Lecturers: Regina Regan & Prosper Anaedu

Module: Research Methods - part of MSc in Pharmaceutical Business & Technology course
Assignment Title: Writing a Research Proposal

Part 1: Topic, Title, Aim and Objectives (~ 500 words). Individual marks in brackets.

1. Identify a research topic that is of interest to you and is relevant to your course (5)
2. Provide a brief background of your chosen topic (5)
3. Explain why you have chosen this topic (5)
4. Develop a specific research title expressed as a question or an hypothesis or a statement (5)
5. Outline your research aim i.e. what are you trying to find out? (5)
6. Write 3-5 objectives for the research, which will help you to do the work on the key research question (5)

Total marks for Part 1: 30/100

Part 2: Secondary Research Strategy (750-1000 words). Individual marks in brackets.

Write a literature review, referring back to your specific research title and aim. It should include the following:
1. At least three papers from different peer-reviewed academic sources (5)
2. At least three other sources of information, such as a public website e.g. World Health Organisation, an
academic book or e-book, a relevant report featuring on a company website etc. (5)
3. A critique of one of the three peer-reviewed sources used. Critique means you assess and evaluate how useful
and relevant the source is to your research aim (10)
4. A few key themes relevant to your research aim. Link sources to each theme (10)
5. A reference list of the sources you have found using the Griffith Harvard referencing system (10)

Total marks for Part 2: 40/100

Part 3: Primary Research Strategy (~750 words). Individual marks in brackets.

Write out the overall approach you would take to gather primary data to help you to learn more about your chosen
topic. It should include the following:

1. A short description of the overall research (5)

2. A proposed methodology using the research onion as a guide e.g. positivism philosophy, deductive approach,
quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods etc. (10)
3. An explanation of why your methodology is appropriate for your research aim (5)
4. A plan for how would collect your primary data (5)
5. A plan for how you might present and analyse this data (5)

Total marks for Part 3: 30/100

This assignment will allow us to see that you have a good understanding of what comprises a research proposal. This will
also enable us to see that you can choose a topic, a specific title, a good aim, relevant objectives and also prepare a
literature review and put forward a primary research strategy.

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 Useful notes on completing the Research Methods Assignment

Notes on Part 1

 You should select a title that is relevant to your course, ideally linked to the content of one of your lecture modules.
 You should look at notes from Lecture 2 to help you guide your selection.
 A key thing is to have a title focussed on a clear research aim – try to be very specific. Remember that the full
submission includes three parts – topic/title selection, literature review and a primary research plan.
 If your title is too wide in its scope you will find parts 2 and 3 more difficult to do.
 Your topic and title should be something you are interested in. This may be something about which you already
know a good deal, but it doesn’t have to be - very often good research is done about something which is new to the
researcher.
 Keep in mind that if you decide to progress to the dissertation, you will be asked to select a topic and title so it is
worthwhile to put serious thought into this.

What you are to do is:

Choose a topic
Write a short background to your topic
Suggest a title for your research
Give the key aim of your research (maybe similar to your title)
Give a few (about 3-5) key objectives – the things you will need to find out

Example
A title example is: Is the Irish Pharmaceutical Industry Prepared for the Future of Water Use in Ireland?
So, your topic is water use in the pharmaceutical industry.
Your title would be as above
Your key aim would be to evaluate the preparedness of the Irish pharmaceutical industry in adoption of water
sustainability practices and to identify the critical success factors which may be recommended for the industry .
You need to find out:

1) Identify what infrastructure and water sustainability practices are in place by the Irish pharmaceutical industry.
2) Evaluate if the role of Irish regulatory bodies is adequate to promote adoption of water sustainability strategies by
Irish pharmaceutical sites.
3) Identify the challenges and barriers professionals within the pharmaceutical industry are experiencing in relation
to implementing water sustainability strategies at their sites.
4) Considering all the above, identify the critical success factors, and thus recommendations, which sites can use as
a benchmark for implementation of future water sustainability strategies.

The slide in Lecture 2 about couponing in supermarkets is a very good example as to how your title feeds into the key aim
and what you need to find out, and how to get to objectives from this. Because it’s a general example you cannot use the
above title but you can use Water as a topic.

Notes on Part 2

Remember that the purpose of a literature review is to review the current state of knowledge and existing research relevant to
your topic. Ideally it may also show some gaps or unresolved problems in recent or current research.
Your literature review should not be a series of summaries of what you have found from your sources. It should include key
themes relevant to the research aim.

