research project website template

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Research Website Templates

Research Lab

Laboratory Research

Health Website

Copywriting & Researching App

Agency Website

Digital Agency

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These Research Website Templates Are Perfect For

• Academic Institutions : Universities and colleges can use these templates to showcase their research projects, scientific breakthroughs, and scholarly articles, improving their visibility and credibility.
• Nonprofit Research Organizations : These organizations can use research website templates to publish their findings, solicit donations, and engage the public in their cause.
• Market Research Firms : Such firms can leverage these templates to display their case studies, methodologies, and services offered, helping to attract potential clients.
• Medical Research : Research website templates can help medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies share their latest findings, clinical trial results, and health studies with the public or professionals in the field.
• Environmental Research : Organizations dedicated to studying climate change, conservation, and other environmental issues can use these templates to disseminate information, educate the public, and advocate for change.
• Tech Research : Tech companies and startups can use these templates to showcase their innovation and research, attracting investors, clients, and talented professionals.
• Independent Researchers : Individuals conducting independent research can use these templates to share their work, findings, and theories, inviting feedback and collaboration from others in their field.
• Think Tanks : These policy institutes can use research website templates to publish their research papers, discuss policy proposals, and host online debates or discussions.
• Research Journals : Academic and industry journals can use these templates to present articles, call for papers, and provide subscription options.
• Government Research : Government agencies can use these templates to publish their research on various subjects, enhancing transparency and fostering public trust.

In essence, research website templates are an essential tool for anyone looking to present research work professionally, disseminate knowledge, and engage with a broader audience.

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Research Proposal Template

Used 7,990 times

4.2 Rating ( 25 reviews)

Reviewed by Olga Asheychik

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Prepared by: ​ [Researcher.FirstName] [Researcher.LastName] ​

Prepared for: ​ [Supervisor.FirstName]

​ [Supervisor.LastName]

This should be clear and concise, leaving the reader with no doubt regarding your field of study. A good title structure can often be “Short Title: Longer Explanation of Your Field.” Your academic institution may have a preferred format for the title, or even a title page. Find out before you submit your proposal. If there is no preferred format, keep it simple and clear, and use a “serif” font that is easily legible.

(Main title: What I am trying to find out by taking on this project)

(Academic Institution)

(Subject Area)

​ [Supervisor.FirstName]

​ [Supervisor.LastName] (if you already have one)

​ [Researcher.FirstName]

​ [Researcher.LastName]

(Student ID/Number)

2. Abstract

100-200 words. This summarizes the central theme of your research. Use concise, clipped language that is academic without being over-wordy and verbose. The abstract needs to be entirely your own words, as every abstract should be completely different, unique in its approach to your topic. Like the rest of the document, apart from block quotations, it should be double-spaced and laid out clearly.

3. Contents

Depending on the length of your research proposal, you may wish to include a contents page for the proposal itself (not for your main research project: suggested contents for this are included in your Proposed Chapter Outline, section 9) , as follows (add page numbers/subsections when you know them, depending on your research) . As you introduce sub-sections into your different sections, number them accordingly e.g. subsections of the literature review could be numbered 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, etc.

Abstract………………………………………pn

Contents……………………………………..pn

Introduction………………………………..pn

Problem Statement……………………pn

Objectives…………………………………..pn

Literature Review……………………….pn

Notion of Original Research……..pn

Key Assertions / Objectives……..pn

Research Methods…………………….pn

Sample Audience……………………….pn

Research Questions…………………..pn

Research Design………………………..pn

Analysis………………………………………pn

Proposed Chapter Outline…………pn

Research Limitations…………………pn

Proposed Timescale………………….pn

Funding (Optional)……………………..pn

References/ Bibliography………….pn

4. Introduction

200-400 words. Unlike the abstract, this is not a summary of everything you are about to say — you can afford to grab your readers’ attention right out of the gate. Deliver a surprise beginning, perhaps a quote from someone who inspires you on this topic, and show your knowledge of the research area (include, if you like, your previous research experience in this field; in fact, it may serve you well to be personal in this section) and why it is relevant to today’s world.

