how to write research proposal in social sciences

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Writing a Research Proposal

• Purpose of Guide
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• The Research Problem/Question
• Academic Writing Style
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
• Evaluating Sources
• Reading Research Effectively
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• What Is Scholarly vs. Popular?
• Is it Peer-Reviewed?
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism [linked guide]
• Annotated Bibliography
• Grading Someone Else's Paper

The goal of a research proposal is to present and justify the need to study a research problem and to present the practical ways in which the proposed study should be conducted. The design elements and procedures for conducting the research are governed by standards within the predominant discipline in which the problem resides, so guidelines for research proposals are more exacting and less formal than a general project proposal. Research proposals contain extensive literature reviews. They must provide persuasive evidence that a need exists for the proposed study. In addition to providing a rationale, a proposal describes detailed methodology for conducting the research consistent with requirements of the professional or academic field and a statement on anticipated outcomes and/or benefits derived from the study's completion.

Krathwohl, David R. How to Prepare a Dissertation Proposal: Suggestions for Students in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences . Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005.

How to Approach Writing a Research Proposal

Your professor may assign the task of writing a research proposal for the following reasons:

• Develop your skills in thinking about and designing a comprehensive research study;
• Learn how to conduct a comprehensive review of the literature to ensure a research problem has not already been answered [or you may determine the problem has been answered ineffectively] and, in so doing, become better at locating scholarship related to your topic;
• Improve your general research and writing skills;
• Practice identifying the logical steps that must be taken to accomplish one's research goals;
• Critically review, examine, and consider the use of different methods for gathering and analyzing data related to the research problem; and,
• Nurture a sense of inquisitiveness within yourself and to help see yourself as an active participant in the process of doing scholarly research.

A proposal should contain all the key elements involved in designing a completed research study, with sufficient information that allows readers to assess the validity and usefulness of your proposed study. The only elements missing from a research proposal are the findings of the study and your analysis of those results. Finally, an effective proposal is judged on the quality of your writing and, therefore, it is important that your writing is coherent, clear, and compelling.

Regardless of the research problem you are investigating and the methodology you choose, all research proposals must address the following questions:

• What do you plan to accomplish? Be clear and succinct in defining the research problem and what it is you are proposing to research.
• Why do you want to do it? In addition to detailing your research design, you also must conduct a thorough review of the literature and provide convincing evidence that it is a topic worthy of study. Be sure to answer the "So What?" question.
• How are you going to do it? Be sure that what you propose is doable. If you're having trouble formulating a research problem to propose investigating, go here .

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Failure to be concise; being "all over the map" without a clear sense of purpose.
• Failure to cite landmark works in your literature review.
• Failure to delimit the contextual boundaries of your research [e.g., time, place, people, etc.].
• Failure to develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the proposed research.
• Failure to stay focused on the research problem; going off on unrelated tangents.
• Sloppy or imprecise writing, or poor grammar.
• Too much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on major issues.

Procter, Margaret. The Academic Proposal .  The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Sanford, Keith. Information for Students: Writing a Research Proposal . Baylor University; Wong, Paul T. P. How to Write a Research Proposal . International Network on Personal Meaning. Trinity Western University; Writing Academic Proposals: Conferences, Articles, and Books . The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing a Research Proposal . University Library. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Structure and Writing Style

Beginning the Proposal Process

As with writing a regular academic paper, research proposals are generally organized the same way throughout most social science disciplines. Proposals vary between ten and twenty-five pages in length. However, before you begin, read the assignment carefully and, if anything seems unclear, ask your professor whether there are any specific requirements for organizing and writing the proposal.

A good place to begin is to ask yourself a series of questions:

• What do I want to study?
• Why is the topic important?
• How is it significant within the subject areas covered in my class?
• What problems will it help solve?
• How does it build upon [and hopefully go beyond] research already conducted on the topic?
• What exactly should I plan to do, and can I get it done in the time available?

In general, a compelling research proposal should document your knowledge of the topic and demonstrate your enthusiasm for conducting the study. Approach it with the intention of leaving your readers feeling like--"Wow, that's an exciting idea and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!"

In general your proposal should include the following sections:

I.  Introduction

In the real world of higher education, a research proposal is most often written by scholars seeking grant funding for a research project or it's the first step in getting approval to write a doctoral dissertation. Even if this is just a course assignment, treat your introduction as the initial pitch of an idea or a thorough examination of the significance of a research problem. After reading the introduction, your readers should not only have an understanding of what you want to do, but they should also be able to gain a sense of your passion for the topic and be excited about the study's possible outcomes. Note that most proposals do not include an abstract [summary] before the introduction.

Think about your introduction as a narrative written in one to three paragraphs that succinctly answers the following four questions :

• What is the central research problem?
• What is the topic of study related to that problem?
• What methods should be used to analyze the research problem?
• Why is this important research, what is its significance, and why should someone reading the proposal care about the outcomes of the proposed study?

II.  Background and Significance

This section can be melded into your introduction or you can create a separate section to help with the organization and narrative flow of your proposal. This is where you explain the context of your proposal and describe in detail why it's important. Approach writing this section with the thought that you can’t assume your readers will know as much about the research problem as you do. Note that this section is not an essay going over everything you have learned about the topic; instead, you must choose what is relevant to help explain the goals for your study.

To that end, while there are no hard and fast rules, you should attempt to address some or all of the following key points:

• State the research problem and give a more detailed explanation about the purpose of the study than what you stated in the introduction. This is particularly important if the problem is complex or multifaceted .
• Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate why it is worth doing. Answer the "So What? question [i.e., why should anyone care].
• Describe the major issues or problems to be addressed by your research. Be sure to note how your proposed study builds on previous assumptions about the research problem.
• Explain how you plan to go about conducting your research. Clearly identify the key sources you intend to use and explain how they will contribute to your analysis of the topic.
• Set the boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus. Where appropriate, state not only what you will study, but what is excluded from the study.
• If necessary, provide definitions of key concepts or terms.

III.  Literature Review

Connected to the background and significance of your study is a section of your proposal devoted to a more deliberate review and synthesis of prior studies related to the research problem under investigation . The purpose here is to place your project within the larger whole of what is currently being explored, while demonstrating to your readers that your work is original and innovative. Think about what questions other researchers have asked, what methods they have used, and what is your understanding of their findings and, where stated, their recommendations. Do not be afraid to challenge the conclusions of prior research. Assess what you believe is missing and state how previous research has failed to adequately examine the issue that your study addresses. For more information on writing literature reviews, GO HERE .

Since a literature review is information dense, it is crucial that this section is intelligently structured to enable a reader to grasp the key arguments underpinning your study in relation to that of other researchers. A good strategy is to break the literature into "conceptual categories" [themes] rather than systematically describing groups of materials one at a time. Note that conceptual categories generally reveal themselves after you have read most of the pertinent literature on your topic so adding new categories is an on-going process of discovery as you read more studies. How do you know you've covered the key conceptual categories underlying the research literature? Generally, you can have confidence that all of the significant conceptual categories have been identified if you start to see repetition in the conclusions or recommendations that are being made.

To help frame your proposal's literature review, here are the "five C’s" of writing a literature review:

• Cite , so as to keep the primary focus on the literature pertinent to your research problem.
• Compare the various arguments, theories, methodologies, and findings expressed in the literature: what do the authors agree on? Who applies similar approaches to analyzing the research problem?
• Contrast the various arguments, themes, methodologies, approaches, and controversies expressed in the literature: what are the major areas of disagreement, controversy, or debate?
• Critique the literature: Which arguments are more persuasive, and why? Which approaches, findings, methodologies seem most reliable, valid, or appropriate, and why? Pay attention to the verbs you use to describe what an author says/does [e.g., asserts, demonstrates, argues, etc.] .
• Connect the literature to your own area of research and investigation: how does your own work draw upon, depart from, synthesize, or add a new perspective to what has been said in the literature?

IV.  Research Design and Methods

This section must be well-written and logically organized because you are not actually doing the research, yet, your reader must have confidence that it is worth pursuing . The reader will never have a study outcome from which to evaluate whether your methodological choices were the correct ones. Thus, the objective here is to convince the reader that your overall research design and methods of analysis will correctly address the problem and that the methods will provide the means to effectively interpret the potential results. Your design and methods should be unmistakably tied to the specific aims of your study.

Describe the overall research design by building upon and drawing examples from your review of the literature. Consider not only methods that other researchers have used but methods of data gathering that have not been used but perhaps could be. Be specific about the methodological approaches you plan to undertake to obtain information, the techniques you would use to analyze the data, and the tests of external validity to which you commit yourself [i.e., the trustworthiness by which you can generalize from your study to other people, places, events, and/or periods of time].

When describing the methods you will use, be sure to cover the following:

• Specify the research operations you will undertake and the way you will interpret the results of these operations in relation to the research problem. Don't just describe what you intend to achieve from applying the methods you choose, but state how you will spend your time while applying these methods [e.g., coding text from interviews to find statements about the need to change school curriculum; running a regression to determine if there is a relationship between campaign advertising on social media sites and election outcomes in Europe ].
• Keep in mind that a methodology is not just a list of tasks; it is an argument as to why these tasks add up to the best way to investigate the research problem. This is an important point because the mere listing of tasks to be performed does not demonstrate that, collectively, they effectively address the research problem. Be sure you explain this.
• Anticipate and acknowledge any potential barriers and pitfalls in carrying out your research design and explain how you plan to address them. No method is perfect so you need to describe where you believe challenges may exist in obtaining data or accessing information. It's always better to acknowledge this than to have it brought up by your reader.

Develop a Research Proposal: Writing the Proposal . Office of Library Information Services. Baltimore County Public Schools; Heath, M. Teresa Pereira and Caroline Tynan. “Crafting a Research Proposal.” The Marketing Review 10 (Summer 2010): 147-168; Jones, Mark. “Writing a Research Proposal.” In MasterClass in Geography Education: Transforming Teaching and Learning . Graham Butt, editor. (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), pp. 113-127; Juni, Muhamad Hanafiah. “Writing a Research Proposal.” International Journal of Public Health and Clinical Sciences 1 (September/October 2014): 229-240; Krathwohl, David R. How to Prepare a Dissertation Proposal: Suggestions for Students in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences . Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005; Procter, Margaret. The Academic Proposal . The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Punch, Keith and Wayne McGowan. "Developing and Writing a Research Proposal." In From Postgraduate to Social Scientist: A Guide to Key Skills . Nigel Gilbert, ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006), 59-81; Wong, Paul T. P. How to Write a Research Proposal . International Network on Personal Meaning. Trinity Western University; Writing Academic Proposals: Conferences, Articles, and Books . The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing a Research Proposal . University Library. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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• How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates

How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates

Published on October 12, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Tegan George. Revised on November 21, 2023.

A research proposal describes what you will investigate, why it’s important, and how you will conduct your research.

The format of a research proposal varies between fields, but most proposals will contain at least these elements:

Introduction

Literature review.

• Research design

Reference list

While the sections may vary, the overall objective is always the same. A research proposal serves as a blueprint and guide for your research plan, helping you get organized and feel confident in the path forward you choose to take.

Table of contents

Research proposal purpose, research proposal examples, research design and methods, contribution to knowledge, research schedule, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about research proposals.

Academics often have to write research proposals to get funding for their projects. As a student, you might have to write a research proposal as part of a grad school application , or prior to starting your thesis or dissertation .

In addition to helping you figure out what your research can look like, a proposal can also serve to demonstrate why your project is worth pursuing to a funder, educational institution, or supervisor.

Research proposal length

The length of a research proposal can vary quite a bit. A bachelor’s or master’s thesis proposal can be just a few pages, while proposals for PhD dissertations or research funding are usually much longer and more detailed. Your supervisor can help you determine the best length for your work.

One trick to get started is to think of your proposal’s structure as a shorter version of your thesis or dissertation , only without the results , conclusion and discussion sections.

Download our research proposal template

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See an example

Writing a research proposal can be quite challenging, but a good starting point could be to look at some examples. We’ve included a few for you below.

• Example research proposal #1: “A Conceptual Framework for Scheduling Constraint Management”
• Example research proposal #2: “Medical Students as Mediators of Change in Tobacco Use”

Like your dissertation or thesis, the proposal will usually have a title page that includes:

• The proposed title of your project
• Your supervisor’s name
• Your institution and department

The first part of your proposal is the initial pitch for your project. Make sure it succinctly explains what you want to do and why.

