How to pitch me a research project

I love working with smart people and interesting co-authors. Unfortunately, I have not figured how to clone myself, so I have to pick and choose who I can work with. I put together this one-pager to help me think through new projects, and I ask my new co-authors (who are pitching ideas) to go through this exercise as well.

So, if you’re interested in doing a project together, fill out the information below and then email me @ bltphd@vt.edu.

Project Name : Creative Name Here

Goals:

What are the goals of this project.

You don’t really need more than a couple goals.

Keep it brief.

Background:

Does anyone else in the literature care about this topic?

What have they said about it?

Try to limit your searches to journals that “matter”, UTD Business Journals, APA Psych Journals, Pop Sci Journals (Science, Nature, PNAS>>>>PLOS One), Medical Journals (Lancet, JAMA NEJM), Poly Sci Journals, Top Econ (QJE, AER, etc.).

Is there a logic to what you are proposing?

Consequences:

What is the problem you want to solve? E.g., What is the behavioral outcome of a given context?

Rules:

What is the logical, psychological process that might explain this consequence?

Often the literature already has proposed theories (rules) that explain this, list these as well.

Interventions:

Based on the rules, what intervention might work that can change the consequence.

Impact? X/10

Imagine this research gets published. Who is going to care? Why would they care? What sucks about this idea or project.

Note, only groundbreaking, Nobel-prize winning ideas get a 10.

If an idea falls at 5 or below, kill it, or improve it.

Feasibility? X/10

Can you pull off this research with the resources you have now? If you can do this from start to finish with the resources you have in front of you, by yourself, it’s a 10.

What do you need to pull of this research? Do you need a special sample of people? Do you need to build “technology” that does not exist yet? If this idea falls below a 5, kill it, or figure out how you can make it more feasible by simplifying the idea or getting more resources.

Design a study or two to test your idea if it’s impactful and feasible

Study 1: What question are you answering? Study Type

Objective: What is the goal of the study?

Subjects: Who, N = How Many

Design: What is the basic design?

DVs: What are your measuring?