Try to provide facts and references here in order to give relevance to your study and why it is being conducted. This will help to explain the motivation behind your research and how important it is for academia, the industry or public sector it is being conducted in.

5. Problem Statement

Keep this short and informative. This section is meant to provide the reader with a summarized description of the problems you seek to address through your research proposal. Showcase the questions you seek to answer through your research and how it will help benefit those who read it. A problem statement should include the context of the problem, a particular audience you are targeting, and a timeline for the study. This will ensure that your research is well-focused and relevant to the current time and people.

The application of (topic, aka the main title of the subject you are researching) for (a particular group of people) in (timeline, this should either be current year or upcoming years but research can be done on past years as well) .

6. Objectives

This follows up on the problem statement section. It elaborates further on the problem statement by dividing it into a set of 3 to 5 descriptive assertions or intentions that relate to the problem. Objectives establish the scope and depth of your project and also help set up the idea for the research design (as seen later in the research proposal template) . The objectives can also indicate a section that shows how your research will contribute to already existing research and knowledge.

To study the applications of blockchain in the gaming industry and how it can help be a new source of revenue.

To study how blockchain gaming can influence people who don’t gamble to actively invest time in gaming.

To determine whether blockchain gaming can be a viable job opportunity in the future.

7. Literature review

Length can vary immensely, but probably 300-1500 words or more, depending on the nature of your research. This is one of the most important sections of your research proposal. It demonstrates that you know your field, who the key research players are in it, what has been said in the past and what is being said at the moment. You will want to mention — and where appropriate, quote from — key works in your area.

This is the section that requires the most preliminary research, so be sure you spend ample time in an academic library and use search engines for relevant academic papers before presenting. You do not need to discuss every work in your area, but you need to present a competent outline, and (especially if this is a proposal for doctoral research) you need to be sure that no one else has already done the same project. A good way of presenting a literature review coherently is in the form of a narrative, which can either be chronological or thematic.

There has been a (small/considerable/state value here) amount of previous academic research in this field.

(For a chronological narrative) I will outline how the understanding of (subject) has developed over (the last number of) years.

(Insert chronological narrative, remembering to introduce key players, dates, and academic works, and end with the state of the field as it is today.)

(For a thematic narrative) I will outline the major themes that are of relevance in this field, and go through them each in turn:

• (use a bulleted list to outline what themes/topics you are planning on covering)

After your bulleted list, you can use the themes from your list as subtitles to split up your literature review. Put them in bold. You could also add them as subsections in your contents page.

Under each subtitle, describe the state of the field of research in this area, including the most important researchers and works in this area.

8. Notion of original research

Length varies here as well, but similar in length to the literature review is likely a good place to start. This is where you sell your research proposal to the reader. You need to explain, clearly and simply, how your research will complement the field you have just described in your literature review — what you will add, how it fills an existing gap, why the academic world would benefit from your research, etc.

9. Key Assertions/Objectives

One sentence for each question/assertion. This is really part of the “notion of original research” section. A good way of making your research aim clear is to state a clear research question, and back it up with 2-4 specific assertions or objectives.

My central research question is as follows:

(insert research question here, in bold)

In the light of this, I will make the following observations/assertions: (insert observations/assertions here, in bulleted list.)

10. Research methods

Approx. 50-1000 words, depending on the nature of your research. This is where you explain how and where you plan to carry out your research. This will vary hugely depending on your subject. Will you be researching in libraries and archives? Which ones hold the books and documents you will need? Will you need to travel? If so, where? Will your research involve extensive field work? How and where? State whether you will plan to use different methods of data collection, and if so what they will be.

Do you need to be in a laboratory? Will you be emphasizing qualitative or quantitative collection of data, or both equally? Do you have the necessary skills and qualifications to undertake your research (for instance, foreign languages, statistical analysis, laboratory training, etc) ? If not, what are your plans to acquire these skills? (Note: many postgraduate institutions offer considerable support in the acquisition of new skills necessary to perform research, but this will require discussion at the proposal stage.)

