Project Checklist

Research Design

1. What is the primary purpose of your research project?

 To validate an existing dataset (Certification)

 To validate an instrument/questionnaire (Certification)
 To assess the relationship of one variable on another (Regression)
 To generate new concepts and/or dimensions for existing variables (Qualitative Design).
 To synthesize the results of a corpus of previous studies (Meta-Analysis)
 To identify multiple effects in a set of variables (Multivariate/Path Analysis)
 To identify unknown factors (Factor Analysis/Cluster Analysis)
 Modelling a set of assumptions (Structural Equation Modelling)

Narrowing the Target Population and Variables

1. Do you know the size and inclusion/exclusion criteria for your unit of analysis?

a. I know the total size of my population

b. I don’t know the total size of my population

Data Sources and Collection (Correlation)

1. From where are you getting your data?

a. Collecting it myself
b. Someone’s Database

2. If you’re collecting it yourself, have you determined the necessary sample size?

a. No, I have not done a Power Analysis that tells me the sample size needed.
b. Yes, I know how many participants (sample size) I need

3. If you’re collecting it yourself and know your sample size, do you have ethics
permissions?

a. Yes I have Ethics permissions

b. No I don’t have permission yet.

4. If you’re using an existing database, is it a publicly accessible database or is access

restricted?

a. Public database
b. Restricted Access
5. If access is restricted, do you have the Hosts’s and Ethics permissions to use it?

a. I have the hosts’s permission, but no ethics certificate

b. I have the hosts’s permission and an ethics certificate for secondary data use
c. I do not have the necessary permissions yet.

6. Is the database representative (large enough sample) of your target population?

a. Yes
b. No

Methodology

5. Have you analysed the distribution of your sample? Is it parametric or non-parametric?

a. Yes, I have done goodness-of-fit tests and found the sample to be parametric.
b. No, I found that the sample is non-parametric and will need to adjust my analysis.

6. What technique will you use to analyse your variables? _____________

7. Do you have the necessary tools to do your analysis (e.g. Statistical Software)?

Literature Review

Have you defined the concepts your will be using (operationalization)

Have you reviewed models, frameworks, and theories that look at your research question?
How will you discuss the results? What phenomena are relevant for discussion?