The Research Process

The following flowchart gives you an overview of the different stages in the development of a research project. Please click on the relevant stage to get more information about each of these areas. Alternatively, please browse through the process from start to finish by clicking next or previous. The researcher guidance attachment, although specific to general practice, gives you an overview of many of these stages.

Getting started in research		What is research?  Why do research?  where to go for advice; the Primary Care Researcher Bursary scheme, and other schemes for new researchers.
Funding streams		Information on funding streams for your project and what it means to have your study adopted onto the national portfolio
Developing your research idea		This gives more advice on developing your idea into a research question or hypothesis, and reviewing past related work in the literature
Writing your literature review		Advice about how to review the relevant literature, and useful sources of support and advice
Designing your study		This section contains information on study design;  lay involvement; composition of your research team; costing out your proposal. The sections on Recruitment/data collection/analysis should also be considered in the study design stage.
Completing your proposal and submitting it for funding		This section reminds you about the things that you should have completed by now and other things that you need to have to accompany your proposal, and how to complete it
Writing your protocol and supporting documents		What is a protocol, what other documents are required? How do you write a participant information sheet?
Getting the relevant approvals		This section gives guidance on the different approvals necessary for research in the NHS such as research ethics committee approval, NHS Permission, MHRA, NIGB, and how to apply Honorary Research Contract and Letters of Access; Post approval requirements including amendments, monitoring, and safety reporting
Recruiting host sites & PICs		This section gives you more detail on the support available in recruiting sites, and what information should be supplied to those sites
Recruiting participants		This section gives you more detail on recruiting participants into your study including database searches/mailshots; opportunistic recruitment gaining informed consent, Monitoring of recruitment
Data collection		This section gives further information on data protection/confidentiality considerations, Data storage and recording, study amendments and progress reporting
Data analysis and interpretation		This section gives guidance on how to analyse and interpret the data that arises from your study
Reporting and dissemination		Publishing your research results in different ways; end of study requirements including dissemination; archiving