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How to write a research plan: Step-by-step guide

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30 January 2024

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Today’s businesses and institutions rely on data and analytics to inform their product and service decisions. These metrics influence how organizations stay competitive and inspire innovation. However, gathering data and insights requires carefully constructed research, and every research project needs a roadmap. This is where a research plan comes into play.

Read this step-by-step guide for writing a detailed research plan that can apply to any project, whether it’s scientific, educational, or business-related.

• What is a research plan?

A research plan is a documented overview of a project in its entirety, from end to end. It details the research efforts, participants, and methods needed, along with any anticipated results. It also outlines the project’s goals and mission, creating layers of steps to achieve those goals within a specified timeline.

Without a research plan, you and your team are flying blind, potentially wasting time and resources to pursue research without structured guidance.

The principal investigator, or PI, is responsible for facilitating the research oversight. They will create the research plan and inform team members and stakeholders of every detail relating to the project. The PI will also use the research plan to inform decision-making throughout the project.

• Why do you need a research plan?

Create a research plan before starting any official research to maximize every effort in pursuing and collecting the research data. Crucially, the plan will model the activities needed at each phase of the research project .

Like any roadmap, a research plan serves as a valuable tool providing direction for those involved in the project—both internally and externally. It will keep you and your immediate team organized and task-focused while also providing necessary definitions and timelines so you can execute your project initiatives with full understanding and transparency.

External stakeholders appreciate a working research plan because it’s a great communication tool, documenting progress and changing dynamics as they arise. Any participants of your planned research sessions will be informed about the purpose of your study, while the exercises will be based on the key messaging outlined in the official plan.

Here are some of the benefits of creating a research plan document for every project:

Project organization and structure

Well-informed participants

All stakeholders and teams align in support of the project

Clearly defined project definitions and purposes

Distractions are eliminated, prioritizing task focus

Timely management of individual task schedules and roles

Costly reworks are avoided

• What should a research plan include?

The different aspects of your research plan will depend on the nature of the project. However, most official research plan documents will include the core elements below. Each aims to define the problem statement , devising an official plan for seeking a solution.

Specific project goals and individual objectives

Ideal strategies or methods for reaching those goals

Required resources

Descriptions of the target audience, sample sizes , demographics, and scopes

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Project background

Research and testing support

Preliminary studies and progress reporting mechanisms

Cost estimates and change order processes

Depending on the research project’s size and scope, your research plan could be brief—perhaps only a few pages of documented plans. Alternatively, it could be a fully comprehensive report. Either way, it’s an essential first step in dictating your project’s facilitation in the most efficient and effective way.

• How to write a research plan for your project

When you start writing your research plan, aim to be detailed about each step, requirement, and idea. The more time you spend curating your research plan, the more precise your research execution efforts will be.

Account for every potential scenario, and be sure to address each and every aspect of the research.

Consider following this flow to develop a great research plan for your project:

Define your project’s purpose

Start by defining your project’s purpose. Identify what your project aims to accomplish and what you are researching. Remember to use clear language.

Thinking about the project’s purpose will help you set realistic goals and inform how you divide tasks and assign responsibilities. These individual tasks will be your stepping stones to reach your overarching goal.

Additionally, you’ll want to identify the specific problem, the usability metrics needed, and the intended solutions.

Know the following three things about your project’s purpose before you outline anything else:

What you’re doing

Why you’re doing it

What you expect from it

Identify individual objectives

With your overarching project objectives in place, you can identify any individual goals or steps needed to reach those objectives. Break them down into phases or steps. You can work backward from the project goal and identify every process required to facilitate it.

Be mindful to identify each unique task so that you can assign responsibilities to various team members. At this point in your research plan development, you’ll also want to assign priority to those smaller, more manageable steps and phases that require more immediate or dedicated attention.

Select research methods

Once you have outlined your goals, objectives, steps, and tasks, it’s time to drill down on selecting research methods . You’ll want to leverage specific research strategies and processes. When you know what methods will help you reach your goals, you and your teams will have direction to perform and execute your assigned tasks.

Research methods might include any of the following:

User interviews : this is a qualitative research method where researchers engage with participants in one-on-one or group conversations. The aim is to gather insights into their experiences, preferences, and opinions to uncover patterns, trends, and data.

Field studies : this approach allows for a contextual understanding of behaviors, interactions, and processes in real-world settings. It involves the researcher immersing themselves in the field, conducting observations, interviews, or experiments to gather in-depth insights.

Card sorting : participants categorize information by sorting content cards into groups based on their perceived similarities. You might use this process to gain insights into participants’ mental models and preferences when navigating or organizing information on websites, apps, or other systems.

Focus groups : use organized discussions among select groups of participants to provide relevant views and experiences about a particular topic.

Diary studies : ask participants to record their experiences, thoughts, and activities in a diary over a specified period. This method provides a deeper understanding of user experiences, uncovers patterns, and identifies areas for improvement.

Five-second testing: participants are shown a design, such as a web page or interface, for just five seconds. They then answer questions about their initial impressions and recall, allowing you to evaluate the design’s effectiveness.

Surveys : get feedback from participant groups with structured surveys. You can use online forms, telephone interviews, or paper questionnaires to reveal trends, patterns, and correlations.

Tree testing : tree testing involves researching web assets through the lens of findability and navigability. Participants are given a textual representation of the site’s hierarchy (the “tree”) and asked to locate specific information or complete tasks by selecting paths.

Usability testing : ask participants to interact with a product, website, or application to evaluate its ease of use. This method enables you to uncover areas for improvement in digital key feature functionality by observing participants using the product.

Live website testing: research and collect analytics that outlines the design, usability, and performance efficiencies of a website in real time.

There are no limits to the number of research methods you could use within your project. Just make sure your research methods help you determine the following:

What do you plan to do with the research findings?

What decisions will this research inform? How can your stakeholders leverage the research data and results?

Recruit participants and allocate tasks

Next, identify the participants needed to complete the research and the resources required to complete the tasks. Different people will be proficient at different tasks, and having a task allocation plan will allow everything to run smoothly.

Prepare a thorough project summary

Every well-designed research plan will feature a project summary. This official summary will guide your research alongside its communications or messaging. You’ll use the summary while recruiting participants and during stakeholder meetings. It can also be useful when conducting field studies.

Ensure this summary includes all the elements of your research project . Separate the steps into an easily explainable piece of text that includes the following:

An introduction: the message you’ll deliver to participants about the interview, pre-planned questioning, and testing tasks.

Interview questions: prepare questions you intend to ask participants as part of your research study, guiding the sessions from start to finish.

An exit message: draft messaging your teams will use to conclude testing or survey sessions. These should include the next steps and express gratitude for the participant’s time.

Create a realistic timeline

While your project might already have a deadline or a results timeline in place, you’ll need to consider the time needed to execute it effectively.

Realistically outline the time needed to properly execute each supporting phase of research and implementation. And, as you evaluate the necessary schedules, be sure to include additional time for achieving each milestone in case any changes or unexpected delays arise.

For this part of your research plan, you might find it helpful to create visuals to ensure your research team and stakeholders fully understand the information.

Determine how to present your results

A research plan must also describe how you intend to present your results. Depending on the nature of your project and its goals, you might dedicate one team member (the PI) or assume responsibility for communicating the findings yourself.

In this part of the research plan, you’ll articulate how you’ll share the results. Detail any materials you’ll use, such as:

Presentations and slides

A project report booklet

A project findings pamphlet

Documents with key takeaways and statistics

Graphic visuals to support your findings

• Format your research plan

As you create your research plan, you can enjoy a little creative freedom. A plan can assume many forms, so format it how you see fit. Determine the best layout based on your specific project, intended communications, and the preferences of your teams and stakeholders.

Find format inspiration among the following layouts:

Written outlines

Narrative storytelling

Visual mapping

Graphic timelines

Remember, the research plan format you choose will be subject to change and adaptation as your research and findings unfold. However, your final format should ideally outline questions, problems, opportunities, and expectations.

• Research plan example

Imagine you’ve been tasked with finding out how to get more customers to order takeout from an online food delivery platform. The goal is to improve satisfaction and retain existing customers. You set out to discover why more people aren’t ordering and what it is they do want to order or experience. 

You identify the need for a research project that helps you understand what drives customer loyalty . But before you jump in and start calling past customers, you need to develop a research plan—the roadmap that provides focus, clarity, and realistic details to the project.

Here’s an example outline of a research plan you might put together:

Project title

Project members involved in the research plan

Purpose of the project (provide a summary of the research plan’s intent)

Objective 1 (provide a short description for each objective)

Objective 2

Objective 3

Proposed timeline

Audience (detail the group you want to research, such as customers or non-customers)

Budget (how much you think it might cost to do the research)

Risk factors/contingencies (any potential risk factors that may impact the project’s success)

Remember, your research plan doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel—it just needs to fit your project’s unique needs and aims.

Customizing a research plan template

Some companies offer research plan templates to help get you started. However, it may make more sense to develop your own customized plan template. Be sure to include the core elements of a great research plan with your template layout, including the following:

Introductions to participants and stakeholders

Background problems and needs statement

Significance, ethics, and purpose

Research methods, questions, and designs

Preliminary beliefs and expectations

Implications and intended outcomes

Realistic timelines for each phase

Conclusion and presentations

How many pages should a research plan be?

Generally, a research plan can vary in length between 500 to 1,500 words. This is roughly three pages of content. More substantial projects will be 2,000 to 3,500 words, taking up four to seven pages of planning documents.

What is the difference between a research plan and a research proposal?

A research plan is a roadmap to success for research teams. A research proposal, on the other hand, is a dissertation aimed at convincing or earning the support of others. Both are relevant in creating a guide to follow to complete a project goal.

What are the seven steps to developing a research plan?

While each research project is different, it’s best to follow these seven general steps to create your research plan:

Defining the problem

Identifying goals

Choosing research methods

Recruiting participants

Preparing the brief or summary

Establishing task timelines

Defining how you will present the findings

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How to Get Started With a Research Project

Last Updated: October 3, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Chris Hadley, PhD . Chris Hadley, PhD is part of the wikiHow team and works on content strategy and data and analytics. Chris Hadley earned his PhD in Cognitive Psychology from UCLA in 2006. Chris' academic research has been published in numerous scientific journals. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 313,003 times.

You'll be required to undertake and complete research projects throughout your academic career and even, in many cases, as a member of the workforce. Don't worry if you feel stuck or intimidated by the idea of a research project, with care and dedication, you can get the project done well before the deadline!

Development and Foundation

• Don't hesitate while writing down ideas. You'll end up with some mental noise on the paper – silly or nonsensical phrases that your brain just pushes out. That's fine. Think of it as sweeping the cobwebs out of your attic. After a minute or two, better ideas will begin to form (and you might have a nice little laugh at your own expense in the meantime).

• Some instructors will even provide samples of previously successful topics if you ask for them. Just be careful that you don't end up stuck with an idea you want to do, but are afraid to do because you know someone else did it before.

• For example, if your research topic is “urban poverty,” you could look at that topic across ethnic or sexual lines, but you could also look into corporate wages, minimum wage laws, the cost of medical benefits, the loss of unskilled jobs in the urban core, and on and on. You could also try comparing and contrasting urban poverty with suburban or rural poverty, and examine things that might be different about both areas, such as diet and exercise levels, or air pollution.

