Structure and Guidelines for Health Project (Dissertation)

Important Points

Some important points:

? Overleaf you will find a table which outlines the structure for your final project. This is the recommended structure for your health project (dissertation). If you decide to present your work in a different structure, we recommend you discuss this with your supervisors first.

? Please note that the Research Proposal assessment completed on the SH6054 module forms the foundation for this Project. An expanded version of your proposal forms the basis for your chapter 1 & 2 in this Project.

? For your first supervision meeting, you are required to present a printed copy of your marked proposal, including the feedback given to your Project supervisor.

? Based on student feedback, we are also running additional face-top-face workshops to support you with the completion of your project. Each week will correspond to a particular chapter- please see the right hand column of the table below to identify which weeks will be useful to attend if you are facing challenges with a particular part of the project. You can also listen to recordings of these sessions - they will be uploaded onto weblearn after each workshop. You can find the schedule for workshops on weblearn under module information. There will also be two additional workshops which are scheduled for students to ask questions about the overall dissertation.

The Front/Title Page should include the following:

? The Project Research Question/ Statement

? The Module code

? The student’s full name & I.D. number

? The course name & code

? The submission date

? The total word count (excluding reference

? Background to Project

? Aim of Project

? Methods used in Project

? Main Findings

? Main Conclusion

Tip: Write the Abstract AFTER the rest of the project has been written

Chapter 1 should include the following parts/sections (this is based on your proposal. You must consider all feedback given in relation to the proposal when writing this section. (However, you should note this section must be written in past tense – not future tense):

? Project Background/Context Have you read around your research topic? Have you provided background information of important historical and contextual events/ research which informs the reader about why and how the health issue you are interested in exists as a problem? Have you evidenced the health issue with relevant statistics showing the nature and extent of the problem including past and current statistical variation in terms of age, sex, geography and ethnicity supported by relevant literature sources? What other studies have been conducted and what is their relevance to your research topic? Have you identified and given a brief overview of the policy/ strategy or policies/ strategies whose outcomes in terms of interventions you will critical assess in the project?

Front/Title Page

? Project Rationale/Justification Why is this research topic important to your field of practice? Have you presented a Justification Statement? i.e. objectively justifying the research topic using relevant literature sources? (Please note the background and rationale can be presented together in one section if you wish to)

What is the aim of the study – what do you want to achieve? (Identify one aim) Does the aim of the study resonate with your research question/ statement? What are the objectives of the study? (Identify 4 objectives. The first objective should focus on epidemiology i.e. prevalence of the health issue & the last one should focus on the impact of policy/ strategy initiatives put in place to tackle the health issue). Overall, all objectives should be geared towards addressing the aim of the study.

Chapter 2 should include the following parts/sections (Again this is based on your proposal. You must consider all feedback given in relation to the proposal when writing this section. (However, you should note this section must be written in past tense – not future tense):

? Study design (Secondary Research  Versus Primary Research with a clear justification of chosen approach)

? Literature Search Strategy (Data sources used:

a. Search engines used

b. databases searched

c. Key Words/Search Terms used with Boolean operators

d. Inclusion & Exclusion Criteria

e. Briefly explain the process – e.g. how many papers did you retrieve during your search? How many did you end up using and why? (See lecture notes from SH6054 Week 5)

? Ethical Considerations: you must consider ethical issues in relation to studies being reviewed; ethical issues pertaining:To the ‘literature reviewer identity - such as scholarly practice, integrity, respecting rights, dignity and diversity; avoiding plagiarism, falsification and misrepresentation of data etc (see lecture notes from SH6054 Week 9)

? Summary (Briefly summarize key issues discussed in this chapter & sign post to next chapter)

Chapter 3 reports the results/findings from the literature review conducted. The exact structure/arrangement of Chapter 3 will vary between Projects, but the following main elements should be addressed in Chapter

? You should present this section based on your objectives. Therefore each objective should form a heading in this chapter and within this section you may have several sub-headings.

? Present and Interpret the most important findings - they must be responding to your research objectives. It is important to stay focused on what you are trying to achieve here - and that is to answer the research questions. To do this effectively, you are required to:

? compare and contrast findings from different studies identified by the literature review strategy outlined in Chapter 2

? Identify and critically analyse the consistencies and inconsistencies  emerging from the literature findings. When critiquing the literature you may consider methodological limitations, ethical tensions and/or varying theoretical perspectives/limitations

? Present the literature in themes; grouping all the studies where the findings corroborate or discuss the same issue. For example, you may group together 3 or 4 studies which all discuss the impact of obesity on social relationships. You then may highlight any differences which the study presented or how they varied in their methodological approach.

? Identify the types of methods used in the studies your refer to

? Summary (Briefly summarize key issues discussed in this chapter & sign post to next chapter) Tip: Try to be factual/objective and use neutral language when reporting/ presenting your results. In addition, ensure that all your objectives are addressed in this chapter via appropriate headings and subheadings. The

policy/ strategy, legislation impact analysis objective should be addressed last. You should be using peer-reviewed papers in this section of the report, you can not rely on grey literature for this entire chapter. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 is where you should present the following parts/sections:

? A brief summary of main findings/discussion/argument (these were presented in full in Chapter 3)

? Conclusion (this is not merely a summary of the main topics covered, or a re-statement of your research topic/question, but a synthesis of key points and may be up to 2-3 paragraphs in length)

? A critical reflection on the methodology used e.g. what were some of the possible methodological challenges/issues encountered and how might this have influenced the results). Tip: State your conclusion in clear, simple language. Do not simply reiterate your results or the discussion of your results. Provide a synthesis of arguments presented in the Project