In Part 2 you should first search for key sources of information bearing in mind the 3R’s – relevant, reputable and recent.
Searching requires you to decide on key words - you want to narrow down to what is directly related to your key research
objectives (remembering that you may have updated or changed these following feedback on your draft Part 1).
Using the PROMPT framework to select what you are going to read and use may help you.
o the Presentation of the information can suggest careful work or otherwise.
o its Relevance is really important - many topics have huge amounts of material available but you should be
very focussed on what links to your research.
o Also very important is being Objective-do not make assumptions and take a balanced view
o Review what Methods have the writers/creators used to arrive at their information.
o Check Provenance - have the writers/creators supplied what adequate confirmation that what they are
suggesting comes from genuine sources.
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 o Check Timeliness - some topics are moving quickly so only recent information (say within the last 5
years) will be relevant.

So find relevant information and from it select what appear to be important themes.
A theme is an important aspect or part of a topic. You should try to identify a few key themes and use these as paragraph
headings. And outline in each paragraph what you have learned is really important in respect of each theme. This means you
should be referencing a number of your sources for each theme. You should take a critical approach - compare and contrast
the views and experience of experts as they may not all agree with each other.
Plan the structure of your literature review - maybe a short introduction to expand the background you gave in Part 1, then
paragraphs for a few (probably 3-5) themes, then a short conclusion - what does your work suggest you should concentrate
on when you move on to your primary research?
Now write the literature review - keep asking yourself, is what I am writing relevant to my research aims? And is the
provenance and credibility of what I am writing well supported?
You are also required to write a critique of one of the peer reviewed articles.
Critique means you assess the article to establish how valid is what the authors are suggesting and concluding. Using the
PROMPT framework is a good way to do this.
Do not forget the reference list using the Griffith-Harvard referencing system. Use both in-text citations and also give the full
list of references at the end in alphabetical order.

Notes on Part 3

Remember that the purpose of a literature review in part 2 is to review the current state of knowledge and your description in
this section should start with the key things that have come out of the secondary research (literature review).
Your proposed methodology should outline the research approach/philosophy you are starting from.

So, for example if you were researching of a new design of wheelchair equipment was working your methodology would
probably be to run a number of tests. The tests would be designed to find out does the wheelchair work as expected in a
number of specific situations e.g. emergency braking, using on bumpy ground. So the test results for each situation could be
Yes - it does work or No - it does not work. So your approach is positivism which means that the data you collect is
quantitative and you can draw definite conclusions based on your test results. BUT - our module cannot be based in a design
facility and we cannot run tests like the above.
However, we could research how user friendly the new wheelchair design has been for users of it.
The research would require getting reports of the experience of designers and manufacturers and users. The collection of data
could be a mixture of quantitative information (e.g. survey question - did the brake immediately stop the wheelchair every
time? Answer Yes or No) and qualitative information (e.g. interview question - can you suggest any improvement to the
braking function?)
This kind of approach is usually called a pragmatic approach because it combines quantitative data reflecting positivism and
qualitative data reflecting interpretivism, and the combination of these is usually called mixed methods of data collection.
It is also important to explain why the methodology you chose is the right one for your research.

Outlining your plans for the preferred method(s) of data collection means describing who you are going to get data from and
how you are going to get it.
Outlining your plans for the preferred method(s) of data analysis and presentation means describing what statistical or
thematic analysis you might apply to the data and how you might visualise it e.g. graphs, tables, charts etc.

Final Notes

You should prepare your assignment in a report format.

Use the Assignment Cover Sheet and don’t forget to sign it (not just type your name).
Include a Table of Contents, with page numbers for each of the three parts.

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 Assignment Cover Sheet

Learner name(s):
Learner number(s):
Assignment Type: Individual: ______ Group:_____
Course: Stage/year:
Module:
Study Mode: Full time Part-time
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Additional Info:

Date due:
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Plagiarism disclaimer:
I understand that plagiarism is a serious offence and have read and understood the college policy on
plagiarism. I also understand that I may receive a mark of zero if I have not identified and properly attributed
sources which have been used, referred to, or have in any way influenced the preparation of this assignment,
or if I have knowingly plagiarised my work or allowed others to plagiarise my work.

I hereby certify that this assignment is my own original work, based on my personal study and/or research, it is
all written in my own words and I have acknowledged all references and sources used in its preparation. I also
certify that the assignment has not previously been submitted for assessment and that I have not copied in part
or whole or otherwise plagiarised the work of anyone else, including other students.
I have also not used any third parties, AI tools or websites to generate any parts of my assignment.
Signed & dated:

Please note: Students MUST retain a hard / soft copy of ALL assignments as well as a receipt issued as
proof of submission.

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