• Think in terms of questions you want answered. A good research project should collect information for the purpose of answering (or at least attempting to answer) a question. As you review and interconnect topics, you'll think of questions that don't seem to have clear answers yet. These questions are your research topics.

• Don't limit yourself to libraries and online databases. Think in terms of outside resources as well: primary sources, government agencies, even educational TV programs. If you want to know about differences in animal population between public land and an Indian reservation, call the reservation and see if you can speak to their department of fish and wildlife.
• If you're planning to go ahead with original research, that's great – but those techniques aren't covered in this article. Instead, speak with qualified advisors and work with them to set up a thorough, controlled, repeatable process for gathering information.

• If your plan comes down to “researching the topic,” and there aren't any more specific things you can say about it, write down the types of sources you plan to use instead: books (library or private?), magazines (which ones?), interviews, and so on. Your preliminary research should have given you a solid idea of where to begin.

Expanding Your Idea with Research

• It's generally considered more convincing to source one item from three different authors who all agree on it than it is to rely too heavily on one book. Go for quantity at least as much as quality. Be sure to check citations, endnotes, and bibliographies to get more potential sources (and see whether or not all your authors are just quoting the same, older author).
• Writing down your sources and any other relevant details (such as context) around your pieces of information right now will save you lots of trouble in the future.

• Use many different queries to get the database results you want. If one phrasing or a particular set of words doesn't yield useful results, try rephrasing it or using synonymous terms. Online academic databases tend to be dumber than the sum of their parts, so you'll have to use tangentially related terms and inventive language to get all the results you want.

• If it's sensible, consider heading out into the field and speaking to ordinary people for their opinions. This isn't always appropriate (or welcomed) in a research project, but in some cases, it can provide you with some excellent perspective for your research.
• Review cultural artifacts as well. In many areas of study, there's useful information on attitudes, hopes, and/or concerns of people in a particular time and place contained within the art, music, and writing they produced. One has only to look at the woodblock prints of the later German Expressionists, for example, to understand that they lived in a world they felt was often dark, grotesque, and hopeless. Song lyrics and poetry can likewise express strong popular attitudes.

Expert Q&A

• Start early. The foundation of a great research project is the research, which takes time and patience to gather even if you aren't performing any original research of your own. Set aside time for it whenever you can, at least until your initial gathering phase is complete. Past that point, the project should practically come together on its own. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• When in doubt, write more, rather than less. It's easier to pare down and reorganize an overabundance of information than it is to puff up a flimsy core of facts and anecdotes. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

• Respect the wishes of others. Unless you're a research journalist, it's vital that you yield to the wishes and requests of others before engaging in original research, even if it's technically ethical. Many older American Indians, for instance, harbor a great deal of cultural resentment towards social scientists who visit reservations for research, even those invited by tribal governments for important reasons such as language revitalization. Always tread softly whenever you're out of your element, and only work with those who want to work with you. Thanks Helpful 8 Not Helpful 2
• Be mindful of ethical concerns. Especially if you plan to use original research, there are very stringent ethical guidelines that must be followed for any credible academic body to accept it. Speak to an advisor (such as a professor) about what you plan to do and what steps you should take to verify that it will be ethical. Thanks Helpful 6 Not Helpful 2

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/research/research_paper.html
• ↑ https://www.nhcc.edu/academics/library/doing-library-research/basic-steps-research-process
• ↑ https://library.sacredheart.edu/c.php?g=29803&p=185905
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/research_papers/choosing_a_topic.html
• ↑ https://www.unr.edu/writing-speaking-center/student-resources/writing-speaking-resources/using-an-interview-in-a-research-paper
• ↑ https://www.science.org/content/article/how-review-paper

About This Article

The easiest way to get started with a research project is to use your notes and other materials to come up with topics that interest you. Research your favorite topic to see if it can be developed, and then refine it into a research question. Begin thoroughly researching, and collect notes and sources. To learn more about finding reliable and helpful sources while you're researching, continue reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to do a research project for your academic study

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Writing a research report is part of most university degrees, so it is essential you know what one is and how to write one. This guide on how to do a research project for your university degree shows you what to do at each stage, taking you from planning to finishing the project.

What is a research project? 

The big question is: what is a research project? A research project for students is an extended essay that presents a question or statement for analysis and evaluation. During a research project, you will present your own ideas and research on a subject alongside analysing existing knowledge. 

How to write a research report 

The next section covers the research project steps necessary to producing a research paper. 

Developing a research question or statement 

Research project topics will vary depending on the course you study. The best research project ideas develop from areas you already have an interest in and where you have existing knowledge. 

The area of study needs to be specific as it will be much easier to cover fully. If your topic is too broad, you are at risk of not having an in-depth project. You can, however, also make your topic too narrow and there will not be enough research to be done. To make sure you don’t run into either of these problems, it’s a great idea to create sub-topics and questions to ensure you are able to complete suitable research. 

A research project example question would be: How will modern technologies change the way of teaching in the future? 

Finding and evaluating sources 

Secondary research is a large part of your research project as it makes up the literature review section. It is essential to use credible sources as failing to do so may decrease the validity of your research project.

Examples of secondary research include:

• Peer-reviewed journals
• Scholarly articles
• Newspapers 

Great places to find your sources are the University library and Google Scholar. Both will give you many opportunities to find the credible sources you need. However, you need to make sure you are evaluating whether they are fit for purpose before including them in your research project as you do not want to include out of date information. 

When evaluating sources, you need to ask yourself:

• Is the information provided by an expert?
• How well does the source answer the research question?
• What does the source contribute to its field?
• Is the source valid? e.g. does it contain bias and is the information up-to-date?

It is important to ensure that you have a variety of sources in order to avoid bias. A successful research paper will present more than one point of view and the best way to do this is to not rely too heavily on just one author or publication. 

Conducting research 

For a research project, you will need to conduct primary research. This is the original research you will gather to further develop your research project. The most common types of primary research are interviews and surveys as these allow for many and varied results. 

Examples of primary research include: 

• Interviews and surveys 
• Focus groups 
• Experiments 
• Research diaries 

If you are looking to study in the UK and have an interest in bettering your research skills, The University of Sheffield is a  world top 100 research university  which will provide great research opportunities and resources for your project. 

Research report format  

Now that you understand the basics of how to write a research project, you now need to look at what goes into each section. The research project format is just as important as the research itself. Without a clear structure you will not be able to present your findings concisely. 

A research paper is made up of seven sections: introduction, literature review, methodology, findings and results, discussion, conclusion, and references. You need to make sure you are including a list of correctly cited references to avoid accusations of plagiarism. 

Introduction 

The introduction is where you will present your hypothesis and provide context for why you are doing the project. Here you will include relevant background information, present your research aims and explain why the research is important. 

Literature review  

The literature review is where you will analyse and evaluate existing research within your subject area. This section is where your secondary research will be presented. A literature review is an integral part of your research project as it brings validity to your research aims. 

What to include when writing your literature review:

• A description of the publications
• A summary of the main points
• An evaluation on the contribution to the area of study
• Potential flaws and gaps in the research 

Methodology

The research paper methodology outlines the process of your data collection. This is where you will present your primary research. The aim of the methodology section is to answer two questions: 

• Why did you select the research methods you used?
• How do these methods contribute towards your research hypothesis? 

In this section you will not be writing about your findings, but the ways in which you are going to try and achieve them. You need to state whether your methodology will be qualitative, quantitative, or mixed. 

• Qualitative – first hand observations such as interviews, focus groups, case studies and questionnaires. The data collected will generally be non-numerical. 
• Quantitative – research that deals in numbers and logic. The data collected will focus on statistics and numerical patterns.
• Mixed – includes both quantitative and qualitative research.

The methodology section should always be written in the past tense, even if you have already started your data collection. 

Findings and results 

In this section you will present the findings and results of your primary research. Here you will give a concise and factual summary of your findings using tables and graphs where appropriate. 

Discussion 

The discussion section is where you will talk about your findings in detail. Here you need to relate your results to your hypothesis, explaining what you found out and the significance of the research. 

It is a good idea to talk about any areas with disappointing or surprising results and address the limitations within the research project. This will balance your project and steer you away from bias.

Some questions to consider when writing your discussion: 

• To what extent was the hypothesis supported?
• Was your research method appropriate?
• Was there unexpected data that affected your results?
• To what extent was your research validated by other sources?

Conclusion 

The conclusion is where you will bring your research project to a close. In this section you will not only be restating your research aims and how you achieved them, but also discussing the wider significance of your research project. You will talk about the successes and failures of the project, and how you would approach further study. 

It is essential you do not bring any new ideas into your conclusion; this section is used only to summarise what you have already stated in the project. 

References 

As a research project is your own ideas blended with information and research from existing knowledge, you must include a list of correctly cited references. Creating a list of references will allow the reader to easily evaluate the quality of your secondary research whilst also saving you from potential plagiarism accusations. 

The way in which you cite your sources will vary depending on the university standard.

If you are an international student looking to  study a degree in the UK , The University of Sheffield International College has a range of  pathway programmes  to prepare you for university study. Undertaking a Research Project is one of the core modules for the  Pre-Masters programme  at The University of Sheffield International College.

Frequently Asked Questions 

What is the best topic for research .

It’s a good idea to choose a topic you have existing knowledge on, or one that you are interested in. This will make the research process easier; as you have an idea of where and what to look for in your sources, as well as more enjoyable as it’s a topic you want to know more about.

What should a research project include? 

There are seven main sections to a research project, these are:

• Introduction – the aims of the project and what you hope to achieve
• Literature review – evaluating and reviewing existing knowledge on the topic
• Methodology – the methods you will use for your primary research
• Findings and results – presenting the data from your primary research
• Discussion – summarising and analysing your research and what you have found out
• Conclusion – how the project went (successes and failures), areas for future study
• List of references – correctly cited sources that have been used throughout the project. 

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A Beginner's Guide to Starting the Research Process

When you have to write a thesis or dissertation , it can be hard to know where to begin, but there are some clear steps you can follow.

The research process often begins with a very broad idea for a topic you’d like to know more about. You do some preliminary research to identify a  problem . After refining your research questions , you can lay out the foundations of your research design , leading to a proposal that outlines your ideas and plans.

This article takes you through the first steps of the research process, helping you narrow down your ideas and build up a strong foundation for your research project.

Table of contents

Step 1: choose your topic, step 2: identify a problem, step 3: formulate research questions, step 4: create a research design, step 5: write a research proposal.

First you have to come up with some ideas. Your thesis or dissertation topic can start out very broad. Think about the general area or field you’re interested in—maybe you already have specific research interests based on classes you’ve taken, or maybe you had to consider your topic when applying to graduate school and writing a statement of purpose .

Even if you already have a good sense of your topic, you’ll need to read widely to build background knowledge and begin narrowing down your ideas. Conduct an initial literature review to begin gathering relevant sources. As you read, take notes and try to identify problems, questions, debates, contradictions and gaps. Your aim is to narrow down from a broad area of interest to a specific niche.

Make sure to consider the practicalities: the requirements of your programme, the amount of time you have to complete the research, and how difficult it will be to access sources and data on the topic. Before moving onto the next stage, it’s a good idea to discuss the topic with your thesis supervisor.

