What makes a good proposal?

1. What makes a good proposal?

2. The research process

3. Problem statements Research Questions Methodologies Conceptual model & hypotheses Data collection Data needs Theory should inform all stages.

4. Problem Statement (ความสำคัญของปัญหา) • The problem provides the context for the research study and typically generates questions which the research hopes to answer. • The statement of the problem is the first part of the research proposal. • The problem statement should "hook” or draw the attention of the reader and establish a convincing context for what follows. "what is the problem"? "why is this problem worth my attention"?

5. Problem Statement Research questions • The problem statement should close with a question. • Typically, the question contains variables, a measurable relationship. • The purpose of the literature search that follows is to answer the research problem question. • If the literature cannot answer the question, the research is needed to do so.

6. Good or bad ? Research questions • "What is the relationship between the flame temperature of the burner and the efficiency of the fluidized bed boiler"? • The information needed is: • The measurements of flame temperature • The efficiency of the boiler • The literature search  answer this question if there is other reports on this. • Otherwise our research is needed to do so. Good or bad ?

7. Good or bad ? Research questions • "What is the best way to heat the samples before the soldering stage"? • This is insufficient because: • What are the variables? • What will be measured? • What relationships will be examined? • Difficult to go on to the next step. Good or bad ?

8. Title of research • The title and the problem statement question are often nearly identical. For example, in the good example above, the title of this research project would be something like this: • The effect of the flame temperature of the burner and the efficiency of the fluidized bed boiler.

9. Research questions hypotheses • “An hypothesis is a statement or explanation that is suggested by knowledge or observation but has not, yet, been proved or disproved.” • The hypothesis is a clear statement of what is intended to be investigated. • This allows to: • Identify the research objectives • Identify the key abstract concepts involved in the research • Identify its relationship to both the problem statement and the literature review

10. hypotheses Literature review Research questions present knowledge predictions from theory mathematical/analytical models

11. Formulation of hypothesis

12. # Step How 1 The problem area; a vague research idea What’s important? Personal interests and skills? 2 Identify a researchable problem, the research question(s) Difficult! Read literature and discuss. Field visits, PRA? Manageable (time, data, ...)? 3 Conceptual basis (theory) & develop hypotheses Literature, present knowledge, predictions from theory. in some cases mathematical/analytical models 4 Identify data needed to ‘test hypotheses’ Dependent – independent variables, proxies, enough data variation 5 How to get data? Surveys to be done. Availability, primary vs. secondary data. Time and money constraints 6 Methodologies to be used Statistical methods, econometrics (‘economic tricks’), simulation (e.g., programming)

13. The next steps: (7) data collection; (8) data analysis; (9) interpretation and discussion of results; (10) conclusions; and – as a small detail – (11) write your theses about (1) – (10)!

14. A good research proposal • contains information about the above steps; • has consistency between the steps! Consistency = marked by harmony , regularity, or steady continuity

15. Typical mistakes: • Too much on: • background • other studies • (theories) • Too little on what the project is about: • research questions • Methodologies. If not sure: write something and be specific: not: “I will use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods” • Weak on: • Research questions and hypotheses not specific enough • Covers too much – “can she really do this?”

16. (1) A good problem statements • Choose something you are interested in, think it fascinating, relevant for your future work,… • You’ll need that personal motivation during long evenings/nights the weeks before the theses is submitted. • Policy relevant and ‘hot’: • useful to someone • more motivating to work on • help in your future carrier • see journals (popular/scientific), policy and other documents to find out ‘what’s hot and what’s not’.

17. (2) Research Question: why is it important? • The most difficult part, spend time on it! • Risk if not well defined: • collect data that will not be used; • don’t collect data that would be useful. • A good research question limit the scope theses • A good research question structure the theses: • define relevant literature, • develop good hypotheses, • define data needed, …. • It helps the reader – you tell them what you are going to answer. It simply makes it more interesting!

18. What is a good research question? • Formulated as a question, i.e., has a ? • Sharply defined and can be answered in one sentence, possibly with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Does the higher flame temperature of the burner increase the efficiency of the fluidized bed boiler ?

19. … good research questions… • Not purely descriptive: • What are the main uses of forest? • A contribution to our knowledge base and science. How? • A new question, or an old question taken a step further (building on old answers) • An old question but applied to a new area? • Researchable: Can the theses answer the question, given particularly two constraints: • The time, money and skills available • The data availability and variability (e.g., enough variation in the data to test the hypotheses)

20. (3) The hypotheses • Since you are writing a theses, a central part of it should obviously be the (hypo)theses. • “The principle intellectual instrument in research”. It's a key in the scientific method. • Definition: “A reasonable scientific proposal”. “An educated guess”. • The hypothesis posits the expected relationship between some variables. • Two requirements: • Must fit known facts • Be testable Hypo = under : beneath : down

21. Facts vs. hypotheses • The hypothesis is based on known facts, but takes it a step further, often by combining facts and thereby creating (possible) links. • Fact 1: Many farmers are credit constrained.Fact 2: Soil conservation often requires cash investments.Hypothesis: Credit constraints make farmers invest less in soil conservation.

22. Is the hypothesis testable? • can the variables be measured (e.g., poverty, land degradation, ….)? Use of proxies? • amount of data needed vs. time and resource available. • enough variation in data to test the hypotheses? • The price response cannot be estimated by household data for one year from three villages (not enough price variation), but one can estimate how rice production varies with household size, off-farm work, etc.

23. Do all theses need to have hypotheses? • No, but most of them would be better if the research is organized around them! • What’s the difference between research question and hypotheses? • Might be small • Hypotheses often more specific, and each research question will have several hypotheses.