11. Sample Audience

This section aims to provide the reader of the proposal with a description of who the sample audience is. You can add a brief description of your ideal sample audience and why such a person is relevant or necessary to the research. You can also mention what measures can be taken to gain their consent for the research in order to get a more enthusiastic and unbiased response. Lastly, you should mention where you propose to find this sample audience and any barriers that may occur in finding or engaging them.

12. Research Questions

13. research design.

This section will give the reader a description of what the research stimuli will look like. It gives a background of the different variations you may employ to better help test your hypothesis. It should also showcase the different factors that may vary a person's response to the research problem while you are researching the topic. This is important in a research proposal, because as with method, different factors help show what could affect you by confirming or denying your hypothesis. Keep your design descriptive and show how you will rule out or control factors that may come up.

14. Analysis

Approx. 50-300 words. Once you have collected your data, include details about what you plan to do with it. Again, depending on the nature of your research, this section could be anywhere from one or two sentences to several paragraphs.

If your research is in a survey format, then include the questions to the survey along with the method of collecting the survey. You can also include a few examples of how you plan to present the data, such as in a pie chart format or as a bar graph.

15. Proposed chapter outline

Probably less than 200 words, unless you have a very detailed plan already in mind. Note: this is like the preliminary contents page, but it does not need to be very specific, and can suggest sections rather than chapters at this stage. The academics reading your proposal will be impressed to know that you have some idea how you may wish to present your work, and that you have some way in mind of translating your research to paper.

(title of your first chapter) (explanation of your first chapter contents: one sentence)

(first subsection of your first chapter)

(second subsection of your first chapter)

(title of your second chapter) (explanation of your second chapter contents: one sentence)

(first subsection of your second chapter)

(second subsection of your second chapter)

(smaller section)

(another small section)

(title of your third chapter) (explanation of your third chapter contents: one sentence)

16. Research limitations

Approx 50-300 words. This section states everything you won’t be able to do in your research. It is surprisingly important, as it shows that you can recognise the limited scale of your work. Every project needs distinct limiting factors and clear boundaries in order to be manageable.

Naturally, the scope of this project is limited. This section describes specific limitations. (add limitations here) .

17. Proposed Timetable

Approx 50-300 words. This section is optional, but may be helpful to show your potential supervisors that you are being realistic and recognize that your project has set parameters within which to conduct the study. It also will help you to know the scale of your work in the preliminary stages of planning, and help you to maintain realistic expectations of yourself.

I predict that this research project will take (number) months/years. I propose a rough timeline, as follows:

(Here, include a list of tasks that will need completing as part of your research project, and how long you predict each will take in terms of weeks or months. End with a final count of months. If you have a predicted start date, you can begin with this and work towards a proposed end date.)

You can also use a project schedule table in order to plan out the project for yourself as well as give a better understanding as to the breakup of the project timeline. An example of this is:

18. Funding

For example, your money allocation table can look like this:

19. References/Bibliography

The reference list should always begin on a new page. Depending on your subject, there will probably be a specific format and referencing pattern for written work (Chicago, Harvard, MLA, Social Sciences) . Before you start writing, make sure you know what the convention for your subject area is, learn it and stick to it. There are a wide variety of different referencing conventions so it is important to make sure you find the correct one and stay consistent.

This will make doing your research proposal (and future research) a lot easier. Depending on your subject, your referencing may involve in-text citations or footnotes. Either way, your proposal will need a full reference list or bibliography at the end, including all of the secondary works you have mentioned in your literature review and primary sources (if applicable) .

You do not, however, need to include work that you have read in preparation but not used or mentioned in your work. Make sure this is correctly formatted — plenty of style guides for each referencing style are available online. Also, remember to lay out your reference list in alphabetical order by the authors’ surnames.

​ [Researcher.FirstName] [Researcher.LastName] ​

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How to write a research proposal?