>>Read more about narrowing down a research topic

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

So you’ve settled on a topic and found a niche—but what exactly will your research investigate, and why does it matter? To give your project focus and purpose, you have to define a research problem .

The problem might be a practical issue—for example, a process or practice that isn’t working well, an area of concern in an organization’s performance, or a difficulty faced by a specific group of people in society.

Alternatively, you might choose to investigate a theoretical problem—for example, an underexplored phenomenon or relationship, a contradiction between different models or theories, or an unresolved debate among scholars.

To put the problem in context and set your objectives, you can write a problem statement . This describes who the problem affects, why research is needed, and how your research project will contribute to solving it.

>>Read more about defining a research problem

Next, based on the problem statement, you need to write one or more research questions . These target exactly what you want to find out. They might focus on describing, comparing, evaluating, or explaining the research problem.

A strong research question should be specific enough that you can answer it thoroughly using appropriate qualitative or quantitative research methods. It should also be complex enough to require in-depth investigation, analysis, and argument. Questions that can be answered with “yes/no” or with easily available facts are not complex enough for a thesis or dissertation.

In some types of research, at this stage you might also have to develop a conceptual framework and testable hypotheses .

>>See research question examples

The research design is a practical framework for answering your research questions. It involves making decisions about the type of data you need, the methods you’ll use to collect and analyze it, and the location and timescale of your research.

There are often many possible paths you can take to answering your questions. The decisions you make will partly be based on your priorities. For example, do you want to determine causes and effects, draw generalizable conclusions, or understand the details of a specific context?

You need to decide whether you will use primary or secondary data and qualitative or quantitative methods . You also need to determine the specific tools, procedures, and materials you’ll use to collect and analyze your data, as well as your criteria for selecting participants or sources.

>>Read more about creating a research design

Finally, after completing these steps, you are ready to complete a research proposal . The proposal outlines the context, relevance, purpose, and plan of your research.

As well as outlining the background, problem statement, and research questions, the proposal should also include a literature review that shows how your project will fit into existing work on the topic. The research design section describes your approach and explains exactly what you will do.

You might have to get the proposal approved by your supervisor before you get started, and it will guide the process of writing your thesis or dissertation.

>>Read more about writing a research proposal

Is this article helpful?

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Illustration by James Round

How to plan a research project

Whether for a paper or a thesis, define your question, review the work of others – and leave yourself open to discovery.

by Brooke Harrington   + BIO

is professor of sociology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Her research has won international awards both for scholarly quality and impact on public life. She has published dozens of articles and three books, most recently the bestseller Capital without Borders (2016), now translated into five languages.

Edited by Sam Haselby

Need to know

‘When curiosity turns to serious matters, it’s called research.’ – From Aphorisms (1880-1905) by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Planning research projects is a time-honoured intellectual exercise: one that requires both creativity and sharp analytical skills. The purpose of this Guide is to make the process systematic and easy to understand. While there is a great deal of freedom and discovery involved – from the topics you choose, to the data and methods you apply – there are also some norms and constraints that obtain, no matter what your academic level or field of study. For those in high school through to doctoral students, and from art history to archaeology, research planning involves broadly similar steps, including: formulating a question, developing an argument or predictions based on previous research, then selecting the information needed to answer your question.

Some of this might sound self-evident but, as you’ll find, research requires a different way of approaching and using information than most of us are accustomed to in everyday life. That is why I include orienting yourself to knowledge-creation as an initial step in the process. This is a crucial and underappreciated phase in education, akin to making the transition from salaried employment to entrepreneurship: suddenly, you’re on your own, and that requires a new way of thinking about your work.

What follows is a distillation of what I’ve learned about this process over 27 years as a professional social scientist. It reflects the skills that my own professors imparted in the sociology doctoral programme at Harvard, as well as what I learned later on as a research supervisor for Ivy League PhD and MA students, and then as the author of award-winning scholarly books and articles. It can be adapted to the demands of both short projects (such as course term papers) and long ones, such as a thesis.

At its simplest, research planning involves the four distinct steps outlined below: orienting yourself to knowledge-creation; defining your research question; reviewing previous research on your question; and then choosing relevant data to formulate your own answers. Because the focus of this Guide is on planning a research project, as opposed to conducting a research project, this section won’t delve into the details of data-collection or analysis; those steps happen after you plan the project. In addition, the topic is vast: year-long doctoral courses are devoted to data and analysis. Instead, the fourth part of this section will outline some basic strategies you could use in planning a data-selection and analysis process appropriate to your research question.

Step 1: Orient yourself

Planning and conducting research requires you to make a transition, from thinking like a consumer of information to thinking like a producer of information. That sounds simple, but it’s actually a complex task. As a practical matter, this means putting aside the mindset of a student, which treats knowledge as something created by other people. As students, we are often passive receivers of knowledge: asked to do a specified set of readings, then graded on how well we reproduce what we’ve read.

Researchers, however, must take on an active role as knowledge producers . Doing research requires more of you than reading and absorbing what other people have written: you have to engage in a dialogue with it. That includes arguing with previous knowledge and perhaps trying to show that ideas we have accepted as given are actually wrong or incomplete. For example, rather than simply taking in the claims of an author you read, you’ll need to draw out the implications of those claims: if what the author is saying is true, what else does that suggest must be true? What predictions could you make based on the author’s claims?

In other words, rather than treating a reading as a source of truth – even if it comes from a revered source, such as Plato or Marie Curie – this orientation step asks you to treat the claims you read as provisional and subject to interrogation. That is one of the great pieces of wisdom that science and philosophy can teach us: that the biggest advances in human understanding have been made not by being correct about trivial things, but by being wrong in an interesting way . For example, Albert Einstein was wrong about quantum mechanics, but his arguments about it with his fellow physicist Niels Bohr have led to some of the biggest breakthroughs in science, even a century later.

Step 2: Define your research question

Students often give this step cursory attention, but experienced researchers know that formulating a good question is sometimes the most difficult part of the research planning process. That is because the precise language of the question frames the rest of the project. It’s therefore important to pose the question carefully, in a way that’s both possible to answer and likely to yield interesting results. Of course, you must choose a question that interests you, but that’s only the beginning of what’s likely to be an iterative process: most researchers come back to this step repeatedly, modifying their questions in light of previous research, resource limitations and other considerations.

Researchers face limits in terms of time and money. They, like everyone else, have to pose research questions that they can plausibly answer given the constraints they face. For example, it would be inadvisable to frame a project around the question ‘What are the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict?’ if you have only a week to develop an answer and no background on that topic. That’s not to limit your imagination: you can come up with any question you’d like. But it typically does require some creativity to frame a question that you can answer well – that is, by investigating thoroughly and providing new insights – within the limits you face.

In addition to being interesting to you, and feasible within your resource constraints, the third and most important characteristic of a ‘good’ research topic is whether it allows you to create new knowledge. It might turn out that your question has already been asked and answered to your satisfaction: if so, you’ll find out in the next step of this process. On the other hand, you might come up with a research question that hasn’t been addressed previously. Before you get too excited about breaking uncharted ground, consider this: a lot of potentially researchable questions haven’t been studied for good reason ; they might have answers that are trivial or of very limited interest. This could include questions such as ‘Why does the area of a circle equal π r²?’ or ‘Did winter conditions affect Napoleon’s plans to invade Russia?’ Of course, you might be able to make the argument that a seemingly trivial question is actually vitally important, but you must be prepared to back that up with convincing evidence. The exercise in the ‘Learn More’ section below will help you think through some of these issues.

Finally, scholarly research questions must in some way lead to new and distinctive insights. For example, lots of people have studied gender roles in sports teams; what can you ask that hasn’t been asked before? Reinventing the wheel is the number-one no-no in this endeavour. That’s why the next step is so important: reviewing previous research on your topic. Depending on what you find in that step, you might need to revise your research question; iterating between your question and the existing literature is a normal process. But don’t worry: it doesn’t go on forever. In fact, the iterations taper off – and your research question stabilises – as you develop a firm grasp of the current state of knowledge on your topic.

Step 3: Review previous research

In academic research, from articles to books, it’s common to find a section called a ‘literature review’. The purpose of that section is to describe the state of the art in knowledge on the research question that a project has posed. It demonstrates that researchers have thoroughly and systematically reviewed the relevant findings of previous studies on their topic, and that they have something novel to contribute.

Your own research project should include something like this, even if it’s a high-school term paper. In the research planning process, you’ll want to list at least half a dozen bullet points stating the major findings on your topic by other people. In relation to those findings, you should be able to specify where your project could provide new and necessary insights. There are two basic rhetorical positions one can take in framing the novelty-plus-importance argument required of academic research:

• Position 1 requires you to build on or extend a set of existing ideas; that means saying something like: ‘Person A has argued that X is true about gender; this implies Y, which has not yet been tested. My project will test Y, and if I find evidence to support it, that will change the way we understand gender.’
• Position 2 is to argue that there is a gap in existing knowledge, either because previous research has reached conflicting conclusions or has failed to consider something important. For example, one could say that research on middle schoolers and gender has been limited by being conducted primarily in coeducational environments, and that findings might differ dramatically if research were conducted in more schools where the student body was all-male or all-female.

Your overall goal in this step of the process is to show that your research will be part of a larger conversation: that is, how your project flows from what’s already known, and how it advances, extends or challenges that existing body of knowledge. That will be the contribution of your project, and it constitutes the motivation for your research.

Two things are worth mentioning about your search for sources of relevant previous research. First, you needn’t look only at studies on your precise topic. For example, if you want to study gender-identity formation in schools, you shouldn’t restrict yourself to studies of schools; the empirical setting (schools) is secondary to the larger social process that interests you (how people form gender identity). That process occurs in many different settings, so cast a wide net. Second, be sure to use legitimate sources – meaning publications that have been through some sort of vetting process, whether that involves peer review (as with academic journal articles you might find via Google Scholar) or editorial review (as you’d find in well-known mass media publications, such as The Economist or The Washington Post ). What you’ll want to avoid is using unvetted sources such as personal blogs or Wikipedia. Why? Because anybody can write anything in those forums, and there is no way to know – unless you’re already an expert – if the claims you find there are accurate. Often, they’re not.

Step 4: Choose your data and methods

Whatever your research question is, eventually you’ll need to consider which data source and analytical strategy are most likely to provide the answers you’re seeking. One starting point is to consider whether your question would be best addressed by qualitative data (such as interviews, observations or historical records), quantitative data (such as surveys or census records) or some combination of both. Your ideas about data sources will, in turn, suggest options for analytical methods.

You might need to collect your own data, or you might find everything you need readily available in an existing dataset someone else has created. A great place to start is with a research librarian: university libraries always have them and, at public universities, those librarians can work with the public, including people who aren’t affiliated with the university. If you don’t happen to have a public university and its library close at hand, an ordinary public library can still be a good place to start: the librarians are often well versed in accessing data sources that might be relevant to your study, such as the census, or historical archives, or the Survey of Consumer Finances.

Because your task at this point is to plan research, rather than conduct it, the purpose of this step is not to commit you irrevocably to a course of action. Instead, your goal here is to think through a feasible approach to answering your research question. You’ll need to find out, for example, whether the data you want exist; if not, do you have a realistic chance of gathering the data yourself, or would it be better to modify your research question? In terms of analysis, would your strategy require you to apply statistical methods? If so, do you have those skills? If not, do you have time to learn them, or money to hire a research assistant to run the analysis for you?