Your introduction should:

• Introduce your topic
• Give necessary background and context
• Outline your  problem statement  and research questions

To guide your introduction , include information about:

• Who could have an interest in the topic (e.g., scientists, policymakers)
• How much is already known about the topic
• What is missing from this current knowledge
• What new insights your research will contribute
• Why you believe this research is worth doing

As you get started, it’s important to demonstrate that you’re familiar with the most important research on your topic. A strong literature review  shows your reader that your project has a solid foundation in existing knowledge or theory. It also shows that you’re not simply repeating what other people have already done or said, but rather using existing research as a jumping-off point for your own.

In this section, share exactly how your project will contribute to ongoing conversations in the field by:

• Comparing and contrasting the main theories, methods, and debates
• Examining the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches
• Explaining how will you build on, challenge, or synthesize prior scholarship

Following the literature review, restate your main  objectives . This brings the focus back to your own project. Next, your research design or methodology section will describe your overall approach, and the practical steps you will take to answer your research questions.

To finish your proposal on a strong note, explore the potential implications of your research for your field. Emphasize again what you aim to contribute and why it matters.

For example, your results might have implications for:

• Improving best practices
• Informing policymaking decisions
• Strengthening a theory or model
• Challenging popular or scientific beliefs
• Creating a basis for future research

Last but not least, your research proposal must include correct citations for every source you have used, compiled in a reference list . To create citations quickly and easily, you can use our free APA citation generator .

Some institutions or funders require a detailed timeline of the project, asking you to forecast what you will do at each stage and how long it may take. While not always required, be sure to check the requirements of your project.

Here’s an example schedule to help you get started. You can also download a template at the button below.

Download our research schedule template

If you are applying for research funding, chances are you will have to include a detailed budget. This shows your estimates of how much each part of your project will cost.

Make sure to check what type of costs the funding body will agree to cover. For each item, include:

• Cost : exactly how much money do you need?
• Justification : why is this cost necessary to complete the research?
• Source : how did you calculate the amount?

To determine your budget, think about:

• Travel costs : do you need to go somewhere to collect your data? How will you get there, and how much time will you need? What will you do there (e.g., interviews, archival research)?
• Materials : do you need access to any tools or technologies?
• Help : do you need to hire any research assistants for the project? What will they do, and how much will you pay them?

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement .

Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.

I will compare …

A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.

Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.

A PhD, which is short for philosophiae doctor (doctor of philosophy in Latin), is the highest university degree that can be obtained. In a PhD, students spend 3–5 years writing a dissertation , which aims to make a significant, original contribution to current knowledge.

A PhD is intended to prepare students for a career as a researcher, whether that be in academia, the public sector, or the private sector.

A master’s is a 1- or 2-year graduate degree that can prepare you for a variety of careers.

All master’s involve graduate-level coursework. Some are research-intensive and intend to prepare students for further study in a PhD; these usually require their students to write a master’s thesis . Others focus on professional training for a specific career.

Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.

Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.

The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.

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School of Social Sciences

How to write a research proposal

You will need to submit a research proposal with your PhD application. This is crucial in the assessment of your application and it warrants plenty of time and energy.

Your proposal should outline your project and be around 1,500 words.

Your research proposal should include a working title for your project.

Overview of the research

In this section, you should provide a short overview of your research. You should also state how your research fits into the research priorities of your particular subject area.

Here you can refer to the research areas and priorities of a particular research grouping or supervisor.

You must also state precisely why you have chosen to apply to the discipline area and how your research links into our overall profile.

Positioning of the research

This should reference the most important texts related to the research, demonstrate your understanding of the research issues, and identify existing gaps (both theoretical and practical) that the research is intended to address.

Research design and methodology

This section should identify the information that is necessary to carry out the analysis and the possible research techniques that could deliver the information.

Ethical considerations

You should identify and address any potential ethical considerations in relation to your proposed research. Please discuss your research with your proposed supervisor to see how best to progress your ideas in line with University of Manchester ethics guidance, and ensure that your proposed supervisor is happy for you to proceed with your application.

Your research proposal will be used to assess the quality and originality of your ideas, whether you are able to think critically and whether you have a grasp of the relevant literature. It also gives us important information about the perspectives you intend to take on your research area, and how you fit into the department's research profile overall. This is helpful when assigning a supervisor.

If you are applying to study an Economics postgraduate research programme, our advice and requirements are slightly different:

• How to write an economics proposal

Supervisors

We encourage you to discuss your proposal informally with a potential supervisor before making a formal application to ensure it is of mutual interest.

Please note that we cannot guarantee that we will be able to allocate you to the supervisor you initially contact and that we may allocate you to another expert in the area.

• Find a supervisor

Flexibility

You will not be forced to follow the proposal exactly once you have started to study. It is normal for students to refine their original proposal, in light of detailed literature review, further consideration of research approaches and comments received from your supervisors (and other academic staff).

Pitfalls to avoid

We sometimes have to reject students who meet the academic requirements but have not produced a satisfactory research proposal, therefore:

• Make sure that your research idea, question or problem is very clearly stated and well-grounded in academic research.
• Make sure that your proposal is well focused and conforms exactly to the submission requirements described here.
• Poorly specified, jargon-filled or rambling proposals will not convince us that you have a clear idea of what you want to do.

The University uses electronic systems to detect plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice and for assessment. All Humanities PhD programmes require the submission of a research proposal as part of the application process. The Doctoral Academy upholds the principle that where a candidate approaches the University with a project of study, this should be original. While it is understandable that research may arise out of previous studies, it is vital that your research proposal is not the subject of plagiarism.

Example proposals

• Philosophy - Example 1
• Philosophy - Example 2
• Politics - Example 1
• Politics - Example 2
• Social Anthropology - Example 1
• Social Anthropology - Example 2
• Social Statistics - Example 1
• Social Statistics - Example 2
• Sociology - Example 1
• Sociology - Example 2

Further help

The following books may help you to prepare your research proposal (as well as in doing your research degree).

• Bell, J. (1999):  Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-time Researchers in Education & Social Science , (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
• Baxter, L, Hughes, C. and Tight, M. (2001):  How to Research , (Open University Press, Milton Keynes).
• Cryer, P. (2000):  The Research Student's Guide to Success , (Open University, Milton Keynes).
• Delamont, S., Atkinson, P. and Parry, O. (1997):  Supervising the PhD , (Open University Press, Milton Keynes).
• Philips, E. and Pugh, D. (2005):  How to get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and their Supervisors , (Open University Press, Milton Keynes).

If you need help and advice about your application, contact the Postgraduate Admissions Team.

Admissions contacts

University guidelines

You may also find it useful to read the advice and guidance on the University website about writing a proposal for your research degree application.

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• Social/Behavioral Sciences Research Guide
• Writing a Research Proposal

This InfoGuide assists students starting their research proposal and literature review.

• Introduction
• Research Process
• Types of Research Methodology
• Data Collection Methods
• Anatomy of a Scholarly Article
• Finding a topic
• Identifying a Research Problem
• Problem Statement
• Research Question
• Research Design
• Search Strategies
• Psychology Database Limiters
• Literature Review Search
• Annotated Bibliography
• Writing a Literature Review

Writing a Rsearch Proposal

A  research proposal  describes what you will investigate, why it’s important, and how you will conduct your research.  Your paper should include the topic, research question and hypothesis, methods, predictions, and results (if not actual, then projected).

Research Proposal Aims

The format of a research proposal varies between fields, but most proposals will contain at least these elements:

Literature review

• Research design

Reference list

While the sections may vary, the overall objective is always the same. A research proposal serves as a blueprint and guide for your research plan, helping you get organized and feel confident in the path forward you choose to take.

Proposal Format

The proposal will usually have a  title page  that includes:

• The proposed title of your project
• Your supervisor’s name
• Your institution and department

Introduction The first part of your proposal is the initial pitch for your project. Make sure it succinctly explains what you want to do and why.. Your introduction should:

• Introduce your  topic
• Give necessary background and context
• Outline your  problem statement  and  research questions To guide your  introduction , include information about:  
• Who could have an interest in the topic (e.g., scientists, policymakers)
• How much is already known about the topic
• What is missing from this current knowledge
• What new insights will your research contribute
• Why you believe this research is worth doing

As you get started, it’s important to demonstrate that you’re familiar with the most important research on your topic. A strong  literature review  shows your reader that your project has a solid foundation in existing knowledge or theory. It also shows that you’re not simply repeating what other people have done or said, but rather using existing research as a jumping-off point for your own.

In this section, share exactly how your project will contribute to ongoing conversations in the field by:

• Comparing and contrasting the main theories, methods, and debates
• Examining the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches
• Explaining how will you build on, challenge, or  synthesize  prior scholarship

Research design and methods

Following the literature review, restate your main  objectives . This brings the focus back to your project. Next, your  research design  or  methodology  section will describe your overall approach, and the practical steps you will take to answer your research questions. Write up your projected, if not actual, results.

Contribution to knowledge

To finish your proposal on a strong note, explore the potential implications of your research for your field. Emphasize again what you aim to contribute and why it matters.

For example, your results might have implications for:

• Improving best practices
• Informing policymaking decisions
• Strengthening a theory or model
• Challenging popular or scientific beliefs
• Creating a basis for future research

Lastly, your research proposal must include correct  citations  for every source you have used, compiled in a  reference list . To create citations quickly and easily, you can use free APA citation generators like BibGuru. Databases have a citation button you can click on to see your citation. Sometimes you have to re-format it as the citations may have mistakes. 

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Proposal Writing for Social Science Research (Spring 2023)

• Getting Started on Proposal Writing

About This Guide

Getting started, additional resources on the literature review, research/grant proposal writing, and dissertation writing.

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This guide was originally created for AN510 / AR510: Proposal Writing for Social Science Research. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students in other social science and humanities fields may also find this guide helpful as they prepare to write grant proposals, theses or dissertations.

Writing the Grant & Research / Dissertation Proposal

• Writing a Research Proposal in Cultural Anthropology
• Strategies in Minimizing the Labor Intensive Process of Dissertation Research Proposal Writing and Some Tips on What to Keep in Mind (Anthrodendum blog post)
• "The Dissertation Proposal," in Destination Dissertation
• How to Write Your Research Proposal (SOAS)
• On the Art of Writing Proposals (Social Science Research Council)
• Proposal & Grant Writing Guides, BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
• Writing Successful Grant Proposals from the Top Down and Bottom Up

Literature Reviews

• Six Steps to Writing a Literature Review
• Literature Review Tutorial [PPT], BU Alumni Medical Library
• The Literature Review (University of Toronto)
• "The Literature Review," in Destination Dissertation
• Literature Review (UConn Libraries)

Dissertation Writing

This guide was originally authored by Chris Smith, April, 2023. 

• Next: Social Science Databases >>
• Last Updated: Aug 1, 2023 11:57 AM
• URL: https://library.bu.edu/proposalsocialsci

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Preparing a research proposal

Before you write a research proposal, the best first step would be to provide a 500 word outline of your proposed research project. Forward this to any academic you feel would best suit your project – you can find contact details for staff in the subject websites. If you receive a positive response, you should then look to submit a formal application in the form of a research proposal.

What is a research proposal?

Your research proposal needs to outline the nature of your proposed PhD study and give some indication of how you will conduct your research. It is an integral part of the PhD application process, so it is certainly worth investing time and energy into it.

Your research proposal should leave a positive first impression upon the reader about your ‘fitness’ to study a PhD. It is  your  project, so it is important to demonstrate leadership in this first stage of the application process. An ideal proposal should leave the reader  feeling in no doubt that you have done some preliminary research about your subject and that you are knowledgeable and ready to tackle the challenges of the PhD.

Give your proposal your utmost attention and time, but also be realistic ‐ you are not expected to know everything at this stage. Your proposal can also be flexible. It is not a contract. Always ask someone else to read your proposal before you submit it, and to offer you some critical but supportive feedback.

Remember that a research proposal is about what  you  want to study; it immediately reflects your initial understanding of, and commitment to, PhD study. A research proposal can and should make a positive and powerful first impression about your potential to become a good researcher.

Importantly, the main purpose is to enable the university to assess whether you are a good ‘match’ for our supervisors and our areas of research expertise.

Therefore, in a good research proposal you will need to demonstrate two main things:

• that you are capable of  independent critical thinking and analysis
• that you are capable of  communicating your ideas clearly

Applying for a PhD is like applying for a job, you are not applying for a taught programme.

