As you complete the study of validity, you should be considering how you will produce a complete research plan geared towards a homeland security, criminal justice, or emergency management issue for the final week’s assignment.

Throughout the term, you have been introduced to many concepts related to conducting social science research. By the end of the term, you must synthesize what you’ve learned and produce, execute in part, and write up results of a complete research plan. 

You may draw a topic from any of the illustrations used in past weeks or any topic of your choosing related to the fields of homeland security, criminal justice, or emergency management.

Assignment Guidelines

• Choose a topic, and describe why it should be studied. What is the problem or condition you seek to consider and evaluate, and why will the results of your study matter for social science and for policy makers?
  1. Find at least 3 external sources that address a topic relative to yours to produce a miniversion of a comprehensive literature review. Use journal articles, government documents, texts, testimony, official manuals, and other credible resources only.
  2. Provide each source’s bibliographic reference here in accordance with APA style guidelines.
  3. Summarize briefly what exists—or does not exist—in the literature review that provides a starting point for your project. This point should inform the choices you make in answering the questions below.
  4. If your topic seems to be difficult, you may want to start anew with a narrower focus.
• Create a research question or questions. Look back at narratives from previous weeks for guidance on this.
  1. Identify and explain your research constructs.
• Create 1 or more hypotheses. 
  1. Fully operationalize each variable. Make certain that this step is as extensive as possible.
  2. Explain how and why your form of operationalization for each variable will help you avoid the threats to validity you learned about this week. 
• What approach will you employ to study your topic—quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods analysis?
  1. Define the parameters for the population you will study as a whole, draw samples from, or combine methods for. 
     1. How will you extend any findings from this population to a larger one?
     2. Fully defend the choices you are making.
  2. Explain what research instruments you plan to use for any and all phases of your research. 
     1. Fully defend the choices you are making.
  3. Outline how you will proceed in conducting your study. 
     1. What forms of data collections will you use, and why did you choose them?
• Explain the findings you expect to reveal. 
  1. Consider and forecast the form your data output will be in.
  2. Estimate what process you will use to interpret and report your findings (you cannot do much more without conducting your research).
• Provide an outline for your entire research plan.