A research proposal is the case for research that has not happened yet: what you will ask, why it is worth asking, how you will answer it, and whether you can finish. This guide on how to write a research proposal, published by EdCitation, covers the dissertation proposal, the PhD or research master's application, and the proposal set as a course assignment.
On 26 September 2026 we read the guidance of eight universities in England, the United States and Australia, a marking rubric and a library guide. They agree on the parts, and disagree on length, reference style, and whether a doctoral applicant writes a proposal at all.
The guidance you were given is the one that counts. EdCitation's free Check your paper reads a proposal brief or an admissions page into a checklist of word limits, sections and referencing style, and Find sources gathers the reading the proposal rests on. EdCitation never writes any part of a proposal: the question, the argument and every sentence are yours.
How to write a research proposal, step by step
Read the guidance first, settle the question second, and write the parts in the order a reader needs them.
- Paste the brief, handbook section or admissions page into Check your paper and keep the list it returns: limits, sections, style. Then read the page yourself.
- Choose a topic you can finish (how to choose a dissertation topic) and, for a PhD, a supervisor whose work it fits.
- Draft one aim and one main question (how to write research questions and aims).
- Search for the studies nearest your question in Find sources and read them; the short review and the gap come from here.
- Choose methods that answer the question, and name the ethical issues they raise.
- Plan the time back from the deadline (dissertation timeline and plan).
- Write the parts, then the title, then cut to the limit.
- Build each reference in Cite a source, check the list in Verify references, and take the draft to your supervisor.
What goes in a research proposal?
Ten parts, under headings and in an order that vary; the table shows who asks for what.
| Part | What it must show | Asked for by |
|---|---|---|
| Title | The topic, ideally the approach | KCL, Warwick, LSE Management, UNSW, Hull |
| Background and rationale | Why the question matters now | Manchester, Warwick, UNSW, Sheffield |
| Questions and aims | Exactly what will be answered | Every proposal guide read |
| Short literature review | What is known, and the gap | Every proposal guide read |
| Theoretical framework | The lens for the analysis | KCL, UNSW; Warwick if you have one |
| Methodology | How, with what data, and why that way | Every proposal guide read |
| Ethics and problems | Risks to people and to the project | Warwick, Hull (ethics); KCL, Manchester (problems) |
| Timeline | Stages and milestones | Manchester, Warwick, UNSW; Sheffield "might" |
| Expected contribution | What will be known afterwards | Manchester, Warwick, LSE, UNSW, Sheffield |
| References | The key reading, in the named style | Every proposal guide read |
Title, background and rationale
A working title names the topic and, if it can, the method; Hull's library guide notes that titles change, so do not polish it for long. The background and rationale answer "why this, why now". Warwick (n.d.) lets applicants add personal or professional reasons; Hull's examples of a justification: a new context, events that have dated earlier work, or a different method.
Questions, aims and the short review
The questions and aim are the centre. The literature review is short because the full one comes later: Sheffield (n.d.) asks for an overview of the key research, not a full review. KCL wants the question placed among the dominant perspectives, with the gap it fills. Hull is gentler below doctoral level: you may not find a true gap, but you must show what you add.
Methodology, ethics and problems
Hull asks for the reasons behind the methods, not a list, and warns that a big change later may mean reapplying for ethical approval. LSE Management asks for the method's strengths and limitations. For ethics, Hull asks a project with human participants to cover recruitment, informed consent, harm, anonymity and data security (University of Hull Library, 2026). Warwick says "there is no project without some ethical issues". KCL and Manchester add practical problems, such as access to data.
Timeline, contribution and references
UNSW Art & Design (2021) asks for milestones each semester, plus costs, resources and a chapter outline. The contribution is not the results you expect, Sheffield says, but why your findings will matter. The reference style is whatever the guidance names: Warwick asks for Harvard "or equivalent", and UNSW for Chicago author-date. What goes on the list is covered in research proposal references.
How long should a research proposal be?
As long as your guidance says; the pages we read range from 500 words to 9,000.
| Guidance | Kind of proposal | Length | References in the count? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheffield (n.d.) | Student research projects | Usually 500 to 1,500; longer for a PhD or funding | Not stated |
| Manchester (n.d.) | PhD application | Typically 1,000 to 1,500; ask your School | Not stated |
| LSE Management (n.d.) | MRes/PhD application | At most 1,500 | No; up to 10 keywords on page one |
| Warwick Education Studies (n.d.) | PhD and EdD application | About 2,000, "no longer than this" | No; state your count |
| KCL European and International Studies (n.d.) | PhD application | 2,000 to 3,000 | "Plus bibliography" |
| UNSW Art & Design (2021) | PhD; Masters by Research | About 2,000 to 3,000; 1,000 to 2,000 | No |
| UCLA English (n.d.) | Doctoral prospectus | 4,000 to 5,000, at most 9,000 | Plus a bibliography |
| Berkeley School of Information (n.d.) | PhD application | No proposal: a statement of purpose | Not applicable |
For a dissertation, your module handbook sets the length.
