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Designing a research project takes time, skill and knowledge. If you don’t go into the process with a clear goal and methods, you’ll likely come out with skewed data or an inaccurate picture of what you were trying to accomplish. With Qualtrics survey software , we make the survey creation process easier, but still you may feel overwhelmed with the scope of your research project. This handy guide might help.
While it’s important to use proper methodology in the research process, it’s equally important to avoid making critical mistakes that could produce inaccurate results. In this article, we’ll list 5 common errors in the research process and tell you how to avoid making them, so you can get the best data possible.
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Population specification errors occur when the researcher does not understand who they should survey. This can be tricky because there are multiple people who might consume the product, but only one who purchases it, or they may miss a segment looking to purchase in the future.
Example: Packaged goods manufacturers often conduct surveys of housewives, because they are easier to contact, and it is assumed they decide what is to be purchased and also do the actual purchasing. In this situation there often is population specification error. The husband may purchase a significant share of the packaged goods, and have significant direct and indirect influence over what is bought. For this reason, excluding husbands from samples may yield results targeted to the wrong audience.
How to avoid this: Understand who purchases your product and why they buy it. It’s important to survey the one making the buying decision so you know how to better reach them.
Survey sampling and sample frame errors occur when the wrong subpopulation is used to select a sample, or because of variation in the number or representativeness of the sample that responds, but the resulting sample is not representative of the population concern.
Unfortunately, some element of sampling error is unavoidable, but sometimes, it can be predicted. For instance, in the 1936 presidential election between Roosevelt and Landon, the sample frame was from car registrations and telephone directories. The researchers failed to realize that the majority of people that owned cars and telephones were Republicans, and wrongly predicted a Republican victory.
Example: Suppose that we collected a random sample of 500 people from the general U.S. adult population to gauge their entertainment preferences. Then, upon analysis, found it to be composed of 70% females. This sample would not be representative of the general adult population and would influence the data. The entertainment preferences of females would hold more weight, preventing accurate extrapolation to the US general adult population. Sampling error is affected by the homogeneity of the population being studied and sampled from and by the size of the sample.
How to avoid this: While this cannot be completely avoided, you should have multiple people reviewing your sample to account for an accurate representation of your target population. You can also increase the size of your sample so you get more survey participants.
Selection error is the sampling error for a sample selected by a non-probability method. When respondents choose to self-participate in a study and only those interested respond, you can end up with selection error because there may already be an inherent bias. This can also occur when respondents who are not relevant to the study participate, or when there’s a bias in the way participants are put into groups.
Example: Interviewers conducting a mall intercept study have a natural tendency to select those respondents who are the most accessible and agreeable whenever there is latitude to do so. Such samples often comprise friends and associates who bear some degree of resemblance in characteristics to those of the desired population.
How to avoid this: Selection error can be controlled by going extra lengths to get participation. A typical survey process includes initiating pre-survey contact requesting cooperation, actual surveying, and post-survey follow-up. If a response is not received, a second survey request follows, and perhaps interviews using alternate modes such as telephone or person-to-person.
Nonresponse error can exist when an obtained sample differs from the original selected sample.
This may occur because either the potential respondent was not contacted or they refused to respond. The key factor is the absence of data rather than inaccurate data.
Example: In telephone surveys, some respondents are inaccessible because they are not at home for the initial call or call-backs. Others have moved or are away from home for the period of the survey. Not-at-home respondents are typically younger with no small children, and have a much higher proportion of working wives than households with someone at home. People who have moved or are away for the survey period have a higher geographic mobility than the average of the population. Thus, most surveys can anticipate errors from non-contact of respondents. Online surveys seek to avoid this error through e-mail distribution, thus eliminating not-at-home respondents.
How to avoid this: When collecting responses, ensure your original respondents are participating, and use follow-up surveys and alternates modes of reaching them if they don’t initially respond. You can also use different channels to reach your audience like in person, web surveys, or SMS.
Measurement error is generated by the measurement process itself, and represents the difference between the information generated and the information wanted by the researcher. Generally, there is always some small level of measurement error due to uncontrollable factors.
Example: A retail store would like to assess customer feedback from at-the-counter purchases. The survey is developed but fails to target those who purchase in the store. Instead, the results are skewed by customers who bought items online.
How to avoid this: Double check all measurements for accuracy and ensure your observers and measurement takes are well trained and understand the parameters of the experiment.
While not all of these errors can be completely avoidable, recognizing them is half the battle. Next time you’re starting a research project, use this blog as a checklist to ensure you’re doing everything you can to avoid these common mistakes.
Also, before you begin your next research project, read How to Define Your Research Question. This is vital to any research project because you can’t begin creating surveys unless you understand the research problem.
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If your team is prioritizing project-based work, this episode is for you.
Companies of every size across the world are basing more of their work around projects than at any time in the past. But research shows that nearly two-thirds of those efforts fail.
