to include your working title. Now, I always call it a working title rather than just a title because by calling it that, you’re staying open to the possibility of change. You’re not nailing your colours to the mast on Day One. You’re appreciative of the fact that the research journey is a long and winding one, and the title you came up with in the beginning might not be the title you end up with.

Your topic should not be too broad, it should identify a specific group of people, who are experiencing a specific issue or have a specific interest within a broader context. I won’t go into lots of detail about that here because I have a YouTube video on that, click here to check it out. But, main thing you need to remember – be specific - ensure you can fill in these blanks and you’ll be off to a great start.

This research explores (group of peoples) experiences of (issue / interest) within (broader context).

You need to write about where the idea for this research has come from. Have you conducted a previous study in this area? Are you particularly interested in this topic for a particular reason? Has something happened in the world that justified a closer look at this topic right now? Here’s the place to address that.

You also need to be really clear about the ‘research problem’. What is going on here which is problematic, concerning, not okay? Don’t be afraid to state the obvious. Many students don’t do this properly and they just assume that the person reading the proposal will just realise there’s a problem with X, Y or Z. They might, but they might not, or they might assume wrong, so it’s up to you to be super clear. Let’s take a look at some examples:

“Young Working-Class Men’s Experiences of University Recruitment: A study of four elite English universities” - is the problem here the fact that not enough men from working class backgrounds are going to university? Or they’re being put off from going because of elitist recruitment processes? Say so and back it up with evidence by referring to statistics and / or existing research.

“Women Worker’s Experiences of Sexual Harassment in the nighttime economy: An ethnographic study of female workers in London city nightclubs” – is the problem, here that young women are being sexually assaulted when working in the nighttime economy? Again, say so and back it up with evidence by referring to statistics and / or existing research.

Next up, you need to lay out your aims, objectives and research questions. Aims are what you want to achieve, objectives are what you will actually do to achieve them, the steps you will take, and your research questions are the things that will guide you through the project and ensure you stay on track and focused. If you need help with that, check out this blogpost.

Lastly in the introduction, you need to get a little bit ahead of yourself and think about the potential benefits of the research you’re proposing to do. Who will benefit from it? How will they benefit from it? What might happen as a result of you doing the research?

(2) Academic Foundations: Where does this fit in and what’s been done before?

Next up in the proposal, you need to lay the academic foundations for your project.

First thing this is going to involve is being clear about your research philosophy. What is your general approach to this project going to be? Here we’re talking about paradigms and theoretical frameworks. Essentially, this is the lens through which you are going to be looking at your topic.

• Are you taking a critical realist approach?

• Are you adopting a radical feminist perspective?

• Are you approaching this topic through the lens of queer theory or critical race theory?

It’s important to lay this out here because it’s going to shape how you do a lot of stuff in your proposed project. It’s going to affect how you approach the literature, how you conduct your research, what ultimately you do with your research.

So once you’ve set the record straight about your research philosophy, we’ve got to tackle the literature review.

Now, the level of depth you’ll go into here will depend on what the university is asking for. Some expect you to do a fully-fledged comprehensive literature review. Others simply just want you to demonstrate an awareness of the literature around your topic and a plan as to how you’re going to review it in more detail if your proposal is successful. So, you need to get clear on exactly what’s expected of you and exactly how they want you to present it and then write to that.

After you’ve presented the material you need to share on the literature review, you need to join up the dots by identifying the gap in the literature that the research you’re proposing is going to fill.

So, to revisit our earlier example, “Women Worker’s Experiences of Sexual Harassment in the nighttime economy: An ethnographic study of female workers in London city nightclubs”, you might say there has been a considerable amount of academic literature exploring women’s experiences of sexual violence, another collection of literature about working in the night time economy, but nothing specifically on women’s experiences of sexual violence whilst working in the nighttime economy in nightclubs and pubs, and that’s where your research is going to fill a gap. Again, this is yet another example of where you have to state the obvious in a research proposal. Don’t just assume the person reading the proposal is going to join the dots up – you have to do it for them.

(3) Methodology: How are you going to research it and why are you going to do it this way?

This part of the research proposal is all about the how and the why.

We know all about the “What?” at this point in time - the topic you’re exploring - and the “Where?” in terms of where it fits into the academic landscape, but now, we want to find out about your approach to doing the research.