To make a comprehensive research proposal, make sure you answer all the questions your review committee might have, such as who is your sample audience, what kind of questions you plan to ask them, why you are conducting this research, what you think will come out of it, etc. Leave no room for assumptions. Alternatively, you can also use this template to best understand which nitty-gritty details to cover.

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Research Web Designs & Templates

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WebDev Creative Agency

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Artworks & Exhibitions News

Trade Company

Innovative Design Solutions

Roof Repairs

Main features, advanced search functionality.

Allow users to search for specific research topics with filters for precise results.

Data Visualization Tools

Present research findings through interactive charts and graphs for better understanding.

Keyword Tagging System

Organize research articles efficiently with a tagging system for easy categorization and retrieval.

Publication Submission Portal

Enable researchers to submit their work online with a streamlined publication submission process.

Secure User Profiles

Ensure data privacy and confidentiality with secure user profiles and access controls.

Bookmarking Feature

Allow users to save their favorite research articles for quick access and reference.

Notification Alerts

Keep users informed about new research updates and activities through notification alerts.

Discussion Forums

Facilitate academic discussions and collaborations through integrated discussion forums.

Contact Form Integration

Allow users to easily reach out for queries or collaborations with integrated contact forms.

How to design websites with research template?

Gather information about your target audience, competitors, and industry trends to inform your website design and content strategy.

Define Goals

Clarify the purpose of your website, whether it's to generate leads, increase sales, or build brand awareness.

Choose Platform

Select a website building platform that suits your needs, such as WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace.

Create a visually appealing and user-friendly layout that reflects your brand identity and resonates with your target audience.

Develop Content

Craft engaging and relevant content, including text, images, and videos, to communicate your message effectively.

Test and Launch

Thoroughly test your website for functionality and responsiveness before launching it to ensure a seamless user experience.

What websites can be made with these templates?

• Exploration A website dedicated to delving deeply into various topics, providing comprehensive information and insights.
• Inquiry A platform aimed at seeking answers to specific questions through detailed investigations and analyses.
• Study A site focused on examining subjects in detail, offering valuable findings and interpretations.
• Examination A website designed for thorough scrutiny and evaluation of different subjects or phenomena.
• Investigation An online resource dedicated to digging into issues and uncovering new perspectives and data.
• Analysis A platform that specializes in breaking down complex topics and providing in-depth interpretations.
• Delve A site that goes deep into various subjects, offering comprehensive insights and valuable information.
• Scrutiny A website that carefully examines and analyzes various topics, providing detailed insights and perspectives.
• Exposition An online platform that presents detailed explanations and analyses of different subjects.
• Interpretation A website that focuses on providing insightful explanations and analyses of various subjects or phenomena.
• Exploration A platform dedicated to discovering new information and insights on a wide range of topics.
• Examination A site that conducts detailed examinations and evaluations of different subjects, offering valuable insights.
• Investigation An online resource that investigates various topics thoroughly, uncovering new perspectives and data.
• Analysis A platform that specializes in analyzing and interpreting complex subjects, offering valuable insights.
• Delve A website that delves deep into different subjects, providing comprehensive information and perspectives.

Choosing the right research website template

• Mobirise AI Offering a great alternative for creating research web templates with its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and a wide range of customization options.
• ThemeForest A popular marketplace with a variety of research web templates designed by professional designers suitable for academic and scientific websites.
• TemplateMonster Features a collection of research web templates with modern and responsive designs, ideal for showcasing research projects and findings.
• Creative Market Provides a selection of unique and creative research web templates crafted by independent designers, allowing for a personalized touch.
• WrapBootstrap Offers a curated collection of research web templates with Bootstrap framework integration, ensuring a responsive and mobile-friendly experience.
• Wix A website builder platform with research-themed templates that are customizable and easy to use, suitable for researchers looking to create their own websites.
• Squarespace Known for its sleek and professional templates, featuring research-specific designs that are visually appealing and functional for presenting research data.