When you start a PhD you will become a valued researcher in an academic department. Through your research proposal your colleagues want to know whether they can work with you, and whether your ideas are focussed, interesting and realistic. Try and impress them!

Your proposal should be indicative and it should  outline  your areas of interest and your general insight into the research topic. You are  not  expected to be an expert and to be familiar with all the specific details of your subject. However, you are expected to have a good level of knowledge about the subject and where you might make a valuable contribution to research. The perfect research proposal should leave the reader interested, excited and wanting to find out more about your ideas, and about you!

6 steps to a successful research proposal

A good research proposal should not be complicated. However, it can be challenging to write and it is important to get right. A PhD is challenging, so it is good training working on your research proposal. Although there is no exact prescribed format for a general research proposal (across all subjects), a research proposal should generally include  six  main sections, as detailed below:

1)      A clear working title for your research project

• What will you call your project?
• What key words would describe your proposal?

2)      A clear statement about what you want to work on and why it is important, interesting, relevant and realistic

• What are your main research objectives? These could be articulated as hypotheses, propositions, research questions, or problems to solve
• What difference do you think your research will make?
• Why does this research excite you?
• What research ‘gaps’ will you be filling by undertaking your project?
• How might your research ‘add value’ to the subject?
• Is your research achievable in the time allocated? (e.g. 3 years full‐time)

3)      Some background knowledge and context of the area in which you wish to work, including key literature, key people, key research findings

• How does your work link to the work of others in the same field or related fields?
• Would your work support or contest the work of others?
• How does your work relate to the expertise within the department you are applying to?

4)      Some consideration of the methods/approach you might use

• How will you conduct your research?
• Will you use existing theories, new methods/approaches or develop new methods/approaches?
• How might you design your project to get the best results/findings?

5)      Some indication of the strategy and timetable for your research project and any research challenges you may face

• What would be the main stages of your project?
• What would you be expecting to do in each year of your PhD?
• What challenges might you encounter and how might your overcome these?

6)      A list of the key references which support your research proposal

• References should be listed in the appropriate convention for your subject area (e.g. Harvard). Such references should be used throughout your research proposal to demonstrate that you have read and understood the work of others
• Other relevant material that you are aware of, but not actually used in writing your proposal, can also be added as a bibliography

All of the above six sections are important but section 2 is particularly important because in any research project, establishing your main purpose represents the whole basis for completing the research programme. Therefore, the value of your proposed research is assessed in relation to your research aims and objectives.

How long should a good research proposal be?

A good research proposal is as long as it takes, but a guide would be 1000-2000 words. Remember that it is meant to be an accurate overview, not a thesis, so you need to provide enough detail for the reader to understand it. A paragraph would not be enough and 5000 words likely too much.

The '3Cs' rule

When you have written your research proposal, ask a friend to read it critically and provide you with feedback. Also, ask yourself whether it follows the '3Cs' rule:

CLEAR : is what you have written intelligible and clearly articulated? Does it make sense, or is it vague and confusing? Does your proposal leave the reader with a clear sense of the purpose and direction of your research project?

CONCISE : have you written your proposal in a succinct and focussed way?

COHERENT : does your proposal link together well so that it tells the reader a short story about what you want to do, why you want to do it and how you will do it?

If you can answer all of these questions with confidence, you have probably put together a good proposal.

Further information

You are very welcome to visit the department and talk to potential research supervisors and meet one of our current students. If you would like to do this please contact the Graduate Research Team with a selection of possible dates, your research interests, and any members of staff you would particularly like to meet.

Phone : +44(0) 1392 724490 Web:  Enquire online

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Writing Research Proposals for the Social Sciences and Humanities in a Higher Education Context

2019, Cambridge Scholars Publishing

A research proposal is a plan that a candidate submits to gain approval for post-graduate research. Although it is a typical requirement for any research in higher education, it has failed to receive the attention it is due from the academic community as a procedure of systematic teaching and learning. This book provides a support framework with step-by-step guidance about what constitutes a good research proposal and what can be done to maximize our chances of writing a successful application. It also presents advice and practical activities to enhance skill development. The book doesn’t offer any short and safe route to getting the task done. Instead, it proposes a rather balanced perspective, where by success is within reach if we are willing to face our flaws and grasp how to use the available information productively and persuasively. This endeavour is supported with a good number of authentic, annotated proposals at various stages of their development.

Related Papers

Anas Iftikhar

Admission into a higher degree research program or confirmation of candidature into such a program of most universities often requires the applicant to submit a research proposal. This is a very important document which not only articulates the research topic and research question, but also explains the research design which outlines how the proposed research will be carried out. The significance of the research proposal is highlighted by the fact that failure to write a good research proposal may mean failure to be admitted into a higher degree research program, or failure to be confirmed as a continuing doctoral candidate. In spite of such significance, however, my experience when supervising many higher degree research students is that many of them struggle to write a good research proposal. One of the contributing factors to this is the apparent void that exists in research methods textbooks on exactly what a research proposal is and how it should be written. This paper aims to help fill that void by articulating a detailed structure of a research proposal that could be used as part of the application to gain admission into a higher degree research program of any good university or for confirmation of candidature in such a research study program. The paper draws on the expertise accumulated on this topic as a result of many decades of writing research proposals for higher degree research projects, conducting many higher degree research studies successfully in several universities in Australia and other countries, teaching research methods to higher degree research students and supervising many successful masters and doctoral theses. The paper concludes, that while there is no 'one-size-fits-all' research proposal, a careful design of a higher degree research proposal along the structure discussed in this paper should improve one's chances of success greatly.

FOREX Publication

FOREX Publication , Mohd Akhter Ali , M Kamraju

Writing an effective research proposal is crucial for individuals pursuing higher degree research in higher education. This paper presents best practices for crafting such proposals, providing guidance to aspiring researchers. The paper begins with an overview of the higher degree research landscape and highlights the significance of research proposals within this context. It then delves into the key elements of an effective research proposal, emphasizing the importance of a clear research question, comprehensive literature review, appropriate research methodology, and expected outcomes. The paper also offers practical advice on writing techniques, organization, and communication to enhance the proposal's effectiveness. Furthermore, it addresses common challenges and pitfalls encountered during the proposal writing process, providing strategies to overcome them. Institutional guidelines and requirements are discussed, along with ethical considerations and research governance obligations. Case studies and examples are included to illustrate successful research proposals, analyzing their strengths and characteristics. In conclusion, this paper underscores the importance of an effective research proposal for higher degree research and provides valuable insights and recommendations for future researchers.

abasynuniv.edu.pk

Flora Maleki

Javed Iqbal

Journal Academica, Volume 1, July 2010, p. 1-5. [ISSN 2026 559X]

What is the purpose of a Research proposal, its components and how should it be presented? In the following we briefly consider all these issues which have been a challenge to students who are to submit no research proposal before embarking on a Research Project for a partial fulfillment of conditions for the award of a degree by their respective institutions.

Sri Lanka Journal of Management Studies

N.J. Dewasiri

This eminent professor of Political Science has addressed a significant issue encountered by many postgraduate students and researchers in undertaking serious research in the disciplines of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Management in Sri Lanka. It is available in both English and Sinhala languages. He has addressed a wide spectrum of concerns related to writing a research proposal that covers research philosophies, methodology as well as methods in academic research. Guided by the scientific method, it presents ten comprehensive chapters that define the key elements of a marketable research proposal as well as sheds light on the key skills in writing such as winning proposals. It also covers the bibliography and glossary of key terms at the end. As the book is handy, it can be used as a practical handbook at all levels of academic research.

Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research

morrin phiri

Education India: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education

Shubham kumar Sanu , Vishwa Raj Sharma , Dr Mukesh Kumar , Smriti Shreya

Writing a research proposal for an early career researcher is one of the toughest part of research work. A research proposal is a blueprint to conduct research work and a well-structured proposal provides smooth functioning for the proposed research. Generally, young researchers face various types of problem in structuring a good research proposal in absence of proper guidelines, steps and strategies. This paper aims to provide a general guideline to the students and researchers to develop a wellstructured research proposal for the purpose of PhD/dissertation/research projects, etc. The concept and significance of a research proposal, how to start research work, the process of producing and appropriate sections for a good research proposal has been discussed in great detail.

Resham B . Bist

A research study starts with the writing of proposal which is a complete plan of the research. This requires many activities to complete. Obviously, it is quite difficult to prepare the research proposal for the beginners. So, this short article has written to help the beginners for writing proposal. This has presented some tips on writing a research proposal. This guideline further examines the procedures for writing a practical proposal by providing a roadmap on how to write a research proposal.

S M Mukarram Jahan

A research proposal is a serious statement that addresses a researcher’s intent to conduct a study on a phenomenon and a plan about how to perform the research. Students usually undertake research under the guidance of a supervisor from faculty in tandem with assistance and supervision of other faculty members. Thus, the proposal should be a clear statement of intent that aims at elucidating the plan of research to make it feasible and acceptable for all parties concerned. The most essential characteristic of a research proposal is that it should be sufficient to present the researcher’s idea or question and expected outcomes with clarity and definition (the what). It should also make a case for the reason the researcher’s focus of study is significant and the value that it will bring to the discipline under study (the why).

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• Indian J Anaesth
• v.60(9); 2016 Sep

How to write a research proposal?

Department of Anaesthesiology, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Devika Rani Duggappa

Writing the proposal of a research work in the present era is a challenging task due to the constantly evolving trends in the qualitative research design and the need to incorporate medical advances into the methodology. The proposal is a detailed plan or ‘blueprint’ for the intended study, and once it is completed, the research project should flow smoothly. Even today, many of the proposals at post-graduate evaluation committees and application proposals for funding are substandard. A search was conducted with keywords such as research proposal, writing proposal and qualitative using search engines, namely, PubMed and Google Scholar, and an attempt has been made to provide broad guidelines for writing a scientifically appropriate research proposal.

INTRODUCTION

A clean, well-thought-out proposal forms the backbone for the research itself and hence becomes the most important step in the process of conduct of research.[ 1 ] The objective of preparing a research proposal would be to obtain approvals from various committees including ethics committee [details under ‘Research methodology II’ section [ Table 1 ] in this issue of IJA) and to request for grants. However, there are very few universally accepted guidelines for preparation of a good quality research proposal. A search was performed with keywords such as research proposal, funding, qualitative and writing proposals using search engines, namely, PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus.

Five ‘C’s while writing a literature review

BASIC REQUIREMENTS OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

A proposal needs to show how your work fits into what is already known about the topic and what new paradigm will it add to the literature, while specifying the question that the research will answer, establishing its significance, and the implications of the answer.[ 2 ] The proposal must be capable of convincing the evaluation committee about the credibility, achievability, practicality and reproducibility (repeatability) of the research design.[ 3 ] Four categories of audience with different expectations may be present in the evaluation committees, namely academic colleagues, policy-makers, practitioners and lay audiences who evaluate the research proposal. Tips for preparation of a good research proposal include; ‘be practical, be persuasive, make broader links, aim for crystal clarity and plan before you write’. A researcher must be balanced, with a realistic understanding of what can be achieved. Being persuasive implies that researcher must be able to convince other researchers, research funding agencies, educational institutions and supervisors that the research is worth getting approval. The aim of the researcher should be clearly stated in simple language that describes the research in a way that non-specialists can comprehend, without use of jargons. The proposal must not only demonstrate that it is based on an intelligent understanding of the existing literature but also show that the writer has thought about the time needed to conduct each stage of the research.[ 4 , 5 ]

CONTENTS OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

The contents or formats of a research proposal vary depending on the requirements of evaluation committee and are generally provided by the evaluation committee or the institution.

In general, a cover page should contain the (i) title of the proposal, (ii) name and affiliation of the researcher (principal investigator) and co-investigators, (iii) institutional affiliation (degree of the investigator and the name of institution where the study will be performed), details of contact such as phone numbers, E-mail id's and lines for signatures of investigators.