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez , who has studied projects and project management for decades, argues that at least some of the blame for these failures lies with executives who misunderstand the fundamentals of projects and fail to dedicate enough of their time to those they sponsor.
In this episode, Nieto-Rodriguez explains how to get better outcomes from project-based work. He also discusses how to frame projects, structure organizations around them, and avoid common pitfalls.
Key episode topics include: strategy, project management, operations strategy, organizational change.
HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.
HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy, case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock new ways of doing business.
Companies of every size, in every industry across the world are basing more of their work around projects than any time in the past. But research shows that nearly two-thirds of those efforts fail.
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, who has studied projects and project management for decades, argues that at least some of the blame for these failures lies with executives – who misunderstand the fundamentals of projects and fail to dedicate enough of their time to the projects they sponsor.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to get better outcomes from project-based work. You’ll also learn how to frame projects, structure organizations around them, and avoid key pitfalls.
If your team is taking on project-based work or if you’re leading a new project, this episode is for you. It originally aired on HBR IdeaCast in November 2021. Here it is.
ALISON BEARD: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Alison Beard. If the 20th century was all about operational efficiency in businesses, the 21st century is all about organizational change. And how do new initiatives, products and services, strategies or business models advance? Through project work. It’s what our guest today calls the project economy, and it’s estimated to generate $20 trillion in economic activity and employ 88 million people in project management related roles by 2027.
That’s across every industry and size of company in every part of the world, and yet research indicates that only 35% of projects are successful. At this increasingly critical business function, most of us are doing a pretty terrible job, so how do we get better at it going forward? Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is the former chairman of the Project Management Institute, founder of Projects & Co. and the author of the HBR Project Management Handbook. He’s here to talk about emerging best practices for companies and the people in them. Antonio, welcome.
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Alison. It’s a pleasure to be here.
ALISON BEARD: Project management seems like a clear idea, but how do you define it and think about it in a way that might be different than what people assume?
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think one of the challenges with project management that I face personally in my career is that as soon as you talk project management, senior executives and people who are not experts in project management, they think, “Oh, this is something very technical, very tactical. It’s nothing for me,” so I’ve been facing that kind of discontent or disinterest in project management for 25 years. So, for me, I want to move out from that project management term and move it up into projects, and we all do projects. And for me, the definition is anything that has to deal with change, that’s projects. You can manage them through project management, Agile methods, design thinking, product management. But I want to really, I think we need to elevate and say, “Well, all what goes around change, that’s projects,” and we need to manage them.
ALISON BEARD: And how has project work changed over the past few decades?
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: Well, project work has changed in two big areas. One is on a macro level. I’ve been doing research, and of course we all talk about the Marshall Plan after the Second War and all the projects that came from U.S. funding to develop Europe, reconstruct Europe, that was about $13 billion. Then we talk about the financial crisis in 2008 and ’09, we were talking about $3 trillion of projects. And now after the pandemic, we’re talking about $15, $20 trillion of projects. I think the world will never see as many projects as what we’re going to see in the next decade. We need to reconstruct countries, healthcare systems, economies, so that’s from a macro perspective.
From a micro perspective, from the way work is organized in companies, in businesses, it has evolved significantly in the sense that so far, operations have been prime in most of the organizations over the past 80 years. That’s what I say, the world driven by efficiency, where most of the activities were around doing things cheaper, faster, more automated, more volumes. Companies have been organized for that. That’s why you have hierarchies, that’s where cultures like command and control have been in place and so on, but since a few years when artificial intelligence and robots are taking over a big chunk of operations, the type of work is shifted to project based. So, I think the biggest, biggest disruption that happens in the world of projects is what we’re experiencing now. A radical shift from operations to project based work.
ALISON BEARD: And that’s because projects are about sort of discovering the new innovating, and the pace of change is such in every industry now that every company needs to learn how to do this well?
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely, and one of the challenges I have to admit, Alison, I’m a big of course, expert in project, a big advocate of project management, but our performance, like you mentioned in introduction, has been poor or appalling. I think project management has not delivered the expected results. We need to find better ways to addressing the change. The future 10 years ago maybe was five years from now, right? So, you would have a project that would last for three years expecting to get some benefits maybe in three, four years, a digital transformation, a new M&A activity, a new business unit, but today, the future is so fast.
So, your future is tomorrow, right? So, that means the acceleration of project based work has to go faster. Let me give you a quick example. Here in Brussels, they were setting, establishing a hospital from scratch, Greenfield, start of the construction in 2016, completion of the hospital in 2020. So, four years of construction, state of the art, but to my surprise, the hospital was open in 2018 before it was co completed. So, I think there’s no company in the world can wait four years to get any benefits from the projects. The future is now, and we need to address that. That’s why you see exploding the number of projects in organizations. I come across companies where they have more projects than people.
ALISON BEARD: And I do want to get to how to do it better, but first, that failure rate is so high. What are some of the most common challenges or problems that projects run into? Why are we getting it so wrong right now?