Free Research Website Templates

Creating a website with research website templates is a crucial step in showcasing information effectively. These templates offer a professional and structured layout for presenting research findings. When selecting a platform for building your website, consider Mobirise as a top choice. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and a wide range of research web page templates, Mobirise simplifies the process of creating a visually appealing and well-organized website. By customizing these templates to suit your research project's specific requirements, you can ensure that your website stands out and effectively communicates your findings to your audience. Whether you are a researcher, academic, or professional seeking to share your work online, Mobirise provides the tools and flexibility needed to create a sophisticated and responsive website. Embrace the power of Mobirise and unlock the potential of your research website with its versatile and user-friendly features. Let Mobirise be your partner in bringing your research to life on the web.

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Research Website Design Tutorial

Watch the video below to learn how to create your own websites using the template for research website..

Are the research website templates customizable?

Can i integrate data from my research into the templates automatically, are the templates compatible with popular research tools, can i add multimedia content to the research website templates, do the templates support responsive design for mobile devices, how can i get technical support for using the research website templates, why research templates.

• 🔍 Enhanced User Experience Research web designs often lead to improved user experience through better understanding of user behavior.
• 📊 Higher Conversion Rates By researching design elements, websites can be optimized for higher conversion rates.
• 🔧 Problem Identification Research helps in identifying design flaws or issues that can be rectified before deployment.
• 🎨 Tailored Design Decisions Research allows for making design decisions based on data and user preferences.
• 💡 Innovation and Creativity Research can stimulate innovative and creative design solutions.
• 💬 Clear Communication Clear communication of information is facilitated through well-researched web designs.
• 📈 Improved SEO Performance Research-driven designs can enhance SEO performance through optimized content and structure.
• 🛠️ Efficient Development Process Research helps in streamlining the development process by providing clear design guidelines.
• 📱 Responsive Design Research enables the creation of responsive designs that cater to various devices and screen sizes.
• 🧠 Better Understanding of Audience Research assists in gaining insights into the target audience, leading to more tailored designs.
• 🛒 Enhanced E-commerce Experience Research can improve the overall e-commerce experience by optimizing design elements for conversions.
• 🕰️ Time and Cost Savings Research helps in avoiding costly design revisions and saves time in the long run.

Sections of research website

• 📚 Introduction Discover the purpose and scope of the research.
• 🔍 Methodology Learn about the research methods and processes used.
• 📊 Results Explore the findings and outcomes of the research.
• 📝 Discussion Delve into the analysis and interpretation of the results.
• 📄 Literature Review Examine existing research and relevant literature.
• 📌 Conclusion Summarize key points and implications of the research.
• 📈 Data Analysis Present data in various forms for detailed examination.
• 📋 Research Questions Define the main questions driving the research.
• 📑 Abstract Provide a concise overview of the research project.
• 🗂️ References Cite sources and materials referenced in the research.
• 💡 Hypothesis Present the key hypotheses tested in the study.
• 🔄 Methodological Approach Explain the approach taken to conduct the research.
• 🔗 Related Work Connect the current research to prior relevant studies.
• 📅 Timeline Outline the schedule and milestones of the research project.
• 📝 Annotation Provide notes or comments on specific aspects of the research.

Creating my website using the research template was a breeze with its user-friendly interface and intuitive design features. I chose this tool specifically for its extensive research functionalities which allowed me to curate content efficiently. However, some questions arose regarding optimizing SEO for research-specific keywords. Overall, the process went smoothly, and I was able to achieve a professional-looking website tailored to my research needs.

Opting for Mobirise AI to create my website was a game-changer, especially with its dedicated research templates that catered to my requirements. Despite a few initial hiccups regarding customizing specific research elements, the overall process was efficient. The challenge of fine-tuning research data representation was offset by the tool's seamless integration of data visualization components. In the end, I achieved a visually appealing and informative website focused on research findings.

Choosing this website creation tool was a no-brainer due to its robust research features that aligned perfectly with my project goals. I encountered questions related to incorporating interactive research maps effectively. Despite facing challenges in optimizing research data tables for mobile responsiveness, the overall process was rewarding. By leveraging the tool's research-specific plugins, I overcame obstacles and successfully launched a research-focused website that exceeded my expectations.

