This course is designed to provide an overview of applied business research and research planning. At the end of your engagement with the course materials and presentations, you should submit a research prospectus

This course is designed to provide an overview of applied business research and research planning. At the end of your engagement with the course materials and presentations, you should submit a research prospectus. The prospectus is a short form of a fully conceptualized research proposal.

Your prospectus should include:

1. An introduction section which presents the overall idea of the research. This section should include your research problem, purpose statement, and research questions. You should make sure you cite all references in this section. You should present the overview of the problem, your research questions, problem statement, and information about how your research fills a gap or contributes to knowledge within a content area.
2. A short review of literature. Be sure to consider the most important topics to present to support your plan. You should present literature review which supports the purpose and value of your research, highlighting how your plan contributes to the knowledge area of your topic. Be sure to properly cite all references in text. You should be sure to include sections, deliniated with APA formatted headings, which highlight the past relevant literature which informs your topic.
3. A planned methodology. You should present how you would undertake the research for the topic you have selected. Be sure to suggest details about your method, why it is appropriate, and the type of data you would want to collect. This should include cited references relevant to the methodology you’ve selected.
4. An APA formatted Works Cited.
5. As relevant, an appendix section which includes any data collection instruments, a letter of informed consent, and any other important artifacts.

How to Write a Research Prospectus That Earns Doctoral Approval

A research prospectus is your academic blueprint — the document that demonstrates you are ready to conduct original doctoral research. This guide breaks the entire process into clear, manageable steps, with examples, tables, and statistics to help you produce a prospectus that is rigorous, well-structured, and compelling.

Whether you are just starting or refining a draft, follow this guide phase by phase and step by step.

Phase	Focus Area	Key Deliverable	Est. Time
1	Research Foundation	Topic + Problem + Questions	2–3 days
2	Introduction Section	Intro draft with citations	3–5 days
3	Literature Review	Themed review with headings	5–7 days
4	Methodology	Research design narrative	3–4 days
5	References & Appendix	APA Works Cited + instruments	1–2 days

Phase 1: Building Your Research Foundation

Before writing a single word of your prospectus, you must do the intellectual groundwork. This phase involves selecting your topic, identifying a gap in the literature, and formulating precise research questions. Rushing this phase is the single most common reason prospectuses are rejected.

 

STEP 1

Select & Narrow Your Research Topic

Your topic is the anchor of everything. It must be: (1) specific enough to study in a doctoral dissertation, (2) significant enough to contribute to your field, and (3) feasible given your access to data and time.

Fact: According to the Council of Graduate Schools, over 40% of doctoral students who do not finish cite “poor topic selection” as a contributing factor to attrition (CGS, 2021).

Topic Evaluation Framework

Criterion	What It Means	Example
Significance	Topic matters to practitioners/scholars	Impact of remote work on employee burnout in healthcare
Feasibility	You can realistically collect data	Survey of nurses in accessible hospital networks
Gap in Literature	No one has studied this exactly before	Telehealth nurses specifically — understudied subgroup
Personal Expertise	You have disciplinary grounding	Background in organizational behavior and health systems

 

STEP 2

Conduct a Preliminary Literature Scan

Before writing, you must understand the existing landscape. A preliminary scan (not the full review yet) helps you identify how your topic has been studied, by whom, with what results, and where the gaps are. Use databases such as PsycINFO, EBSCO Business Source Complete, PubMed, or Google Scholar.

Tip: Aim to identify at least 25–40 peer-reviewed sources before writing your introduction. Your final prospectus review should cite 15–30 of the most relevant ones (APA, 2020).

Use the table below to log key findings during your scan:

Author(s) & Year	Method Used	Key Finding	Relevant Gap
Smith & Lee (2022)	Qualitative	Burnout linked to workload, not just hours	Telehealth context not studied
Johnson et al. (2021)	Quantitative Survey	Remote workers report 18% higher isolation scores	Healthcare professionals excluded
[Your Source Here]

 

STEP 3

Identify the Research Gap & Knowledge Contribution

The gap is the most important concept in your prospectus. Your entire argument rests on demonstrating that something significant has not been adequately studied. A strong gap statement should (a) acknowledge what has been done, (b) identify what is missing, and (c) explain why that absence matters.