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: Let me highlight just three. First, I think senior leaders, they don’t have the competencies to be effective sponsorship. Over the years …
ALISON BEARD: They’re not going to like hearing that.
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: I’m sure. I’m sure, but I’m sorry. I always am hundred percent honest on both on my thinking, but I think sponsors have not realized the role is crucial in sponsoring projects. It’s not about how many projects you sponsor, that has been the kind of, “I sponsor 20 projects. I’m the most important person in this company.” Well, now it’s about less is more, and it has been proven. When you are an executive, the CEO, the VP, and you dedicate time to your project, time means not just one hour per month, but a half a day per week. If this is the future of your business, I don’t understand why senior leaders don’t dedicate so much time. They’re all driven by operations and day to day urgency so very few leaders make the space. And second, they don’t understand the fundamentals of projects.
Most of the executives come from a path marketing, finance, operation strategy, and it requires for them to understand that projects are different. That you work in projects in a matrix, that is not so much the hierarchical approach, but this team working and collaboration. So, it’s hard to give you a number, Alison, but I would say 30% to and 40% of the success of the project is if the senior leaders is engaged and understands and drives the project. Alison, the second point, I realized that in the area of change in projects, we are always running with all methods. It happened in the past with IT projects, I started implementing big ERP systems, we were trying to apply some very traditional project management.
It didn’t work. Then Agile came and said, “Well, now we are going to use Agile for every project,” and that, we see today with digital transformations, AI implementations, that doesn’t work. The failure keeps there. The third reason, so I think the role of the project manager, the project management profession has not taken ownership of the results. It has been very focused on process, very focused on documentation. It did make a lot of sense in the sixties, in the fifties where you would do a lot of public sector projects where you want to document everything, but I think the reason that the third reason for me is that project management didn’t evolve to embrace the new reality. And second, project managers have been more a deliver type of role.
In project management, we always said, “Well, who’s accountable for delivering the projects? Who’s accountable for delivering the benefits?” Right? Well, it’s the sponsor. We project managers were responsible of delivering the project on time, on budget, on scope, and that has been the cradle for project management for the last 40 years. And we’ve missed to focus on the outcomes. We’ve missed to focus on the benefits. We’ve missed to take accountability of the results. It’s easy to make a project charter, but what companies are looking for is delivering value, either financial, either social, either sustainability. So, I’m asking my community of project managers to step up, to take ownership, to say, “No, it’s not just the plan. It’s not just delivery on time. What matters actually even more is delivering the benefits, whatever they are, and faster, please.”
ALISON BEARD: So, for an organization that does have existing operations that need to be managed, but then also wants to pursue change and innovation through project work, how does that company change its structure or culture to be able to do both well?
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Well, great question, Alison. I’ve seen so many companies struggling because I’m not saying, “Let’s forget about what you’re doing right today. Let’s forget about that organization that you’ve built so successful for that world driven by efficiency with hierarchies, with yearly plans, with deep expertise, deep technical expertise,” but how can we address change? And change that’s going very fast and our products are just lasting less and less. In the past, we last five years, now five weeks or maybe five months. So, how can we mix that? And it’s a struggle. You cannot say, “Let’s forget my hierarchy and let’s move everything into flat teams and Agile structures and project basing.” That doesn’t work, so I think in the challenge for the leaders, the senior leaders, the executives, is finding that balance. And I always say you need to experiment.
You cannot just go and say, “Well, half of the organization is working without job descriptions. They’re all working project based.” I think my approach, my suggestion is, what are your top five projects? What are the five most important projects that your organization has to deliver? Extract those projects from your daily operations. Extract them. They should not be done by people working in operations. They should have a different structure. They should have a different culture. Put them aside, put them independent. They are own entities, and of course, strong sponsorship. Executives, you need to spend time on them. By extracting for those five top projects already, and moving out to that from that hierarchical structure, that operational activities, that you can see already, quite a lot of acceleration in the way you deliver projects.
ALISON BEARD: Often though, it seems as if particularly project leaders do have operational responsibilities as well, and then sort of, they’re expected to tack the project on top of that. So, how are companies that you work with navigating that balance? Are they giving the executives that time to take away for the project work?
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: Great, great question. This is really the core. One of the core problems I always raise when I do workshops with senior leaders is, how come you cannot extract people from your day to day job and put them in a project? It’s one of the biggest challenges that I see. Even companies which have 10,000 people, they are not able to free up 50 people to carry out the project. The best projects I’ve seen in a research, one of them, of course the iPhone, the first one which I research very much in detail, at that time, they were able to take the day to day people, the senior leader, the best people of Apple at that time and extract them for two years and a half to develop.
