The research protocol It is an action plan that describes all the steps that must be followed to carry out a scientific study. For this reason, it is considered that this protocol is a tool that allows organizing the different activities that an investigation requires.
In other words, a research protocol explains in detail and in a systematic way how the research will be conducted. It should include, for example, the problem, the objectives, the characteristics or variables to be measured and the duration of the study.
As can be seen, the protocols are the initial part of all investigative work; That is why its correct design and structure is essential to avoid errors that can lead to false or invalid conclusions..
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The research protocol meets the following characteristics:
The protocol must be written in the future tense, since it describes what the researcher will do in the next few days..
Also, because it is a plan that will be executed in the future, the research protocol should not contain results, discussions, or conclusions. These topics will be included later in the final report of the scientific work..
An investigation is considered valid when its feasibility is demonstrated, that is, it can be done. For these reasons, the protocol details the variables to be studied and the measurement instruments to be used; in this way it is verified that the research is accessible.
For example: when measuring the growth of a plant, the protocol should indicate which instrument will be used (a ruler or a tape measure) and which unit of measurement will be used (meters or yards). This gives validity to the work.
To design the protocol it is necessary to know the existing theoretical bases on the subject to be investigated; this allows to give the appropriate orientation to the design of the protocol. In other words, a basic or initial knowledge is required to be able to develop the protocol..
For example: knowing the development periods of corn will allow the design of a research protocol to evaluate at what moment of growth the crops are attacked by the different pests.
These protocols allow every researcher the following:
The basic scheme for structuring a research protocol is described below:
The title should be short and clearly show the objective, place of the study and the subjects to be investigated. For example: “Study of the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) on the Venezuelan coasts. "
The problem describes what will be investigated and the knowledge gaps that exist on the subject are detailed. In addition, in this section the researcher defines the object of the study. You can enter the following data: type of population, age, place of study, among others.
This part of the protocol describes the purpose of the research and the possible application or usefulness of the results..
This section details the theoretical bases that support the problem and discusses how the results of other researchers provide some answers to the problem to be investigated..
The research objectives are divided into two categories: the general objective and the specific ones..
It is an explanation or answer to the problem posed. However, hypotheses are only structured if the study is experimental (that is, it requires experimentation).
An example of a hypothesis would be: if the compost has nutrients for plant growth, then adding compost to a crop will favor its development.
The methodology sets out and explains the procedures that will be used to achieve the objectives. At this stage, the variables (or characteristics) to be measured, the study design and the statistical techniques or procedures for the analysis of the results are described in detail..
The protocol must contain a list of the sources (books, indexed journals, theses, among others) that the researcher consulted to present the background and theoretical bases of the study..
Here are two simple examples of research protocols:
Bacterial contamination of water for human consumption in a town in Venezuela.
At this point, the researcher introduces the subject, indicating that microbial contamination of water for human consumption is a major health problem in the world..
Then, he describes what has been published in the country in this regard and highlights the lack of studies on the subject in the region where he plans to carry out the work..
The section ends by delimiting the problem as follows: "for these reasons, this work seeks to determine the existence of bacteria in the drinking water of a Venezuelan town".
In this part, the researcher reasons and explains the importance of the research, highlighting the usefulness of the possible results in decision-making to improve the quality of drinking water..
At this point the researcher exposes all the necessary concepts to understand the problem (causes of water contamination, contaminating microorganisms, among others) and describes in chronological order the findings of other researchers on the subject..
The researcher raises the objectives as follows:
General objective
Determine bacterial contamination in water for human consumption in a town in Venezuela.
Specific objectives
In this section, the researcher describes in detail the methodology to be used. For example:
“Drinking water samples from 2 commercial brands will be collected, from each container a sample of 80 ml of water will be taken for the respective microbiological analyzes..
The recommendations of the Guide for the quality of drinking water of the World Health Organization will be used for the analysis. All results will be expressed in colony forming units per milliliter of water (CFU / ml) ".
The researcher in this part of the protocol lists all the citations that he mentioned in the work. That is, all the sources that served as support material.
Antimicrobial activity of Sambucus nigra against bacteria of clinical importance.
The researcher begins by describing the need to search for new antimicrobial therapies, due to the high rate of resistance that some bacteria present in the world. Shows as an alternative the use of natural products derived from plants.
Then, describe the characteristics of the plant that will be used in your research, the Sambucus nigra, which is widely used in traditional medicine for its therapeutic properties.
He ends up delimiting the problem: "for these reasons, this research seeks to establish the possible antimicrobial activity of the extracts obtained from Sambucus nigra, against two species of bacteria of clinical importance".
In this section the author justifies his work arguing how its possible results will allow to lay the foundations in the search for new therapeutic agents..
The author describes in this section the entire global problem of antimicrobial resistance. Defines the resistance mechanisms of bacteria and describes the published works that support the search for new therapeutic alternatives.
The researcher will state the objectives as follows:
General objective:
Evaluate the antimicrobial activity of extracts of Sambucus nigra, against bacteria of clinical importance.
Specific objectives:
The researcher describes in detail the way in which he will select the plants, the drying of their parts, the grinding and the preparation of the extracts. It then details how they will perform phytochemical analyzes and antimicrobial tests using already standardized processes. In the same way, it details which bacteria it will use and where it will get them from..
In this section the researcher lists all the references cited in the protocol.
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