Example Gap Statement: “While scholars have explored remote work’s effect on burnout broadly (Smith & Lee, 2022; Johnson et al., 2021), no study has specifically examined burnout among telehealth nurses during periods of sustained public health crisis. This gap is significant because telehealth nurses face a unique intersection of caregiver role demands and physical isolation (Brown, 2020).”

Phase 2: Writing the Introduction Section

The introduction section of your prospectus must accomplish several things simultaneously: orient the reader to the topic, establish the research problem, state your purpose, and present your research questions. Every claim must be backed by cited evidence.

Requirement Check: Your introduction must include — (1) Research Problem, (2) Purpose Statement, (3) Research Questions, and (4) Knowledge Contribution/Gap. All claims must be cited.

 

STEP 4

Write Your Research Problem Statement

The problem statement describes a real-world or scholarly issue that justifies your research. It should be 1–2 paragraphs and must be grounded in cited evidence. Avoid opinion-only claims.

Anatomy of a Strong Problem Statement:

Component	Description	Weak vs. Strong Example
Context	Establishes the setting/scope	WEAK: “Healthcare is stressful.” STRONG: “Healthcare worker burnout has increased 23% since 2019 (AHA, 2023).”
Problem	Names the specific issue	WEAK: “People feel bad.” STRONG: “Telehealth nurses report burnout at rates 31% higher than bedside nurses (WHO, 2022).”
Consequence	Explains why it matters if unsolved	“Unaddressed burnout contributes to a projected nursing shortage of 1.1 million by 2030 (AACN, 2022).”
Gap Link	Connects to what is missing	“Yet no studies have examined interventions targeted specifically at telehealth nurses.”

 

STEP 5

Craft a Clear Purpose Statement

The purpose statement tells the reader exactly what your study will do. It should be a single, precise sentence or short paragraph that announces the method, phenomenon/concept, and population. Use a standard formula to keep it tight.

Formula: “The purpose of this [qualitative/quantitative/mixed methods] study is to [explore/examine/compare/describe] [phenomenon/concept] among [population] in [context/setting].”

Example Purpose Statements:

Method	Example Purpose Statement
Qualitative	“The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the lived experiences of burnout among telehealth nurses at mid-sized U.S. hospital systems during the post-pandemic period.”
Quantitative	“The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study is to examine the relationship between remote work hours and burnout scores among telehealth nurses employed at U.S. healthcare organizations with more than 500 employees.”
Mixed Methods	“The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study is to first measure burnout prevalence among telehealth nurses and then explore contributing factors through in-depth interviews.”

 

STEP 6

Develop Your Research Questions

Research questions are the specific inquiries your study will answer. They must align directly with your purpose statement and dictate your methodology. A prospectus typically contains 1 central question and 2–4 sub-questions. The type of question you ask signals the method you will use.

Question Type	Starter Words	Method It Implies	Example
Exploratory	“What is…” / “How do…”	Qualitative	“What is the experience of burnout for telehealth nurses?”
Explanatory	“What is the relationship between…”	Quantitative	“What is the relationship between hours worked and burnout severity?”
Comparative	“What are the differences between…”	Quantitative/Mixed	“How do burnout rates differ between telehealth and bedside nurses?”
Evaluative	“To what extent…”	Quantitative	“To what extent do work-from-home accommodations reduce burnout scores?”

 

STEP 7

State Your Knowledge Contribution

End your introduction by explicitly articulating what your study contributes. Do not leave the reader to infer it. One or two sentences that directly state: “This study contributes to knowledge by [doing X].”

Example Contribution Statement: “This study contributes to the organizational behavior and healthcare management literature by providing the first empirical examination of burnout-specific interventions in the telehealth nursing context, addressing a critical gap identified by Brown (2020) and WHO (2022).”