The main contents of the proposal may be presented under the following headings: (i) introduction, (ii) review of literature, (iii) aims and objectives, (iv) research design and methods, (v) ethical considerations, (vi) budget, (vii) appendices and (viii) citations.[ 4 ]

Introduction

It is also sometimes termed as ‘need for study’ or ‘abstract’. Introduction is an initial pitch of an idea; it sets the scene and puts the research in context.[ 6 ] The introduction should be designed to create interest in the reader about the topic and proposal. It should convey to the reader, what you want to do, what necessitates the study and your passion for the topic.[ 7 ] Some questions that can be used to assess the significance of the study are: (i) Who has an interest in the domain of inquiry? (ii) What do we already know about the topic? (iii) What has not been answered adequately in previous research and practice? (iv) How will this research add to knowledge, practice and policy in this area? Some of the evaluation committees, expect the last two questions, elaborated under a separate heading of ‘background and significance’.[ 8 ] Introduction should also contain the hypothesis behind the research design. If hypothesis cannot be constructed, the line of inquiry to be used in the research must be indicated.

Review of literature

It refers to all sources of scientific evidence pertaining to the topic in interest. In the present era of digitalisation and easy accessibility, there is an enormous amount of relevant data available, making it a challenge for the researcher to include all of it in his/her review.[ 9 ] It is crucial to structure this section intelligently so that the reader can grasp the argument related to your study in relation to that of other researchers, while still demonstrating to your readers that your work is original and innovative. It is preferable to summarise each article in a paragraph, highlighting the details pertinent to the topic of interest. The progression of review can move from the more general to the more focused studies, or a historical progression can be used to develop the story, without making it exhaustive.[ 1 ] Literature should include supporting data, disagreements and controversies. Five ‘C's may be kept in mind while writing a literature review[ 10 ] [ Table 1 ].

Aims and objectives

The research purpose (or goal or aim) gives a broad indication of what the researcher wishes to achieve in the research. The hypothesis to be tested can be the aim of the study. The objectives related to parameters or tools used to achieve the aim are generally categorised as primary and secondary objectives.

Research design and method

The objective here is to convince the reader that the overall research design and methods of analysis will correctly address the research problem and to impress upon the reader that the methodology/sources chosen are appropriate for the specific topic. It should be unmistakably tied to the specific aims of your study.

In this section, the methods and sources used to conduct the research must be discussed, including specific references to sites, databases, key texts or authors that will be indispensable to the project. There should be specific mention about the methodological approaches to be undertaken to gather information, about the techniques to be used to analyse it and about the tests of external validity to which researcher is committed.[ 10 , 11 ]

The components of this section include the following:[ 4 ]

Population and sample

Population refers to all the elements (individuals, objects or substances) that meet certain criteria for inclusion in a given universe,[ 12 ] and sample refers to subset of population which meets the inclusion criteria for enrolment into the study. The inclusion and exclusion criteria should be clearly defined. The details pertaining to sample size are discussed in the article “Sample size calculation: Basic priniciples” published in this issue of IJA.

Data collection

The researcher is expected to give a detailed account of the methodology adopted for collection of data, which include the time frame required for the research. The methodology should be tested for its validity and ensure that, in pursuit of achieving the results, the participant's life is not jeopardised. The author should anticipate and acknowledge any potential barrier and pitfall in carrying out the research design and explain plans to address them, thereby avoiding lacunae due to incomplete data collection. If the researcher is planning to acquire data through interviews or questionnaires, copy of the questions used for the same should be attached as an annexure with the proposal.

Rigor (soundness of the research)

This addresses the strength of the research with respect to its neutrality, consistency and applicability. Rigor must be reflected throughout the proposal.

It refers to the robustness of a research method against bias. The author should convey the measures taken to avoid bias, viz. blinding and randomisation, in an elaborate way, thus ensuring that the result obtained from the adopted method is purely as chance and not influenced by other confounding variables.

Consistency

Consistency considers whether the findings will be consistent if the inquiry was replicated with the same participants and in a similar context. This can be achieved by adopting standard and universally accepted methods and scales.

Applicability

Applicability refers to the degree to which the findings can be applied to different contexts and groups.[ 13 ]

Data analysis

This section deals with the reduction and reconstruction of data and its analysis including sample size calculation. The researcher is expected to explain the steps adopted for coding and sorting the data obtained. Various tests to be used to analyse the data for its robustness, significance should be clearly stated. Author should also mention the names of statistician and suitable software which will be used in due course of data analysis and their contribution to data analysis and sample calculation.[ 9 ]

Ethical considerations

Medical research introduces special moral and ethical problems that are not usually encountered by other researchers during data collection, and hence, the researcher should take special care in ensuring that ethical standards are met. Ethical considerations refer to the protection of the participants' rights (right to self-determination, right to privacy, right to autonomy and confidentiality, right to fair treatment and right to protection from discomfort and harm), obtaining informed consent and the institutional review process (ethical approval). The researcher needs to provide adequate information on each of these aspects.

Informed consent needs to be obtained from the participants (details discussed in further chapters), as well as the research site and the relevant authorities.

When the researcher prepares a research budget, he/she should predict and cost all aspects of the research and then add an additional allowance for unpredictable disasters, delays and rising costs. All items in the budget should be justified.

Appendices are documents that support the proposal and application. The appendices will be specific for each proposal but documents that are usually required include informed consent form, supporting documents, questionnaires, measurement tools and patient information of the study in layman's language.

As with any scholarly research paper, you must cite the sources you used in composing your proposal. Although the words ‘references and bibliography’ are different, they are used interchangeably. It refers to all references cited in the research proposal.

Successful, qualitative research proposals should communicate the researcher's knowledge of the field and method and convey the emergent nature of the qualitative design. The proposal should follow a discernible logic from the introduction to presentation of the appendices.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Writing For The Social Sciences

By Stiven Hernandez. Date: May 8, 2022

Home » Research Proposal

Research Proposal

After practicing how to do an interview and taking notes to multimodally compose an essay I had to start researching my future field working assignment

Stiven Hernandez  Writing for The Social Sciences  April 5, 2022 

When it comes to video games there is a lot to talk about. Some people see it as a waste of time, others see it as a way to entertain themselves or to have fun, and some see it as a career. I remember playing video games for as long as I have memory. Everything from old phone games like snake or tree Column races to VR games. I have owned consoles from Nintendo, Xbox to PlayStation. I even use my own desktop computer to play video games. Gaming has always been a part of my life and that is why I decided to fieldwork professionally gaming, it is the only area of gaming that I have not been part of. 

Professional Gaming has been an enigma for me. I do not understand how people can stare at a screen for so long practicing their aim, going over strategies, and checking out the new “meta.” As a gamer, I enjoy playing games for extended periods of time, but when you are spending 8+ hours playing games, it seems excessive. However, these players are not spending all of those hours just playing games, they use dedicated apps to improve specific things. When a player has “aim” is when they are able to put the mouse crosshair in a certain place with accuracy. There is an app I am familiar with, Aimlab. With Aimlab you can practice your aim without being in a match, becoming a very unique tool to save time and keep you away from losing a match while trying to improve your aim. 

The team I will be observing will be Tidewater Esports. Tidewater Esports is a small competitive team in North America (USA) competing to become one of the big teams in the world of competitive gaming. This team’s main focus is on the game Valorant by Riot Games. Riot Games is a well-known company, being the creators of League of Legends, a game that has been in the top played games for over 10 years. I will be conducting my observations on the Discord platform. Discord is a common app in the gaming community. On Discord, you can create a server and have text chats and voice chats. During games or just when you want to hang out with friends, you can join the voice chat as if it was a group call or you can text in any of the chats as if it was a group chat. The best part is that there are no limits to how many people can enter a Discord Server. I will be joining the players in individual voice chats for their interviews so they can be themselves and keep everything we talk about between me, him, and my professor. There will be three team members being interviewed about their own experiences and how their lives have been affected by the decision to play games professionally. There are many things that we do not know about the players, like what drives them? What do they want to accomplish and why? What are some struggles they have to go through when dedicating their life to this? Discord allows the users to share their computer screens, this is how I will be able to observe their practice matches.  

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• What is a Research Proposal?
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• Structure and Writing Style
• Proposal writing

The goal of a research proposal is to present and justify the need to study a research problem and to present the practical ways in which the proposed study should be conducted. The design elements and procedures for conducting the research are governed by standards within the predominant discipline in which the problem resides, so guidelines for research proposals are more exacting and less formal than a general project proposal. Research proposals contain extensive literature reviews. They must provide persuasive evidence that a need exists for the proposed study. In addition to providing a rationale, a proposal describes detailed methodology for conducting the research consistent with requirements of the professional or academic field and a statement on anticipated outcomes and/or benefits derived from the study's completion.

Krathwohl, David R. How to Prepare a Dissertation Proposal: Suggestions for Students in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005.

"Document that is typically written by a scientist or academic which describes the ideas for an investigation on a certain topic. The research proposal outlines the process from beginning to end and may be used to request financing for the project, certification for performing certain parts of research of the experiment, or as a required task before beginning a college dissertation."

Web Finance Inc. (c. 2019). What is research proposal? definition and meaning. Retrieved July 1, 2019, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/research-proposal.html

Your professor may assign the task of writing a research proposal for the following reasons:

• Develop your skills in thinking about and designing a comprehensive research study;
• Learn how to conduct a comprehensive review of the literature to ensure a research problem has not already been answered [or you may determine the problem has been answered ineffectively] and, in so doing, become better at locating scholarship related to your topic;
• Improve your general research and writing skills;
• Practice identifying the logical steps that must be taken to accomplish one's research goals;
• Critically review, examine, and consider the use of different methods for gathering and analyzing data related to the research problem; and,
• Nurture a sense of inquisitiveness within yourself and to help see yourself as an active participant in  the process of  doing scholarly research.

A proposal should contain all the key elements involved in designing a completed research study, with sufficient information that allows readers to assess the validity and usefulness of your proposed study. The only elements missing from a research proposal are the findings of the study and your analysis of those results. Finally, an effective proposal is judged on the quality of your writing and, therefore, it is important that your writing is coherent, clear, and compelling.

Regardless of the research problem you are investigating and the methodology you choose, all research proposals must address the following questions:

• What do you plan to accomplish?  Be clear and succinct in defining the research problem and what it is you are proposing to research.
• Why do you want to do it?  In addition to detailing your research design, you also must conduct a thorough review of the literature and provide convincing evidence that it is a topic worthy of study. Be sure to answer the "So What?" question.
• How are you going to do it?  Be sure that what you propose is doable. If you're having trouble formulating a research problem to propose investigating,  go here .

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Failure to be concise; being "all over the map" without a clear sense of purpose.
• Failure to cite landmark works in your literature review.
• Failure to delimit the contextual boundaries of your research [e.g., time, place, people, etc.].
• Failure to develop a coherent and persuasive argument for the proposed research.
• Failure to stay focused on the research problem; going off on unrelated tangents.
• Sloppy or imprecise writing, or poor grammar.
• Too much detail on minor issues, but not enough detail on major issues.

Procter, Margaret. The Academic Proposal.  The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Sanford, Keith. Information for Students: Writing a Research Proposal. Baylor University; Wong, Paul T. P. How to Write a Research Proposal. International Network on Personal Meaning. Trinity Western University; Writing Academic Proposals: Conferences, Articles, and Books. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Writing a Research Proposal. University Library. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Beginning the Proposal Process

As with writing a regular academic paper, research proposals are generally organized the same way throughout most social science disciplines. Proposals vary between ten and twenty-five pages in length. However, before you begin, read the assignment carefully and, if anything seems unclear, ask your professor whether there are any specific requirements for organizing and writing the proposal.

A good place to begin is to ask yourself a series of questions:

• What do I want to study?
• Why is the topic important?
• How is it significant within the subject areas covered in my class?
• What problems will it help solve?
• How does it build upon [and hopefully go beyond] research already conducted on the topic?
• What exactly should I plan to do, and can I get it done in the time available?

In general, a compelling research proposal should document your knowledge of the topic and demonstrate your enthusiasm for conducting the study. Approach it with the intention of leaving your readers feeling like--"Wow, that's an exciting idea and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!"

In general your proposal should include the following sections:

I.  Introduction

In the real world of higher education, a research proposal is most often written by scholars seeking grant funding for a research project or it's the first step in getting approval to write a doctoral dissertation. Even if this is just a course assignment, treat your introduction as the initial pitch of an idea or a thorough examination of the significance of a research problem. After reading the introduction, your readers should not only have an understanding of what you want to do, but they should also be able to gain a sense of your passion for the topic and be excited about the study's possible outcomes. Note that most proposals do not include an abstract [summary] before the introduction.

