Research Project

Topic - Impact of life style modification In the Glycemic Control in Obese Individuals with Diabetes: Systematic review

Learning Outcome 1: Develop and complete an independent research inquiry in an area related to your degree subject.

Learning Outcome 2: Critically evaluate a range of research and evaluation methods and apply an appropriate method to the chosen topic.

Learning Outcome 3: Collect and appropriately analyse relevant data, information and evidence relating to the identified study topic.

Learning Outcome 4: Formulate appropriate conclusions and make recommendations based upon the research undertaken.

Learning Outcome 5: Present the research in an appropriate format demonstrating that the aim(s)/ hypothesis of the research have been investigated.

Purpose

The purpose of completing your research project is to assess your ability to undertake research in a professional and robust academic manner, using a validated or other appropriate method and to present your findings in an appropriate academic style.

Thesis structure

Below is guidance on the potential distribution of the word count for an empirical project. This is for guidance only, to give you a rough idea of the detail we expect from each section. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that you use the word count in the most appropriate way for your project.

1. Title
Your title should be specific and explain clearly what your research topic was.

2. Abstract (250-300 words)
A succinct structured summary of the research conducted that includes background, methods, results, and conclusions that relate to the research questions and objectives.

3. Literature review (3000 to 4000 words)
This section should provide an overview of what is already known about your topic under investigation. It should also provide a rationale for your research questions in the context of what is already known on your topic and explain why your research questions and/ or objectives lend themselves to the approach you have chosen.

4. ResearchQuestion (300 to 500 words)
Provide an explicit statement of the questions and objectives being addressed. These should specifically reference their key elements, including population, participants, concepts and context.
You should state a general research question. This research question should be:
• Clear - easily understood, unambiguous
• Specific - concepts in the question are specific enough to link to data indicators (i.e., what will be measured/ assessed).
• Of appropriate scope - not too broad or too narrow, as you will struggle to develop a strong argument.
• Relevant to your degree subject - if you are unsure about the relevance of your chosen topic and question, discuss with your project supervisor
• Researchable- you must have access to a suitable amount of quality research material, such as academic books and journal articles.
• Analytical rather than descriptive- it should analyse an issue or problem, not describe. Typically, we are looking for how and why questions, rather than what or describe (you may also want to use critique, argue, examine or evaluate).
Then to support your main question, you should be able to identify approximately 3 sub-questions that also meet the above criteria.

5. Methods (2000 to 3000 words)
• Overall approach - this section should clearly explain your overall research approach (quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods) with a rationale for why you have chosen this - i.e. why this is an appropriate approach to follow to answer your research question
• Study design - this section should clearly explain the study design that you are adopting to answer your research question. There are a wide variety of different quantitative and qualitative study designs/methodologies available, that are suited to answering different types of research question. Again you should provide a rationale for why you have chosen the design that you are using.
• Sample selection - this section should clearly describe the participants included in the study (i.e., the number in population, number included in final sample), the sampling strategy used and how these participants were recruited. This section should also include any considerations to reduce bias.
• Procedure - Should clearly describe what participants were required to do when participating in the study. It is important to include sufficient detail to enable replication. This section should also include any considerations to reduce bias.
• Data collection methods - This section should describe the data collection tool used for the study (i.e., number of questions, type of questions [i.e., open or Likert]). If using a pre-validated tool, then reliability and validity of the tool should be reported, and this should be referenced accordingly. When a data collection tool (i.e., questionnaire or interview schedule) has been developed specifically for your project, this section should also include detail of a pilot study.
• Ethics - ethical procedure should be described. All projects should have Cardiff Metropolitan University ethical approval. This should be clearly stated, and the reference number included. Also, if your project has also had any further ethical approval, this should also be included. Typically, this will only apply if you have conducted your study in a company, in the NHS or Public Health Wales, but speak to your supervisor to check if you need extra approvals.
• Approach to data analysis - This should include information on the data analysis techniques used to analyse data (either statistical or thematic) and the levels of data included in your study to justify your approach (i.e., Ordinal, Nominal, Interval, Ratio). If you are conducting a statistical hypothesis test (i.e., Chi-squared, ANOVA) then details of which variables are of interest should be included. You should also include information of how you will be excluding participants from your analysis (i.e., if you will be excluding participants who did not complete the questionnaire). If you are using secondary data, then a description of how you will clean data should be included. If you are conducting thematic analysis then description of the approach used should be included (either inductive or deductive) and how codes and themes were derived. Again, sufficient information should be included to enable replication.

6. Results (2000 to 3000 words)
You should start by reinstating your aim and objective of your project, then present and explain the data you have collected and the findings of your data analysis and interpretation. This should follow exactly the steps you stated above in your methods section.

For a quantitative project, you should:
• Start your research results section by restating the purpose of your research, so that your reader can re-focus on your aim.
• Then summarise the sample by using descriptive statistics (i.e., reporting the gender split, age distribution and any other descriptive statistics relevant to your research question).
• Move to your inferential statistical analysis (i.e., Chi-squared tests, ANOVA) and include an interpretation of how these relate to your research question.
• Use tables or figures to highlight and summarise your analysis and use these tables and figures to interpret your data and refer to them in your description of your analysis.
• Use the past tense when describing to your research results
• Do not use vague terms and be as concise as possible when you are reporting your research findings.
• Conclude your section with a short paragraph that summarises your study's key outcomes.
For a qualitative project, you should:
• Restate the purpose of your research.
• Explain clearly how many participants you interviewed or were in your focus groups and present any descriptive statistics which describe the population.
• Present a thematic map of your themes. This should clearly state the link between your themes and how they relate to your research question.
• You should then present your thematic analysis, by naming your theme, describe what this means and how this answers your research question. You should also use quotes from your transcript to illustrate your points.
• Use the past tense when describing to your research results
• Do not use vague terms and be as concise as possible when you are reporting your research findings.
• Conclude your section with a short paragraph that summarises your study's key outcomes.

7. Discussion (2000 to 3000 words)
• Consider the relevance of your findings to the wider literature
• Compare and contrast your findings with those identified within your introduction
• You should demonstrate to what extent your research questions have been addressed.
• Discuss the limitations and strengths of your study.
• Provide an interpretation of the results with respect to your research questions

8. Conclusion and Recommendations (1000 to 2000 words)
• Provide a general conclusion to your research. All the various threads of the project should be clearly brought together and nothing new should be introduced.
• Give recommendations based on your findings. These should include improved approaches for further study or public health or health and safety practice (this will depend on your focus and MSc programme).