Key things to cover here are:

Sample: There are different approaches to sampling, which will largely depend upon the choices you've made so far. How big or small do you want your sample to be? What qualifying criteria are there for being included? Do you want to include only people who attend a particular institution, for example? When are you going to collect data, within a specific time frame? Where are you going to collect data? Only in a specific place?

Data Collection and Analysis: What techniques are you going to use to collect and analyse your data and why are these techniques the most appropriate ones? I can’t emphasise how important the WHY question is in outlining your research methods. Most students do a fairly decent job of saying what they’re planning to do, but they often don’t give enough detail, and they don’t say why this was the best way to do it. They’re not transparent about the decision making that guided their choice of method. Here you want to be thinking back to your research aims and your research philosophy – how are the techniques you’ve chosen consistent with these things?

For instance, if you're adopting a critical realist approach to investigate "Young Working-Class Men's Experiences of University Recruitment" across four elite English universities, your choice of a mixed methods study incorporating qualitative interviews and analysis of anonymised admissions data requires justification. You might argue that qualitative interviews allow for an in-depth exploration of participants' lived experiences, capturing nuanced insights into the challenges and perceptions they face during the recruitment process. Meanwhile, the quantitative analysis of admissions data complements these qualitative findings by providing broader contextual understanding and statistical patterns, enhancing the overall richness and validity of the study's conclusions and revealing wider, structural, institutional inequalities which are not possible to identify from the interviews.

By linking your methodological choices to your research aims and philosophical stance, you demonstrate coherence and rigor in your approach, ensuring that your methods effectively address the research questions and contribute meaningfully to the scholarly discourse.

Ethical considerations: In your research proposal, you will need to demonstrate that you have considered the potential risks of your proposed research and outline your plans to minimise and mitigate this as much as is reasonably possible. How will you minimise harm, ensure informed consent, attend to issues like confidentiality, anonymity, privacy, data protection? There is a tendency to think about ethics simply in terms of protecting the participants. However, you should ensure that your own wellbeing is safeguarded too. For example, if you are researching a sensitive topic and you will be exposed to a lot of information about traumatic experiences, what are you going to do to keep yourself safe and well? You should consult any ethical guidelines issues by professional bodies or academic societies within your discipline.

(4) Project Management: Is this realistic and achievable within the specific timeframe and resources?

Last but by no means least, the project management side of things.

The question here is essentially: Is this realistic and achievable within the specific timeframe and budget?

The level of detail you’ll need to include about project management will vary and as I said at the start – you need to check the specifics of your own university.

However, at the very least, you’ll need to demonstrate that you have a realistic grasp on the time the research is going to take you and an appreciation of the fact that research projects often are not linear, there’s significant overlap between the stages, there’s a lot of doubling back and that kind of thing and that is often best represented in a visual format like a GANTT chart.

Provide a detailed breakdown of tasks, deadlines, and resource allocations to demonstrate feasibility within the specified timeframe and budget. Ensure that your timeline accounts for potential delays, revisions, and unexpected challenges that may arise during the research process.

Also, may universities now are encouraging you to think through and identify any potential risks that are associated with your research and what you in the event of A, B or C.

Identify potential risks and uncertainties associated with the research project, including recruitment challenges, ethical approval delays, resource constraints, or unforeseen circumstances. Develop a systematic approach to risk management by outlining specific contingency plans or alternative strategies to address potential setbacks or obstacles that may impact the project's progress. This proactive approach demonstrates your ability to anticipate challenges, mitigate risks, and ensure the successful completion of the research within the designated timeframe and resources.

Now, before we run off to write our research proposals, another really important thing you need to include in yours? A reference list! You would be amazed at the number of research proposals I’ve seen that do not include a reference list! I know how it happens – you get busy, you get so fixated on the content of the proposal that the ‘around the edges’ stuff gets forgotten. Please don’t do that! And the format of the reference list? Again, check what the university wants!

Next steps

I hope these tips help you get onto the doctoral programme of your dreams! Be sure to sign up for my weekly emails, which are the ONLY emails PhD students actually want to read. That isn’t a brag - that’s what many people on my list actually say to me every single week! When you sign up using this link, I’ll give you a couple of free planners to help you on your PhD journey too.