Think about your introduction as a narrative written in one to three paragraphs that succinctly answers the following four questions :

• What is the central research problem?
• What is the topic of study related to that problem?
• What methods should be used to analyze the research problem?
• Why is this important research, what is its significance, and why should someone reading the proposal care about the outcomes of the proposed study?

II.  Background and Significance

This section can be melded into your introduction or you can create a separate section to help with the organization and narrative flow of your proposal. This is where you explain the context of your proposal and describe in detail why it's important. Approach writing this section with the thought that you can’t assume your readers will know as much about the research problem as you do. Note that this section is not an essay going over everything you have learned about the topic; instead, you must choose what is relevant to help explain the goals for your study.

To that end, while there are no hard and fast rules, you should attempt to address some or all of the following key points:

• State the research problem and give a more detailed explanation about the purpose of the study than what you stated in the introduction. This is particularly important if the problem is complex or  multifaceted .
• Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate why it is worth doing. Answer the "So What? question [i.e., why should anyone care].
• Describe the major issues or problems to be addressed by your research. Be sure to note how your proposed study builds on previous assumptions about the research problem.
• Explain how you plan to go about conducting your research. Clearly identify the key sources you intend to use and explain how they will contribute to your analysis of the topic.
• Set the boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus. Where appropriate, state not only what you will study, but what is excluded from the study.
• If necessary, provide definitions of key concepts or terms.

III.  Literature Review

Connected to the background and significance of your study is a section of your proposal devoted to a more deliberate review and synthesis of prior studies related to the research problem under investigation . The purpose here is to place your project within the larger whole of what is currently being explored, while demonstrating to your readers that your work is original and innovative. Think about  what questions other researchers have asked, what methods they have used, and what is your understanding of their findings and, where stated, their recommendations. Do not be afraid to challenge the conclusions of prior research. Assess what you believe is missing and state how previous research has failed to adequately examine the issue that your study addresses. For more information on writing literature reviews,  GO HERE .

Since a literature review is information dense, it is crucial that this section is intelligently structured to enable a reader to grasp the key arguments underpinning your study in relation to that of other researchers. A good strategy is to break the literature into "conceptual categories" [themes] rather than systematically describing groups of materials one at a time. Note that conceptual categories generally reveal themselves after you have read most of the pertinent literature on your topic so adding new categories is an on-going process of discovery as you read more studies. How do you know you've covered the key  conceptual categories  underlying the research literature? Generally, you can have confidence that  all of the significant conceptual categories  have been identified if you start to see repetition in the conclusions or recommendations that are being made.

To help frame your proposal's literature review, here are the "five C’s" of writing a literature review:

• Cite , so as to keep the primary focus on the literature pertinent to your research problem.
• Compare  the various arguments, theories, methodologies, and findings expressed in the literature: what do the authors agree on? Who applies similar approaches to analyzing the research problem?
• Contrast  the various arguments, themes, methodologies, approaches, and controversies expressed in the literature: what are the major areas of disagreement, controversy, or debate?
• Critique  the literature: Which arguments are more persuasive, and why? Which approaches, findings, methodologies seem most reliable, valid, or appropriate, and why? Pay attention to the verbs you use to describe what an author says/does [e.g., asserts, demonstrates, argues, etc.] .
• Connect  the literature to your own area of research and investigation: how does your own work draw upon, depart from, synthesize, or add a new perspective to what has been said in the literature?

IV.  Research Design and Methods

This section  must  be well-written and logically organized because you are not actually doing the research, yet, your reader must have confidence that it is worth pursuing . The reader will never have a study outcome from which to evaluate whether your methodological choices were the correct ones. Thus, the objective here is to convince the reader that your overall research design and methods of analysis will correctly address the problem and that the methods will provide the means to effectively interpret the potential results. Your design and methods should be unmistakably tied to the specific aims of your study.

Describe the overall research design by building upon and drawing examples from your review of the literature. Consider not only methods that other researchers have used but methods of data gathering that have not been used but perhaps could be. Be specific about the methodological approaches you plan to undertake to obtain information, the techniques you would use to analyze the data, and the tests of external validity to which you commit yourself [i.e., the trustworthiness by which you can generalize from your study to other people, places, events, and/or periods of time].

When describing the methods you will use, be sure to cover the following:

• Specify the research operations you will undertake and the way you will interpret the results of these operations in relation to the research problem. Don't just describe what you intend to achieve from applying the methods you choose, but state how you will spend your time while applying these methods [e.g., coding text from interviews to find statements about the need to change school curriculum;  running a regression to  determine if there is a relationship between  campaign advertising on social media sites and election outcomes in Europe ].
• Keep in mind that a methodology is not just a list of tasks; it is an argument as to why these tasks add up to the best way to investigate the research problem. This is an important point because the mere listing of tasks to be performed does not demonstrate that, collectively, they effectively address the research problem. Be sure you explain this.
• Anticipate and acknowledge any potential barriers and pitfalls in carrying out your research design and explain how you plan to address them. No method is perfect so you need to describe where you believe challenges may exist in obtaining data or accessing information. It's always better to acknowledge this than to have it brought up by your reader.

V.  Preliminary Suppositions and Implications

Just because you don't have to actually conduct the study and analyze the results, doesn't mean you can skip talking about the analytical process and potential implications . The purpose of this section is to argue how and in what ways you believe your research will refine, revise, or extend existing knowledge in the subject area under investigation. Depending on the aims and objectives of your study, describe how the anticipated results will impact future scholarly research, theory, practice, forms of interventions, or policymaking. Note that such discussions may have either substantive [a potential new policy], theoretical [a potential new understanding], or methodological [a potential new way of analyzing] significance.   When thinking about the potential implications of your study, ask the following questions:

• What might the results mean in regards to the theoretical framework that underpins the study?
• What suggestions for subsequent research could arise from the potential outcomes of the study?
• What will the results mean to practitioners in the natural settings of their workplace?
• Will the results influence programs, methods, and/or forms of intervention?
• How might the results contribute to the solution of social, economic, or other types of problems?
• Will the results influence policy decisions?
• In what way do individuals or groups benefit should your study be pursued?
• What will be improved or changed as a result of the proposed research?
• How will the results of the study be implemented, and what innovations will come about?

NOTE :  This section should not delve into idle speculation, opinion,  or be formulated on the basis of unclear evidence . The purpose is to reflect upon gaps or understudied areas of the current literature and describe how your proposed research contributes to a new understanding of the research problem should the study be implemented as designed.

VI.  Conclusion

The conclusion reiterates the importance or significance of your proposal and provides a brief summary of the entire study . This section should be only one or two paragraphs long, emphasizing why the research problem is worth investigating, why your research study is unique, and how it should advance existing knowledge.

Someone reading this section should come away with an understanding of:

• Why the study should be done,
• The specific purpose of the study and the research questions it attempts to answer,
• The decision to why the research design and methods used where chosen over other options,
• The potential implications emerging from your proposed study of the research problem, and
• A sense of how your study fits within the broader scholarship about the research problem.

VII.   Citations

As with any scholarly research paper, you must cite the sources you used in composing your proposal. In a standard research proposal, this section can take two forms, so consult with your professor about which one is preferred.

• References --  lists only the literature that you actually used or cited in your proposal.
• Bibliography --  lists everything you used or cited in your proposal, with additional citations to any key sources relevant to understanding the research problem.

In either case, this section should testify to the fact that you did enough preparatory work to make sure the project will complement and not duplicate the efforts of other researchers. Start a new page and use the heading "References" or "Bibliography" centered at the top of the page. Cited works should always use a standard format that follows the writing style advised by the discipline of your course [i.e., education=APA; history=Chicago, etc] or that is preferred by your professor. This section normally does not count towards the total page length of your research proposal.

Develop  a Research Proposal: Writing the Proposal . Office of Library Information Services. Baltimore County Public Schools;  Heath, M. Teresa Pereira and Caroline Tynan. “Crafting a Research Proposal.”  The Marketing Review  10 (Summer 2010): 147-168; Jones, Mark. “Writing a Research Proposal.” In  MasterClass in Geography Education: Transforming Teaching and Learning . Graham Butt, editor. (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), pp. 113-127; Juni, Muhamad Hanafiah. “Writing a Research Proposal.” International Journal of Public Health and Clinical Sciences  1 (September/October 2014): 229-240; Krathwohl, David R.  How to Prepare a Dissertation Proposal: Suggestions for Students in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences . Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005; Procter, Margaret.  The Academic Proposal . The Lab Report. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Punch, Keith and Wayne McGowan. "Developing and Writing a Research Proposal." In  From Postgraduate to Social Scientist: A Guide to Key Skills . Nigel Gilbert, ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006), 59-81; Wong, Paul T. P.  How to Write a Research Proposal . International Network on Personal Meaning. Trinity Western University;  Writing Academic Proposals: Conferences, Articles, and Books . The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University;  Writing a Research Proposal . University Library. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Proposal Writing

The advice given in this section is geared towards the proposals you will be required to submit when applying for OUR programs and funding opportunities. Though much of this information will be useful when writing proposals or personal statements for non-OUR applications, we recommend you refer to the guidelines in the application you are working on and the advice provided by the  UConn Writing Center  to guide the development of your proposal. If you are applying for OUR Programs you should also review the criteria specific to the program to which you are applying to ensure your proposal is appropriately tailored.

Where to Begin

Start by brainstorming answers to the following questions:

• Why am I doing this project? What issues, problems, or questions will I explore and answer?
• What am I hoping to gain or learn from this experience? Why is this project important to me?
• What are my goals for the project and how will I accomplish those goals? What do I hope to realize as a result of my efforts?
• Is my topic too broad or too narrow? Is it feasible?

Use your answers, in conjunction with the guidelines below, to develop the first draft of your proposal. Once you have a draft, plan to seek feedback from trusted sources. You should also plan to attend a workshop at the Writing Center and review their  resources on writing personal statements .

Guidelines for a Successful Proposal

While there is no magic formula to follow for a successful proposal, following these general guidelines will help you develop a thorough, well-developed proposal.

Guideline 1: Review the prompts

The applications for OUR programs will ask you to answer specific questions relating to your project, including some combination of the following:

• the purpose of the work
• the steps you intend to take to complete the project
• why the work is meaningful to you
• how participating in this project will contribute to your educational and career goals

A good proposal clearly outlines the project or research question and convinces others of its merits. The proposal should demonstrate why the project is worthy of support, and why the topic is of interest to you, the applicant. Avoid simply writing a summary of what you’ve done (unless specifically asked to do so); rather, focus on your project or research, and what you’re hoping to accomplish.

Each application is a different, and you need to carefully read and understand all the questions being asked to assure your proposal addresses them. Stay focused on your topic and make sure to fully answer the questions that are asked. Neglecting to answer or not focusing on the questions at hand will hurt your proposal.

Guideline 2: Follow directions

Word and character limits, as well as format requirements, are given for a reason. Stay within the guidelines and parameters. Though you may think it won’t matter if you are 10 words over the limit, or your font size is .5 smaller than instructed, it does matter. Not following the guidelines indicates to the reviewers that you are either unable to follow directions or that you did not read the directions carefully. This is not the impression you want to make.

Guideline 3: Consider your audience

At UConn, the review committees are composed of faculty and professional staff from across the University. They are not experts in every field of study and may not be familiar with the topic of study or type of project you are proposing. Therefore, your aim should be to write your proposal for a well-educated audience that does not have the in-depth technical knowledge associated with your field.

Do not assume the reader will know what you’re talking about or what contribution your project may make to your field of study.  Give the reader enough background information to understand the importance of the research or project without overwhelming them with technical details.

Guideline 4: Be specific

You can have a well-developed idea or solid research question, but if you fail to clearly articulate how you plan to execute your idea or answer your research question, the feasibility of your proposal will be questioned. Be as specific as possible. If you intend to bring speakers to campus, indicate who you hope to bring and why you chose those individuals. If you propose to travel to archives to conduct research, describe why you chose those archives and what special collections you plan to access at the archives. If you intend to conduct focus groups, indicate why you chose to do focus groups and how you plan to recruit participants.

It’s not enough to only state what you intend to do, you need to indicate why and how. Explain the thought process behind the steps you will take to execute your project or answer your research question.

Guideline 5: Allow time for revisions and rewrites

Plan ahead; a well-written proposal doesn’t emerge overnight. Perfunctory proposals rarely excite anyone, and if your proposal comes across as a last-minute endeavor it may signal a lack of sincere investment in your project.

