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Individual Research Proposal
Final paper due the last day of class: Thursday March 17th 11:59pm
Instructions & Expectations
Since this is a Epidemiology and Global health course, the individual project for which you will develop a proposal must be Public Health based. The paper that you write will focus on data, methods, and analysis, and data sources learned in class.

Alternatively, justify why a different or additional technique needs to be employed.
@@@@@@@@@@@The Basics
1. You must ask a research question. Note that this is more than a research “topic;” you must pose a specific question, which will be addressed by your methodology.

2. Project ideas can be of any topic, and ideally should tie into your areas of interest or projects that you are working on. If I am aware of them, I can help you identify data sources.

3. Your research can involve either primary data (that you collect yourself) or secondary data sources (those collected by other people).

Timeline Please submit your proposed topic by 2/22/2016
I encourage you to communicate with me early regarding your project ideas. you should have developed in some detail what you want to do and why. By this point, I expect specific research questions, and not just general topics of interest. Ideally, you’ll be able to tell me variables you would need to collect, your sources of data, and preliminary analytical methods.
By 2/26/16, you should have a clear and detailed research plan. To insure this, I encourage you to complete a flow chart by this time, that maps the steps for your project, including a description (and sources) of your data. The flow chart does not need to be graphical; basically it serves as a blueprint that includes the data that you have, how you’ll analyze it and how you will accept or reject your research questions/hypotheses. The flow chart will be included in your final paper.

The final paper will be due in Moodle, on the last day of classes.

Paper Specifics
In the paper, I am asking you to describe your research question, your data, and your methods. I am not requiring a literature review. Page length will likely vary with each project, but I envision 4-7 pages (typed 12-point font, double-spaced, 1” margins all-around) excluding tables and figures. Your paper should include the following:
• Context/significance of the problem. Background on the project, broad statements about what is under investigation in the project and why it is important (sometimes called the “Justification”).
• The research question or hypotheses. More specific than the “context/significance” section. This section should explicitly detail what you will test or what questions you will answer.
• Description of the data. The discussion should be sufficiently detailed so that the reader can evaluate the appropriateness of the data for your project; this may include issues of data quality, and benefits/drawbacks in using these data. Include your source(s) of data, and if appropriate, describe any special data preparation or formatting. I am not interested in how you ultimately found your particular data, but rather a justification as to why they are important. This may also be a logical section to describe your study area.
• Proposed Analytical steps. Describe your methods of data analysis – what statistical or comparative techniques and methods would you use to answer your research questions.

• Conclusion. Here you may speculate on the outcome of your proposed research.

Final Paper Checklist:
• Headings and subheadings are extremely useful to the reader; these should be tailored to your particular topics.
• Refer to figures (maps, tables, charts) within your text, integrating them into your presentation (just don’t stick them in without explanation.
• PROOFREAD YOUR PAPER – Obvious draft versions are not acceptable, and will be penalized.
• You will be graded on the content of your paper, your writing style (including spelling and grammar; be sure to read “Common Writing Errors” linked to the course Blackboard site!), and your adherence to the paper guidelines. Deductions will be taken for late papers, including those returned for improper format

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdch/NHBS_MSM2_report_summary_final_402591_7.pdf