Please be aware that qualitative methods in particular are not the casual undertaking they might appear to be. Many people make the mistake of thinking that only quantitative data and methods are scientific and systematic, while qualitative methods are just a fancy way of saying: ‘I talked to some people, read some old newspapers, and drew my own conclusions.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. In the final section of this guide, you’ll find some links to resources that will provide more insight on standards and procedures governing qualitative research, but suffice it to say: there are rules about what constitutes legitimate evidence and valid analytical procedure for qualitative data, just as there are for quantitative data.

Circle back and consider revising your initial plans

As you work through these four steps in planning your project, it’s perfectly normal to circle back and revise. Research planning is rarely a linear process. It’s also common for new and unexpected avenues to suggest themselves. As the sociologist Thorstein Veblen wrote in 1908 : ‘The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.’ That’s as true of research planning as it is of a completed project. Try to enjoy the horizons that open up for you in this process, rather than becoming overwhelmed; the four steps, along with the two exercises that follow, will help you focus your plan and make it manageable.

Key points – How to plan a research project

• Planning a research project is essential no matter your academic level or field of study. There is no one ‘best’ way to design research, but there are certain guidelines that can be helpfully applied across disciplines.
• Orient yourself to knowledge-creation. Make the shift from being a consumer of information to being a producer of information.
• Define your research question. Your question frames the rest of your project, sets the scope, and determines the kinds of answers you can find.
• Review previous research on your question. Survey the existing body of relevant knowledge to ensure that your research will be part of a larger conversation.
• Choose your data and methods. For instance, will you be collecting qualitative data, via interviews, or numerical data, via surveys?
• Circle back and consider revising your initial plans. Expect your research question in particular to undergo multiple rounds of refinement as you learn more about your topic.

Good research questions tend to beget more questions. This can be frustrating for those who want to get down to business right away. Try to make room for the unexpected: this is usually how knowledge advances. Many of the most significant discoveries in human history have been made by people who were looking for something else entirely. There are ways to structure your research planning process without over-constraining yourself; the two exercises below are a start, and you can find further methods in the Links and Books section.

The following exercise provides a structured process for advancing your research project planning. After completing it, you’ll be able to do the following:

• describe clearly and concisely the question you’ve chosen to study
• summarise the state of the art in knowledge about the question, and where your project could contribute new insight
• identify the best strategy for gathering and analysing relevant data

In other words, the following provides a systematic means to establish the building blocks of your research project.

Exercise 1: Definition of research question and sources

This exercise prompts you to select and clarify your general interest area, develop a research question, and investigate sources of information. The annotated bibliography will also help you refine your research question so that you can begin the second assignment, a description of the phenomenon you wish to study.

Jot down a few bullet points in response to these two questions, with the understanding that you’ll probably go back and modify your answers as you begin reading other studies relevant to your topic:

• What will be the general topic of your paper?
• What will be the specific topic of your paper?

b) Research question(s)

Use the following guidelines to frame a research question – or questions – that will drive your analysis. As with Part 1 above, you’ll probably find it necessary to change or refine your research question(s) as you complete future assignments.

• Your question should be phrased so that it can’t be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
• Your question should have more than one plausible answer.
• Your question should draw relationships between two or more concepts; framing the question in terms of How? or What? often works better than asking Why ?

c) Annotated bibliography

Most or all of your background information should come from two sources: scholarly books and journals, or reputable mass media sources. You might be able to access journal articles electronically through your library, using search engines such as JSTOR and Google Scholar. This can save you a great deal of time compared with going to the library in person to search periodicals. General news sources, such as those accessible through LexisNexis, are acceptable, but should be cited sparingly, since they don’t carry the same level of credibility as scholarly sources. As discussed above, unvetted sources such as blogs and Wikipedia should be avoided, because the quality of the information they provide is unreliable and often misleading.

To create an annotated bibliography, provide the following information for at least 10 sources relevant to your specific topic, using the format suggested below.

Name of author(s):

Publication date:

Title of book, chapter, or article:

If a chapter or article, title of journal or book where they appear:

Brief description of this work, including main findings and methods ( c 75 words):

Summary of how this work contributes to your project ( c 75 words):

Brief description of the implications of this work ( c 25 words):

Identify any gap or controversy in knowledge this work points up, and how your project could address those problems ( c 50 words):

Exercise 2: Towards an analysis

Develop a short statement ( c 250 words) about the kind of data that would be useful to address your research question, and how you’d analyse it. Some questions to consider in writing this statement include:

• What are the central concepts or variables in your project? Offer a brief definition of each.
• Do any data sources exist on those concepts or variables, or would you need to collect data?
• Of the analytical strategies you could apply to that data, which would be the most appropriate to answer your question? Which would be the most feasible for you? Consider at least two methods, noting their advantages or disadvantages for your project.

Links & books

One of the best texts ever written about planning and executing research comes from a source that might be unexpected: a 60-year-old work on urban planning by a self-trained scholar. The classic book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) by Jane Jacobs (available complete and free of charge via this link ) is worth reading in its entirety just for the pleasure of it. But the final 20 pages – a concluding chapter titled ‘The Kind of Problem a City Is’ – are really about the process of thinking through and investigating a problem. Highly recommended as a window into the craft of research.

Jacobs’s text references an essay on advancing human knowledge by the mathematician Warren Weaver. At the time, Weaver was director of the Rockefeller Foundation, in charge of funding basic research in the natural and medical sciences. Although the essay is titled ‘A Quarter Century in the Natural Sciences’ (1960) and appears at first blush to be merely a summation of one man’s career, it turns out to be something much bigger and more interesting: a meditation on the history of human beings seeking answers to big questions about the world. Weaver goes back to the 17th century to trace the origins of systematic research thinking, with enthusiasm and vivid anecdotes that make the process come alive. The essay is worth reading in its entirety, and is available free of charge via this link .

For those seeking a more in-depth, professional-level discussion of the logic of research design, the political scientist Harvey Starr provides insight in a compact format in the article ‘Cumulation from Proper Specification: Theory, Logic, Research Design, and “Nice” Laws’ (2005). Starr reviews the ‘research triad’, consisting of the interlinked considerations of formulating a question, selecting relevant theories and applying appropriate methods. The full text of the article, published in the scholarly journal Conflict Management and Peace Science , is available, free of charge, via this link .

Finally, the book Getting What You Came For (1992) by Robert Peters is not only an outstanding guide for anyone contemplating graduate school – from the application process onward – but it also includes several excellent chapters on planning and executing research, applicable across a wide variety of subject areas. It was an invaluable resource for me 25 years ago, and it remains in print with good reason; I recommend it to all my students, particularly Chapter 16 (‘The Thesis Topic: Finding It’), Chapter 17 (‘The Thesis Proposal’) and Chapter 18 (‘The Thesis: Writing It’).

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How to Do Research

The practical guide to designing and managing research projects.

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Book description

This new edition of Nick Moore's highly successful "How to do Research" offers an accessible guide to the complete research process. It focuses on the day-to-day requirements of project, managing a piece of research right through from the formulation of the initial idea, to the development of a research proposal and then to the writing up and disseminating of results. Updated throughout, it also contains new and expanded sections on in-house research.

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Frontmatter pp i-ii

Contents pp iii-v, acknowledgements pp vi-vi, introduction: types of research pp vii-xvi, part 1 - the research process pp 1-2, 1 - develop the research objectives pp 3-9, 2 - design and plan the study pp 10-29, 3 - write the proposal pp 30-44, 4 - obtain financial support for the research pp 45-57, 5 - manage the research pp 58-71, 6 - draw conclusions and make recommendations pp 72-79, 7 - write the report pp 80-93, 8 - disseminate the results pp 94-100, part 2 - methods pp 101-102, 9 - introducing research methods pp 103-105, 10 - desk research pp 106-111, 11 - analysing desk research pp 112-114, 12 - collecting quantitative data pp 115-132, 13 - analysing quantitative data pp 133-140, 14 - collecting qualitative data pp 141-151, 15 - analysing qualitative data pp 152-158, 16 - sources of further reading pp 159-162, appendix - the market for information professionals: a proposal from the policy studies institute pp 163-170, index pp 171-176, full text views.

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Basic Steps in the Research Process

The following steps outline a simple and effective strategy for writing a research paper. Depending on your familiarity with the topic and the challenges you encounter along the way, you may need to rearrange these steps.

Step 1: Identify and develop your topic

Selecting a topic can be the most challenging part of a research assignment. Since this is the very first step in writing a paper, it is vital that it be done correctly. Here are some tips for selecting a topic:

• Select a topic within the parameters set by the assignment. Many times your instructor will give you clear guidelines as to what you can and cannot write about. Failure to work within these guidelines may result in your proposed paper being deemed unacceptable by your instructor.
• Select a topic of personal interest to you and learn more about it. The research for and writing of a paper will be more enjoyable if you are writing about something that you find interesting.
• Select a topic for which you can find a manageable amount of information. Do a preliminary search of information sources to determine whether existing sources will meet your needs. If you find too much information, you may need to narrow your topic; if you find too little, you may need to broaden your topic.
• Be original. Your instructor reads hundreds of research papers every year, and many of them are on the same topics (topics in the news at the time, controversial issues, subjects for which there is ample and easily accessed information). Stand out from your classmates by selecting an interesting and off-the-beaten-path topic.
• Still can't come up with a topic to write about? See your instructor for advice.

Once you have identified your topic, it may help to state it as a question. For example, if you are interested in finding out about the epidemic of obesity in the American population, you might pose the question "What are the causes of obesity in America ?" By posing your subject as a question you can more easily identify the main concepts or keywords to be used in your research.

Step 2 : Do a preliminary search for information

Before beginning your research in earnest, do a preliminary search to determine whether there is enough information out there for your needs and to set the context of your research. Look up your keywords in the appropriate titles in the library's Reference collection (such as encyclopedias and dictionaries) and in other sources such as our catalog of books, periodical databases, and Internet search engines. Additional background information may be found in your lecture notes, textbooks, and reserve readings. You may find it necessary to adjust the focus of your topic in light of the resources available to you.

Step 3: Locate materials

With the direction of your research now clear to you, you can begin locating material on your topic. There are a number of places you can look for information:

If you are looking for books, do a subject search in One Search . A Keyword search can be performed if the subject search doesn't yield enough information. Print or write down the citation information (author, title,etc.) and the location (call number and collection) of the item(s). Note the circulation status. When you locate the book on the shelf, look at the books located nearby; similar items are always shelved in the same area. The Aleph catalog also indexes the library's audio-visual holdings.

Use the library's  electronic periodical databases  to find magazine and newspaper articles. Choose the databases and formats best suited to your particular topic; ask at the librarian at the Reference Desk if you need help figuring out which database best meets your needs. Many of the articles in the databases are available in full-text format.

Use search engines ( Google ,  Yahoo , etc.) and subject directories to locate materials on the Internet. Check the  Internet Resources  section of the NHCC Library web site for helpful subject links.

Step 4: Evaluate your sources

See the  CARS Checklist for Information Quality   for tips on evaluating the authority and quality of the information you have located. Your instructor expects that you will provide credible, truthful, and reliable information and you have every right to expect that the sources you use are providing the same. This step is especially important when using Internet resources, many of which are regarded as less than reliable.

Step 5: Make notes

Consult the resources you have chosen and note the information that will be useful in your paper. Be sure to document all the sources you consult, even if you there is a chance you may not use that particular source. The author, title, publisher, URL, and other information will be needed later when creating a bibliography.

Step 6: Write your paper

Begin by organizing the information you have collected. The next step is the rough draft, wherein you get your ideas on paper in an unfinished fashion. This step will help you organize your ideas and determine the form your final paper will take. After this, you will revise the draft as many times as you think necessary to create a final product to turn in to your instructor.

Step 7: Cite your sources properly

Give credit where credit is due; cite your sources.

Citing or documenting the sources used in your research serves two purposes: it gives proper credit to the authors of the materials used, and it allows those who are reading your work to duplicate your research and locate the sources that you have listed as references. The  MLA  and the  APA  Styles are two popular citation formats.

Failure to cite your sources properly is plagiarism. Plagiarism is avoidable!

Step 8: Proofread

The final step in the process is to proofread the paper you have created. Read through the text and check for any errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Make sure the sources you used are cited properly. Make sure the message that you want to get across to the reader has been thoroughly stated.

Additional research tips:

• Work from the general to the specific -- find background information first, then use more specific sources.
• Don't forget print sources -- many times print materials are more easily accessed and every bit as helpful as online resources.
• The library has books on the topic of writing research papers at call number area LB 2369.
• If you have questions about the assignment, ask your instructor.
• If you have any questions about finding information in the library, ask the librarian.

Contact Information

Craig larson.

Librarian 763-424-0733 [email protected] Zoom:  myzoom   Available by appointment

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15 Steps to Good Research

• Define and articulate a research question (formulate a research hypothesis). How to Write a Thesis Statement (Indiana University)
• Identify possible sources of information in many types and formats. Georgetown University Library's Research & Course Guides
• Judge the scope of the project.
• Reevaluate the research question based on the nature and extent of information available and the parameters of the research project.
• Select the most appropriate investigative methods (surveys, interviews, experiments) and research tools (periodical indexes, databases, websites).
• Plan the research project. Writing Anxiety (UNC-Chapel Hill) Strategies for Academic Writing (SUNY Empire State College)
• Retrieve information using a variety of methods (draw on a repertoire of skills).
• Refine the search strategy as necessary.
• Write and organize useful notes and keep track of sources. Taking Notes from Research Reading (University of Toronto) Use a citation manager: Zotero or Refworks
• Evaluate sources using appropriate criteria. Evaluating Internet Sources
• Synthesize, analyze and integrate information sources and prior knowledge. Georgetown University Writing Center
• Revise hypothesis as necessary.
• Use information effectively for a specific purpose.
• Understand such issues as plagiarism, ownership of information (implications of copyright to some extent), and costs of information. Georgetown University Honor Council Copyright Basics (Purdue University) How to Recognize Plagiarism: Tutorials and Tests from Indiana University
• Cite properly and give credit for sources of ideas. MLA Bibliographic Form (7th edition, 2009) MLA Bibliographic Form (8th edition, 2016) Turabian Bibliographic Form: Footnote/Endnote Turabian Bibliographic Form: Parenthetical Reference Use a citation manager: Zotero or Refworks

Adapted from the Association of Colleges and Research Libraries "Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction" , which are more complete and include outcomes. See also the broader "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education."

How to Set Up a Research Project (in 6 Steps)

Written by Casey Scott-Songin

Research projects, 0 comment(s).

It can be really exciting to embark on a research project, but knowing where to start can feel overwhelming! Setting up a research project properly means that you will save yourself a lot of stress, worrying about whether you’ll collect useful information, and will save you time analysing results!

Before you even begin to think about what research method you should use or where to recruit participants , you need to think about the purpose, objectives, and key research questions for your project. Below are the six steps to starting a research project that you can be confident in!

1. Define your purpose

The first thing you need to do is have a clear understanding of the purpose of your project. If you had to summarise why you wanted to do this project in two to three sentences, what would they be?

These should include:

• what problem you are trying to solve
• the context for that problem
• the purpose of the project

The problem you are trying to solve

Think about how to summarise your main problem in one sentence.  Is it that your product is not selling? Are you not sure why some ads are more successful than others? Is it that you are struggling to grow you client list? Or maybe There is a high bounce rate on a particular page on your website. Whatever it is, clearly identify it in one sentence (okay, two sentences maximum). 

The context for that problem

This is the opportunity to think about what you already know. This should be a summary of what data or research you already have access to. This could include analytics from your website or social media pages, previous qualitative research you may have done, or sector or industry research you have access to. Basically, this is the data that has helped you realise you had a problem to begin with. Knowing where you are starting from will help you significantly when you finish your research because you’ll have a clear understanding of where you are coming from in order to define where you want to be in the future.

The purpose of the project

This should be a sentence about why you decided to do this research project in the first place. If you are working with stakeholders and will be using this to get research approved, this sentence should be your commitment that research can help solve the problem you have identified.

2. Clarify your Objectives

This section should focus on what the research will add to the overall project. It should clearly identify the goals you want to achieve by the end of the research project. Try to focus on one or two goals maximum. You will know you have succeeded at the end of the project if you have achieved these goals. 

For example, if the problem you have identified is that you have a high bounce rate on the main sales page on your website, your objectives of the research may be:

• To identify the key problems on the sales page that is resulting in a high number of users leaving without buying anything
• To understand which audiences are most likely to leave without purchasing anything

Finally, you should identify (if you can) what type of outcomes you want to have from this research project. Will you be writing a report? Will it result in a list of recommended changes to your website? Being very clear about what to expect at the end of the project helps stakeholders get on board and support research projects like these.

3. Define your Key Research Questions

A very important step in any research plan is to identify your key research questions. These are very useful and help you narrow the focus of your research project. They are also really useful when you are analysing your data! When you go to write your report, if you use the data to answer the questions you’ve asked for this project, you’ll know you will have done what you set out to do. 

These questions should be the key questions you are hoping to get an answer to. Try to keep to around five to ten questions. Being as specific as possible to help you focus your research project and get the answers you need to solve your problem. 

Key research questions should be as specific as possible to help you focus your research project and get the answers you need to solve your problem. 

These questions could fall into some of the below categories:

• Why is something happening? 
• Why are your customers behaving a certain way? 
• Why is something not being used?
• What are your audiences’ needs?
• What is motivating your users to do something?
• What specific questions do you have about the product or service?
• What questions do you have after looking into the data that is already available?

The questions you write should not be the questions you ask your audiences. These are often complex and overarching questions, and will most likely need to be broken down when asking your audiences in order to collect useful data. 

4. Write out your Hypotheses and Challenge your Assumptions

An often skipped step, but an important one nonetheless, is to think about any hypotheses you have. Do you expect to have any particular outcomes to the research? Go back to your research questions and write down what you think the answers might be. What do you expect your audiences to do, think or feel? These will entirely be your thoughts and don’t necessarily have to be based in data. To make sure it is clear, you should write these starting each sentence with  “I think….”. 

Now take a look at your research questions again. Have you made any assumptions when crafting your research questions? Did you leave anything out because you assumed you knew the answers? Did you assume something would be more important that something else?

In order to make sure your research is as objective as possible, you need to be aware of what biases you are bringing to the research.

Understanding your hypotheses and assumptions is a crucial step to making your research objective. In order to make sure your research is as objective as possible, you need to be aware of what biases you are bringing to the research. These biases will mean you will be more likely to hear some things over other things. This is called confirmation bias, and it can lead to you making some results more or less important than they actually are. 

It’s useful to document these so you can refer back to them throughout the research process. If you lay out all the things you think might inadvertently impact your interpretation of the results, it will help you from letting confirmation bias influence your research. 

5. Choose your Methodology 

Now that you have a good understanding of what your research project is trying to accomplish, it’s time to choose the right research method to get the information you are looking for!

There are two main types of research methods to choose from: quantitative research and qualitative research. 

Quantitative research identifies what your users are doing while qualitative research helps to understand why users do what they do.

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research helps to answer the question: What are your consumers/audiences/users doing? These methods can capture large data sets relatively quickly and give a basic understanding of audience behaviours. Having a large data set allows you to provide a strong confidence in findings relatively quickly. You’ll be able to quickly and easily see if any patterns are emerging. 

While quantitative research is very good at capturing what users are doing, it cannot easily capture what users’ underlying decision making processes are. Further, it does not allow you to follow up on unexpected findings, or have the flexibility to investigate different areas on inquiry. 

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research helps to answer the question: Why are users doing what they’re doing? These research methods can provide an in-depth understanding of user behaviours, attitudes and decision making processes. These methods also allow you to have the flexibility to explore unexpected results, which is often where important or insightful data lies. It usually results in much smaller data sets, but the data is often very rich and cn provide a deep dive into the research questions you are hoping to answer.

Qualitative research does not provide a large data set, and analysis can be time consuming. Further, it is often important to make sure you’re project setup is as objective as possible, as it is possible to accidentally skew your data with your own biases. 

Choosing your Research Method

When deciding on a research method, it can be useful to evaluate whether your key research questions fall into one of the following three categories:

If you are looking to collect breadth in data, you are most likely looking to answer questions around what a large group of people think. Some examples of research methods that can provide breadth in data are surveys, task analysis, or card sorting. These are research methods that work best when a wide range or a large quantity of people need to be reached in order to answer your question. They are useful because the methods themselves allow for data to be categorised relatively easily, which helps analyse quickly. These methods are most useful when testing a hypothesis rather than defining a problem. 

If you are looking to understand the context of something, you are most likely trying to get a better understanding of what problems might exist. Research methods that look for context are most useful when there isn’t much knowledge about the subject. They can often help define the questions as well. Context can be captured with qualitative or quantitative methods. Web or social analytics is a good example of understanding context using a quantitative research method.  Qualitative research methods that capture context include participant observations in natural or group settings. Overall, these methods are good at finding out people’s natural behaviours with little intervention – what they do vs. what they say they do. 

Looking for depth in your key research questions most likely means you’ll be using a qualitative research method, such as interviews or focus groups, to answer your questions. These types of research methods allow you to use open questions to dig deeper into answers and explore topics in greater depth. Depth methods allow you to most accurately define a problem you are hoping to solve with your service or product. Methods such as co-creation or participatory design allow for you to work closely with your audiences to design solutions you know they will like. 

If you’d like to learn more about choosing the right research methods, check out my post: How to Choose the Right Research Method for your Project

6. Recruit your Participants

Once you have chosen the research method that would be best for your project, it’s time to think about who you want to speak to, and how you are going to recruit their help to your project. This is often the most difficult task, but it is one of the most critical things to get correct.

How do you recruit participants for your research project?

The first thing you need to do is identify who you would like to speak to. It could be your entire audience, it could be a subset of people, or it could be people who currently don’t engage with you! 