Phase 3: Writing the Literature Review

The literature review is not a summary of everything you read. It is a selective, thematically organized synthesis that builds the scholarly case for your study. Your prospectus literature review should be 3–6 pages and organized with APA-formatted headings. It must connect directly to your research questions.

Key Rule: Every heading in your literature review must represent a theme that directly supports your study’s purpose. Do not include literature that does not connect to your questions.

 

STEP 8

Identify Your Literature Themes

Before writing, map your research questions to themes. Each theme becomes an APA-level heading in your review. Aim for 3–5 themes for a prospectus.

Research Question	Associated Theme	Sample Sources
What is the experience of burnout for telehealth nurses?	Burnout in Healthcare Contexts	Maslach & Leiter (2016); Brown (2020)
How does remote work affect burnout?	Remote Work and Employee Well-Being	Johnson et al. (2021); Smith & Lee (2022)
What interventions reduce burnout?	Burnout Mitigation Strategies	Clark et al. (2023); AHA (2023)
Background context	The Telehealth Industry Landscape	CMS (2022); WHO (2022)

 

STEP 9

Structure Each Literature Review Section

Each themed section should follow a consistent internal structure: open with a broad statement about the theme, narrow to specific findings from the literature, identify agreements and contradictions, and close by linking to your gap or research question.

Paragraph #	Purpose	Example Opening Sentence
1	Introduce the theme broadly	“Burnout in healthcare settings has been a persistent area of scholarly inquiry since Maslach and Leiter’s (1997) foundational work.”
2–3	Synthesize key studies and findings	“Multiple studies confirm a positive correlation between workload and emotional exhaustion scores (Brown, 2020; Clark et al., 2023).”
4	Note contradictions or gaps	“However, findings diverge on whether remote work exacerbates or moderates these effects, particularly in telehealth contexts (Johnson et al., 2021).”
5	Bridge to your study	“This discrepancy underscores the need for targeted inquiry into the telehealth nursing subpopulation.”

 

STEP 10

Apply APA Headings Correctly

APA 7th edition defines five levels of headings. For a prospectus literature review, you will typically use Levels 1 and 2. Use them consistently — never skip levels.

Level	Format	Example
1	Centered, Bold, Title Case	Literature Review
2	Left-aligned, Bold, Title Case	Burnout in Healthcare Contexts
3	Left-aligned, Bold Italic, Title Case	Emotional Exhaustion Among Nurses
4	Indented, Bold, Title Case, Ends in Period	Remote telehealth burnout factors.

 

STEP 11

Synthesize, Do Not Summarize

Synthesis is the skill that separates a doctoral-level review from an undergraduate one. Summarizing means reporting what each study found, one by one. Synthesizing means weaving multiple sources together to show patterns, contradictions, and cumulative meaning.

Summary (Avoid This)	Synthesis (Do This)
“Smith (2022) found that burnout is high. Jones (2021) also found burnout is high. Brown (2020) looked at nurses and found burnout.”	“Consistent with prior literature (Brown, 2020; Jones, 2021), Smith (2022) confirms elevated burnout among healthcare workers, with rates particularly acute among those with high patient-to-provider ratios.”

Phase 4: Designing Your Methodology

The methodology section tells your committee exactly how you would conduct the study if fully approved. Even in a prospectus, this section must be detailed, justified with citations, and tightly aligned with your research questions. A weak methodology section is the most common reason prospectuses are sent back for revision.

STEP 12

Choose & Justify Your Research Paradigm

A research paradigm is your philosophical worldview — it frames how you believe knowledge is created and how best to study it. The two dominant paradigms in applied research are positivism (quantitative) and constructivism (qualitative). Your paradigm selection must be explicitly stated and justified.

Paradigm	Worldview	Appropriate When…	Common Methods
Positivism	Reality is objective & measurable	Testing hypotheses, measuring relationships	Survey, experiment, regression
Constructivism	Reality is socially constructed	Exploring lived experiences, meanings	Interviews, focus groups, ethnography
Pragmatism	“What works” matters most	Complex problems needing both numbers & depth	Mixed methods designs
Transformative	Focused on social justice/change	Marginalized populations, advocacy research	Participatory action research

 

STEP 13

Select Your Research Design

The research design operationalizes your paradigm into a structured plan. Below are the most common designs used in applied business/organizational doctoral research, with guidance on when to use each.

