The DOI matches its Crossref record; 53 of the 55 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Essential Ingredients of a Good Research Proposal for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students in the Social Sciences
Open accessAbstract
As part of the requirements for the award of degrees in higher education institutions, students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels normally carry out research, which they report in the form of dissertations or theses. The research journey commences with the selection of a research topic and the preparation of a proposal on the selected topic. Experience has shown that students tend to encounter difficulties in writing research proposals for their supervisors because they do not fully comprehend what constitutes a research proposal. The purpose of this article is to take students through a step-by-step process of writing good research proposals by discussing the essential ingredients of a good research proposal. Thus, it is not a didactic piece—the aim is to guide students in research proposal writing. In discussing these ingredients, relevant examples are provided where necessary for ease of understanding. It is expected that on reading this article, students should be able to: (a) demonstrate knowledge and understanding of what research is all about and its challenging nature; (b) display an enlarged comprehension of research gap(s), problem or question(s), aim, objectives, and hypotheses as well as their distinguishing characteristics; (c) demonstrate a good understanding of the relevant elements to be considered in the constituent sections of a good research proposal; and (d) comprehend the elements of a research proposal that should feature in the final written dissertation or thesis.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Abdulai and Owusu-Ansah (2014) found that students faced challenges in narrowing down their proposed studies to specific, researchable topics that fit the scope of their research.”
From Exploring the Role of Generative AI as a Research Assistant in Undergraduate Sociology Research Methods (2026) · cites this paper as Abdulai & Owusu-Ansah, 2014
In the citing paper
“research has consistently shown that students continue to face a range of challenges-such as difficulty formulating research questions, synthesizing literature, and selecting appropriate methodological approaches (Abdulai & Owusu-Ansah, 2014; Mali, 2023; Suryatiningsih, 2019).”
From Exploring the Role of Generative AI as a Research Assistant in Undergraduate Sociology Research Methods (2026) · cites this paper as Abdulai & Owusu-Ansah, 2014
In the citing paper
“Prior studies have revealed that students experience difficulties in the early stages of the research process, specifically when selecting focused topics, formulating research questions, and constructing hypotheses.”
From Exploring the Role of Generative AI as a Research Assistant in Undergraduate Sociology Research Methods (2026) · cites this paper as Abdulai & Owusu-Ansah, 2014
Citations
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Cited by
Carácter formativo y pedagógico de la revisión de literatura en la investigación
Salcedo, G. M., Rubio-Rodríguez, G. A., Mesa, L. X., & Blandón, A. G. (2020) · Información tecnológica · doi:10.4067/s0718-07642020000500153 · Cited by 16
Using children and young people as advocates to inform research design
Graham, N., Mandy, A., Clarke, C., & Morriss‐Roberts, C. (2017) · British Journal of Occupational Therapy · doi:10.1177/0308022617725491 · Cited by 15
Jones, C. S. (2021) · Advances in Educational Research and Evaluation · doi:10.25082/aere.2021.02.002 · Cited by 10
Molla, A., Worku, M. Y., & Bisaw, A. (2023) · Cogent Education · doi:10.1080/2331186x.2023.2228995 · Cited by 9
Indonesian EFL Students’ Perception on Training in Writing Research Articles for Publication
Cahyono, B. Y., & Amrina, R. (2016) · Journal of Language Teaching and Research · doi:10.17507/jltr.0705.05 · Cited by 8
Metadata
- Authors
- Abdulai, R. T., & Owusu-Ansah, A.
- Affiliations
- Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
- Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Accra, Ghana
- Corresponding author
- Abdulai, Raymond Talinbe
- Venue
- Sage Open
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-07-01
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 3
- ISSN
- 2158-2440 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2140992244
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 2.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- SAGE Open (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity) (cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Research and Methods
- Social Sciences › Library and Information Sciences › Academic Writing and Publishing
- Keywords
- research proposal writing, research proposal structure, research gaps, research hypotheses, undergraduate research, graduate research, social science research
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Essential Ingredients of a Good Research Proposal for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students in the Social Sciences. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1177/2158244014548178
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- Abdulai, R. T., & Owusu-Ansah, A. (2014). Essential Ingredients of a Good Research Proposal for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students in the Social Sciences. Sage Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014548178
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
