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Write standalone research plans for anthropological and qualitative research that articulate what is being studied, why it matters, how it will be done, and why anyone should believe it can be done. A research plan is a forward-looking argument for feasibility, rigor, and ethical legitimacy — the foundational document from which grant proposals, dissertation prospectuses, and fieldwork clearance applications are derived.
The audience for a standalone plan varies: it may be the researcher themselves (as a thinking tool), a committee, a department fieldwork review, or a collaborating partner. The plan should be precise regardless of audience, but register and emphasis adapt to context.
| Task | Reference |
|---|---|
| Full research plan guide (sections, architecture, audience adaptation) | Read references/research-plan-guide.md |
Determine the entry point:
Before generating any content, collect these inputs:
Required:
Helpful but not required:
Load references/research-plan-guide.md for the full section-by-section
architecture, guidance by epistemic family, formatting principles, and
audience adaptation notes.
Follow the section structure in the reference file. The plan uses a front-loaded clarity architecture: state the core argument up front, justify it in the middle, demonstrate feasibility at the end.
Ten sections (adapt order and emphasis to audience):
Key generation principles:
Before presenting output, verify:
| Failure mode | Prevention |
|---|---|
| Methods as wish list — lists techniques without inferential logic | Argue for each method: what evidence, why necessary, how methods relate |
| Vague analysis plan — "I will use thematic analysis" | Specify approach, documentation practices, analysis-fieldwork interaction, finding form |
| Ethics as afterthought — perfunctory paragraph at the end | Make ethics a workflow step throughout; address consent, governance, harms, community obligations |
| Missing reflexivity — no attention to researcher positionality | Include analytical positionality section; integrate with methods and ethics |
| No contingency planning — assumes everything goes as planned | Include Plan B for access disruption; state what claims survive under alternative strategies |
| Scope exceeds feasibility — too many questions, sites, or methods for timeline | Flag mismatches; suggest narrowing to what is realistic for available time and resources |
| Generic social science prose — could be from any discipline | Attend to ethnographic specificity, cultural context, relational processes, and disciplinary voice |
| Literature survey instead of argument — lists sources without engagement | Structure literature section as an argument about the gap this project addresses |
Example 1: Standalone research plan, sociocultural, single site
Input: "I need to write a research plan for my project on how street vendors in Lima negotiate municipal regulation. I'm an interpretivist drawing on practice theory. This is mainly for myself and my advisor to clarify my thinking."
Output approach:
references/research-plan-guide.mdExample 2: Research plan for departmental fieldwork review
Input: "My department requires a fieldwork plan before I can go to the field. I'm studying how climate adaptation policies are negotiated between Indigenous communities and government agencies in northern Canada. I work within political ecology and Indigenous methodologies."
Output approach:
references/research-plan-guide.mdExample 3: Research plan for digital/hybrid ethnography
Input: "I want to plan a study of how Chinese diaspora communities use WeChat to maintain transnational political identities. This will be mostly digital ethnography but with some in-person interviews. I'm coming from a linguistic anthropology perspective."
Output approach:
references/research-plan-guide.md