Method	Design	Use When…	Citation to Include
Qualitative	Phenomenology	Studying lived experience in depth	Moustakas (1994); Creswell & Poth (2018)
Qualitative	Case Study	Exploring a bounded real-world case	Yin (2018)
Qualitative	Grounded Theory	Building new theory from data	Strauss & Corbin (1998)
Quantitative	Descriptive Survey	Describing population characteristics	Fowler (2014)
Quantitative	Correlational	Testing relationships between variables	Field (2018)
Mixed	Explanatory Sequential	Quantitative data explains why via qual	Creswell & Plano Clark (2018)

 

STEP 14

Describe Your Data Collection Plan

For each data source, describe: (1) what you are collecting, (2) how you are collecting it, (3) from whom, and (4) why this approach is appropriate for your research questions. Be specific.

Stat: Studies using Likert-scale surveys with validated instruments have replication rates 3x higher than studies using ad hoc instruments (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Always use validated tools when possible.

Data Type	Instrument	Population/Sample	Justification
Quantitative	Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)	Telehealth nurses (n=200, purposive)	MBI is the gold-standard burnout measure (Maslach et al., 2001)
Qualitative	Semi-structured interviews	Subset (n=15, criterion sampling)	Interviews capture depth of experience (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015)
Document	HR absenteeism records	Hospital HR departments	Triangulates self-report with behavioral data

 

STEP 15

Address Sampling Strategy

Sampling decisions must be deliberate and justified. Include your sampling strategy, estimated sample size, and rationale. Use appropriate references to support your choices.

Sampling Type	Method	When to Use & Example
Probability (Quant)	Random/Stratified	When generalizing to a population. E.g., random sample of 300 nurses from a national registry.
Non-probability (Qual)	Purposive/Snowball	When specific characteristics matter. E.g., telehealth nurses with 2+ years remote experience.
Criterion (Qual)	Criterion-based	When you need participants meeting specific criteria. E.g., nurses reporting high burnout scores.

 

STEP 16

Explain Your Analysis Plan

Your committee must understand how you will make sense of the data once collected. Your analysis plan must match your design. Qualitative studies use thematic or coding analysis; quantitative studies use statistical testing.

Method	Analysis Approach	Software/Tool
Qualitative	Thematic analysis; open/axial coding (Braun & Clarke, 2006)	NVivo, Atlas.ti, or manual coding
Quantitative	Descriptive stats, Pearson r, multiple regression (Field, 2018)	IBM SPSS, R, or SAS
Mixed Methods	Integration point: where quant informs qual sampling/questions	Both NVivo + SPSS

 

STEP 17

Address Ethical Considerations

All doctoral research involving human subjects requires IRB approval and must address key ethical obligations. Your prospectus should briefly acknowledge these even before full IRB review occurs.

• Informed consent: Participants must voluntarily agree to participate with full information about the study.
• Confidentiality: Data must be stored securely; participant identity protected.
• Right to withdraw: Participants may leave the study at any time without consequence.
• Risk-benefit analysis: Risks to participants must be minimal and justified by knowledge gained.

Tip: Always include a Letter of Informed Consent as an appendix item. Templates should follow your institution’s IRB guidelines and include: study purpose, procedures, risks/benefits, confidentiality terms, researcher contact, and voluntary nature (APA, 2020).

Phase 5: References & Appendices

The final phase of your prospectus is assembling your formal reference list and all supporting appendices. These elements seem technical but are frequently graded and can cost points if done incorrectly.

STEP 18

Format Your APA 7 Works Cited

APA 7th Edition (2020) is the current standard. Your reference list must: (1) start on a new page, (2) be titled “References” (centered, bold), (3) list all entries alphabetically by first author’s last name, and (4) use hanging indentation (first line flush, subsequent lines indented 0.5″).