Finding people from your audience

Once you have an idea of who you want to speak to, think about where you might find them. Maybe you have an email list so it’s as simple as reaching out to your current subscribers! If you don’t currently have anyone on your email list, think about where your audience might be. Would they be in a particular facebook group? Maybe they follow you on social media? Reaching out to your audiences on owned channels such as your social media accounts, via email, or even as a pop up on your website can be a really cheap and easy way to speak to your audiences. 

Finding people who don’t know who you are

And if you’re just starting out, or you want to speak to people who don’t currently follow you, you can always recruit through panels. Depending on how many people you’d like to speak to, you can recruit via panels for relatively low costs, and ensure you’ll get participants that will be relevant to your key research questions. Some survey tools (such as Survey Monkey) have panels you can use built right into their software, or you can search for panels in your country (or the country you’re interested in speaking to participants to) to find a company that would be a good partner for your project. 

How many participants is enough?

How many people is enough for your research project will depend entirely on the research method you choose and the complexity of the questions you are trying to answer. For me, I generally try to get at least 100 survey responses if I’m sending out a survey, and anywhere from six to twenty participants for qualitative research methods such as interviews, focus groups, or co-creation. 

Taking slightly more time to set up a research project has huge benefits and means that your results will be as useful as possible and findings and recommendations will come together much easier and quicker than they would otherwise. 

To find out more about a variety of elements that go into research projects in more detail, check out the other posts on my blog !

What steps do you take when starting research?

Let me know in the comments below if you have tried any of the above methods!

And don’t forget to sign up to my newsletter to recieve more on what research methods to choose, research best practice, and a variety of other relevant and informative content!

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How to Do Research: A Step-By-Step Guide: Get Started

• Get Started
• 1a. Select a Topic
• 1b. Develop Research Questions
• 1c. Identify Keywords
• 1d. Find Background Information
• 1e. Refine a Topic
• 2a. Search Strategies
• 2d. Articles
• 2e. Videos & Images
• 2f. Databases
• 2g. Websites
• 2h. Grey Literature
• 2i. Open Access Materials
• 3a. Evaluate Sources
• 3b. Primary vs. Secondary
• 3c. Types of Periodicals
• 4a. Take Notes
• 4b. Outline the Paper
• 4c. Incorporate Source Material
• 5a. Avoid Plagiarism
• 5b. Zotero & MyBib
• 5c. MLA Formatting
• 5d. MLA Citation Examples
• 5e. APA Formatting
• 5f. APA Citation Examples
• 5g. Annotated Bibliographies

Research Essentials Video Tutorials

Related guides.

• Elmira College Writing Center Get one-on-one assistance for all types of writing.

Recommended Websites

• Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL)

Research Process Overview

Step 1.  Develop a topic Select a Topic | Develop Research Questions | Identify Keywords | Find Background Information | Refine a Topic

Step 2. Locate information Search Strategies | Books | eBooks | Articles  | Videos & Images | Databases | Websites | Grey Literature

Step 3. Evaluate and analyze information Evaluate Sources | Primary vs Secondary | Types of Periodicals

Step 4. Write, organize, and communicate information Take Notes | Outline the Paper | Incorporate Source Material

Step 5. Cite sources Avoid Plagiarism | Zotero & MyBib | MLA | APA | Chicago Style | Annotated Bibliographies

For research help,  use one of the following options:

Ask the GTL

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How to Do Your Research Project: A Guide for Students

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How to Do a Research Project?

• Updated on  
• Mar 21, 2023

To begin your thesis, the first step is to find a suitable topic per your interests and selecting a good topic is only the beginning of it all. Carrying out a research project, scholars aim to provide answers to the research questions through an in-depth study of the topic. Many universities require their students to submit a research project as part of their course, especially at the master’s level of study and doctoral degrees . So if you are wondering how to do a research project, this blog is for you! Read on to know the different steps to follow to write an excellent research project.

This Blog Includes:

Select a topic of your interest, find a supervisor, invest time in secondary research, locate and analyse primary sources, start drafting your paper, put proper citations, proofread the research project, tips & tricks for doing a research project.

The first step towards doing a research project is choosing a relevant topic. Many students find it difficult to select a topic for their research project since they want to research a popular but less researched topic, something which is difficult to find. Browse through the recent studies and works in your chosen field and then find the best one that you are inclined towards. It is essential to have an innate interest and passion for the topic you have chosen since it will help you work out through all the challenges and hurdles during your research.

An expert supervisor plays an essential role in mentoring the student throughout the journey of the research project. Supervisors are generally professors and scholars in a university who guide students throughout their research addressing their queries regarding the topic along with familiarising them with different research methodologies and processes. So choosing a research knowledgeable supervisor in your field of study is very important in the development of your research project.

You need to have a good grasp of the contemporary work and studies done related to your topic to find out the gaps that you can address in your research project. For this, you need to invest your time in reading the published papers related to your topic diligently. Reading a huge volume of secondary sources will add to your knowledge about the topic and also present you with different primary sources which you can look for.

Primary sources are the backbone of your research. You can look for primary sources in different archives or libraries depending on your discipline, and you can also find out about primary sources and their location from papers already published on your chosen and related topics. Make sure to find and analyse the primary sources in detail and note down your findings.

Use your notes while drafting your paper. Remember that you need to make any changes through multiple drafts before you come up with a paper worthy of commendation. Make sure to send your drafts to your supervisor for feedback and corrections and doubts, and work on the suggestions they provide on your paper.

Citations are an important part of your research project. Not putting proper citations can mark your project as plagiarized. Since universities take plagiarism quite seriously, it is better to know the proper way of citation as specified by the research project format provided by your university. You can also get in touch with your research mentor or supervisor and ask for their advice on citing the sources in your project. 

You should not skip proofreading your paper after completing it. Spelling or grammar mistakes are inevitable while working on a lengthy research project and therefore it is necessary to check it multiple times for such errors. Re-reading your draft can not only help you in making it better by fixing the errors, but also you may identify any gaps or issues in the paper that you can rectify. 

Now that you are familiar with the process of doing a research project, here are some more tips and tricks that you might find useful:

• Create a schedule mapping down every step of your research and adhere to the same.
• Research your topic online and offline to know about the different sources you can explore.
• List down all the sources, both primary and secondary that you consulted for your project as this will help you in adding the citations. 
• Always keep notes to write new ideas and findings of your research as you can easily use them later to add to your project.
• Stay in touch with your supervisor throughout the course of your research project as they can help you efficiently tackle all the challenges and problems and make your thesis as comprehensive as possible.

Ans. These types of questions you can ask in a research project What exactly do you want to study? What is your research question or questions? Why is it worth studying? What is the purpose or significance of your study? Does the proposed study have practical significance?

Ans. There should be no uncertainty in the research topic. Clarity also requires that the research topic be goal-oriented and that it establish the entire research methodology. Half of the formula for good research is a clearly defined and well-phrased research topic.

Ans. Research is the process of looking for solutions to a certain issue. It can be carried out to comprehend a phenomenon, observe behaviour, or test a theory, among other things. Systematic research is carried out, adding to the corpus of knowledge and bolstering numerous theories.

Thus, carrying out a research project is not everyone’s cup of tea as it will need meticulous studying and preparation to finally accomplish it as you have hypothesized. Planning to pursue a research degree? Our Study Abroad experts are here to help you find the best course and university along with sorting out the admission process to ensure that you send a winning application. Sign up for a free session with us today!

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Research: Using AI at Work Makes Us Lonelier and Less Healthy

• David De Cremer
• Joel Koopman

Employees who use AI as a core part of their jobs report feeling more isolated, drinking more, and sleeping less than employees who don’t.

The promise of AI is alluring — optimized productivity, lightning-fast data analysis, and freedom from mundane tasks — and both companies and workers alike are fascinated (and more than a little dumbfounded) by how these tools allow them to do more and better work faster than ever before. Yet in fervor to keep pace with competitors and reap the efficiency gains associated with deploying AI, many organizations have lost sight of their most important asset: the humans whose jobs are being fragmented into tasks that are increasingly becoming automated. Across four studies, employees who use it as a core part of their jobs reported feeling lonelier, drinking more, and suffering from insomnia more than employees who don’t.

Imagine this: Jia, a marketing analyst, arrives at work, logs into her computer, and is greeted by an AI assistant that has already sorted through her emails, prioritized her tasks for the day, and generated first drafts of reports that used to take hours to write. Jia (like everyone who has spent time working with these tools) marvels at how much time she can save by using AI. Inspired by the efficiency-enhancing effects of AI, Jia feels that she can be so much more productive than before. As a result, she gets focused on completing as many tasks as possible in conjunction with her AI assistant.

• David De Cremer is a professor of management and technology at Northeastern University and the Dunton Family Dean of its D’Amore-McKim School of Business. His website is daviddecremer.com .
• JK Joel Koopman is the TJ Barlow Professor of Business Administration at the Mays Business School of Texas A&M University. His research interests include prosocial behavior, organizational justice, motivational processes, and research methodology. He has won multiple awards from Academy of Management’s HR Division (Early Career Achievement Award and David P. Lepak Service Award) along with the 2022 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions award, and currently serves on the Leadership Committee for the HR Division of the Academy of Management .

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Frequently asked questions

What is a research project.

A research project is an academic, scientific, or professional undertaking to answer a research question . Research projects can take many forms, such as qualitative or quantitative , descriptive , longitudinal , experimental , or correlational . What kind of research approach you choose will depend on your topic.

Frequently asked questions: Writing a research paper

The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.

Formulating a main research question can be a difficult task. Overall, your question should contribute to solving the problem that you have defined in your problem statement .

However, it should also fulfill criteria in three main areas:

• Researchability
• Feasibility and specificity
• Relevance and originality

Research questions anchor your whole project, so it’s important to spend some time refining them.

In general, they should be:

• Focused and researchable
• Answerable using credible sources
• Complex and arguable
• Feasible and specific
• Relevant and original

All research questions should be:

• Focused on a single problem or issue
• Researchable using primary and/or secondary sources
• Feasible to answer within the timeframe and practical constraints
• Specific enough to answer thoroughly
• Complex enough to develop the answer over the space of a paper or thesis
• Relevant to your field of study and/or society more broadly

A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.

Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.

Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement .

Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.

I will compare …

Your research objectives indicate how you’ll try to address your research problem and should be specific:

Research objectives describe what you intend your research project to accomplish.

They summarize the approach and purpose of the project and help to focus your research.

Your objectives should appear in the introduction of your research paper , at the end of your problem statement .

The main guidelines for formatting a paper in Chicago style are to:

• Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman
• Use 1 inch margins or larger
• Apply double line spacing
• Indent every new paragraph ½ inch
• Include a title page
• Place page numbers in the top right or bottom center
• Cite your sources with author-date citations or Chicago footnotes
• Include a bibliography or reference list

To automatically generate accurate Chicago references, you can use Scribbr’s free Chicago reference generator .

The main guidelines for formatting a paper in MLA style are as follows:

• Use an easily readable font like 12 pt Times New Roman
• Set 1 inch page margins
• Include a four-line MLA heading on the first page
• Center the paper’s title
• Use title case capitalization for headings
• Cite your sources with MLA in-text citations
• List all sources cited on a Works Cited page at the end

To format a paper in APA Style , follow these guidelines:

• Use a standard font like 12 pt Times New Roman or 11 pt Arial
• If submitting for publication, insert a running head on every page
• Apply APA heading styles
• Cite your sources with APA in-text citations
• List all sources cited on a reference page at the end

No, it’s not appropriate to present new arguments or evidence in the conclusion . While you might be tempted to save a striking argument for last, research papers follow a more formal structure than this.

