The submission of the Research Project Proposal is a compulsory, non-graded task (pass/resubmit/discontinue). It is required to be submitted and passed in order for enrolment to continue in Research Project B in the following term.

The proposal ensures that students and supervisors are on track and have a project that is feasible to be completed within the Honours year and meets APAC requirements. Students are expected to submit a well-written workable proposal. All proposals will be assessed by an independent assessor who will provide feedback and recommendations regarding the project.

The proposal should be submitted following discussions, review and feedback of the final draft by the supervisors. The supervisor can review the overall proposal document only once. The Research Project Proposal MUST be submitted via Moodle.

If the submitted proposal is marked as 'Pass': Feedback from the assessor may be considered, but no revisions to the proposal are necessary before progressing the thesis project.

If the submitted proposal is marked as 'Resubmit': In this common instance, feedback from the assessor will need to be considered and responded to in a line-by-line fashion and a resubmitted proposal with revisions addressing the assessor's concerns will need to be resubmitted and receive a 'Pass' mark before progressing the thesis project. The resubmitted proposal will be required to be submitted alongside a line-by-line response to assessor comments within 2 weeks of receiving feedback. A student who fails to resubmit will not be permitted to continue their Research Project.

If the submitted proposal is marked as 'Discontinue': In this rare instance where a supervisor does not support the continuation of the proposed project, and the recommendation of the independent assessor is that the student discontinues, the student will be notified that the proposal has failed to be supported and he or she cannot enroll in Research Project B that year. The student will be automatically withdrawn without academic penalty from Part A and automatically dropped from Part B. In the event that the supervisor and the independent assessor do not agree, the head of course for and/or head of college will assess the proposal.

Formatting of the Research Project Proposal will be: A PDF submission with APA formatting, double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman or Arial font. No more than 2000 words, including tables and to be formatted as follows:

• Project title
• Background rationale and theory, research aims and significance (recommended: 500 – 800 words): Please provide a brief description of the relevance of your proposed project to current research, a justification as to why your research should proceed and an explanation of its potential to contribute to existing knowledge/literature. Then, state the research objectives, key research questions, and significance of the project. Where relevant, state the specific hypothesis/hypotheses to be tested.
• Design and Methods (recommended: 250-400 words): Outline chronologically the proposed method/s, including data collection techniques, tasks participants will be asked to complete, estimated time commitment required of them and measures being used. Do not include appendices, rather make sure that you have outlined broad measures and include in text citations for the measures you will be using in your proposed research.
• Description of Participants and recruitment methods (recommend: 100- 500 words): If seeking to recruit students/1st year psychology students, the details for how to do this are on the Moodle site. If recruiting from other disciplines/Schools, contact the Thesis Coordinator, as the student and supervisor must have that School’s Dean’s permission to recruit students.
• Potential ethical issues that you are aware of/risks (a response of a sentence or 2 to a paragraph relevant to project context: recommended 50 – 200 words). There is no such thing as a risk-free study.
• Proposed data analysis (recommended: 150 – 250 words): Describe the main analysis for research being proposed, include a description of the main analysis in line with the proposed hypothesis and/or exploratory nature of the proposed project.
• Reference list (not included in word count).

All aspects of the research proposal will be taken into account and scored by an independent reviewer on aspects including the background/rationale/research questions/hypotheses, the proposed design and methods, participants and recruitment, and data management and analyses. Reviewers will be asked to assess whether the proposal achieved a 'pass'/'resubmit'/''discontinue' and provide comments in written form which will be returned to the student so that the student may improve their thesis project into the next term project.

You must complete an ethics application, but the process for this will depend on if you are conducting a new study or using existing data.

You are encouraged to utilise your proposal feedback before submitting an ethics application, however you can submit your ethics application, with your supervisors’ approval, at any time.

New Study Ethics Approval Procedures:

1. Use the New Study Ethics Approval Form and relevant templates to prepare your ethics application
2. Your primary supervisor must be listed as Chief Investigator and you, the student, as Associate Investigator, however, you are expected to take responsibility for the completion and submission of the application.
3. Send all materials to supervisory team for feedback, and once feedback has been integrated, have your supervisory team sign the form. All application materials must be signed and approved by the supervisory team prior to submission.
4. Submit the ethics application to CQUniversity's Human Research Ethics Committee by sending it via email to ethics@cqu.edu.au
5. Submit your ethics application and a copy of your email showing you've sent it to the ethics committee via Moodle.
6. Receive feedback from ethics committee (~3-5 weeks from submission) and address any issues raised by revision of the application by resubmitting to the ethics committee.
7. You must not start any aspect of the study until you have full approval from the ethics committee to do so.
8. If there are any changes to your study procedures needed following ethical approval, submit a modification form by sending it via email to ethics@cqu.edu.au Do not deviate from the procedures that you have approval for from the ethics committee until modifications have been approved.

9. As the ethics committee operates outside and independently of the course, enquiries regarding the status of an application should be directed to the Ethics Committee (ethics@cqu.edu.au) rather than the thesis coordinator or head of course.

Study Using Existing Data

1. Complete the Study with Existing Data Ethics form
2. Send all materials to supervisory team for feedback, and once feedback has been integrated, have your supervisory team sign the form.
3. Work with the supervisory team to ensure you have received appropriate permissions to access the data.
4. Submit your ethics application and a copy of proof showing you have access to the data to Moodle.
5. You must not start any aspect of the study until you have received appropriate permissions to access the data.

Applications to the Animal Research Ethics Committee: If you require ethics approval for animal-based research, you should consult directly with your supervisory team and the Thesis Coordinator in the first instance.

If students have followed the instructions and there are no ethical concerns for the study, then the mark will be 'pass'. Data collection of new studies must not proceed until they have full approval through the ethics committee.