The decision to use this tool for my website creation stemmed from its comprehensive research template options that facilitated my content organization. Utilizing Mobirise AI introduced me to new functionalities, including research-driven widgets that enriched my website's user experience. While I encountered questions regarding customizing advanced research filters, the process unfolded seamlessly. Overcoming challenges in integrating complex research graphs led to the successful unveiling of a dynamic research-oriented website.

The tool's reputation for research-oriented features motivated me to select it for my website creation endeavor. Exploring Mobirise AI's capabilities, I delved into leveraging research-specific modules that enhanced my design aesthetics. Amidst questions about effectively embedding large research datasets, the process transpired smoothly. Overcoming challenges related to aligning research gallery images propelled me to achieve a visually engaging website that showcases my research projects effectively.

The tool's emphasis on research utilities influenced my choice to create my website, steering towards a data-centric approach. Integrating Mobirise AI into my workflow expanded my research visualization options, introducing dynamic data representation features. Despite facing questions on optimizing research citation displays, the website creation process unfolded seamlessly. Overcoming challenges in aligning complex research infographics resulted in the successful launch of a data-driven website that effectively communicates research insights.

Opting for this tool to construct my website was driven by its tailored research template offerings that aligned with my content focus. Exploring Mobirise AI's suite of features, I harnessed research-centric elements to elevate my website's informational value. Addressing questions on integrating real-time research data feeds posed a temporary hurdle, but the overall process was seamless. Overcoming challenges in customizing advanced research chart animations led to the successful creation of an engaging research hub that effectively disseminates information.

Selecting this website creation tool was driven by its comprehensive research functionalities tailored to my project requirements. Embracing Mobirise AI, I explored research-specific options that enriched my website's interactivity. Grappling with questions around streamlining research project navigation was a minor setback, but the overall process was smooth. Overcoming challenges in integrating complex research landscape visuals resulted in the successful launch of a dynamic research website that captivates visitors with its engaging content.

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The all-in-one platform for academic websites

Owlstown is an easy-to-use website builder tailored to sharing academic content. It is also an online community for sharing and discovering great research.

What makes Owlstown different

There are many website builders out there, but Owlstown is the only one tailored to the unique needs of academics.

Unlike generic website builders, Owlstown is designed to showcase your research content: publications, projects, courses, CV, etc.

Some builders have complicated features that give you a lot of control over the website design and code. But who has time for all of that?

Owlstown is user-friendly and intuitive, so you can easily maintain a professional website. No code, no server maintenance, no hassle.

BTW, Owlstown is also an online community, so others can easily find your research content. And you can discover great research from other academic websites.

Thousands of academics around the world have discovered the joy of using Owlstown. Start your Owlstown website and join this growing community.

—Ian, creator of Owlstown 🦉

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Check out the rest of the features, plus more features, what academics are saying, start your academic website today.

See why thousands of academics, scholars, and scientists use Owlstown to create their website and their research online.

9 best academic website templates and designs

What are academic website templates?

Pre-made layouts and structures known as academic website templates are made especially for academic institutions, researchers, professors, or students to display their accomplishments, work, research projects, publications, and other academic-related data. Personal biographies, research interests, teaching experience, publications, conferences, and contact details are frequently included in these templates. Because of their easy customisation features, users can add their own material and alter the style to fit their preferences. Academic website templates are available as stand-alone HTML/CSS templates, on a variety of website construction platforms, and on content management systems.

Academy, a Webflow template, is tailored for online education. Its sleek design and user-friendly interface create an unmatched learning experience. With features like responsive design and customizable forms, it ensures smooth navigation and administration. Support for web fonts, symbols, and ecommerce integration makes it a top choice for educators and institutions aiming for excellence in digital education.