Warwick, part by part
Warwick's guide figures are: introduction 200 to 400 words, literature review about 750, research questions 300 to 400, study design about 750, conclusion about 200. They add up to 2,200 to 2,500, more than the 2,000 the whole may not exceed, so read them as proportions: about a third each on the literature and the design.
How is a PhD application proposal different from a dissertation proposal?
A PhD application proposal is an admissions document, read for your promise and to match you with a supervisor, and nobody holds you to it. A dissertation proposal is the plan you will carry out, often marked, and the ethics application follows it.
| PhD application proposal | Dissertation or course proposal | |
|---|---|---|
| Read by | Admissions selectors and possible supervisors | Your tutor, supervisor or module marker |
| Judged for | Potential, originality, fit with supervisors | A sound, feasible plan; often a mark |
| Binding? | No: Manchester, KCL, Warwick and LSE all expect it to change | Changes to the method may need fresh ethics approval (Hull) |
| Originality | A contribution to knowledge (UNSW, Warwick) | Something added; a true gap not required (Hull) |
In the UK and Australia
Manchester (n.d.) tells applicants to contact an academic before applying, so that supervisors can be found, and says the proposal does not commit them to its detail or method. LSE Management says the proposal helps selectors identify supervisors. UNSW Art & Design goes further: your nominated supervisor must approve the proposal before you submit it. Warwick asks EdD applicants for a contribution to professional practice as well.
In the United States
Some US programmes ask for no proposal at application. Berkeley's School of Information asks for a statement of purpose naming the faculty you hope to work with, and a personal history statement. The proposal comes later: UCLA's English department calls it a prospectus, agrees its length with the doctoral committee, and ends it with chapter summaries. We read only these two US pages, so check your own programme.
What do assessors look for in a research proposal?
A clear question, knowledge of the field, a feasible method that fits, a case for why it matters, and clear writing.
- Manchester: intellectual purpose and originality, clear and concise communication, and a defined topic with awareness of its research context.
- Warwick: the applicant's suitability, the study's feasibility, its academic justification, and a foundational understanding of the research it needs.
- Sheffield: relevance, context, approach and feasibility, each choice defended.
- LSE Management: particular weight on tackling a question and proposing a viable method.
- Augusta University's Graduate School rubric: ten criteria rated poor to excellent, from problem definition and aims through literature, significance, methods and critical thinking to broader impact, then approved or not approved (Augusta University, 2011).
Two of Augusta's criteria, preliminary results and publications, suit a proposal presented once work is under way. Warwick and Sheffield name feasibility outright and LSE asks for a viable method, so show it: the time, the access and the skills.
How a proposal should sound
Mostly in the future tense, and definite: Hull advises "will" rather than "might" for your plan, and the past or present only for the literature. Whether you write "I" depends on the tutor. Keep caution for other people's findings, as hedging and cautious language explains.
A worked outline: our own example
This outline is ours, not any university's: an undergraduate psychology dissertation proposal of about 1,500 words, for an imaginary brief that asks for Harvard. The two studies in it are real, found with Find sources as described below.
| Part | Our words | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Working title | 13 | Peer-led study sessions and statistics anxiety among first-year psychology students: a mixed-methods study |
| Background and rationale | 250 | Statistics is compulsory in our imaginary degree; Jatnika et al. (2025) describe statistics anxiety as common and harmful to performance and enjoyment |
| Literature review | 400 | Keeley et al. (2008) followed 83 undergraduates through a statistics course: anxiety fell over the term but became more closely tied to test scores. Jatnika et al. surveyed 382 students at 11 Indonesian universities on lecturer support. The gap to establish: support from peers |
| Aim and questions | 150 | Aim: to find out whether attending peer-led sessions goes with a fall in statistics anxiety over one term. RQ1: does anxiety change more among attenders than non-attenders between weeks 2 and 10? RQ2: how do attenders describe what the sessions do? |
| Methodology | 400 | An established statistics anxiety scale, named and cited, at weeks 2 and 10; attendance records; eight semi-structured interviews; thematic analysis. Limitation: attenders choose themselves, so the design shows association, not effect |
| Ethics | 120 | Departmental approval before any data; consent; anonymity; no participant taught by the researcher |
| Timeline | 80 | Approval before week 1, surveys in weeks 2 and 10, interviews in weeks 11 and 12, analysis and write-up after |
| Contribution | 100 | Evidence the department can use in deciding whether to run the sessions |
| References | Outside the count | Harvard, as the brief asks |
The gap row is a claim the writer still has to earn with a fuller search: two studies do not show that nobody has studied peer sessions.
How EdCitation helps with a research proposal
For the rules a proposal must meet, EdCitation's Check your paper is, in our view, the best place to start: it shows every rule beside the sentence it came from and lists what it set aside, so a misreading is visible at once, as the Warwick run shows. It is free, with no account.