And people who were in the operations side said, “Well, I love to join this project, but who’s going to do my day to day activities?” And we were saying, “Don’t bother. Anybody can do your day to day activity. You have a deputy when you’re gone,” said, “We’ll put those people. We’ll promote them. We’ll create more talent, but you, you are the best person in these companies. How come you’re not working in the most strategic project in the future of your work?” Right? It doesn’t make sense, but companies struggle so much and there’s nothing worse that you can do, Alison, than have half time people working in your projects. I work one hour per week, then I work two days per week, then it’s a mess. It’s not how you deliver great projects. At least try to get the best people around.
ALISON BEARD: I think that makes sense when you sort of have a clear idea of what the future’s going to look like, and you know exactly which five projects are the most important, but isn’t the issue in many cases that organizations sort of have 30 projects on the go, and aren’t really sure what’s going to pan out, and they can’t take all of those people away from their day to day activities? So, how do companies prioritize?
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: I’m sure everybody that’s listening this, they can’t relate to that point. Companies have way too many projects. I think that if there’s a core skill for leaders in current times, is focused and prioritization. Knowing what is the big path, and unfortunately, it’s just very hard to see when you see more projects than employees. And like you’re saying, how can they do their day to day job plus three, four time projects? That’s where people get overwhelmed. I am sure that the big reset is linked to this, so many projects plus day to day activities. It’s just stressing everybody out, and I think that when you work with companies where the priorities are clear, where people know, these are our top three, their top five, and we know where we’re going, this is the focus, that’s where I think executives need to work on. On really making the tough decisions.
ALISON BEARD: What are some best practices for putting project teams together?
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: Well, Alison, the formula for engagement is super simple. The most engaged people in a project, you know which one is it? Volunteers. Let me put you an example. Maybe in HBR, you are launching a new project. Why don’t you ask who wants to join?
ALISON BEARD: Makes sense. It’s so simple, but it makes so much sense.
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: It’s so simple, because there’s different things that happen here. First, if nobody wants to volunteer in that project, that project is terrible. Don’t start it. Don’t start it because it’s just, people are going to be forced to do it, so ask for volunteers. Nobody shows up, don’t start it. You don’t need a business case of three months hiring consultants to make you, “Yes, this is …” If nobody jumps on it, terrible. Don’t even start it. It’s just a five minutes test and you save three months of work. Second, if the project talks about business case, very few people get excited, yeah? Who wants to work in a project that delivers 10% return on investment? Yes, nobody. Right? 15%, nobody. Who wants to work in a project which is going to make a more sustainable world? Who’s going to work in a project who’s going to increase the customer experience and make customers more happy, and deliver better value to a customer?
Who wants to work in a project who’s going to create our employees or make our employees more happy, and make us a top company? Lots of people. So, we have been, when we were talking about some of the issues, I think project manage has been focused on talking about things that don’t matter to most of the stakeholders, like a business case. Business case is super important. It’s the return investment, for sure, but that’s not what engages people. The purpose engages people. When you have volunteers, they will dream about your projects. They will do whatever they can to make it happen, and it can be because of the purpose, it can be because they like to work with you, they see a big opportunity to learn. Of course, as a project leader, you need to balance that. But as simple as that, Alison, “Who wants to volunteer?”
ALISON BEARD: How does the rise of project driven work relate to the gig economy? Is your sense that companies are hiring contractors and freelancers to get a lot of this done? Is it a balance or are they trying to handle most of it in-house?
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: I think when we started to hear about the gig economy, I think yes, one of the reasons was, “Let’s hire external resources to work in our projects because we are so rigid internally, like I cannot free, from my 10,000 people, I cannot free 10 of them because they’re so busy in day to day operations plus other projects,” so it started like that. What I see now is that companies are finally taking the step of shifting resources to more project based work. Again, when I use the word project, I include Agile teams, self directed, so very flat project driven teams. So, that’s happening to the point that I talk about it is that companies are canceling job descriptions. We all had job descriptions like, Alison, most of the people listening, probably they had a job description, which tried to describe like, where do you fit in this box? Right? And just do those activities in this box, in that operational field.
That’s your box. If you do it right in two, three years, you just go up in the structure. But many large companies and small companies are realizing that people don’t work in boxes anymore, and job descriptions are not needed anymore. It’s a thing from that world driven by efficiency that together with the chief operating officer in this role, so I think they will not last very long. So, I think the project driven world is now being and embraced by organization where companies like Alibaba or other major players are really embracing this type of work where yeah, they’re looking for people who can have an idea, who can develop the idea, who can implement the project, and who can run the idea of the product or the business and generate value for the companies. This is what I call end-to-end players or strategy implementation professionals. We want this type of end-to-end players who can work transversely in organizations.
ALISON BEARD: Are there lessons from your project management world that might be helpful for people doing more traditional ongoing work?
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: I think project managers have been a bit not very proud about their work. They’ve been seeing like, “Okay, you are not very modern. Agile teams are better, or innovation people,” so I think as a project manager, you need to believe on what you’re doing. Second, I think we need to take more ownership. I’ve been working 25 years in this space and managing large transformation M&A, and I always was waiting for the sponsor. I know the sponsor was very important for my projects, but I was kind of waiting and hoping that the sponsor will learn and follow training on how to do it or make some time for my projects. And I’ve learned the lesson is that the first thing I do in my projects is I go to the sponsor and talk frankly with the sponsor.