Starting early will also give you time to seek feedback, which is a necessary part of proposal writing. Ask for a critique from faculty mentors, advisors, and writing tutors to assure your intended message is clear and that your proposal addresses the key points. Take feedback into consideration, but make sure that you don’t lose your voice in the process. Your proposal needs to be genuine and sincere, accurately representing your interests, goals, and intentions, and not those of well-meaning reviewers.

Proofread your proposal. Spell check does not catch all errors. Read your proposal aloud; this will help you catch spelling, grammatical, and word use errors. Spelling errors, grammatical errors, and poor word choice are the quickest ways to undermine the effectiveness of your proposal.

Thank you to the University of Southern California Libraries  for a great resource!

Additional resources

• The Research Proposal - video
• Writing a research proposal video
• Example from Psychology Today
• Writing for psychology

This is a video produced at Massey University in New Zealand for GRADUATE STUDENTS. It is the model which your assignment is based. It is a useful introduction to proposals as one type of undergraduate paper. 

The opening discusses doing graduate work.  You can start the video at 2:40.

Yes, this is a long video (1 hour). However, the presenter makes good points. There is a link to the documents he uses in the presentation.

How to Write a Psychology Research Proposal : Writing a brief research proposal cultivates all kinds of intellectual skills.

A PDF of the document is available at the end of the article.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Research faculty invited to ‘Writing a Winning NSF CAREER Proposal’

The Research Office invites faculty to join some of the WVU 2024 National Science Foundation CAREER awardees to learn more about writing a competitive proposal.

The event will take place during Research Week from 2:30-4 p.m. April 2 in the Mineral Resources Building, Room 301.

The agenda includes a survey of the tools and resources offered by the Research Office to assist you in finding funding, drafting a white paper, writing a full proposal and getting external feedback before submission. 

The session will then segue into a panel featuring the career awardees who will provide their personal tips and suggestions on how to navigate this specific NSF program. 

This session will provide ample opportunities for questions and discussion.

RSVP to attend.

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Reading Research Effectively
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Research Process Video Series
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• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
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• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
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• Scholarly vs. Popular Publications
• Qualitative Methods
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• Insiderness
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
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• Generative AI and Writing
• USC Libraries Tutorials and Other Guides
• Bibliography

Dear Student,

This writing guide was originally developed in response to a professor who had vociferously complained to me that she had to return the first assignment papers back to all of her students because they didn’t know how to write. She didn’t say it like that, but I don’t need to include the expletive she used. This exchange, however, ignited my desire to create the Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper writing guide.

Writing doesn’t come naturally to most of us and, as a result, successfully completing college-level writing assignments, particularly in first year courses, can be daunting. The style and prescribed organization of most research papers in the social and behavioral sciences can be difficult to formulate because they require the application of thoughts, ideas, and concepts that are unfamiliar and difficult to make sense of. I can assure you, this was me as an undergraduate majoring in geology, then quickly discovering, oh wait, yea, that requires math, and switching my major to history.

It is true, as with most acquired skills, that the more you write, the more comfortable you become putting fingers to keyboard. In reflecting on my own writing experiences in college and from reading a lot of literature about the pedagogy of college writing , I offer these finals thoughts on how to become a better, more proficient writer.

• The chair of my dissertation committee once emphasized to me that achieving the goal of being a good writer is a life-long endeavor. Because language and ways of expressing oneself is malleable and meaning can be communicated in multiple ways, perfection does not exist; improvement can always be realized. When writing, don’t seek narrative perfection, just correct grammatical errors and focus on saying what you want to say with precision and clarity.
• The step-by-step organization of this guide is deceiving. Composing a well-written paper is almost never a sequential, linear process. A college-level research paper requires multiple cycles of revising, editing, and correcting text before a paper comes together in a way that satisfies the guidelines of the assignment and, perhaps more importantly, satisfies your own beliefs about the quality of your thoughts and ideas.
• A commonly cited strategy to becoming a better writer is to read what others have written so you can learn about different discursive and expressive forms of writing. This is generally true. But, added to this, be introspective about what you read. If something comes across as unclear or oddly written, think to yourself, how would I have said this? Critically reading and contemplating how better to express an idea, argument, point of view, or observed phenomenon is the path to developing your own personal writing style.
• Language is culture and culture is language. Forms of expression, either written or as oral tradition, are culturally situated and relative. Read the writings of other expressive cultures. Want to escape the confines of slogging through the dry, analytical readings from your course syllabi? Search the library catalog for African poetry books about colonial resistance. Or read a collection of short stories about family life in Brazil. Anything that might interest you. A myth about academic writing is that there’s no room for creativity; it’s structure is prescribed in such a way that it washes away any semblance of innovative thought. This is true to an extent because academic writing is not storytelling, but there are ways to express ideas or describe phenomena that does not have to come across as pedantic and laborious. Stepping outside of familiar forms of writing can be an engaging way to broaden how you can express the significance, meaning, and impact of your research.
• Much has been written about the presumed negative influence of social media on reading and writing. To me, it’s just another type of expressive culture, modified by technology. In some ways, the character limits of some social media sites requires brevity and being succinct. The exchange of images illustrates the idiom that a picture is worth a thousand words. Think about the ways that the peculiarities of social media can inform academic writing styles. Is it a stretch to think this way? Perhaps. But there are no limits to places you can go to develop good writing habits.
• And finally, take advantage of campus resources. As a student, I never sought help from my campus writing center because I didn’t know it existed. You should visit, however, if you need help with completing your writing assignments. The USC Writing Center offers both in-person consultation as well as resource guides, brief workshops, and video tutorials. The information gained from using the Writing Center can save you time with getting started on a writing project and help build confidence in your own abilities to write a college-level paper.

Thank you for visiting this guide. And best of luck with all of your writing endeavors, in college and beyond.

Dr. Robert V. Labaree

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Data Fluencies 2024 Data Fluencies Research Workshop | Drilling Down to the Data: Navigating Data Politics at the Heart of AI Policy

As AI continues to dominate public attention and private investment, there is more regulatory scrutiny than ever on every point in the “AI stack”: from supply chain and computing needs, to model infrastructure, to downstream applications. Of particular interest to policymakers is the data that defines many AI products, and operates as a key differentiating factor from other computing technologies. In the modeling pipeline, data plays a key role in determining the worldview of the models, defining model performance claims and tasks in evaluations, shaping standards development, capturing human preferences in feedback, and communicating key details about the system.

Data, in particular, throws up a range of diverse policy challenges. From competition (Is data becoming an unavoidable barrier to entry?); privacy (What are the unique privacy risks posed by LLMs? Are they solvable?); labor (What are the working conditions for the human workers training and improving AI systems?); discrimination (Do increasingly larger datasets invariably worsen concerns with bias and discrimination?); transparency (Should access to training data be a regulatory prerequisite to ensure accountability?); copyright , and more. It also raises more fundamental questions like the sustainability of the “bigger is better” paradigm in AI, especially when such a paradigm incentivizes the reckless and often invasive collection of data about people and communities ( Bender et al. 2021 , Buolamwini 2023 , Crawford 2021 , Kak and Myers West 2023 , Raji et al. 2020 ).

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) invites applications for its research development workshop on Drilling Down to the Data: Navigating Data Politics at the Heart of AI Policy on July 22–23, 2024. This interdisciplinary workshop is part of the Data Fluencies Project , which aims through dissertation grants, public-facing publications ( Just Tech and MediaWell ), and research workshops to counter the impacts of discriminatory algorithms and online misinformation and to foster more just and equitable futures.

The workshop will synthesize perspectives across different knowledge communities, including university researchers, legal scholars, policymakers, community organizers, technologists, and artists, to support grounded, policy-relevant research.

Topics of interest related to the broad theme include, but are not limited to:

• Pathologies of large-scale AI (environmental, labor impacts, competition, and resources)
• Data documentation best practices
• Data curation
• Reinventing data minimization beyond data protection
• Data representation
• Data workers/work (labeling, content moderation, etc)
• Access and competition (access to datasets as a barrier to entry)

Applications

Amba Kak and Deborah Raji will lead this workshop. This workshop aims to support research with a clear policy impact, contributing to evidence-based AI regulation discussions.

We particularly encourage applications from early-career and underrepresented scholars. We welcome applications from across various fields and practices, including the arts, the social sciences, the humanities, legal studies, journalism, community organizing, and data and computer science.

Proposals will be evaluated based on (1) relevance to the workshop’s theme, (2) whether they are at a stage of development where feedback from peers will make the most impact, and (3) complementarity with other research topics selected for the workshop.

Applicants should submit their 300-word abstracts and a current 2-page CV via the application portal . The last day to submit application materials is April 23, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. (EDT) .

Methodology

Three weeks before the workshop, participants will share in-development manuscripts with all participants and our two chairs responsible for guiding the discussion. Participants are expected to submit a 5-page reflection and read each other’s work before the workshop to use the in-person time for discussion and feedback.

SSRC and the workshop chairs plan to publish a public-facing summary of the workshop’s discussions and outcomes; workshop attendees will be expected to come prepared to discuss the state of the field of AI research and its implications for AI policy.

Travel and Accommodations

The SSRC will cover travel costs to New York City, hotel accommodations, and meals for selected participants.

Workshop Venue

SSRC Offices, 300 Cadman Plaza West, Brooklyn, NY

This workshop is part of the Data Fluencies Consortium led by the Digital Democracies Institute (Simon Fraser University) and generously funded by the Mellon Foundation .

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The Bioethics-CSR Divide A Proposal for Bridging the Chasm

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Bioethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) were born out of similar concerns, such as the reaction to scandal and the restraint of irresponsible actions by individuals and organizations. However, these fields of knowledge are seldom explored together. This article attempts to explain the motives behind the gap between bioethics and CSR, while arguing that their shared agenda – combined with their contrasting principles and goals – suggests there is potential for fruitful dialogue that enables the actualization of bioethical agendas and provides a direction for CSR in health-related organizations.

INTRODUCTION

Bioethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) seem to be cut from the same cloth: the concern for human rights and the response to scandal. Both are tools for the governance of organizations, shaping how power flows and decisions are made. They have taken the shape of specialized committees, means of stakeholder inclusion at deliberative forums, compliance programs, and internal processes. It should be surprising, then, that these two fields of study and practice have developed separately, only recently re-approaching one another.

There have been displays of this reconnection both in academic and corporate spaces, with bioethics surfacing as part of the discourse of CSR and compliance initiatives. However, this is still a relatively timid effort. Even though the bioethics-CSR divide presents mostly reasonable explanations for this difficult relationship between the disciplines, current proposals suggest there is much to be gained from a stronger relationship between them.

This article explores the common history of bioethics and corporate social responsibility and identifies their common features and differences. It then explores the dispute of jurisdictions due to professional and academic “pedigree” and incompatibilities in the ideological and teleological spheres as possible causes for the divide. The discussion turns to paths for improving the reflexivity of both disciplines and, therefore, their openness to mutual contributions.

I.     Cut Out of the Same Cloth

The earliest record of the word “bioethics” dates back to 1927 as a term that designates one’s ethical responsibility toward not only human beings but other lifeforms as well, such as animals and plants. [1] Based on Kantian ethics, the term was coined as a response to the great prestige science held at its time. It remained largely forgotten until the 1970s, when it resurfaced in the United States [2] as the body of knowledge that can be employed to ensure the responsible pursuit and application of science. The resurgence was prompted by a response to widespread irresponsible attitudes toward science and grounded in a pluralistic perspective of morality. [3] In the second half of the twentieth century, states and the international community assumed the duty to protect human rights, and bioethics became a venue for discussing rights. [4] There is both a semantic gap and a contextual gap between these two iterations, with some of them already being established.

