This is study design. How you will use your available resources to prove your Hypothesis. The resources are divided into materials and methods.
The study design has to fulfill these questions in order to prove your Hypothesis correctly and scientifically.
- How big is your sample size?
- What is your exact disease population?
- Who is included in your study?
- Who is excluded from your study?
- Is there a risk to your candidates?
- How will you collect the data?
- How will you analyze the data?
- Where will you publish your results?
- Time frame for your study?
And that leads to another question; what type of study is it?
Treatment studies:
Observational studies:
Analysis of clinical trials:
After you allocate your needed materials and methods, you need to know how much will it cost to complete your study. Will you need raw materials, staff workers, new apparatuses, a lab? These will cost so will your research project require funding?
There are checklists for various study designs. They are guidelines that are not a prerequisite to the study but perfect the quality. Here are examples of them:
