Due: Thursday, August 11, in class
Submission: Submit four (or more) files on Sakai:
Before beginning a new research study, researchers often write a research proposal. This proposal may take various forms and be used for different goals (i.e., proposing ideas for an academic purpose, such as a thesis or dissertation project, or to apply for grant funding). Ultimately, research proposals serve the same purpose: to describe in detail how the researchers plan to address their questions about a certain topic using the appropriate research methodology. Proposals also describe the significance of the work to be done in a way that convinces their audience that the research is important and should be completed. If the proposal is not particularly convincing, the goal of the proposal will not be met (i.e., no approval from an academic committee or advisor or awarding of research funds).
Your final paper is a research proposal on public a health topic to mitigate a public health concern of your choice. Your paper should analyze not only the public health concern but also the scientific research behind it. You should also address whether or not there is an impetus for health policy. You will construct an argument for why your research question is important, provide scholarly sources as supporting evidence, and situate your proposed research within the relevant academic conversation.
Using the statistical and causal tools you learned in this class, you will support your argument on why you the proposed public health research is necessary and why you think relevant policy is necessary or unnecessary. You can also discuss whether or not you think relevant policy is effective, and how it can be improved. Additionally, you are asked to find a relevant dataset (either one that is used in one of your references, or from a different source) and perform exploratory data analysis and create at least one data visualizaton that informs and supports your research question and hypothesis and provides support to your proposal.
You will complete this project in stages. Please see the course website for relevant stages and deadlines.
You will also present your project in a poster session on the last day of class.
There will be three components to this project:
Requirements for each component are outlined below.
Step 1: Research Topic
You have already started to develop interests in public health topics covered in the course. Ideally, you have already settled on an area of interest from the readings and assignments we have completed; nonetheless, we will discuss how to select a research topic if you have not done so already.
Step 2: Research Topic to Research Question
You will start the work of the final project by developing your research question and hypothesis. We will discuss these more in class, but the research question and hypothesis should be the driving force behind your proposal. This question should be carefully crafted to guide your review of the literature and selection of research methods to include in your proposal. The handouts on going from research “topics to questions” and “what makes a good research question” will be helpful in completing this step.
Step 3: Literature Review and Introduction
Next, you will review the relevant literature and complete an annotated bibliography. Recall that during our library session, we discussed how to search for research articles. For this project, you will use an annotated bibliography to develop the Literature Review for the Introduction section of your proposal. You will be required to use a minimum of 8 references. The handouts on completing an annotated bibliography and “engaging sources” will be helpful for this step.
Step 4: Research Methodology
The next part of your research proposal is the Methods section, which should detail the methodology you would follow in order to address your research question and test your hypothesis. This is the section where you will describe the “who, what, when, where, and how” of your project. We will discuss more what a successful Methods section entails as we work through this part of the final project.
Step 5: Exploratory Data Analysis
In this part you will perform exploratory data analysis on the dataset (or datasets) that you are using to support your proposal. This entails obtaining relevant summary statistics and creating at least one data visualization. Note that your data visualization should use at least three variables. You are welcomed to have more than one data visualization, and chances are you will want to do that. However note that a single high quality visualization (or a low number of such visualizations) will receive a much higher grade than a large number of poor quality visualizations. The data visualization should be created in R. There is no limit on what tools or packages you may use, however it is perfectly sufficient and acceptable to stick to only the packages we have learned in class.
Step 6: Results
In the Results section of your proposal, you will explain what you found in your exploratory data analysis.
Step 7: Discussion
You will conclude your research proposal with a Discussion section, where you briefly revisit the points made in your Introduction, especially the significance of your research study and the theoretical foundation. Remind your audience about the research “conversation” that you discuss through your literature review, as well as your contribution to the conversation (i.e., your research question and hypothesis). You will argue for why certain policy changes are needed and supported by your research.
Step 8: Putting it all together
After completing the steps described above, you will need to be sure that all of these sections fit together to tell a logical, cohesive, and persuasive story. You will want to make sure that your explanation of your proposed research is consistent throughout the paper by revising previous sections as needed. You also will add transitions between sections so that they flow together smoothly. You will add subheadings to divide your paper into the following sections:
In your Abstract (250 words), you will provide your reader with a brief overview your Introduction, Research Question, Methods, Data Analysis, Results, and Discussion, which is why we will save it for one of the last steps of your proposal.
Finally, you will include a References section where you will list all of your cited sources in APA style. Only academic sources will be accepted for this assignment; you may use articles from peer-reviewed journals or book chapters from edited books, such as our course textbook. However, you should not use popular media sources for this project. We will discuss balancing your selection of sources that provide descriptions of original research with those that provide a review of previous research studies.
All of the content for this document comes from the exploratory data analysis drafts you turned in earlier.
Download the R Markdown template, fill it out, and submit along with your data file(s).
download.file("http://stat.duke.edu/~mc301/ARTSCI101_Su16/assignments/project/analysis_appendix/analysis_appendix_template.Rmd", destfile = "analysis_appendix.Rmd")
Read the instructions in the template carefully.
We suggest using a tri-fold poster. You can organize it however you like. You do not need to get your poster professionally printed. You can see sample posters from a different Statistical Science course in Dr. Çetinkaya-Rundel’s office.
You will give a 5 minute presentation of your work. Each team member must speak during this presentation. The time limit is firm, you will be asked to stop at the end of 5 minutes. This is not a lot of time, therefore you must decide carefully what you will highlight during your presentation and practice to make sure you can fit everything you want to say in the time limit.
Grading of the project will take into account:
Your team scores will be based on the following components:
| Poster | 20 points |
| Presentation | 20 points |
| Data analysis & code | 20 points |
| Write up | 30 points |
| Classmates’ evaluation | 10 points |
Your write up includes grades from previous drafts as well.
Team scores for will be adjusted based on team peer evaluation data to determine each student’s individual grade.
You will be asked to fill out a survey where you rate the contribution of each team member. Filling out the survey is a prerequisite for receiving a project score.
All team members must be present at the poster session. Failure to do so will result in a 0 on the project for the absent team member.
Note that each student must complete the project and score at least 30% of total possible points on the project in order to pass this class.
You may not discuss this project in any way with anyone outside your team, besides the professor and TAs. Failure to abide by this policy will result in a 0 for all teams involved.
This project is an opportunity to apply what you have learned in this course about data analysis and writing.
The goal is not to do an exhaustive data analysis i.e., do not calculate every statistic and procedure you have learned for every variable, but rather to show that you are proficient at using R at a basic level and that you are proficient at interpreting and presenting the results.
You might consider critiquing your own method, such as issues pertaining to the reliability of the data and the appropriateness of the statistical analysis you used within the context of this specific data set.
An important writing goal of the project is to work together with your teammates to conceptualize your topic and research question. You may not know all of the techniques that would be required to carry out your proposed study; however, your writing should be descriptive and clearly explain your ideas to your audience.
Plan early and regular meetings with your team to brainstorm ideas and delegate project tasks, including how you will draft each part of the project. Please let us know as soon as possible if you experience challenges in working together cohesively!