All your findings and arguments should be presented in the body of the text (more specifically in the results and discussion sections if you are following a scientific structure). The conclusion is meant to summarize and reflect on the evidence and arguments you have already presented, not introduce new ones.

The conclusion of a research paper has several key elements you should make sure to include:

• A restatement of the research problem
• A summary of your key arguments and/or findings
• A short discussion of the implications of your research

Don’t feel that you have to write the introduction first. The introduction is often one of the last parts of the research paper you’ll write, along with the conclusion.

This is because it can be easier to introduce your paper once you’ve already written the body ; you may not have the clearest idea of your arguments until you’ve written them, and things can change during the writing process .

The way you present your research problem in your introduction varies depending on the nature of your research paper . A research paper that presents a sustained argument will usually encapsulate this argument in a thesis statement .

A research paper designed to present the results of empirical research tends to present a research question that it seeks to answer. It may also include a hypothesis —a prediction that will be confirmed or disproved by your research.

The introduction of a research paper includes several key elements:

• A hook to catch the reader’s interest
• Relevant background on the topic
• Details of your research problem

and your problem statement

• A thesis statement or research question
• Sometimes an overview of the paper

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Construction workers are dying by suicide at an alarming rate

In a swath of Arizona desert that will soon be home to a multibillion-dollar semiconductor plant, Justin Azbill stood before thousands of construction workers and told the story of the day he almost took his life.

Pressure had been building on Azbill for months at his job as safety director for a large Boston construction firm during the height of the pandemic. Sleep-deprived and overwhelmed, Azbill said he packed a lethal means to harm himself in his lunch sack.

But as he was preparing to leave for work that morning, his daughter asked him to stay home with her that day. He did and the day provided a moment of clarity for Azbill, who then sought out help from a friend.

Azbill, who got his start in construction as an ironworker, has been traveling to construction sites across the country sharing his story as he and others in the industry race to address what they say is an epidemic of suicide among their colleagues — many of whom are under increasing strain amid a nationwide construction boom and a shortage of workers.

“In the construction industry, we’ve generationally been taught that if you talk to someone about a weakness or you’re struggling then you’re weak and you won’t get hired,” said Azbill. “One of the reasons I talk about it so freely is so people know that it’s normal and it’s OK.”

The construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates among professions — with the rate among male construction workers 75% higher than men in the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 6,000 construction workers by suicide in 2022, an increase from 2021, according to the most recent data available. That compares to around 1,000 who died from a construction work-related injury.

“When you’re more likely to be killed by your own hands than to get killed in a jobsite accident, that’s a crisis in our industry,” said Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs and workforce for the Associated General Contractors of America. “We know pretty much what needs to happen to protect people physically. We’re figuring out how to protect people mentally.”

While construction wages are up and jobs are plentiful, those in the industry fear that the pressures on their workers’ mental health are only getting worse. A recent surge in construction projects, spurred by billions of federal dollars for infrastructure, clean energy and semiconductor projects have put increasing strain on an already stretched workforce.

As a result, workers are putting in more than 10-hour days in harsh weather conditions, facing high-pressure deadlines and having to spend months away from home living in hotels, temporary workforce housing or their vehicles. There is also the risk of workplace injuries and a higher rate of opioid misuse along with the general financial instability of hourly work.

“There’s a lot that goes into how stressful it is, not just physically, but mentally and psychologically,” said Josh Vitale, a superintendent for Hoffman Construction, the general contractor overseeing the Intel Arizona project where Azbill recently spoke. “I think progress is fantastic, but we have to realize that we are legitimately wringing the life out of people.”

One of the biggest building booms is being driven by the semiconductor industry. Companies are planning to spend $450 billion on 80 new semiconductor manufacturing projects in 25 states as part of a nationwide push led by the Biden administration to increase U.S. manufacturing of high-tech chips that go into everything from cars to military equipment, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

In Arizona, workers building the $20 billion Intel facility typically work two 60-hour weeks followed by a 50-hour week for months at a time in the hot Arizona weather with no paid vacation time, said Vitale. Because of a shortage of local workers, many are coming in from out of state, leaving behind friends and family and living for months or years in hotels or temporary housing.

For Azbill, a number of factors came together in a matter of months that pushed him to a place where he was close to ending his own life.

Azbill had spent decades working his way up the ranks of the construction industry, and when the pandemic hit, he was thrust into the role of Covid czar, working in an emotionally challenging and negative environment as his company tried to navigate the pandemic on its worksites, he said.

“I was working 19-hour days, and then I couldn’t sleep at night. Try that for six months and see where someone would be,” he said. “You start seeing everything negatively, there is this darkness. I was crying myself to sleep.”

At home, his relationship with his wife and daughter was fraying because for months he had barely been around, but he worried that if he cut back his hours at work he would let his family down financially, he said.

“At the time, I didn’t think that my wife or my daughter really cared for me because for six months I was angry all the time, they were cautious being around me, they didn’t want to cause more problems for me,” Azbill said.

After about six months, Azbill said he hit a breaking point. There was a Covid outbreak on a jobsite after some workers weren’t following safety protocols. The incident angered him in a way he’d never experienced. He said he blacked out and started having thoughts of suicide. He knew something was wrong so he went home to try to get some sleep.

He woke up at 2:30 a.m. the next morning and decided he was going to take his own life. He wrote three goodbye letters: one to his mother, one to his wife and one to his daughter.

“Before I left, I said, ‘Goodbye. I’m going to work, I love you guys,’” he said.

Then, his 8-year-old daughter, who was doing remote school, came running out of her room.

“She says, ‘Papa, Papa,’ and anytime she calls me Papa she steals my heart. It’s also her way of saying she loves me,” Azbill said. “I think she knew I was struggling bad, and I was her best friend. She said, ‘Papa, I love you, spend time with me, I don’t like my teacher and I don’t like school, can you spend time with me today?’ And so I did.”

Azbill stayed home from work that day and watched his daughter.

In the afternoon, he got on a weekly Zoom call with dozens of other safety professionals in the industry. Near the end of the call, one of the participants began crying, talking about losing one of his best friends to Covid and shared how he was struggling with the loss.

“I call that my clarity moment. It completely changed my mindset,” he said. “I realized I can’t do that. I’m not going to do what I was thinking.”

After the Zoom meeting, Azbill called a friend and shared that he was struggling. His friend told him how important he was to those in his life and that people are grateful for all he does. That phone call, he said, helped save his life.

At the Intel project, the site’s general contractor, Hoffman Construction, has tried to tackle the risk of suicide in a number of ways across its worksites after the company lost two of its supervisors to suicide over the past several years, said Vitale. Intel doesn’t employ any of the construction workers on the site or have direct involvement in the construction process.

The company has created community center-style spaces on its worksites where workers can have some personal space, attend a substance misuse meeting or talk with a peer who can help connect them to mental health resources. It also started including discussions about mental health in its regular staff meetings.

“It would be rare to find someone in the industry who hasn’t known a person that has taken their life within the last year or two,” said Vitale. “As an industry, we just keep putting more and more pressure on the worker to outperform what they’ve done before, and at some point it’s just untenable.”

Vitale has gotten involved in a number of efforts to reduce suicides in the industry after he struggled with his own mental health crisis after the loss of his baby, he said. Several times a week, he said, he is involved in a suicide intervention at the Arizona jobsite and has counseled dozens of colleagues thinking about hurting themselves, like a young carpenter he’s been talking to recently who is struggling with the loss of his mother and grandmother.

But even with those efforts, the worksite hasn’t been immune from loss — an employee for one of the project’s contractors recently died by suicide at home over the weekend.

Alarm bells about the high rate of suicide started going off in the construction industry in 2016 when a CDC report showed construction workers had one of the highest rates of suicide by profession, leading various industry groups to start looking for solutions. For every 100,000 male construction workers, 56 died by suicide in 2022, according to CDC data. That compared to 32 suicide deaths per 100,000 men in the general population. Males have a significantly greater rate of suicide than females.

A key focus for the industry has been trying to tackle the taboo nature of talking about mental health and seeking treatment. Industry organizations have been using everything from PSA-style videos and worksite talks to stickers, poker chips and magnets plastered around job sites informing workers of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Groups have also been creating resources like worksite talks and suicide prevention training courses to help guide employers in how to talk about mental health with their employees.

Construction firm Bechtel said earlier this year that it would spent $7 million toward an effort with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to reach 500,000 construction workers with industry-specific mental health programs.

Shannon Niles, safety director for construction firm Paric Corp., said he experienced the mental toll the job can take firsthand after witnessing a co-worker die on a jobsite when a trench collapsed on him. Niles tried to dig the man out but was unable to save him. He said he bottled up the trauma of the incident, becoming angrier and more withdrawn and drinking heavily until his family intervened and urged him to get help.

But Niles said there is an industry culture that discourages many from asking for help and a fear that showing any perceived weakness could jeopardize their job prospects.

“Construction workers think they’re so big and bad, that they don’t ever need any help. But we’ve got to realize we’re all human beings, and we all need help at some point,” Niles said.

Giving added urgency to the issue is an industrywide shortage of workers. At the start of 2024, the construction industry needed an additional 500,000 workers on top of the normal pace of hiring to meet the expected demand, according to Associated Builders and Contractors.

“You spend a couple-hundred-thousand dollars to train a superintendent for 20 years, and you’re going to throw them out the door now because they have a mental health problem or substance abuse?” said Mike Pugh, who oversees safety for DPR Construction. “They’re finding financially it’s not viable, it doesn’t pay any more to ignore and separate these issues because we don’t have anybody to replace them because there’s a worker shortage.”

It’s a stark change from when Pugh was facing his own mental health struggles more than two decades ago. Pugh said he began a downward spiral with drug and alcohol addiction following several traumatic deaths in his family. At the time, he was working in a high-level position for an HVAC company that worked on large-scale commercial construction projects.

“My bosses are watching me circle the drain and nobody’s really saying anything,” Pugh said. “As men, we’re taught to take care of your stuff, take care of your family. When you’re unable to do that you feel even more shame and guilt and it just all piles on until I just kind of snapped and couldn’t do it anymore.”

Ultimately, it was his brother who urged him to get help, and he has been in recovery for 25 years. Like Azbill, he now travels the country talking at worksites about the need for a culture change in the industry.

He thinks the message is starting to get through. Recently, he was at a jobsite in California where he had spoken about a year ago. While talking with the site’s safety manager, a laborer approached him and pulled him aside so no one would see them talking.

“He tells me, ‘Sir, after your talk last year, I went home and told my wife for the first time about my drinking, and I’ve been sober for five months,’” Pugh said. “We both started crying and hugging.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at  800-273-8255 , text HOME to 741741 or visit  SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources  for additional resources.

Shannon Pettypiece is senior policy reporter for NBC News digital.

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Conservative-backed group is creating a list of federal workers it suspects could resist Trump plans

Tom Jones, a political activist and former Capitol Hill aide to Republican senators, is pictured in Bardstown, Ky., Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — From his home office in small-town Kentucky, a seasoned political operative is quietly investigating scores of federal employees suspected of being hostile to the policies of Republican Donald Trump , a highly unusual and potentially chilling effort that dovetails with broader conservative preparations for a new White House.