“Listen, are you ready to put time on this project? It’s very important. I need you, and I’m happy to coach you. I’m happy to tell you how projects work and what do we need to focus on, but I need your time, and I need a couple of hours per month. Let’s say an hour every two weeks. I need to talk to you. I need decisions from you.” So, I’m very much proactive because I know that role is very important and these people are really busy. One of the biggest lesson learned was being proactive with my project. The second maybe is I talk to many project managers and we are very technical to the point of sometimes difficult to understand, slash boring, right? Who wants to talk to a project manager? Come on. Do you have something more interesting? No, but that’s …
ALISON BEARD: You’re more interesting than I imagine, than my sort of vision of what the project manager is.
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: You see? Because I don’t talk about project management, I don’t talk about Gantt charts, I don’t think that’s my kitchen. That’s what I do when I need to think about making a plan, but you are interested on the bigger picture. You are interested on how my ideas will contribute to our needs as an organization, so I do this exercise with project managers, “Tell your partner what you do without mentioning the words projects and project management,” and they say, “Oh, I’m struggling. What do I do?” And then they start talking about the value they bring, and that’s what people want to hear.
You covered this topic broadly in HBR, but talking, adapting, understanding the language of your stakeholders, using it. That’s how you get their engagement. That’s how you get their attention. That’s how they appreciate your value, and that’s the second big learning. When I did that, things changed for me. Senior leaders wanted to talk to me. When I forced them to prioritize in key projects, they were saying, “Antonio, we want another meeting with you,” was the CEO of the bank, because I force them. I force them to create value. I force them to have strategic dialogue, so I would say if you’re listening, you’re working in this space, move on into that space. Move on on the value creation, on your stakeholder, and things will change very fast.
ALISON BEARD: Well, Antonio, I learned a ton today. Thanks so much for coming on the show.
ANTONIO NIETO-RODRIGUEZ: A pleasure.
HANNAH BATES: That was project management expert Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez in conversation with Alison Beard on the HBR IdeaCast. He’s the author of the Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook.
We’ll be back next Wednesday with another hand-picked conversation about business strategy from Harvard Business Review. If you found this episode helpful, share it with your friends and colleagues, and follow our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re there, be sure to leave us a review. And when you’re ready for more podcasts, articles, case studies, books, and videos with the world’s top business and management experts, find it all at HBR.org.
This episode was produced by Mary Dooe, Anne Saini, and me, Hannah Bates. Ian Fox is our editor. And special thanks to Rob Eckhardt, Adam Buchholz, Maureen Hoch, Nicole Smith, Erica Truxler, Ramsey Khabbaz, Anne Bartholomew, and you – our listener. See you next week.
This article is about strategy.
Organizations looking to staff and provide policy for a second Trump administration want severe roll-backs on access to surrogacy, IVF, mifepristone, and contraception
Special Programs Abortion Rights & Reproductive Health
Written by Media Matters Staff
Research contributions from Sophie Lawton , Jacina Hollins-Borges , Jack Wheatley , John Knefel , Charis Hoard , Jasmine Geonzon & Audrey McCabe
Published 06/24/24 1:30 PM EDT
Organizations involved in Project 2025 — a broad effort from more than 100 groups within the conservative movement to provide staffing and policy positions to a second Donald Trump administration — have advocated for extreme rollbacks to reproductive rights and access to healthcare.
Inside Project 2025's Attack on Reproductive Rights by Media Matters for America on Scribd
Specifically, Project 2025 partner groups have:
Spread misinformation about contraceptive methods or championed limiting access to contraception, largely on religious grounds.
Published written content, supported legal efforts, or had organizational leadership make comments against the use of safe and effective abortion pills, specifically mifepristone.
Additionally, The Heritage Foundation, America First Legal, and the Center for Renewing America have endorsed reviving the Comstock Act to restrict access to abortion by potentially banning the mailing of all materials that could be used for the procedure
Publicly criticized in vitro fertilization.
Published and presented anti-surrogacy arguments.
Project 2025 is a radical right-wing transition plan organized by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. The initiative’s nearly 900-page policy book, titled Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise , describes — among many other issues — Project 2025’s plan to attack reproductive rights from several angles. The proposals put forward include removing the term “abortion” from all federal laws and regulations, reversing approval of abortion medications, punishing providers by withdrawing federal health funding, and restricting clinics that provide contraception and STD testing. A chapter in Mandate for Leadership also calls for the next Republican administration to use the Comstock Act , “an 1873 anti-vice law banning the mailing of obscene matter and articles used to produce abortion,” to effectively end “mail-order abortions.”
