A Guide by Lisa Chasan-Taber: Writing Dissertation & Grant Proposals

WRITING DISSERTATION AND GRANT PROPOSALS Epidemiology, Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics Lisa Chasan-Taber WRITING DISSERTATION AND GRANT PROPOSALS Epidemiology, Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics WRITING DISSERTATION AND GRANT PROPOSALS Epidemiology, Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics Lisa Chasan-Taber University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2014 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U. Government works Version Date: 20140127 International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4665-1207-8 (eBook - PDF) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained.

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Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.com Contents Preface xxi Author xxiii 1 Ten Top Tips for Successful Proposal Writing 1 1.1 Tip #1: Start Early 1 1.2 Tip #2: Create a Vision with the Help of a Mentor 2 1.3 Tip #3: Look at Who and What They Funded before You 3 1.4 Tip #4: Spend Half Your Time on the Abstract and Specific Aims 4 1.5 Tip #5: Show That You Can Pull It Off 6 1.6 Tip #6: Your Methods Should Match Your Aims and Vice Versa 7 1.7 Tip #7: A Proposal Can Never Have Too Many Figures or Tables 8 1.8 Tip #8: Seek External Review Prior to Submission 9 1.9 Tip #9: Be Kind to Your Reviewers 10 1.10 Tip #10: If at All Possible, Choose a Topic That You Find Interesting! 11 Part ONE Preparing to Write the Proposal 13 2 Starting a Dissertation Proposal 15 2.1 Purpose of the Dissertation 15 2.2 Purpose of the Dissertation Proposal 16 2.3 Step #1: Preliminary Qualifying Exams 16 2.4 Step #2: Selecting a Dissertation Topic 17 2.1 Ascertain If Original Data Collection Is Required 18 2.5 Step #3: Choosing a Chair 19 2.6 Step #4: Choosing the Dissertation Committee Members 19 2.1 Role of the Dissertation Committee 21 2.2 Balance of Responsibilities between the Dissertation Chair and the Dissertation Committee 22 2.7 Step #5: Writing the Dissertation Proposal 22 2.1 Structure of the Dissertation Proposal 22 2.2 Dissertation Proposal as a Contract 23 2.3 Format of the Dissertation Proposal 23 2.8 Step #6: Proposal Defense 24 2.9 Step #7: Submission of the Proposal to the Graduate School 25 2.10 Step #8: Conduct the Dissertation Research 25 2.11 Step #9: Dissertation Defense 25 2.12 Step #10: Submit the Dissertation to the Graduate School 26 v vi Contents 2.1 Preproposal for a 3-Paper Model 27 2.2 Dissertation Proposal Outline 29 3 How to Develop and Write Hypotheses 31 3.1 Need for Hypotheses 31 3.2 More about the Distinction between Hypotheses and Specific Aims 32 3.3 Hypotheses Should Flow Logically from the Background and Significance Section 33 3.4 How to Write Hypotheses If the Prior Literature Is Conflicting 34 3.5 Guideline #1: A Research Hypothesis Should Name the Independent and Dependent Variables and Indicate the Type of Relationship Expected between Them 35 3.6 Guideline #2: A Hypothesis Should Name the Exposure Prior to the Outcome 36 3.7 Guideline #3: The Comparison Group Should Be Stated 37 3.8 Guideline #4: When Your Study Is Limited to a Particular Population, Reference to the Population Should Be Made in the Hypothesis 38 3.9 Guideline #5: Hypotheses Should Be as Concise as Possible and Use Measureable Terms 39 3.10 Guideline #6: Avoid Making Precise Statistical Predictions in a Hypothesis 40 3.11 Guideline #7: A Hypothesis Should Indicate What Will Actually