Tom Jones and his American Accountability Foundation are digging into the backgrounds, social media posts and commentary of key high-ranking government employees, starting with the Department of Homeland Security . They’re relying in part on tips from his network of conservative contacts, including workers. In a move that alarms some, they’re preparing to publish the findings online.

With a $100,000 grant from the Heritage Foundation , the goal is to post 100 names of government workers to a website this summer to show a potential new administration who might be standing in the way of a second-term Trump agenda — and ripe for scrutiny, reclassifications, reassignments or firings .

“We need to understand who these people are and what they do,” said Jones, a former Capitol Hill aide to Republican senators.

The concept of compiling and publicizing a list of government employees shows the lengths Trump’s allies are willing to go to ensure nothing or no one will block his plans in a potential second term. Jones’ Project Sovereignty 2025 comes as Heritage’s Project 2025 lays the groundwork, with policies, proposals and personnel ready for a possible new White House.

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The effort, focused on top career government officials who aren’t appointees within the political structure, has stunned democracy experts and shocked the civil service community in what they compare with the red scare of McCarthyism.

Jacqueline Simon, policy director at the American Federation of Government Employees, said the language being used — the Heritage Foundation’s announcement praised the group for ferreting out “anti-American bad actors” — is “shocking.”

Civil servants are often ex-military personnel and are required to take an oath to the Constitution to work for the federal government, not a loyalty test to a president, she and others said.

“It just seems as though their goal is to try to menace federal employees and sow fear,” said Simon, whose union backs President Joe Biden , a Democrat, for reelection .

As Trump, who has been convicted of felony charges in a hush money case and is under a four-count federal indictment accusing him of working to overturn his 2020 election loss , faces a likely rematch with Biden this fall, far-right conservatives have vowed to take a wrecking ball to what they call the deep-state bureaucracy.

The Trump campaign has said outside groups don’t speak for the ex-president, who alone sets his policy priorities .

Conservatives view the federal workforce as overstepping its role to become a power center that can drive or thwart a president’s agenda. Particularly during the Trump administration, government officials came under attack from the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill, as his own Cabinet often raised objections to some of his more singular or even unlawful proposals.

While Jones’ group won’t necessarily be recommending whether to fire or reassign the federal workers it lists, the work aligns with Heritage’s far-reaching Project 2025 blueprint for a conservative administration.

Heritage’s Project 2025 proposes reviving the Trump Schedule F policy that would try to reclassify tens of thousands of federal workers as political appointees, which could enable mass dismissals — although a Biden administration rule seeks to make that more difficult. The Heritage project is working to recruit and train a new generation to travel to Washington to fill government jobs.

In announcing the $100,000 Innovation Award last month, Heritage said it’d support American Accountability Foundation’s “investigative researchers, in-depth reports, and educational efforts to alert Congress, a conservative administration, and the American people to the presence of anti-American bad actors burrowed into the administrative state and ensure appropriate action is taken.”

Heritage President Kevin Roberts said the “weaponization of the federal government” has been possible only because of the “deep state of entrenched Leftist bureaucrats.” He said he was proud to support the work of American Accountability Foundation workers “in their fight to hold our government accountable and drain it of bad actors.”

The federal government employs about 2.2 million people, including those in the Washington, D.C., area and workers who the unions say many Americans know as friends or neighbors in communities across the country.

About 4,000 positions in the government are considered political appointees who routinely change from one presidential administration to the next, but most are career professionals — from landscapers at Veterans Administration cemeteries to economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The public list-making conjures for some the era of Joseph McCarthy, the senator who conducted grueling hearings into suspected communist sympathizers during the Cold War. The hearings were orchestrated by a top staffer, Roy Cohn, who became a confidant of a younger Trump.

Skye Perryman, CEO of the advocacy group Democracy Forward, said it’s deeply disturbing and reminiscent of “the darker parts of American history.”

Publicly naming government workers is an “intimidation tactic to try to chill the work of these civil servants,” she said, and part of a broader “retribution agenda” underway this election.

“They’re seeking to undermine our democracy,” she said. “They’re seeking to undermine the way that our government works for people.”

Jones, from his desk overlooking rickhouses storing barrels in the Bourbon Capitol of Bardstown, scoffed at comparisons to McCarthyism as “nonsense.”

He’s a former staffer to then-Sen. Jim DeMint, the South Carolina conservative Republican who later led Heritage and now helms the Conservative Policy Institute, where American Accountability Foundation has a mailing address. Jones also worked for Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, and provided opposition research for Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential bid.

With six researchers, Jones’ team operates remotely across the country, poring over the information about federal workers within Homeland Security, the State Department and other agencies that deal with immigration and border issues.

Their focus is on the highest ranks of the civil servants — GS-13, GS-14 and GS-15 employees and those in senior executive positions who could put up roadblocks to Trump’s plans for tighter borders and more deportations.

“I think it’s important to the next administration to understand who those people are,” Jones said.

He dismissed the risks that could be involved in publicly posting the names, salary information and other details of federal workers who have some level of privacy or the idea his group’s work could put employees’ livelihoods in jeopardy.

“You don’t get to make policy and then say, ‘Hey, don’t scrutinize me,”’ he said.

He acknowledges some of the work is often a “gut check” or “instinct” about which federal employees would be suspected of trying to block a conservative agenda.

“We’re looking at, ‘Are there wrong people on the bus right now that are, you know, openly hostile to efforts to secure the southern border?’” he said.

His own group came under scrutiny as it first probed Biden nominees.

Biden had repealed Trump’s Schedule F executive order in January 2021, but a Government Accountability Office report in 2022 found that agencies believed it could be reinstated by a future administration.

Since then, the Biden administration issued a rule that would make it harder to fire workers. A new administration could direct the Office of Personnel Management to undo the regulation, but the process would take time and be open to legal challenges.

7 reasons Nvidia is poised to soar 67% as its rally continues for the next 2 years, according to a Wall Street research firm

• Constellation Research said Nvidia stock will soar 65% to $200 per share over the next year.
• The research firm said it expects Nvidia stock to continue soaring for the next 18 to 24 months as it benefits from its AI dominance.
• There are seven moats around Nvidia's business that will enable continued growth. 

Nvidia stock will surge to $200 per share over the next 12 months, and its ongoing rally is set to last up to another two years, according to Constellation Research.

Constellation founder R "Ray" Wang told CNBC on Monday that he believes Nvidia has seven moats that will help it maintain its dominant position in the market for GPUs that are fueling the AI boom.

"Nvidia is the foundational stock in the Age of AI. CEO Jensen Huang intends to achieve vertically integrated domination from silicon to software through partnerships and direct routes to market. Unlike the PC age where Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco served as a triumvirate foundational players, this new era will have new players all tied back to Nvidia," Wang told Business Insider in an e-mail on Monday.

These are the seven reasons Wang expects Nvidia stock to soar 65% from current levels.

1. Visionary founder-led CEO

"It's a visionary-led CEO, and that's very very important as you've seen in the valley. Those are the ones that have led, like the Larry Ellisons of the world, the scott Mcnealys, the Mark Zuckerbergs," Wang said.

2. High barrier to entry

"There's few competitors that can come into this chip market, and it takes a long time to get a chip to market, and if you can do that and if you succeed and then if you can actually get the right chip, that's a very hard thing to do."

3. High switching costs

"Once you're in, you're locked in because of the CUDA software and all the access to the chips, the software, and the entire stack. You're going to be locked in for quite some time and they've got quite a lead in terms of doing that."

4. Dominant market share

"Nvidia has had dominant market share, and I think that makes a big difference because they've been in this market for quite some time and the competitors are behind by 24 months."

5. Strong product roadmap

"We're only seeing one-tenth, maybe one-one hundredth of the product roadmap that Nvidia has out there, and that's really exciting for those who actually have some insight into what they have next, because it's more than just chips, and it's more than just what's happening in software. That ability to go from silicon all the way to the end side, that's where we're going to see a lot of the innovation."

6. GPU is the default standard in AI

"The ecosystem has made the GPU a default standard. It's the standard everyone's looking to for AI from inference and testing."

7. The numbers don't lie

"We're seeing some amazing growth here that actually matches the P/E ratio, and that's what everyone is looking at, they're trying to figure out how this is going to continue, but gross margins are 78%, 262% growth compared to a year ago, this is going to continue for at least the next 18 to 24 months."

Wang said the current 14% decline in the stock since it peaked at about $140 per share last week represents yet another buying opportunity for investors.

"The pullback is coming at a macro level. People are worried about the consumer side, people worried about where the economy is going to head, and they're doing some profit-taking before the summer, so I think it's a good time to buy the dip," Wang said.

Wang isn't the only analyst on Wall Street with a $200 price target for Nvidia stock.

Last week, Rosenblatt raised its Nvidia price target to $200 per share on the prospect of the company better monetizing its CUDA software platform.

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EGLE awards brownfield funding to two projects creating new jobs in northern Michigan

July 01, 2024

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is awarding two Brownfield Redevelopment Grants worth a combined $1.4 million to two commercial projects in northern Michigan.

Freshwater Research and Innovation Center, West Bay Shore Drive, Elmwood Township

The 9.24-acre site has been used for manufacturing, auto repair, and boat storage going back to 1971. It’s now contaminated with PFAS, metals, and petroleum compounds. A $1 million EGLE grant will pay for site assessments, removal of contaminated groundwater and soil, asbestos abatement, and demolition. The township expects the $28 million Freshwater Research Center to draw millions of dollars a year in research funding and create 30 new jobs. It will be owned by Discovery Center Great Lakes, which is already investing $7.5 million to redevelop Discovery Pier across the street from the work site. Construction on the Freshwater Research and Innovation Center is scheduled to be done in spring 2027. Contact EGLE Brownfield Coordinator Aaron Assmann, [email protected] , 616-430-5275, for more information.

The Black Squirrel Bakery, North State Street, Hillman

A blighted former gas station is going to be turned into a bakery in a small village in Montmorency County. EGLE has been doing remediation work at the site since receiving complaints about petroleum vapors in the basement of a neighboring building in the early 1990s. EGLE funding was used to remove 103,000 gallons of groundwater and 430 cubic yards of soil between 1999 and 2013. Now a $400,000 EGLE Brownfield Redevelopment Grant will be used for new site assessments, the removal of another 700 tons of contaminated soil, a hazardous materials survey, and demolition of the existing building. Developer Jamie MacArthur plans to invest $500,000 to turn the site into a bakery and café that’s walking distance from shops, restaurants, and parks. She expects the redevelopment to create four new jobs. Construction is expected to be finished in winter 2024. Contact EGLE Brownfield Coordinator Julie Lowe, [email protected] , 989-619-0617, for more information.

More than half of EGLE’s annual budget supports local projects, protects public health and the environment, and helps create economic growth and jobs for Michigan workers. Redevelopment increases the value of brownfield sites and other nearby properties. In 2023 EGLE awarded $31.3 million in brownfield incentives to 88 projects around Michigan.

Media Contact:

EGLE Media Office

[email protected]

517-284-9278

Jill Josef Greenberg

EGLE Public Information Officer

[email protected]

517-897-4965

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