Deadline: The assignment must be submitted via the submission link by 12:00 (noon), on Thursday 9th of December, 2021.

Word limit: 3000 words (incl. Bibliography) – this is an upper limit, you may have fewer words but not more. Please include a word count in the document.

Coverpage: Please include the coverpage at the front of the assignment, you can find it on the Moodle page .

Originality: All submissions will be asked to tick a “Declaration of Originality”. Please ensure you understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. – Please check the Course guide for further information.

No names: Please do not include your name. Your assignment is blind marked and the markers should not know your name.

File name: Please name the file using including your GUID, in the format: Research proposal _ Your GUID _ the course code, for example:

Research_proposal_234567T_SPS5034.docx

2 Formatting

Please make use of the template provided with the coversheet here.

2.1 Text format

Page numbers: ensure your document has page numbers in the format: Current page/Total pages (e.g. 2/5, or see this document).

Font size: minimum 12pt

Line-spacing: Single-spacing (1.0)

2.2 Text structure

The text should have at least four headings:

1 Introduction

2 Research question/aims

3 Data & Methods

4 Limitations

Please make use of subheadings to further structure your text, e.g.

1 Introduction

It is interesting to look at…

1.1 Past research

There are several small-scale quantitative studies…

Please break long sections down into paragraphs, for every new thought:

“Reviewing the empirical literature on in-work poverty (IWP) from high income countries (HIC) suggest that the prevalence of IWP in HICs is predominantly determined by the strength of employment legislation and the proportion of union members in a country.

Research from middle income countries (MIC) suggests that IWP is a proportionally smaller issue compared to outright unemployment…”

2.3 References/Bibliography

Reference manager: You are strongly recommended to use a reference manager, e.g. Zotero, Mendeley, Endnote etc.

Reference style: please reference literature in the text using an “Author Year”-format e.g. (Marx 2014). – In a reference manager choose e.g. “Harvard style”.

Quotes: Full text quotes must have “”- inverted commas around them, followed by the appropriate reference including the page number, e.g. King et al. mention “selection on the dependent variable” (King 1994: 129) as source of bias in causal inferences.

Large quotes: please put large full text quotes into separate, indented paragraphs for example:

“…King et al. have a very clear opinion about the standards of scientific research:

“ ‘scientific research’ us an ideal to which any actual quantitative or qualitative research, even the most careful, is only an approximation.” (King 1994:7)

On the one hand, scientific research is an idea…”

3 Step-by-step guide through the proposal

3.0 Scenarios

Your research proposal needs to have a research question. The research question should be based on ONE of the five scenarios that you can find in the course guide.

3.1 Title

· The research question or an abridged version of the question/aim should be used as the title of the proposal.

3.2 Introduction

Aim: To justify the research and to summarize the key literature.

What to do:

· The proposal provide an introduction to the topic and a literature overview that develops and justifies the research question.

· The proposal should state clearly what research gap the analysis will address and why the research is important.

· Provide a brief overview of the main argument (theory), possible rival hypotheses, observable implications, and other theoretical considerations that form the basis of the research.

3.3 Research question/Aims/Hypothesis

Aim: Key part to say what the proposed research should achieve. This is crucial to assess whether the research design, data, and analysis methods are appropriate.

The proposal should state a clear and concise research question and/or aim.

· More quantitatively oriented proposals can propose hypotheses to be tested in the research project.

· More qualitatively oriented proposals can speculate about the kinds of concepts the research project should uncover in the pursuit of developing theory, and thus formulate a broader research aim. The proposal should make explicit that it is focused on a broad research aim.

3.4 Data & Methods

Aim: To describe how the research question will be answered, and to justify why the data sought and methods proposed are the best for answering the question.

The proposal should contain sections with details on how the research will be carried out. These details are typically the most important and longest part of the proposal. This can include some or all of the following elements:

· details on the ontological and epistemological positions adopted (e.g. “[…]this proposal takes a constructivist stance to explore interviewees’ sense of national identity.”);

· overall research design to be adapted (e.g. a case-study);

· selection of cases, datasets, and/or sampling (e.g. “participants will be approached through the homelessness charity “Shelter” with whom the research worked previously”);

· operationalisation of key concepts (if applicable) (e.g. “social media is operationalised as all 1) online media, 2) that allow users to upload and comment content”)

· details on the (analysis) methods to be used in the research project (e.g. “interviews will be transcribed, coded, and assessed using thematic analyses”.

Ethics: Please ensure you include a paragraph (ideally with a subheading) on “Ethics” in which you detail any ethical consideration e.g. potential of harm for your participants, yourself, or the integrity of the research.

Important: Focus on those elements that are important for demonstrating that you can answer the research question in the best possible way.

3.5 Limitations

Aim: To critically reflect on the research focus and research design choices made.

The research proposal should justify why the research should be carried out this way and not another way. To strengthen the justification of design choices and methods, alternative design choices and methods can be considered for comparison. For example, if the proposal outlines an experiment, you can discuss why an experiment is, in this context, better equipped to answer the research question than, for example, observational data. Usually, this is part of the “Data & Methods” but we ask you to make this explicit and spent a larger part of the proposal on this.

· Summarize the proposal and list the strengths and weakness of the research focus (e.g. “…social media defined as social networks. The strength of this focus is that it will provide a large range of insights. The key weakness is that it omits popular social media sides such as YouTube).

· Consider the data & methods you propose. What alternatives could you think of, say why would you not choose those.

· “Weaknesses” are normal but you may want to propose ways to mitigate problems (e.g. surveys are often biased due to large numbers of non-responding participants. To mitigate non-response participants are re-contacted twice after a failed initial contact attempt).

· You can also consider future research that could be done following the proposed study that may built on its results or provide a remedy to weaknesses that can not be overcome in the proposed study.

Overall, the proposal should demonstrate your research design skills by applying the concepts from the course to a specific research question you come up with in the first place. The actual research does not have to be carried out in the context of the assignment.

3.6 Concluding paragraph

Please provide a concluding paragraph for your proposal, which you can use the summarize its main aspects.

4 Marking criteria

The marking criteria are detailed in the “Marking schema”-document.[Click the link] Note: The marking schema will also be a key part of the feedback provided for the assignment. In line with the University of Glasgow policy of “Feedback to Summative Assignments”, feedback is meant to be helpful for your studies, but not as a ground to challenge academic judgement.