Source Type		APA 7 Format	Example
Journal Article		Author, A. A. (Year). Title. Journal Name, Vol(Issue), Pages. DOI	Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Burnout. In G. Fink (Ed.), Stress: Concepts, Cognition, Emotion, and Behavior (pp. 351–357). Academic Press.
Book		Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book. Publisher.	Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design. SAGE.
Edited Book Chapter		Author, A. A. (Year). Chapter title. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Book title (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.	Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. SAGE.
Report/Gov’t Doc		Organization. (Year). Title of report. URL	WHO. (2022). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. https://www.who.int
Common APA 7 Mistakes: Using “&” vs. “and” in text; missing DOI links; not italicizing journal names; incorrect hanging indent; citing accessed dates for stable webpages (not required in APA 7).

 

STEP 19

Compile Your Appendices

Appendices should be labeled alphabetically (Appendix A, Appendix B…) and referenced in the body text before they appear. Each appendix starts on a new page with a centered title.

Appendix	Content	What to Include
Appendix A	Letter of Informed Consent	Study purpose, procedures, participant rights, researcher contact, voluntary participation statement, signature lines
Appendix B	Survey Instrument / Interview Protocol	All questions verbatim, in the order administered; if using validated scale, include permission documentation
Appendix C	IRB Approval Letter	Once obtained — or “pending” if still in progress at prospectus stage
Appendix D	Demographic Questionnaire	Age range, gender, years of experience, job title, organization size — all relevant demographic items

 

STEP 20

Final Review Checklist Before Submission

Before you submit, run through this comprehensive checklist. A prospectus that passes committee review the first time typically checks every box below.

✓	Checklist Item	Common Error to Avoid
□	Introduction includes: problem, purpose, research questions, and knowledge gap	Missing purpose statement or knowledge contribution
□	All claims in the introduction are cited	Opinion statements presented as fact
□	Literature review is organized with APA Level 1 and 2 headings	Missing headings; using only 1 source per section
□	Literature is synthesized, not summarized	Source-by-source paragraph structure
□	15–30 peer-reviewed sources cited in the review	Too few sources; using non-scholarly websites
□	Methodology states research paradigm and design	Missing justification for design choice
□	Sample strategy, size, and rationale are described	Vague sampling language
□	Data collection instruments are described	No mention of specific instruments or protocols
□	Analysis plan is clearly stated	Only saying “I will analyze the data”
□	References page uses APA 7 format with hanging indent	Missing DOIs; no hanging indent; wrong edition used
□	Appendix A (Informed Consent) is included	Absent or incomplete consent form
□	Survey/interview protocol in Appendix B (or C)	Instruments referenced in text but not appended
□	Prospectus is double-spaced, 12-pt Times New Roman or similar	Wrong font or spacing formatting
□	In-text citations match reference list (every source cited appears in Works Cited)	Orphan citations or missing references

Common Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

Mistake	Why It Weakens the Prospectus	Fix
Broad, unfocused research problem	Committee cannot evaluate the study’s scope or feasibility	Narrow to a specific population, context, and time frame
Research questions mismatch method	Signals methodological confusion and poor alignment	Use the question-type table (Step 6) to match questions to method
Literature review = annotated bibliography	Shows inability to synthesize at doctoral level	Group sources by theme; compare findings across sources
No gap clearly stated	Makes the study seem redundant	Directly state: “No study has examined X in Y context”
Methodology lacks justification	Reviewers question your methodological literacy	Cite methodologists (Creswell, Yin, Field) to justify every design choice
APA errors throughout	Signals carelessness; undermines credibility	Use Purdue OWL APA 7 guide and run all citations through Zotero or Mendeley

 

Final Thought A strong prospectus is not about impressing your committee with complexity — it is about demonstrating that you have a clear, feasible, and significant research plan. Clarity, alignment, and rigorous citation are your three best tools. Follow every step in this guide, use the templates and tables as scaffolding, and you will produce a prospectus that moves your doctoral journey forward.

Note: All statistics and citations in this guide are provided as examples to illustrate proper academic referencing. Replace them with sources from your actual literature search and institutional database access.