During a June 22 appearance on MSNBC's The Weekend , Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts underlined Project 2025’s broad ambitions, saying its framework is “going to transcend the next 4 years, the next 10 years.”
The Heritage Foundation has been publishing Mandate for Leadership policy books coinciding with presidential elections since 1980, but this is the first year Heritage has included more than 100 right-wing partner organizations, making it a conservative coalition effort. Beyond what’s in the official policy book, many of the Project 2025 partner organizations — including those with strong ties to Christian nationalism — have also leveled other attacks on reproductive rights. These groups have collectively called for massive restrictions on access to contraception, in vitro fertilization, surrogacy, and abortion drugs such as mifepristone — which are now used in 63% of abortions in the United States.
Media Matters has also recently published thorough research on Project 2025 and the MAGA media universe, including:
And a full list of Media Matters content on Project 2025 can be found here .
When considering a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) as the next step in their education, many nurses share concerns regarding the program’s final project. Unlike a traditional doctoral dissertation, the goal of a DNP project is to allow students to showcase their ability to translate knowledge and research into practical applications and solutions to real-world problems, impacting health care outcomes at a systems or population level.
At UC College of Nursing, students work with faculty advisors to choose a DNP project topic that relates to their advanced-practice specialty. The nature of projects varies and can include:
To provide additional insight into the planning and steps of a DNP final project, we interviewed Paige Dahlke, BSN, RN, CCRN, an adult-gerontology acute care DNP candidate whose project ranked top at the college’s Annual Doctoral Student Project Showcase .
Dahlke received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Northern Colorado in 2016, before relocating with her husband to Dayton, Ohio where she worked closely with ICU nurse practitioners at Kettering Health Dayton.
“Watching my leadership exercise higher level thinking when making impactful decisions for patients inspired me to go back to school,” she says. “I enjoyed caring for critically ill patients and wanted to progress in my ability to care for them, so I decided the DNP in adult-gerontology acute care program was the path for me, since it allows me to not only care for patients at a higher level, but also implement quality improvement projects, teach and so much more.”
Given her previous work experience, Dahlke decided to pursue a quality improvement project focused on early mobility interventions for ICU staff.
Paige Dahlke, RN
“ICU patient care requires life-saving treatments that frequently relate to increased immobility. My literature review showed that prolonged immobility is detrimental to all systems and functional ability; even when patients recover from what landed them in the ICU, they’re still not doing great due to adverse effects such as ICU-acquired weakness,” Dahlke shares. “Getting patients up and moving leads to better patient outcomes, decreased length of stay, increased functional ability and better recovery after illness.”
Aware that the lack of collaboration among different disciplines providing patient care in the ICU is a consistent barrier to early mobility intervention completion, Dahlke decided to create and deliver an education module showcasing the safety and feasibility of early mobility interventions and shared a Level of Function Mobility (LOF) scale to assist in consistent care and seamless communication for care providers in the ICU.
Dahlke partnered with Kelsey Schweikert, BSN, RN, clinical nurse manager at Kettering Health, to present the education module and explain the LOF scale at the hospital’s ICU multidisciplinary meeting. She also showed where the LOF mobility scale and documentation for rating would be found in ICU patient rooms. To assess staff perceptions of the intervention and interdisciplinary collaboration, Dahlke collected surveys pre- and post-LOF scale use, in addition to data on length of stay and Morse Fall Risk Assessment before and after intervention and scale implementation. A statistical analysis showed an improvement in ICU length of stay, change in Morse Fall Risk and staff perceptions of early mobility. As the changes were not statistically significant, Dahlke concluded that, although the improvement in each of the metrics shows potential for the project, further evaluation—including longer implementation and additional resources—is necessary to potentially produce statistically significant results.
“My goal is to decrease the burden of one single discipline to complete early mobility interventions within the complex ICU,” says Dahlke. “A multidisciplinary approach will encourage collaboration and improve patient outcomes.”
When asked about her steps towards a successful DNP project, Dahlke praises the support she has received at the UC College of Nursing.
“Dr. Eilleen Werdman, my project chair, has been supportive of the project since day 1. DNP projects entail three well-defined phases—planning, implementation and data collection—each covered throughout the classes that walk you through the process for a successful project. You follow a well-defined process guided by faculty and your chair.”
Dahlke, who will welcome her first baby in July, graduate in August and move alongside her husband in September, is excited about her future professional options.
“I feel that the DNP has prepared me to do anything I want in my career. I may pursue cardiology or pulmonology, or another specialty. Even if I end up not going back to work in the ICU, I’m glad to have contributed to patient outcomes through my project,” she says.
Want to learn more about our DNP program? Let us know here .
A uc first: enrollment tops 48,000.
August 18, 2022
The University of Cincinnati anticipates record enrollment as classes begin Monday, Aug. 22, with a projected 48,300 students — a 3% increase over last year. It will mark nearly a decade of continuous growth of a student body that increasingly reflects the university’s core values.