Corporate social responsibility is often attributed to the Berle-Dodd debate. The discussion was characterized by diverging views on the extent of the responsibility of managers. [5] It was later settled as positioning the company, especially the large firm, as an entity whose existence is fomented by the law due to its service to the community. The concept has evolved with time, departing from a largely philanthropic meaning to being ingrained in nearly every aspect of a company’s operations. This includes investments, entrepreneurship models, and its relationship to stakeholders, leading to an increasing operationalization and globalization of the concept. [6]

At first sight, these two movements seem to stem from different contexts. Despite the difference, it is also possible to tell a joint history of bioethics and CSR, with their point of contact being a generalized concern with technological and social changes that surfaced in the sixties. The publishing of Silent Spring in 1962 by Rachel Carson exemplifies this growing concern over the sustainability of the ruling economic growth model of its time by commenting on the effects of large-scale agriculture and the use of pesticides in the population of bees, one of the most relevant pollinators of crops consumed by humans. The book influenced both the author responsible for the coining bioethics in the 1971 [7] and early CSR literature. [8] By initiating a debate over the sustainability of economic models, the environmentalist discourse became a precursor to vigorous social movements for civil rights. Bioethics was part of the trend as it would be carried forward by movements such as feminism and the patients’ rights movement. [9]

Bioethics would gradually move from a public discourse centered around the responsible use of science and technology to academic and government spaces. [10]   This evolution led to an increasing emphasis on intellectual rigor and governance. The transformation would unravel the effort to take effective action against scandal and turn bioethical discourse into governance practices, [11] such as bioethics and research ethics committees. The publication of the Belmont Report [12] in the aftermath of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, as well as the creation of committees such as the “God Committee,” [13] which aimed to develop and enforce criteria for allocating scarce dialysis machines, exemplify this shift. On the side of CSR, this period represents, at first, a stronger pact between businesses and society due to more stringent environmental and consumer regulations. But afterward, a joint trend emerged: on one side, the deregulation within the context of neoliberalism, and on the other, the operationalization of corporate social responsibility as a response to societal concerns. [14]

The 1990s saw both opportunities and crises that derived from globalization. In the political arena, the end of the Cold War led to an impasse in the discourse concerning human rights, [15] which previously had been split between the defense of civil and political rights on one side and social rights on the other. But at the same time, agendas that were previously restricted territorially became institutionalized on a global scale. [16] Events such as the European Environment Agency (1990), ECO92 in Rio de Janeiro (1992), and the UN Global Compact (2000) are some examples of the globalization of CSR. This process of institutionalization would also mirror a crisis in CSR, given that its voluntarist core would be deemed lackluster due to the lack of corporate accountability. The business and human rights movement sought to produce new binding instruments – usually state-based – that could ensure that businesses would comply with their duties to respect human rights. [17] This rule-creation process has been called legalization: a shift from business standards to norms of varying degrees of obligation, precision, and delegation. [18]

Bioethics has also experienced its own renewed identity in the developed world, perhaps because of its reconnection to public and global health. Global health has been the object of study for centuries under other labels (e.g., the use of tropical medicine to assist colonial expeditions) but it resurfaced in the political agenda recently after the pandemics of AIDS and respiratory diseases. [19] Bioethics has been accused from the inside of ignoring matters beyond the patient-provider relationship, [20] including those related to public health and/or governance. Meanwhile, scholars claimed the need to expand the discourse to global health. [21] In some countries, bioethics developed a tight relationship with public health, such as Brazil, [22] due to its connections to the sanitary reform movement. The United Kingdom has also followed a different path, prioritizing governance practices and the use of pre-established institutions in a more community-oriented approach. [23] The Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Rights followed this shift toward a social dimension of bioethics despite being subject to criticism due to its human rights-based approach in a field characterized by ethical pluralism. [24]

This scenario suggests bioethics and CSR have developed out of similar concerns: the protection of human rights and concerns over responsible development – be it economic, scientific, or technological. However, the interaction between these two fields (as well as business and human rights) is fairly recent both in academic and business settings. There might be a divide between these fields and their practitioners.

II.     A Tale of Jurisdictions

It can be argued that CSR and business and human rights did not face jurisdictional disputes. These fields owe much of their longevity to their roots in institutional economics, whose debates, such as the Berle-Dodd debate, were based on interdisciplinary dialogue and the abandonment of sectorial divisions and public-private dichotomies. [25] There was opposition to this approach to the role of companies in society that could have implications for CSR’s interdisciplinarity, such as the understanding that corporate activities should be restricted to profit maximization. [26] Yet, those were often oppositions to CSR or business and human rights themselves.

The birth of bioethics in the USA can be traced back to jurisdictional disputes over the realm of medicine and life sciences. [27] The dispute unfolded between representatives of science and those of “society’s conscience,” whether through bioethics as a form of applied ethics or other areas of knowledge such as theology. [28] Amid the civil rights movements, outsiders would gain access to the social sphere of medicine, simultaneously bringing it to the public debate and emphasizing the decision-making process as the center of the medical practice. [29] This led to the emergence of the bioethicist as a professional whose background in philosophy, theology, or social sciences deemed the bioethicist qualified to speak on behalf of the social consciousness. In other locations this interaction would play out differently: whether as an investigation of philosophically implied issues, a communal effort with professional institutions to enhance decision-making capability, or a concern with access to healthcare. [30] In these situations, the emergence and regulation of bioethics would be way less rooted in disputes over jurisdictions.

This contentious birth of bioethics would have several implications, most related to where the bioethicist belongs. After the civil rights movements subsided, bioethics moved from the public sphere into an ivory tower: intellectual, secular, and isolated. The scope of the bioethicist would be increasingly limited to the spaces of academia and hospitals, where it would be narrowed to the clinical environment. [31] This would become the comfort zone of professionals, much to the detriment of social concerns. This scenario was convenient to social groups that sought to affirm their protagonism in the public arena, with conservative and progressive movements alike questioning the legitimacy of bioethics in the political discourse. [32]

Even within the walls of hospitals and clinics, bioethics would not be excused from criticism. Afterall, the work of bioethicists is often unregulated and lacks the same kind of accountability that doctors and lawyers have. Then, is there a role to be played by the bioethicist?

This trend of isolation leads to a plausible explanation for why bioethics did not develop an extensive collaboration with corporate social responsibility nor with business and human rights. Despite stemming from similar agendas, bioethics’ orientation towards the private sphere resulted in a limited perspective on the broader implications of its decisions.

This existential crisis of the discipline led to a re-evaluation of its nature and purpose. Its relevance has been reaffirmed due to the epistemic advantage of philosophy when engaging normative issues. Proper training enables the bioethicist to avoid falling into traps of subjectivism or moralism, which are unable to address the complexity of decision-making. It also prevents the naïve seduction of “scientifying” ethics. [33] This is the starting point of a multitude of roles that can be attributed to the bioethicists.

There are three main responsibilities that fall under bioethics: (i) activism in biopolicy, through the engagement in the creation of laws, jurisprudence, and public policies; (ii) the exercise of bioethics expertise, be it through the specialized knowledge in philosophical thought, its ability to juggle multiple languages related to various disciplines related to bioethics, or its capacity to combat and avoid misinformation and epistemic distortion; (iii) and, intellectual exchange, by exercising awareness that it is necessary to work with specialists from different backgrounds to achieve its goals. [34]

All of those suggest the need for bioethics to improve its dialogue with CSR and business and human rights. Both CSR and business and human rights have been the arena of political disputes over the role of regulations and corporations themselves, and the absence of strong stances by bioethicists risks deepening their exclusion from the public arena. Furthermore, CSR and business and human rights are at the forefront of contemporary issues, such as the limits to sustainable development and appropriate governance structures, which may lead to the acceptance of values and accomplishment of goals cherished by bioethics. However, a gap in identifying the role and nature of bioethics and CSR may also be an obstacle for bridging the chasm between bioethics and CSR.

III.     From Substance to Form: Philosophical Groundings of CSR and Bioethics

As mentioned earlier, CSR is, to some extent, a byproduct of institutionalism. Institutional economics has a philosophical footprint in the pragmatic tradition [35] , which has implications for the purpose of the movement and the typical course of the debate. The effectiveness of regulatory measures is often at the center of CSR and business and human rights debates: whatever the regulatory proposal may be, compliance, feasibility, and effectiveness are the kernel of the discussion. The axiological foundation is often the protection of human rights. But discussions over the prioritization of some human rights over others or the specific characteristics of the community to be protected are often neglected. [36] It is worth reinforcing that adopting human rights as an ethical standard presents problems to bioethics, given its grounding in the recognition of ethical pluralism.

Pragmatism adopts an anti-essentialist view, arguing that concepts derive from their practical consequences instead of aprioristic elements. [37] Therefore, truth is transitory and context dependent. Pragmatism embraces a form of moral relativism and may find itself in an impasse in the context of political economy and policymaking due to its tendency to be stuck between the preservation of the status quo and the defense of a technocratic perspective, which sees technical and scientific progress as the solution to many of society’s issues. [38]

These characteristics mean that bioethics has a complicated relationship with pragmatism. Indeed, there are connections between pragmatism and the bioethics discourse. Both can be traced back to American naturalism. [39] The early effort in bioethics to make it ecumenical, thus building on a common but transitory morality, [40] sounds pragmatic. Therefore, scholars suggest that bioethics should rely on pragmatism's perks and characteristics to develop solutions to new ethical challenges that emerge from scientific and technological progress.

Nonetheless, ethical relativism is a problem for bioethics when it bleeds from a metaethical level into the subject matters themselves. After all, the whole point of bioethics is either descriptive, where it seeks to understand social values and conditions that pertain to its scope, or normative, where it investigates what should be done in matters related to medicine, life sciences, and social and technological change. It is a “knowledge of how to use knowledge.”

Therefore, bioethics is a product of disillusionment regarding science and technology's capacity to produce exclusively good consequences. It was built around an opposition to ethical relativism—even though the field is aware of the particularity of its answers. This is true not only for the scholarly arena, where the objective is to produce ethically sound answers but also for bioethics governance, where relativism may induce decision paralysis or open the way to points of view disconnected from facts. [41]

But there might be a point for more pragmatic bioethics. Bioethics has become an increasingly public enterprise which seeks political persuasion and impact in the regulatory sphere. When bioethics is seen as an enterprise, achieving social transformation is its main goal. In this sense, pragmatism can provide critical tools to identify idiosyncrasies in regulation that prove change is needed. An example of how this may play out is the abortion rights movement in the global south. [42] Despite barriers to accessing safe abortion, this movement came up with creative solutions and a public discourse focused on the consequences of its criminalization rather than its moral aspects.

IV.     Bridging the Divide: Connections Between Bioethics and CSR

There have been attempts to bring bioethics and CSR closer to each other. Corporate responsibility can be a supplementary strategy for achieving the goals of bioethics. The International Bioethics Committee (IBC), an institution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), highlights the concept that social responsibility regarding health falls under the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR). It is a means of achieving good health (complete physical, mental, and social well-being) through social development. [43] Thus, it plays out as a condition for actualizing the goals dear to bioethics and general ethical standards, [44] such as autonomy and awareness of the social consequences of an organization’s governance. On this same note, CSR is a complementary resource for healthcare organizations that already have embedded bioethics into their operations [45] as a way of looking at the social impact of their practices.

And bioethics is also an asset of CSR. Bioethics can inform the necessary conditions for healthcare institutions achieving a positive social impact. When taken at face value, bioethics may offer guidelines for ethical and socially responsible behavior in the industry, instructing how these should play out in a particular context such as in research, and access to health. [46] When considering the relevance of rewarding mechanisms, [47] bioethics can guide the establishment of certification measures to restore lost trust in the pharmaceutical sector. [48] Furthermore, recognizing that the choice is a more complex matter than the maximization of utility can offer a nuanced perspective on how organizations dealing with existentially relevant choices understand their stakeholders. [49] However, all of those proposals might come with the challenge of proving that something can be gained from its addition to self-regulatory practices [50] within the scope of a dominant rights-based approach to CSR and global and corporate law.

It is evident that there is room for further collaboration between bioethics and CSR. Embedding either into the corporate governance practices of an organization tends to be connected to promoting the other. [51] While there are some incompatibilities, organizations should try to overcome them and take advantage of the synergies and similarities.

Despite their common interests and shared history, bioethics and corporate social responsibility have not produced a mature exchange. Jurisdictional issues and foundational incompatibilities have prevented a joint effort to establish a model of social responsibility that addresses issues particular to the healthcare sector.

Both bioethics and CSR should acknowledge that they hold two different pieces of a cognitive competence necessary for that task: CSR offers experience on how to turn corporate ethical obligations operational, while bioethics provides access to the prevailing practical and philosophical problem-solving tools in healthcare that were born out of social movements. Reconciling bioethics and CSR calls for greater efforts to comprehend and incorporate the social knowledge developed by each field reflexively [52] while understanding their insights are relevant to achieving some common goals.

[1] . Fritz Jahr, “Bio-Ethik: Eine Umschau Über Die Ethischen Beziehungen Des Menschen Zu Tier Und Pflanze,” Kosmos - Handweiser Für Naturfreunde 24 (1927): 2–4.

[2] . Van Rensselaer Potter, “Bioethics, the Science of Survival,” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 14, no. 1 (1970): 127–53, https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.1970.0015.

[3] . Maximilian Schochow and Jonas Grygier, eds., “Tagungsbericht: 1927 – Die Geburt der Bioethik in Halle (Saale) durch den protestantischen Theologen Fritz Jahr (1895-1953),” Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik / Annual Review of Law and Ethics 21 (June 11, 2014): 325–29, https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-02807-2.

[4] George J. Annas, American Bioethics: Crossing Human Rights and Health Law Boundaries (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

[5] Philip L. Cochran, “The Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility,” Business Horizons 50, no. 6 (November 2007): 449–54, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2007.06.004. p. 449.

[6] Mauricio Andrés Latapí Agudelo, Lára Jóhannsdóttir, and Brynhildur Davídsdóttir, “A Literature Review of the History and Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility,” International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility 4, no. 1 (December 2019): 23, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40991-018-0039-y.

[7] Potter, “Bioethics, the Science of Survival.” p. 129.

[8] Latapí Agudelo, Jóhannsdóttir, and Davídsdóttir, “A Literature Review of the History and Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility.” p. 4.

[9] Albert R. Jonsen, The Birth of Bioethics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). p. 368-371.

[10] Jonsen. p. 372.

[11] Jonathan Montgomery, “Bioethics as a Governance Practice,” Health Care Analysis 24, no. 1 (March 2016): 3–23, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-015-0310-2.

[12] . The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, “The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research” (Washington: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, April 18, 1979), https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/sites/default/files/the-belmont-report-508c_FINAL.pdf.

[13] Shana Alexander, “They Decide Who Lives, Who Dies,” in LIFE , by Time Inc, 19th ed., vol. 53 (Nova Iorque: Time Inc, 1962), 102–25.

[14] . Latapí Agudelo, Jóhannsdóttir, and Davídsdóttir, “A Literature Review of the History and Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility.”

[15] . Boaventura de Sousa Santos, “Por Uma Concepção Multicultural Dos Direitos Humanos,” Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais , no. 48 (June 1997): 11–32.

[16] Latapí Agudelo, Jóhannsdóttir, and Davídsdóttir, “A Literature Review of the History and Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility.”

[17] . Anita Ramasastry, “Corporate Social Responsibility Versus Business and Human Rights: Bridging the Gap Between Responsibility and Accountability,” Journal of Human Rights 14, no. 2 (April 3, 2015): 237–59, https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2015.1037953.

[18] . Kenneth W Abbott et al., “The Concept of Legalization,” International Organization , Legalization and World Politics, 54, no. 3 (2000): 401–4019.

[19] . Jens Holst, “Global Health – Emergence, Hegemonic Trends and Biomedical Reductionism,” Globalization and Health 16, no. 1 (December 2020): 42–52, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00573-4.

[20] . Albert R. Jonsen, “Social Responsibilities of Bioethics,” Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 78, no. 1 (March 1, 2001): 21–28, https://doi.org/10.1093/jurban/78.1.21.

[21] . Solomon R Benatar, Abdallah S Daar, and Peter A Singer, “Global Health Challenges: The Need for an Expanded Discourse on Bioethics,” PLoS Medicine 2, no. 7 (July 26, 2005): e143, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020143.

[22] . Márcio Fabri dos Anjos and José Eduardo de Siqueira, eds., Bioética No Brasil: Tendências e Perspectivas , 1st ed., Bio & Ética (São Paulo: Sociedade Brasileira de Bioética, 2007).

[23] . Montgomery, “Bioethics as a Governance Practice.” p. 8-9.

[24] . Aline Albuquerque S. de Oliveira, “A Declaração Universal Sobre Bioética e Direitos Humanos e a Análise de Sua Repercussão Teórica Na Comunidade Bioética,” Revista Redbioética/UNESCO 1, no. 1 (2010): 124–39.

[25] John R. Commons, “Law and Economics,” The Yale Law Journal 34, no. 4 (February 1925): 371, https://doi.org/10.2307/788562; Robert L. Hale, “Bargaining, Duress, and Economic Liberty,” Columbia Law Review 43, no. 5 (July 1943): 603–28, https://doi.org/10.2307/1117229; Karl N. Llewellyn, “The Effect of Legal Institutions Upon Economics,” The American Economic Review 15, no. 4 (1925): 665–83; Carlos Portugal Gouvêa, Análise Dos Custos Da Desigualdade: Efeitos Institucionais Do Círculo Vicioso de Desigualdade e Corrupção , 1st ed. (São Paulo: Quartier Latin, 2021). p. 84-94.

[26] Milton Friedman, “A Friedman Doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” The New York Times , September 13, 1970, sec. Archives, https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html.

[27] Montgomery, “Bioethics as a Governance Practice.” p. 8.

[28] John Hyde Evans, The History and Future of Bioethics: A Sociological View , 1st ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).

[29] David J. Rothman, Strangers at the Bedside: A History of How Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision Making , 2nd pbk. ed, Social Institutions and Social Change (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 2003). p. 3.

[30] Volnei Garrafa, Thiago Rocha Da Cunha, and Camilo Manchola, “Access to Healthcare: A Central Question within Brazilian Bioethics,” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 27, no. 3 (July 2018): 431–39, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963180117000810.

[31] Jonsen, “Social Responsibilities of Bioethics.”

[32] Evans, The History and Future of Bioethics . p. 75-79, 94-96.

[33] Julian Savulescu, “Bioethics: Why Philosophy Is Essential for Progress,” Journal of Medical Ethics 41, no. 1 (January 2015): 28–33, https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2014-102284.

[34] Silvia Camporesi and Giulia Cavaliere, “Can Bioethics Be an Honest Way of Making a Living? A Reflection on Normativity, Governance and Expertise,” Journal of Medical Ethics 47, no. 3 (March 2021): 159–63, https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2019-105954; Jackie Leach Scully, “The Responsibilities of the Engaged Bioethicist: Scholar, Advocate, Activist,” Bioethics 33, no. 8 (October 2019): 872–80, https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12659.

[35] Philip Mirowski, “The Philosophical Bases of Institutionalist Economics,” Journal of Economic Issues , Evolutionary Economics I: Foundations of Institutional Thought, 21, no. 3 (September 1987): 1001–38.

[36] David Kennedy, “The International Human Rights Movement: Part of the Problem?,” Harvard Human Rights Journal 15 (2002): 101–25.

[37] Richard Rorty, “Pragmatism, Relativism, and Irrationalism,” Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 53, no. 6 (August 1980): 717+719-738.

[38] . Mirowski, “The Philosophical Bases of Institutionalist Economics.”

[39] . Glenn McGee, ed., Pragmatic Bioethics , 2nd ed, Basic Bioethics (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2003).

[40] . Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics , 7th ed (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

[41] . Montgomery, “Bioethics as a Governance Practice.”

[42] . Debora Diniz and Giselle Carino, “What Can Be Learned from the Global South on Abortion and How We Can Learn?,” Developing World Bioethics 23, no. 1 (March 2023): 3–4, https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12385.

[43] . International Bioethics Committee, On Social Responsibility and Health Report (Paris: Unesco, 2010).

[44] . Cristina Brandão et al., “Social Responsibility: A New Paradigm of Hospital Governance?,” Health Care Analysis 21, no. 4 (December 2013): 390–402, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-012-0206-3.

[45] Intissar Haddiya, Taha Janfi, and Mohamed Guedira, “Application of the Concepts of Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Ethics to Healthcare Organizations,” Risk Management and Healthcare Policy Volume 13 (August 2020): 1029–33, https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S258984.

[46] The Biopharmaceutical Bioethics Working Group et al., “Considerations for Applying Bioethics Norms to a Biopharmaceutical Industry Setting,” BMC Medical Ethics 22, no. 1 (December 2021): 31–41, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00600-y.

[47] Anne Van Aaken and Betül Simsek, “Rewarding in International Law,” American Journal of International Law 115, no. 2 (April 2021): 195–241, https://doi.org/10.1017/ajil.2021.2.

[48] Jennifer E. Miller, “Bioethical Accreditation or Rating Needed to Restore Trust in Pharma,” Nature Medicine 19, no. 3 (March 2013): 261–261, https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0313-261.

[49] John Hardwig, “The Stockholder – A Lesson for Business Ethics from Bioethics?,” Journal of Business Ethics 91, no. 3 (February 2010): 329–41, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0086-0.

[50] Stefan van Uden, “Taking up Bioethical Responsibility?: The Role of Global Bioethics in the Social Responsibility of Pharmaceutical Corporations Operating in Developing Countries” (Mestrado, Coimbra, Coimbra University, 2012).

[51] María Peana Chivite and Sara Gallardo, “La bioética en la empresa: el caso particular de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa,” Revista Internacional de Organizaciones , no. 13 (January 12, 2015): 55–81, https://doi.org/10.17345/rio13.55-81.

[52] Teubner argues that social spheres tend to develop solutions autonomously, but one sphere interfering in the way other spheres govern themselves tends to result in ineffective regulation and demobilization of their autonomous rule-making capabilities. These spheres should develop “reflexion mechanisms” that enable the exchange of their social knowledge and provide effective, non-damaging solutions to social issues. See Gunther Teubner, “Substantive and Reflexive Elements in Modern Law,” Law & Society Review 17, no. 2 (1983): 239–85, https://doi.org/10.2307/3053348.

Caio Caesar Dib

PhD candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo

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The cost of living: krishna pendakur awarded bank of canada fellowship to focus on poverty and economic inequality.

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“We’ve just gone through two years where the price of rent and the price of food went up very dramatically.” Yet often ignored is how people of differing income levels have different spending patterns that leave poorer households vulnerable to price increases.

“Food and shelter are necessities that poor people spend a larger fraction of their budget on,” says Distinguished SFU Professor of Economics, Dr. Krishna Pendakur. “When the price of those two things increases, that means inflation is a much bigger deal for poor people than for rich people.”

The Bank of Canada exists “to regulate credit and currency in the best interests of the economic life of the nation.” In Pendakur’s words, “They’re interested in price stability or inflation rates being low. But what inflation rate?” He asks, “Whose inflation rate? This idea that the bank should pay attention to inflation and inequality is one angle of my proposal.”

Pendakur was awarded the Bank of Canada Fellowship, giving him substantial resources to pursue this research agenda.  The Fellowship , awarded to “academics who are making exemplary contributions to economic and financial research in Canada,” is a great honour awarded to very few people. The five-year term enables Pendakur to continue to build upon an impressive three-decade career researching and writing on poverty and economic disparities. 

Drawing upon his expertise in economic history, public economics, labour economics, household economics, econometric theory, and microeconomic theory, Pendakur’s proposal is three-fold:

• Measure the cost of living focusing on how changes inflation may differ for households with different income levels
• Create a single social cost of living index that the central bank could use in inflation targeting
• Illuminate the cost of living through frontier microeconomic and econometric theory using barcode-level scanner data

When receiving the congratulatory phone call from Tiff Macklem, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, Pendakur heard an unexpected but pleasant surprise: Macklem was particularly impressed with a fourth aspect of Pendakur’s research, which he is well known for, but was not included in his proposal---his work on the economic inequalities facing Indigenous peoples.  

In 2011, Krishna Pendakur and his brother, Ravi Pendakur, a sociologist at the University of Ottawa, published  Aboriginal Income Disparity in Canada .  Building upon findings from their highly-cited 1998 paper,  The Colour of Money: Earnings Differentials Among Ethnic Groups in Canada , the brothers achieved another pivotal accomplishment in the literature. “In the ethnic mosaic that is Canada,” Pendakur says, “there are a whole bunch of inequalities but the largest is that facing Indigenous peoples.”

Pendakur feels that this should be a focus of the country’s central bank, “and they actually have policy tools that are relevant and important for Indigenous peoples.”

As a Bank of Canada Fellow, Pendakur will be attending the Learning Exchange in Ottawa this May. Empowered now to relay data and recommendations to the country’s chief monetary authority, he aims to “push their research agendas towards understanding and mitigating price inflation faced by poor households and Indigenous inequality. These are areas where I can contribute that’s very different from what others are contributing.”

• Krishna Pendakur
• SFU Distinguished Professor
• John Rae Prize

To suggest a candidate for Bank of Canada fellowship and award nominations, please contact Institutional Strategic Awards at [email protected] .