Learnify X is an exceptional Webflow template for educators and experts entering online course selling. It simplifies creating an online academy into three steps and includes features like a content management system, CSS grid, and custom 404 page. With ecommerce capabilities, forms, and interactions, it offers an engaging learning environment. Its responsive design, retina-ready display, and web fonts ensure a premium user experience on all devices and platforms.

The Network template is a robust solution tailored for educational institutes like academies, learning institutions, and colleges. It simplifies launching your education website with a user-friendly experience. Features include a content management system for easy updates, dynamic content for engagement, and responsive design for all devices. It also offers interactive elements, retina-ready visuals, and a media lightbox for immersive browsing. Perfect for creating a professional educational website.

Ecolabs is a versatile Webflow template tailored for online courses, academies, and educational institutions. It offers a visually appealing, user-friendly design with integrated features like a content management system, CSS grid layout, and custom 404 page. The template is responsive, ensuring seamless operation on all devices, and includes media lightbox integration and retina-ready graphics for impeccable visuals. Ecolabs also provides web fonts and symbols for customization, empowering you to create a unique educational platform effortlessly.

eLearner X is a premier Webflow template tailored for online academies, schools, and colleges. Designed with educators in mind, it facilitates course promotion and sales with a sleek, user-friendly interface. This education-centric template includes a content management system, CSS grid, and custom 404 page for enhanced functionality. It offers ecommerce capabilities, interactive forms, and a responsive design ensuring seamless performance across devices. With retina-ready visuals, responsive navigation, and a wide range of web fonts, eLearner X is ideal for creating a professional and engaging online learning platform that stands out in the education sector.

Education X is a Webflow template for eLearning platforms, ideal for companies providing and selling online courses. It offers a responsive design, smooth navigation, and user-friendly forms across devices. Notable features include symbols, interactions, CSS grid, a custom 404 page, web fonts, and retina-ready graphics. Education X also integrates a content management system and ecommerce capabilities, simplifying course management and sales.

Brookside is a meticulously crafted Webflow template ideal for universities, schools, and online learning platforms. Its sleek, minimalistic design enhances your institution's image and appeals to prospective students. The template features a content management system, CSS grid, custom 404 page, and responsive design, ensuring a smooth user experience. With interactions and web fonts, Brookside facilitates easy navigation and engagement, helping educational institutions create a memorable online presence.

Catalyst is a sleek Webflow template ideal for launching news websites or enhancing existing blogs. Its user-friendly interface ensures seamless delivery of your message. Loaded with features like retina-ready visuals, responsive design for flawless browsing, and a content management system for easy updates, Catalyst caters to academic and professional blogging needs. It includes web fonts, symbols, responsive navigation, interactions, and forms, providing a comprehensive blogging experience.

The Campus template is designed for academies, colleges, and schools to build their perfect educational website. It comes with a wide array of features tailored to meet the unique demands of educational institutions, ensuring a smooth and user-friendly experience for both administrators and visitors.Key features of the Campus template include a responsive design, responsive navigation, and interactions for dynamic content. The template also provides forms for easy data collection, symbols for uniform design elements, web fonts for a refined appearance, and retina-ready visuals for high-quality images. The Campus template's content management system makes managing and updating your educational website a breeze.

Who should use academic website template?

Academic website templates should be used by individuals or organizations involved in the academic field, such as universities, colleges, schools, research institutions, professors, researchers, students, and educational professionals who want to create a professional and functional website to showcase their work, achievements, research, courses, events, and other academic-related information. These templates are designed to cater to the specific needs and requirements of the academic community, making it easier for them to create a user-friendly and visually appealing website.

How do you choose the best academic website template?

The best academic website templates are defined by several key components. First and foremost, their design ought to be orderly and polished, reflecting the university's academic focus. Using the proper fonts, colours, and graphics is part of this. 

They should also have an easy-to-navigate menu and obvious links to key sites including those about the faculty, courses, admissions, and contact details. 

They ought to be responsive—that is, capable of automatically adjusting to suit screens of various sizes, including those of mobile devices and desktop PCs. 