Be Studied—Not the Possible Implications of the Study or Value Judgments of the Author 41 3.12 Stylistic Tip #1: When a Number of Related Hypotheses Are to Be Stated, Consider Presenting Them in a Numbered or Lettered List 42 3.13 Stylistic Tip #2: Because Most Hypotheses Deal with the Behavior of Groups, Plural Forms Should Usually Be Used 43 3.14 Stylistic Tip #3: Avoid Using the Words Significant or Significance in a Hypothesis 43 3.15 Stylistic Tip #4: Avoid Using the Word Prove in a Hypothesis 44 3.16 Stylistic Tip #5: Avoid Using Two Different Terms to Refer to the Same Variable in a Hypothesis 45 3.17 Stylistic Tip #6: Remove Any Unnecessary Words 46 3.18 Stylistic Tip #7: Hypotheses May Be Written as Research Questions—But Use Caution 47 3.19 Hypothesis Writing Checklist 47 4 Conducting the Literature Search 49 4.1 How Do Literature Reviews for Grant Proposals Differ from Literature Reviews in Journal Articles or in Dissertation Proposals? 50 4.2 Writing a Literature Review Is an Iterative Process 51 Contents vii 4.3 Step #1: Creating a Literature Review Outline 51 4.4 Step #2: Searching for Literature (Do’s and Don’ts) 52 4.1 Choosing a Relevant Database 53 4.2 What Type of Literature to Collect for Each Section of the Literature Review Outline 53 4. Introduction: public health impact of outcome (disease) 53 4. Physiology of exposure–outcome relationship 54 4. Epidemiology of exposure–outcome relationship 54 4.3 Should You Collect Epidemiologic Literature That Only Secondarily Evaluated Your Exposure–Outcome Relationship? 55 4.4 Collecting Literature for an Effect Modification Hypothesis 56 4.5 What to Do When Your Search Yields Thousands of Hits 57 4.6 What to Do If There Are Too Few Hits 58 4.7 How to Retrieve Articles (Hits) 59 4.8 How to Scan Articles for Relevance 59 4.9 Evaluating Your References for Completeness 59 4.5 Step #3: Organizing the Epidemiologic Literature—Summary Tables 60 4.1 What Data Should I Include in a Summary Table? 60 4.2 Reviewing the Table to Identify Research Gaps 62 4.3 Should I Include the Summary Table in My Proposal? 63 4.3 Example #3 65 5 Scientific Writing 69 5.1 Tip #1: Consider Your Audience 69 5.2 Tip #2: Avoid Using the First-Person Singular 70 5.3 Tip #3: Use the Active Voice 70 5.4 Tip #4: Use Transitions to Help Trace Your Argument 71 5.5 Tip #5: Avoid Direct Quotations Both at the Beginning and within the Literature Review 72 5.6 Tip #6: Avoid Saying The Authors Concluded… 73 5.7 Tip #7: Omit Needless Words 74 5.8 Tip #8: Avoid Professional Jargon 75 5.9 Tip #9: Avoid Using Synonyms for Recurring Words 76 5.10 Tip #10: Use the Positive Form 77 5.11 Tip #11: Place Latin Abbreviations in Parentheses; Elsewhere Use English Translations 77 5.12 Tip #12: Spell Out Acronyms When First Used; Keep Their Use to a Minimum 78 5.13 Tip #13: Avoid the Use of Contractions 78 5.14 Tip #14: Spell Out Numbers at the Beginning of a Sentence 79 5.15 Tip #15: Placement of References 79 5.16 Strive for a User-Friendly Draft 80 viii Contents 5.17 Take Advantage of Writing Assistance Programs 81 5.18 Solicit Early Informal Feedback on Your Proposal 81 5.19 Who Must Read Your Proposal 82 5.21 How to Reconcile Contradictory Feedback 83 5.22 Annotated Example 84 Part TWO The Proposal: Section by Section 87 6 Specific Aims 89 6.1 Purpose of the Specific Aims Page 89 6.2 A Word of Caution 90 6.3 Outline for the Specific Aims Page 90 6.1 Paragraph #1: Study Background and Research Gap 91 6.2 Paragraph #2: Synopsis of the Study Methods 93 6.3 Paragraph #3: Your Aims and Corresponding Hypotheses 94 6.4 Paragraph #4: Summary of Significance and Innovation 95 6.4 Tip #1: How to Deal with the One-Page Limitation for the Specific Aims Page 97 6.5 Tip #2: Avoid Interdependent Aims 97 6.6 Tip #3: Aims Involving the Use of an Existing Dataset—Pros and Cons 98 6.7 Tip #4: Should You Aim to Conduct Analytic or Descriptive Studies? 