Major Research Project Proposal

This module allows you to develop your doctoral level research skills by undertaking the research design and development of a doctoral level, major research proposal. This module is intended to draw together students’ learning during preceding modules about research design, feasibility, ethics and methodology and link these with their clinical interests, in order to design an innovative research proposal, with the intention that they should subsequently carry this out. In the course of the module students explore their areas of clinical interest, identifypossible areas for exploration and then identify research methodologies which will allow them to do this, taking into account questions of feasibility, ethics and the potential value of the research for testing or enhancing clinical practice. 

The module also allows students to learn how to undertake a systematic literature review and to carry this out in relation to an area of research, relevant to an aspect of clinical practice. 

The aim of this module is to provide students with the skills necessary to design and develop a major piece of novel clinical research. 

Through independent learning and research under supervision, the student will develop a proposal using a qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods design, analyse the data and write up a thesis. 

Week 1:Introduction to major research project 

Week 2 – 20:Individual and group tutorials to support project design and development. 

American Psychological Association. (2019) Publication manual (7th ed). American Psychological Association. https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf 

Bryman, A. (2015). Social research methods. Oxford university press. 

Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using SPSS (4th ed.). Sage.  

Harper, D., & Thompson, A. R. (Eds.). (2011). Qualitative research methods in mental health and psychotherapy: A guide for students and practitioners. John Wiley & Sons. 

Lewin S, Glenton C, Munthe-Kaas H, Carlsen B, Colvin CJ, Gülmezoglu M, et al. (2015). Using Qualitative Evidence in Decision Making for Health and Social Interventions: An Approach to Assess Confidence in Findings from Qualitative Evidence Syntheses (GRADE-CERQual). PLoS Med 12(10): e1001895. doi:10.1371/journal. pmed.1001895 

Moher, D., Shamseer, L., Clarke, M., Ghersi, D., Liberati, A., Petticrew, M., ... & Stewart, L. A. (2015). Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement.â?¯Systematic reviews,â?¯4(1), 1-9. 

Peat, J. K., Mellis, C., Williams, K., & Xuan, W. (2020).â?¯Health science research: A handbook of quantitative methods. Routledge. 

Richards, D. A., & Hallberg, I. R. (Eds.). (2015). Complex interventions in health: an overview of research methods.