Check your paper on Warwick's guidance
Into Check your paper we pasted 979 words of Warwick Education Studies' guidance, from the paragraph on length to the one on appendices. Five rules came back:
- Word count: about 2,000 words, from the sentence saying the proposal should be approximately 2,000 words, excluding references, "and no longer than this".
- Word limit · Introduction: 200 to 400 words.
- Word limit · Literature review: about 750 words.
- Word limit · Study design: about 750 words.
- Word limit · Conclusion: about 200 words.
Nineteen sentences went on its not-checked list, among them the research questions' 300 to 400 words, the choice of "Harvard referencing format or equivalent e.g. APA", and the sentence placing references outside the count. The lines asking for a title, ethical issues and a brief timeline were in neither list. The checklist is a start: add the missing sections yourself.
Find sources, Cite a source and Verify references
Find sources searches about 300 million published works, free, with filters for kind of source, years and open access. "Statistics anxiety undergraduate students peer support" reported 2,704,444 matches, so the words are matched loosely and the order matters more than the count. The top results were Jatnika et al. (2025) and Keeley et al. (2008). From Keeley's DOI, Cite a source built this Harvard entry, with no retraction reported:
Keeley, J., Zayac, R. and Correia, C. (2008) ‘Curvilinear relationships between statistics anxiety and performance among undergraduate students: Evidence for optimal anxiety’, Statistics Education Research Journal, 7(1), pp. 4–15. Available at: https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v7i1.477.
Verify references marked both entries verified. A copy we altered to 2010 came back "check this": the paper was published in 2008, not 2010. A copy with the wrong year and no subtitle came back not found, so copy titles whole.
Theoretics QA, with Max
Max, at $24 a month ($216 a year, see pricing), adds Theoretics QA, which judges the draft proposal against its own brief, quoting your text; it rewrites nothing and promises no mark and no approval.
Quick questions
How long is a research proposal?
As long as the guidance says. Sheffield puts student proposals at 500 to 1,500 words; PhD applications range from Manchester's typical 1,000 to 1,500 to KCL's 2,000 to 3,000.
What is the difference between a research proposal and a statement of purpose?
A proposal sets out a project; a statement of purpose sets out you, your preparation and your goals. Berkeley's School of Information asks for the second, Manchester for the first.
Do references count towards a research proposal's word limit?
Often not, but check. LSE Management, Warwick and UNSW Art & Design exclude them; Manchester and Sheffield do not say.
Is a PhD research proposal binding?
No. Manchester, KCL, Warwick and LSE Management all expect it to change once you start; it must still show you can plan research.
Can EdCitation write my research proposal?
No. EdCitation never writes any part of a proposal. It reads your guidance into a checklist with Check your paper, finds and cites the reading, and checks the references are real.
References
- Augusta University. (2011). Evaluation rubric: Research proposal [PDF]. The Graduate School. https://www.augusta.edu/gradschool/documents/2018-research-proposal-rubric.pdf
- Jatnika, R., Abidin, F. A., Lubis, F. Y., Putri, D. M., & Hamdanie, D. F. P. (2025). Lecturer support, basic psychological need satisfaction, and statistics anxiety in undergraduate students. Open Education Studies, 7(1), Article 20250080. https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2025-0080
- Keeley, J., Zayac, R., & Correia, C. (2008). Curvilinear relationships between statistics anxiety and performance among undergraduate students: Evidence for optimal anxiety. Statistics Education Research Journal, 7(1), 4–15. https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v7i1.477
- King's College London, Department of European and International Studies. (n.d.). EIS PhD research proposal guidelines. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/eis/postgraduate/eis-phd-research-proposal-guidelines
- London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Management. (n.d.). Statement of academic purpose and research proposal. https://www.lse.ac.uk/management/study/PhD/phd-statement-of-purpose
- University of California, Berkeley, School of Information. (n.d.). Ph.D. admissions. https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/programs/phd/admissions
- University of California, Los Angeles, Department of English. (n.d.). Prospectus guidelines. https://english.ucla.edu/graduate-prospectus-guidelines/
- University of Hull Library. (2026, September 9). Research proposals. Skills Guides. https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/other/proposals
- University of Manchester. (n.d.). Postgraduate research proposals. https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/admissions/how-to-apply/research-proposal/
- University of New South Wales Art & Design. (2021). A&D writing a research proposal guidelines [PDF]. https://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/AD%20Writing%20a%20Research%20Proposal%20Guidelines%202021.pdf
- University of Sheffield. (n.d.). How to write a research proposal. StudySkills@Sheffield. https://sheffield.ac.uk/study-skills/research/methods/proposal
- University of Warwick, Department of Education Studies. (n.d.). Guidance on preparing a research proposal for applicants for postgraduate research degrees. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ces/prospective/postgraduate/research/research-proposal