April 4, 2023
University of Cincinnati alumna and nurse practitioner Kimberly Godsey took to a TEDx stage to talk about how mental and physical health are linked.
March 8, 2023
Research from UC finds a lack of federal funding for incarceration-related research.
The three-week research projects highlight topics from transportation to social issues.
It’s a daily topic in Imperial County during summer months, especially, as temperatures exceed 100 degrees. Now, a group of San Diego State University Imperial Valley students, led by a team of interdisciplinary faculty researchers, are examining how excessive heat impacts people’s everyday lives.
The study “The Right to Stay Cool: Race, Class, and Managing Heat,” is funded by the National Science Foundation, and explores how heat is connected to social inequality in two different but related settings: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Imperial Valley.
Evelyn Suarez , an SDSU Imperial Valley psychology student, alongside her peers, studied how medical workers, teachers, and daily commuters who cross the U.S.-Mexico border for work or school may adjust their daily routines based on torrid temperatures. Through interviews conducted over a three-week period, the students examined disparities in access to water, basic shade and air conditioning.
“People’s lives who are constantly affected by the heat are used to knowing or seeing someone experience heat exhaustion or heat strokes,” said Suarez. “We are conditioned to think we can handle the heat when many public spaces or homes don’t have proper access to air conditioning, water or outdoor shade.”
“As a native from Brazil, I see many similarities in Rio de Janeiro and Imperial Valley in how people navigate heat issues,” said Roberto Ivo Da Rocha , a visiting professor of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, who alongside Linda Abarbanell , SDSU Imperial Valley associate professor of psychology and SDSU professor of anthropology, Erika Robb Larkins , are the study’s lead researchers.
READ: Imperial Valley is Focus of Study on High Heat and Social Inequality (2021)
“Heat not only affects people’s lifestyle, but also socioeconomic statuses and overall well-being. It has been a fantastic experience getting to guide and mentor our students,” said Larkins.
“The field work has been an amazing experience as we got to collaborate with colleagues from other departments, and gain knowledge about an important issue that is likely to become more critical on a global level in the near future,” said Abarbanell. “We had a great group of students that brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm as well as their lived experiences to the program. It was very rewarding to see them grow in confidence and bond with one another.”
Emily Figueroa , a SDSU Imperial Valley criminal justice student, looked into the challenges of using public transportation during a daily commute. In Calexico, Figueroa noted that some distance commuters may wait for longer periods at their bus stops and have no access to shade during peak hours of the day.
“Others shared with me that biking to work was their only form of transportation,” said Figueroa. “Everyone I interviewed had different levels of access to transportation. I hope the community and local leaders emphasize the need for more accessible transportation. It affects people’s mobility and overall quality of life.”
Following the conclusion of their Imperial Valley-based research contributions, each student presented their research findings to the study’s lead researchers. They also plan to present their findings at SDSU’s student research symposium next spring.
After the presentations, the faculty members will begin plans to send five students to Rio de Janeiro for the second portion of the field research.
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A research problem is a specific issue or gap in existing knowledge that you aim to address in your research. You may choose to look for practical problems aimed at contributing to change, or theoretical problems aimed at expanding knowledge. Some research will do both of these things, but usually the research problem focuses on one or the other.
Research problem is a specific and well-defined issue or question that a researcher seeks to investigate through research. It is the starting point of any research project, as it sets the direction, scope, and purpose of the study. Types of Research Problems. Types of Research Problems are as follows: Descriptive problems
45 Research Problem Examples & Inspiration. A research problem is an issue of concern that is the catalyst for your research. It demonstrates why the research problem needs to take place in the first place. Generally, you will write your research problem as a clear, concise, and focused statement that identifies an issue or gap in current ...
A research problem is a gap in existing knowledge, a contradiction in an established theory, or a real-world challenge that a researcher aims to address in their research. It is at the heart of any scientific inquiry, directing the trajectory of an investigation. The statement of a problem orients the reader to the importance of the topic, sets ...
May 21, 2024. Identifying a research problem is a crucial first step in the research process, serving as the foundation for all subsequent research activities. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the steps involved in identifying a research problem, from understanding its essence to employing advanced strategies for refinement.
A research problem can be theoretical in nature, focusing on an area of academic research that is lacking in some way. Alternatively, a research problem can be more applied in nature, focused on finding a practical solution to an established problem within an industry or an organisation. In other words, theoretical research problems are motivated by the desire to grow the overall body of ...
A research problem is a definite or clear expression [statement] about an area of concern, a condition to be improved upon, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or within existing practice that points to a need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation.
The first question asks for a ready-made solution, and is not focused or researchable. The second question is a clearer comparative question, but note that it may not be practically feasible. For a smaller research project or thesis, it could be narrowed down further to focus on the effectiveness of drunk driving laws in just one or two countries.
