Developing an

implementation research proposal

Session 2:
Research design
 Learning objectives
After completing this session, you will be able to:
• Develop a research design outlining your data collection
and analyses procedures
• Identify the research methods (qualitative, quantitative or
mixed) most effective in attaining your research
objectives and answering the research question(s)
• Describe the participants in your research project
• Describe the quality management plan in place to ensure
the quality of your research
• Explain the steps to ensure all ethical considerations and
procedures will be addressed within your IR project
 Research design

Research design includes the

following sub-sections:
• Study participants
• Research methods
• Data collection
• Data analysis
 Research needs and design options

Need Design Example

Adequacy Before-after or time series Introduction of health insurance in a resource poor setting,
and examine the impact of health insurance on access to
healthcare. Using before-after or time-series design to collect
the data for the evaluation.
Plausibility Comparison of intervention to Introduction of a new approach to the improvement of
maternal healthcare in selected districts. A number of districts
control group pre-post; with a similar socioeconomic development level were
selected as control sites. The impacts or effects of the new
Cross-sectional studies approach were assessed by a comparison of “new approach
– intervention” to “control” districts, using the method of
differences in differences, for example.

Probability Clusters RCT; pre-post Using mobile phones as a reminder to increase adherence to
TB treatment. Each district is used as a cluster. Among ten
interventions and control sites districts, a cluster randomized controlled trial is employed to
test the impact of using mobile phones as a reminder in the
five districts randomly selected. The other five districts served
as control sites.

Explanatory Repeated measures on Using quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods to

understand and examine change in use of health services by
context and mechanisms pensioners after retirement, and analyse main factors
resulting in the changes.
 Design informs methods

Study design determines which

methods you will use:
• Qualitative methods
• Quantitative methods
• Mixed methods
 Study participants

• A full description of the subjects (sample) or participants

involved in the research
• How participants will be selected
• Criteria for becoming a participant
 Group activity

• Discuss your study design

• Draft outline of your participants section
 Qualitative and quantitative approaches

Qualitative Quantitative

Social theory Action Structure

Methods Observation, interview Experiment, survey

Question What is x? (classification) How many xs? (enumeration)

Reasoning Inductive Deductive

Sampling Theoretical Statistical

Strength Validity Reliability

Pope and Mays (1995). Reaching the parts other methods cannot reach: An introduction to qualitative methods in health and health services
research. BMJ: 311; No. 6996
 Research method: Qualitative
• Diversity in research design, researcher roles, and data gathering
techniques
• Requires the use of a rigorous systematic scientific process
• Data are usually in the form of words (rather than numbers) are
detailed, often including description and direct quotations
• Small number of purposefully selected participants or ‘cases’
• Used to explore values, attitudes, opinions, feelings, and behaviours
of individuals
• Concerned with individuals’ perceptions of specific topics, issues, or
situations and the meanings they assign to their lives
• Important for theory generation, policy development, improving
educational practice, justifying change or a particular practice, and
illuminating social issues
• Results are descriptive rather than predictive
 Qualitative sub-sections
of proposal

Proposal should outline:

• Rationale
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Trustworthiness
• Participants
 Rationale

• If your research team decides to use qualitative

methods in your study, your proposal should describe
why qualitative approaches were chosen
 Qualitative data collection

• Preferable to ‘triangulate’ the data, adds rigor to the

research
• Typically time-consuming and laborious
• Data collection process is emergent and flexible
 Plan for qualitative
data analysis

• Data collection and analysis are conducted

simultaneously
• Data analysis is an on-going process that begins with
the first piece of data collected
• Analysis consists of data management, reduction and
coding
• Goal is to identify patterns (themes) in the data and
links between them
• Software can help to manage data
 Trustworthiness

Stipulate how your research team

will ensure scientific rigour
• If possible, have participants review interview transcripts
• Member checks
• Triangulate data
• Report "disconfirming" results
 Participants

• Describe sampling of the study population

• Define the number of participants
• Participant criteria
• Describe selection (age, gender, ethnicity, income
bracket, etc.), characteristics related to the
disease of interest, etc.
• A full description of the participants involved in the
research
Research method: Quantitative

