Central Department of Library and Information Science, TU

Research Proposal Format

1. Title
The research area, context, methodology and problem is carried by a title in general. In

fact, there is no word limit for a title, but in practice maximum 12 to 15 words are prescribed. A

short title with limited words that are meaningful and catchy are preferred title.

Examples

1. Archives, libraries and museums as communicators of memory

in the European Union projects
2. The context and state of open source software adoption in US academic libraries
3. Microbial Control in Archives, Libraries and Museums
by Ventilation Systems
4. Reader education in an academic library
5. Digital Library Service Quality Assessment Model

Title no. Research area context methodology Problem

1 Archives, Communicator of
libraries, and memory
museums
2 OSS use US academic Context and
libraries status
3 Archives, Use of ventilation Microbial
libraries and system for control
museum microbial control
4. Academic Reader education Reader
library education
5. Digital library Quality Devising
service assessment quality
assessment
model

2. Introduction
These five parts should be incorporated in the introduction. Give a separate paragraph

devoted for each part. For an introduction, about two pages in length is sufficient.
 a. The research problem

b. Studies that have addressed the problem (large groups of studies)

c. Deficiencies/gaps in the studies

d. The significance of the study for particular audience

e. The purpose of study

3. Background of the Study

Incorporate following parts

a. Contextual framework of the study

b. Historical development of research area/idea that is focused in own research

c. Current situation of the focused ides

d. Begin from broader areas to specific to come to own study context (international, national

and local contexts)

For example, an educational research proposal, let’s say rural primary teachers’ use of

ICT in their planning and teaching, may require basic information such as international context

of ICT integration in education, ICT in Nepal’s National context, primary education curriculum

and government policy in ICT. These sections can provide a rationale of study and statement of

problem.

4. Statement of Study problem

It is partly described in the introduction section and background section. It is better to write

exclusively at this particular section. Some tips to write on statement of problem

a. Opening sentence should attract the reader interest

b. Better to use quotations especially long one that could grab the interest
 c. Stay away from idiomatic expressions

d. Consider numeric information for impact

e. Clearly identify the research problem.

f. Indicate why the problem is important by citing numerous references that justify the need

to study the problem.

g. Make consistent with the approach to research in the study

h. State if a single problem involves or multiple problems that lead to a need for the study

5. Purpose of the Study

A researcher can explain research purpose in a small paragraph. A researcher can write research

purposes in the form of statements instead of questions.

It indicates why you want to do the study and what you intend to accomplish. The purpose

statement sets the intent of the study, not the problem or issue leading to a need for the study.

5.1 For qualitative purpose statement

“The purpose (or intent or objective) of this study is (will be)……….”

a. Use words such as purpose, intent or objective to signal attention to this statement as the

central controlling idea

b. Focus on a single phenomenon (or concept or idea)

c. Use action verbs to convey how learning will take place. Action verbs and phrases, such

as describe, understand, develop, examine the meaning of, or discover….

d. User neutral words and phrases. E.g. exploring the ‘experiences of individuals’ rather

than the ‘successful experiences of individuals’

5.2 Quantitative purpose statement

Include variables in the study and their relationship, the participants, and the research

site.
 a. User terms like purpose, intent or objective…

b. Provide emphasis on the importance of the interrelationships among variables

(theory)

c. Identify the independent and dependent variables, as well as any mediating,

moderating, or control variables used in the study

d. Show the relationship as “the relationship between” two or more variables, or a

“comparison of” two or more groups

The purpose of this……………………(experiment? Survey?) study will be to test the

theory of ……………………that……………………….(compares?relates?) the

………………..(independent variable) to …………….(dependent variables)

…………..will be defined as…………….(provide definition). The dependent

variable (s) will be defined as…………….(provide a definition), and the control and

intervening variable (s),……………………,(identify the control and intervening

variables) will be defined as……………. (Provide definition)

6. Research Questions
Generally, researchers write one overarching and then two or three specific research

questions. The overarching question covers all other questions which means the specific

questions are part of the main research question. These questions lead the entire research process

from the development of research title to writing research conclusion.

What is the broadest question that you can ask in the study?

Qualitative research question

Begin the research question with the words what or how to convey an open design

Exploratory verbs
 Discover

Seek to understand

Explore a process

Describe the experiences

Report the stories

Quantitative research question

Use directional words

Affect

Influence

Impact

Determine

Cause

relate

Hypothesis of the Study

If there is necessary to write hypothesis, particularly in positivist/post-positivist research,

researcher can state 2 or 3 hypotheses. For this, the researcher needs to review the literature

based on which they state the hypothesis.

Does……………..(name the theory) explain the relationship between…………………..

(independent variable) and ………………(dependent variable), controlling for the effects of

……………..(control variables)?

Or

There is no significant difference between……………(the control and experimental

group on the independent variables) on ……………..(dependent variable).

7. Significance of the study
Write the importance of your study. How does your study contribute adding the existing
knowledge and what could be the practical implications?

8. Limitation of the study

Limitation in the aspects, population, area etc.

9. Literature Review
Literature review is a comprehensive and transparent search conducted over various databases

and old documents which can be replicated and reproduced by other researchers. Literature

review identifies the information a researcher searched, critiqued and reported in a certain time

bound.

This section provides a concept of developing research framework. However, the

researcher will state review of literature in separate chapter in research report. For proposal, the

review needs to include generally search terms, type of documents, search strategies (including

database, date of access) and parameters (constraints). The researcher can follow chronological

or thematic literature review idea depending on the nature of the study. Chronological literature

review follows a system of organizing information in chronological order.

9.1 Theoretical/Conceptual Framework (if any)

A researcher should prepare a conceptual or theoretical framework that is helpful for

investigating or examining the pre-assumed relation between the variables or explore on

constructs. The researcher can be present it in a diagram or narrative form.

10. Research Methodology

Research Methodology is generally mentioned chapter III in the research report. chapter

This section provides a strict map of research process that the researcher is going to follow

throughout the research, particularly from obtaining ethical approval to writing thesis. It shows

how a researcher is going to approach research field and participants and in what ways s/he will
collect and analyze data. It explains researcher’s research design, methods of data collection,

strategies of sampling, tools of data collection (optional depending on type of research),

treatment of primary data and data analysis.

10.1 Research design

10.2 Sampling Procedure
Most common sampling methods used in qualitative research: purposive sampling, quota sampling, and
snowball sampling.
There are several different sampling techniques available in quantitative research and they can be

subdivided into two groups: probability sampling and non-probability sampling. In probability

(random) sampling, you start with a complete sampling frame of all eligible individuals from which you

select your sample. In this way, all eligible individuals have a chance of being chosen for the sample, and

you will be more able to generalize the results from your study. In non-probability (non-random)

sampling, you do not start with a complete sampling frame, so some individuals have no chance of being

selected. Consequently, you cannot estimate the effect of sampling error and there is a significant risk of

ending up with a non-representative sample which produces non-generalizable results.

11. Style Manual

A style manual provides a format of writing that includes citation, listing references,

labelling headings, and constructing tables and figures. CDLIS follows the style manual of latest

style manual of American Psychological Association (APA) (latest version).