Formulation of research problem should depict what is to be determined and scope of the study.It also involves key concept definitions questions to be asked. The objective of the present paper highlights the above stated issues. Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (2016). Craft of Research (4th Edition).
The placement of the research problem in the research project is another crucial component when developing a problem statement. Since the research problem statement is fundamental to writing any research project, it is best to write it at the start of the research process, before experimental setup, data collection, and analysis.
A research problem has two essential roles in setting your research project on a course for success. 1. They set the scope. The research problem defines what problem or opportunity you're looking at and what your research goals are. It stops you from getting side-tracked or allowing the scope of research to creep off-course.
Research is a procedure based on a sequence and a research problem aids in following and completing the research in a sequence. Repetition of existing literature is something that should be avoided in research. Therefore research problem in a dissertation or an essay needs to be well thought out and presented with a clear purpose.
The purpose of the problem statement is to identify the issue that is a concern and focus it in a way that allows it to be studied in a systematic way. It defines the problem and proposes a way to research a solution, or demonstrates why further information is needed in order for a solution to become possible.
The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Chapter 1: Research and the Research Problem. Nicholas Walliman. Your Research Project: Designing and Planning Your Work. 3rd edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2011; Choosing a Topic. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Mullaney, Thomas S. and Christopher Rea. Where ...
A well-crafted problem statement is essential for the success of any research project. Project management: In project management, problem statements are used to identify the issues or challenges that a project team needs to address. Problem statements help project managers to define project scope, set project goals, and develop project plans.
esearch question for a study, depending on the complex-ity and breadth of your proposed work. Each question should be clear and specific, refer to the problem or phenomenon, reflect an inter. ention in experimental work, and note the target population or participants (see Figure 2.1). Identifying a research question will provide greater focus ...
This describes who the problem affects, why research is needed, and how your research project will contribute to solving it. >>Read more about defining a research problem. Step 3: Formulate research questions. Next, based on the problem statement, you need to write one or more research questions. These target exactly what you want to find out.
5. Select and include important variables. A clear and manageable research problem typically includes the variables that are most relevant to the study. A research team summarizes how they plan to consider and use these variables and how they might influence the results of the study. Selecting the most important variables can help the study's ...
Take your time with the planning process. "It's worth consulting other researchers, doing a pilot study to test it, before you go out spending the time, money, and energy to do the big study," Crawford says. "Because once you begin the study, you can't stop.". Challenge: Assembling a Research Team.
A research problem is a specific issue or gap in existing knowledge that you aim to address in your research. You may choose to look for practical problems aimed at contributing to change, or theoretical problems aimed at expanding knowledge. Some research will do both of these things, but usually the research problem focuses on one or the other.
Research may be conducted to: 1) fill such gaps in knowledge; 2) evaluate if the methodologies employed in prior studies can be adapted to solve other problems; or, 3) determine if a similar study could be conducted in a different subject area or applied in a different context or to different study sample [i.e., different setting or different ...
The first step in any research project is to identify the problem. When we specifically talk about research related to a business organisation, the first step is to identify the problem that is being faced by the concerned organisation. The researchers need to develop a concrete, unambiguous and easily comprehensible definition of the problem ...
In this article, we'll list 5 common errors in the research process and tell you how to avoid making them, so you can get the best data possible. Get your research right every time with our ultimate guide to conducting market research. 1. Population Specification. Population specification errors occur when the researcher does not understand ...
Here's another example of randomization problems — with public data. Upworthy Research Archive. Nathan Matias, Kevin Munger, Marianne Aubin Le Quere, and Charles Ebersole worked with Upworthy to curate and release a data set of over 15,000 experiments, with a total of over 150,000 treatments. Each of these experiments modifies the headline ...
June 19, 2024. Companies of every size across the world are basing more of their work around projects than at any time in the past. But research shows that nearly two-thirds of those efforts fail.
Arc 3D Model Viewer is a tool for viewing 3D datasets. The Arc Viewer is specifically designed for anatomical data; although, you could view non-medical 3D datasets too! Arc 3D Model Viewer allows you to import a supported file (see below) for native 3D viewing. Windows Installer Download v1.0.0June 25, 2024 Manual & Quick Start…
Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, is a collection of conservative policy proposals from The Heritage Foundation to reshape the United States federal government in the event of a Republican Party victory in the 2024 presidential election. Established in 2022, the project has been most notable for how it aims to achieve its objectives.
The initiative's nearly 900-page policy book, titled Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, describes — among many other issues — Project 2025's plan to attack reproductive ...
When considering a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) as the next step in their education, many nurses share concerns regarding the program's final project. Unlike a traditional doctoral dissertation, the goal of a DNP project is to allow students to showcase their ability to translate knowledge and research into practical applications and solutions to real-world problems, impacting health ...
Following the end of the Imperial Valley portion of the study in June, five students will be selected to visit Brazil as part of an international research project. (SDSU Imperial Valley) It's a daily topic in Imperial County during summer months, especially, as temperatures exceed 100 degrees.