These are the directions:

Proposal Format
Your proposal must be formatted according to the following list.
• typed
• double-spaced
• 12 point font
• 1-inch margins
• page numbers
• consistent formatting throughout the proposal
• references

Every sentence that refers to previous publications or information should include references, which can be a journal article or book chapter (NOT web sources unless they are legitimate such as the CDC).

This research proposal should contain the following information:
• A summary of the research proposed (Abstract)
• The context of the research and why the subject of the proposed research is important/significant. Give background (Introduction)
• A concise statement of the research question your propose to answer (Research Hypothesis)
• A concise statement of the specific types of data or datasets you propose to gather and the experimental approach(es) you intend to use in order to answer the research question (Research Aims)
• How you (the researcher) intend to accomplish the aforementioned tasks (Research Design and Experimental Approaches)
• What are the expected results and what are alternative approaches that will be used if the original ones do not give sufficient answers for the proposed research (Expected Results and Pitfalls)
• Final statement about the impact of this project on future research (Significance)

Goals of a Research Proposal
All research proposals must, at minimum, explain what the researcher intends to do, how the researcher will accomplish those tasks, and why the expected results are important.

Abstract: This is a summary of the proposal, usually between 150 to 250 words. It is best to write this after writing all other sections of the proposal. It should briefly and clearly state the problem, the context of the problem, the significance of the problem, the broad methods to be used, the forms of the results, and future directions of these data.

Introduction: The beginning of this section is a focused literature review (not a general summary) centered on what is known about your specific research question(s). It should give the reader an understanding of previous work so that the reader knows the context of the work you are proposing. The introduction also states the problem you are going to investigate with an explanation for why is has not been addressed by others. This section should end with a paragraph telling the reader what the research plan is and a statement of its significance. The final sentence should be the hypothesis you plan to test.

Research Aims/Objectives: This section should be a concise description of the research questions and objectives of your project. Descriptions should only be a few sentences.

Research Design/Experimental Approaches: This section is the body of the research proposal. It is a full, detailed description of the proposed research project that explains every aspect of the research effort. The bulk of this section describes the outline of the experimental design and techniques. Just describe the methods that you will use. Do NOT give a step-by-step protocol. You can separate this section into subsections based on each type of experiment you will be doing.

Be sure to include: how many and what types of subjects/test animals/cells; how many replicates each experiment will be used; how many times you will repeat the procedures; what equipment will be used to do the work, etc. Outline all methods, assays or tests you will run, methods of collecting data (you record data, subjects record data, weekly, daily, 3 times a week, etc.), and what statistical methods will be used.

Expected Results/Pitfalls: In a short paragraph summarize the results you expect to observe from the project and provide alternatives if the experiments do not work.

Significance: This is what I like to call, why should I care? This section should answer the following questions: What is the significance of the research? How does it connect to other research? What new research does it make possible? Can it be applied to other disciplines?

References: A list of references (the literature) that you used in the above sections. See section IV for specifics.

Reference Formatting
Plagiarism is unacceptable. It is both illegal and unethical.

In-text citations should be cited in numerical order. The number should be placed in parenthesis at the end of the sentence, but before the punctuation. Do NOT superscript and/or bracket the number.

The corresponding reference page listing the references cited should begin on a separate page (not on the same page that your significance section ended) at the end of the document. This section should also be double-spaced. The format of the references must be in accordance with the following examples:

For a peer reviewed journal article:
1. Li, W., Whaley, C.D., Mondino, A., and Mueller, D.L. (1996) Blocked signal transduction to the ERK and JNK protein kinases in anergic CD4+ T cells. Science 271, 1272-1276.

For a book:
2. Becker, W.M., Kleinsmith, L.J., and Hardin, J. The world of the cell. 4th ed. San Francisco, CA: Benjamin/Cummings; 2000.

For an article in a book:
3. Melino, G. p73, The “assistant” guardian of the genome. In: Diederich, M., editor. Apoptosis: from signaling pathways to therapeutic tools. New York: New York Academy of Sciences. 2003. pp 9-15.

These are the directions: Proposal Format Your proposal must be...