Author: | Stephen J. Turnbull |
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Organization: | Faculty of Engineering, Information, and Systems at the University of Tsukuba |
Contact: | Stephen J. Turnbull <turnbull@sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> |
Date: | May 24, 2019 |
Copyright: | 2019, Stephen J. Turnbull |
Topic: | Research |
If you continue from undergraduate school to graduate school, you will encounter many instances where you need to write research plans:
Not all cases of the above require a research plan, but any of them might.
It's important to recognize that the purpose, and therefore the structure and writing style, of each case is different. For example, in applying for kenkyusei or graduate programs, it is more or less a writing sample, for your proposed advisor to consult in evaluating your ability to succeed in a graduate program (immediately, in the case of graduate school application, and after further preparation, in the case of kenkyusei application).
I don't have time to do a detailed writeup right now, but here's some advice off the top of my head.
Describe previous research in the field, especially work that is closest to your proposal. Explain how your work is original (that is, adds to or improves previous work). Be very careful about claims to be "totally new"; this usually turns out to be a sign of poor preparation rather than great originality! If both the method and the content are claimed to be new, this is very risky. It makes your proposal hard to compare to existing work, and such comparison is very important to understanding whether you have a knack for research, which is what every supporter wants.
Describe the expected results and social or scientific benefits to be expected from success of the project. These include things like cost reduction for producers, more effective planning for government, and new methods for other scientists.
Describe the methodology, which includes the underlying theory and the specific model, as well as data sources and data analytic methods.
Include a bibliography! Today there are millions of active researchers in the world. It is very likely that your references won't be known even to an expert in your field (unless they are very famous -- but that's risky because "the pros" will also be very interested in such topics, which is a serious threat to your claim of originality!)
Spell out all technical abbreviations the first time they are used.
Make sure that your motivation is tied to your actual plan. If you spend two or three paragraphs on "social problem X" but never mention variables or models about X in your plan, that's not good.
Your bibliography should be heavily weighted toward articles in scientific journals and monographs. These can be identified by literature surveys, explaining how the scientific knowledge of the field has been developed. Non-scientists such as consultants often provide extensive bibliographies, but when you read the article you find that the earlier work is used to provide illustrations of the author's argument rather than a history of the development of the science in the field.
This is not to say that you should exclude works by consultants or newspaper articles, but remember that these play a role of illustration or motivation, and usually do not contribute to a positive evaluation of the scientific worth of your proposal.