Writing the Research Proposal

Science is not just a collection of facts to be memorized from a textbook or lecture. Rather, it is a dynamic process for studying nature. The best way to learn this process is to do it. In this course you will improve your scientific problem solving skills by writing a research proposal. This involves coming up with an original research question and designing an experiment to test it. (You will not actually carry out the project.) What is a Research Proposal? Scientists usually need financial support in order to do research. The proposal is a request for support from a funding agency. A variety of agencies supply money for research in ecology and animal behavior. The National Science Foundation (NSF), for example, is one of the major supporters of basic (non-applied) research in the country. At IUP there is even some "in-house" funding of faculty and student research. The proposal is reviewed and ranked (i.e. graded) by other scientists. If it ranks high relative to other proposals the research will be funded. There are five parts to the research proposal. The Title Page includes your name and a descriptive title for the project (include the scientific name of the species you will be studying). Use the Introduction to briefly present an overview of the project and why it is scientifically interesting or important. The Literature Review puts the proposal into a larger context by summarizing what is known about the problem based on the published results of previous research. This section should be fairly extensive and will probably make up the bulk of your proposal. In the Methods section you will describe the proposed experimental design and, if you are a graduate student, the proper statistical analysis. Finally, in the Literature Cited section list all the articles referred to in the proposal. How to Choose a Topic You must choose a general topic for your research proposal early in the semester. The textbook is a good place to start. Look at the chapter headings and read about any topics that look interesting. There will also be several books on reserve that you may find useful. Once you have identified a few possible topics begin reading the scientific literature in these areas. The references listed in various textbooks are a good place to start. In addition, you can use my computer database which lists over 4,000 references, many in the field of ecology and animal behavior. Eventually, you will narrow your reading to the topic that most interests you. Reviewing the Scientific Literature Once you have selected a general topic for your research proposal you must begin the interesting but time-consuming process of familiarizing yourself with the scientific

literature. You may find it useful at this point to get a package of index cards and fill out one card for each paper. Put the complete citation at the top of the card and below that summarize the contents of the paper. Be sure to use the proper format when writing the citation. This will come in handy when you prepare the Literature Cited section of your proposal. There are several ways of finding references on your topic. Every research paper includes a literature review which you can use to get into the older literature. To find more recent articles simply browse through the latest issues of journals that seem to cover the topic of interest. This is more convenient at places like Penn State and Pitt where students have access to the stacks. Searching through computer databases can also be helpful. Biological Abstracts, which you will find in the reference section of the library, can be useful if you have a very specific topic, otherwise it is very time consuming. Do not expect to use all the titles you find in your research proposal. You might have to read the abstracts of 100 articles to find the 10-20 that will be useful in your proposal. These are the ones that you will read in their entirety and discuss in your literature review. Formulating a Research Question Coming up with an idea for an original research project will probably be the most challenging part of this assignment. I suggest the following approach. Once you have chosen a general topic, begin reading research papers on the topic. A very common response after reading one or two papers is "all the questions have been answered. How am I supposed to come up with a project that has never been done?" Do not get discouraged. You cannot expect to come up with your own project until you are thoroughly familiar with the work others have already done in the field. After you have read 10-15 papers you will begin to see that there are gaps in our knowledge that need to be filled, and that is where you get ideas for new research projects. (Hint: to save time during this early stage when you are just looking for ideas, concentrate on reading the introduction and discussion and skim the methods and results section.) Rephrase your questions in the form of hypotheses (we will discuss this in class) and bring this list to your first conference with me. If necessary I can help you refine your hypothesis. A couple other points should be kept in mind. First, your project must be experimental rather than observational. A lot of very important behavioral research simply consists of observing animals. But for the purpose of this assignment you must design a rigorous scientific experiment complete with proper controls and replicates. Thus, a long term observational study of whale social behavior would not be a suitable topic. We will discuss the elements of experimental design in class. Second, the project cannot be closely related to one you have used for papers in other classes. This should be an opportunity to explore a new topic. Writing the Proposal

Your grade will be based on the following criteria. 1. Format. The proposal must be typed (left-justified), double-spaced, with 1-inch margins and 10-15 pages in length, not including the literature cited section. It will consist of five parts: Title page, Introduction, Literature Review, Methods and Literature Cited. The Introduction should be brief with just enough background to explain why your research question is interesting and then an explicit statement of your research question. The literature review is not an exhaustive survey of every word published about your topic. The papers you choose to discuss should be directly relevant to the study you are proposing. After reading your review of the literature it should be obvious why your question is important and how it relates to the research others have done. In the Methods section you will describe an experimental design to test your hypothesis. The format of the Literature Cited section will be discussed later. 2. Logical Organization. The structure and flow of your proposal is very important. Remember, each paragraph begins with a topic sentence and the entire content of the paragraph must relate to this topic. Paragraphs must follow a logical sequence. 3. Clarity of Expression. Have a friend read your proposal before you submit it. If your friend cannot understand the proposal you have not written it clearly. 4. Originality. All scientists read the literature and base their research on what has been done before. In that sense, no research is completely original. Nevertheless, you should be able to come up with a project that is not just a minor variation on what someone else already did. 5. Mechanics and Style. If you need help with grammar, word usage or composition consult an appropriate reference guide. The University Writing Center is also available for help. No more than five technical errors are allowed in your proposal. The same mistake made twice counts as two errors. If there are more than five errors of spelling, grammar or punctuation you will lose points for sloppiness. Proofread carefully. Use a word processor rather than a typewriter. Corrections and revisions are much easier on a word processor.