99 6.8 Tip #5: How to Decide Whether to Include Exploratory or Secondary Aims 100 6.9 Tip #6: Don’t Be Too Ambitious 100 6.10 Tip #7: Remember That All Aims Should Be Accompanied by Hypotheses 101 6.11 Tip #8: If You Plan to Evaluate Effect Modification in Your Methods, Then Include This as a Specific Aim 102 6.12 When to Consider Discarding Your Original Aims and Hypotheses 103 6.1 Example #1: Needs Improvement 103 6.2 Example #2: Does Not Need Improvement 105 7 Background and Significance Section 109 7.1 Refer Back to Your Literature Review Outline 109 7.2 Background and Significance Should Be Made Up of Subsections Corresponding to Each Hypothesis 110 7.3 Section a: Summarize the Public Health Impact of Outcome (Disease) 110 7.4 Section b: Summarize the Physiology of Exposure–Outcome Relationship 111 Contents ix 7.5 Section c: Summarize the Epidemiology of Exposure–Outcome Relationship (Describe Studies in Groups) 113 7.1 In Summarizing the Epidemiologic Literature, Note the Relationships between Study Methods and Their Corresponding Findings 114 7.2 Finding the Research Gap in the Prior Epidemiologic Literature 115 7.3 How Big a Research Gap Do I Need to Fill? 115 7.4 Highlight the Limitations of Prior Studies That Your Proposal Will Be Able to Address 116 7.5 What Should You Do If the Prior Literature Is Conflicting? 117 7.1 Let reviewers know that you are aware of controversies 117 7.2 Give clear reasons for taking a side 117 7.6 Highlight Key Studies 118 7.6 Section d: Summarize the Significance and Innovation 119 7.7 Tip #1: Should You Have One Consolidated Background and Significance Section? 120 7.8 Tip #2: Be Sure to Express Your Own Opinions about a Prior Study’s Limitations 121 7.9 Tip #3: You May Refer to Comments from a Review Article 121 7.10 Tip #4: Occasionally You May Provide the Historical Context 122 7.11 Tip #5: Summarize at the End of Each Section in the Background and Significance Section 122 7.12 Tip #6: Avoid Broad and Global Statements in the Background and Significance Section 123 7.13 Tip #7: Be Comprehensive and Complete in Citations 123 7.14 Tip #8: References Should Directly Follow the Studies That They Relate To 124 7.15 Tip #9: If You Are Commenting on a Time Frame, Be Specific 125 7.1 Example #1: Needs Improvement 125 7.2 Example #2a: Grant Proposal Version Not in Need of Improvement 128 7.3 Example #2b: Dissertation Proposal Version Not in Need of Improvement 128 8 Summarizing Preliminary Studies 133 8.1 What Are Preliminary Studies? 133 8.2 Do Preliminary Data Need to Be Previously Published? 134 8.3 How to Describe Preliminary Data 135 8.4 Use the Preliminary Studies Section to Demonstrate Established Relationships with Your Coinvestigators 136 8.5 What If You Do Not Have Preliminary Data? 137 x Contents 8.6 What If Your Preliminary Data Contradict Your Proposed Hypotheses? 138 8.7 Double-Check That All Your Preliminary Findings Relate to One or More of Your Proposed Hypotheses 139 8.8 Pitfalls of Preliminary Data 140 8.9 Where to Place Preliminary Studies in an NIH Grant Proposal? 140 8.10 Should I Include Preliminary Results Even If the Grant Does Not Require Them? 140 8.