Full Title of Your Paper

[Student’s name]

Student’s email

[Students Affiliation (your current work place)]

Abstract

Put your abstract here (do this last). The abstract should consist of 4 sections (Background and

Objectives, Methods, Results, and Conclusion) and should not exceed 250 words (i.e., 1 page).

Keywords

Include at least 3 keywords relevant to your paper

INTRODUCTION

The introduction section should include a brief outline of the background of the study,

its definitions of the key concepts, and its objectives. The aim of the introduction is to

contextualise the proposed research. This section should be between 600 to 900 words (i.e., 1

to 2 pages).

You need to focus on certain elements in the introduction section:

1- Describe the background of the problem you will explore in your study and the reason

you chose this topic. You might discuss the influence of this problem on the health

care system, or in the community.

2- Outline the major focus of your study, and give a statement of the problem situation

(e.g., main research question).

3- Discuss the importance of your project in the Saudi context, and the gap in the

literature. Outline the definitions of key terms used in the study.

4- Define the specific aims and objectives of the study. Explain the research problem

and outline the questions to be answered or the main objectives to be achieved.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This section of the paper should outline the design and methodology of your study. The

research should be designed in the most appropriate way to answer your research question(s).

This section should not exceed 600 words (i.e., 2 pages), and should include 5 sections:

Research design

State what kind of research design you will be using in your research (e.g., quantitative),

and outline the specific type of research design (e.g., Quantitative: cross-sectional, cohort…

etc). Spell out the dependent and independent variables.

Study setting

State the setting(s) where the study [will be] undertaken.

Participants

Give details of who were [will be] the participants in your study, how was [will be] the

sample recruited, the sample size, and finally the inclusion and exclusion criteria

Instruments

List and briefly describe all the instruments (e.g., tests, measures, surveys, observations,

interviews, questionnaires, electronic medical records) [to be] used in your study for data

collection. And (if applicable) justify why you used [will be using] these instruments.

Ethics and limitations

Outline the ethical approval numbers and where were they obtained from.

Analysis

Discuss how the data was [will be] processed and analysed, and what statistical test [will

be] used (e.g.: chi-square, ANOVA, regression…. etc).

RESULTS

This section shows the results of your study. It should include the analysis and

interpretation of the results, and the tables and figures used to present the results.

Start the section by outlining a summary of the results from your study. Then followed

by the detailed results (bivariate analyses); which are preferably reported with respect to the

structure of your objectives mentioned in the introduction section. The results section should

not exceed 1200 words (4 pages).

DISCUSSION

This section includes a full discussion of the project’s results, interpretation, and

evaluation. It also includes comparison of the results in the study to other studies in the same

area. Discussion section should not exceed 900 words (3 pages).

Start the section with a paragraph summarising the results of your study, you can organize

the section according to the objectives of the study. For each objective, discuss the results of

your study, and compare it to results from other studies (e.g., similarities/differences to the

findings in the literature review), then critically analyse the similarities or differences of the

results according to your own understanding. This way you will be able to develop your own

theory about the current situation from this comparison.

CONCLUSION

This section contains conclusions, limitations, and recommendations – so what is the

theory? Where to from here? What are the practical implications?

The first part of the section should be a brief summary of everything covered in the study

(e.g., objectives, research questions, results). Followed by your conclusion of the findings, this

could be completed by answering the question “so what?”. Then, discuss what are your

recommendations. Then discuss the project strengths and limitations.

It could be useful to use the objectives as an organising structure of this section. This

section should not exceed 300 words (1 page).

REFERENCES

American Psychological Association (APA). (2010). Publication Manual of the American

Psychological Association (6th Ed.). Washington, DC: Author.