• Determine the relationship between variables or explore

differences between two or more groups
• Involves the collection and analysis of objective data,
often in numerical form
• Research design and methods are determined prior to the
start of data collection and are not flexible
• Types of quantitative research design include:
o Quasi-experimental research
o Correlational research
o Monitoring evaluation
 Quantitative sub-sections
of a proposal

Proposal should outline:

• Rationale
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Reliability and validity
• Participants
 Quantitative data collection

• Instrument used (e.g. questionnaires, checklists)

• Instruments may be one developed by the researcher or,
one that has been previously developed
• Instruments need to be tested through pilot studies,
for example
• Enumerators need to be trained for data collection
 Plan for quantitative
data analysis
• Data presented in numerical form
• Analysed using descriptive or inferential statistics
• Data can be either quantitative or categorical
• A variable is measured along a scale and reported in
terms of scores
• Quantitative data differ in degree and amount
• Categorical data differs only in kind,
o indicates the number of instances in each category,
o are reported as frequencies or percentages
 Reliability and validity

• Tools should be valid and reliable

o Considered valid if it measures what it purports to
measure
o Reliability, refers to the consistency and reproducibility of
the results
• Internal consistency is the degree to which all items in
a domain reflect the same construct
• Content, criterion and construct validity
 Participants

• Describe the study population

• Define the sample size, unit of analysis, number of units
• Documents how participants will be selected and criteria
for becoming a participant
• Describe selection (age, gender, ethnicity, income
bracket, etc.), characteristic related to the disease of
interest, study site, or other factors
• Indicate whether variables are dependent or
independent
 Research method:
Mixed methods
• Most IR proposals use mixed methods
• Qualitative and quantitative techniques are combined
• Under the right circumstances, a mixed methods
approach can provide a better understanding of the
problem than either a quantitative or qualitative research
approach
• It could be challenging to create the optimal combination
and sequence of both approaches
• Appealing for interdisciplinary projects which deal with
complex problems
 Mixed-methods
proposal sub-sections
Since mixed-methods involve both
qualitative and quantitative methods,
components must be included in the
proposal:
• Rationale (including methods used)
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Reliability and validity
• Trustworthiness
• Participants
 Mixed methods data
collection and analysis

Elements related to mixed methods

that need to be considered in
research design:
• Timing
• Weighting
• Mixing
• Visual diagrams
 Data collection
and analysis

• Indicate data collection strategies and tools you intend

to use and why
• Outline a plan of data management and analysis
 Trustworthiness, validity
and reliability

• Explain how you will address issues of trustworthiness,

validity and reliability with data collection and analysis
 Participants

• Ensure that your sample size, recruitment and selection

criteria align with your mixed methods (see qualitative
and quantitative participants sections)
 Group activity

• Discuss your research design

• Determine your research methods
 Write-shop details

• Develop the following parts of your

proposal:
• Research design
• Research methods including:
o Step-by-step procedures for your data collection
o Data analysis
o Trustworthiness, validity, reliability
o Participants
 Quality management

• Ensure the research process will meet or exceed

scientific, ethical and regulatory research standards
• Should be embedded into all research activities
• Quality management plan is NOT optional
Activities to address quality issues
 Quality management

Some of the activities you can integrate into

your proposal to manage quality include:
• Protocol review and approval
• Documentation of standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• Validation of research instruments
• Training the project team
• Quality control and monitoring
• Evaluation of services provided
• Evaluation of the performance of service providers
• Review of reports
 Research ethics

• Research that collects data from human subjects must

undergo an ethics review
• Describe how you will ensure the protection, dignity,
rights and safety of all research participants
 Write-shop details

• Develop the following components of your

proposal:
o Data analysis plan
o Research ethics
• Revisit the Introduction, Research Question(s),
Research Method, Participants, Research Design, and
Data Collection sections of your IR proposal.
o Make any changes necessary to improve, update, or
align all sections of your proposal