Guidelines for Preparing Thesis Protocol (Preliminary Synopsis)

Title of the topic The title should be brief as possible but should carry as much information as required. Brief resume of the work

• Give brief introduction to the work you intend doing by focusing OR present literature on the subject, gaps in the knowledge, if any, aid the reasons for undertaking the study. You may have to quote a few references or other studies (About 100-500 words of introduction).
• State the research question.
• Give the objectives of the study. The objectives usually should not be more than 2 to 4 and should relate to the points or key questions raised in introduction (about 50-300 words for objectives).
• Review of the literature and give 10-15 references pertaining to the subject and work already published. It should be related to the objectives of the study.

Material and Methods

Briefly explain the source from which you would collect data for the study. For example, in clinical settings, it may be patients in hospitals, or in community settings, or it may be households or it may be a laboratory based study. Described the method of collection of data. For instance, it may be interview or study of records or by animal experiments or by performing tests or laboratory Investigations or even through some intervention. In case of human or animal study, mention the inclusion and exclusion criteria. If there are any ethical issues involved, mention them and state how you intend to overcome. If you are taking a sample, mention the sampling procedure and sample size. Thus it is important to mention the subjects of your study, parameters and the procedures. Give the operational definitions.

Results

(In case if some preliminary studies have already been conducted)

Summary & conlusion

(In case if some preliminary studies have already been conducted)

References

Give about 4-6 references or articles quoted in your introduction or those related to your study.