Having characteristics that are unique to academic institutions, like a news section, a faculty directory, an events calendar, and a section for course details is recommended. 

Furthermore, they ought to have a content management system (CMS) that makes it simple for administrators to maintain and change the material of the website. 

Most importantly they must be search engine optimisation (SEO) friendly in order to raise the website's search engine ranking and draw more users. 

In conclusion, social media integration should be included, making it simple for users to follow the institution's social media accounts and post material on their own networks. 

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How to Create an Expert Research Proposal (+Templates)

Written by: Idorenyin Uko

Beyond serving as a blueprint for the entire study, it lays the groundwork for a smooth and efficient research process.

Research proposals detail what you’ll cover in a larger research project. Whether you're a graduate student or a seasoned professor seeking to expand your current project, you’re going to need one to secure approvals from relevant committees and request funding for the project.

With a solid proposal in place, your research project can proceed with confidence, clarity and focus.

However, writing a research proposal is daunting and can overwhelm even the most seasoned researchers. In this comprehensive guide, we'll share expert research proposal templates to spotlight your project.

We'll also share tips and best practices to help you create a proposal that will impress reviewers and secure funding for your project.

Let’s get to it.

Table of Contents

What should a research proposal include, research proposal examples, how to create a research proposal with visme, best practices when writing a research proposal.

• A research proposal is a document that outlines the strategy and justification for a research project. It is usually submitted to gain approval and funding for conducting the research.
• This document provides a detailed description of the research question, the methodology, the expected outcomes and the potential contributions of the research.
• A research proposal aims to persuade the reader, usually a funding agency or a research committee, that the proposed research is worthwhile and deserves support.
• To create a research proposal in Visme, use premade templates, write the content, visualize important data, customize your research proposal, download it and share it with relevant stakeholders
• Here are tips and best practices for creating a research proposal: understand the requirements, get feedback from peers and mentors, revise and edit your proposal and incorporate relevant visual aids.
• Visme has a wide range of proposal template s, tools and features to help you create winning research proposals.

First of all, what is a research proposal? A research proposal is a structured document that outlines the plan and rationale for a research project. It is typically submitted to gain approval and funding for conducting the research.

The specific requirements might vary depending on the institution, field of study and purpose of the research.

However, a comprehensive research proposal generally includes the following components:

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

The title page is the first thing readers see when they open your research proposal. It should contain the following details:

• The proposed title of your research proposal
• The institution and department
• Contact details
• Your supervisor's or advisor’s name Date of submission

If an external organization is sponsoring your research, provide client or funder details.

When crafting the title of your research proposal, keep it concise yet informative. Also, make sure it accurately reflects the focus of your research project.

Abstract and Table of Contents

If your proposal is lengthy, consider adding an abstract and table of contents.

A table of contents provides readers (such as reviewers, advisors, or funding committee members) with an organized overview of the proposal's structure. They can easily navigate and find specific information without flipping through the entire document.

• List all the major sections and subsections of your proposal
• Use clear and concise headings that represent the content of each section
• Provide page numbers for each section so that readers can easily locate them
• Keep the table of contents updated if you change the document's structure or page numbers

Introduction

The introduction is a critical part of your research proposal. It sets the tone for the rest of the document and provides a framework for understanding the research. Make sure it piques your audience's interest and briefly explains what you want to achieve and why.

Here are some details you should include in your introduction:

• Background information on the topic
• Relevant literature, theories and existing research in the field
• The objectives of the study and motivations
• Problem statement or research questions
• The significance of the research
• Previous research or studies that have been conducted in the area
• A brief summary of the research methodology being used and how the data will be analyzed

When building your introduction, here are some ideas or questions to guide your thoughts:

• Why is the research necessary?
• How much work has already been done on the topic?
• How does it contribute to the existing body of knowledge?
• What is the gap in knowledge or the specific problem that your research aims to address?
• Who might be interested in this topic? (e.g., Industries and corporations, government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), think tanks and academia?)

Literature Review

The literature is where you demonstrate your understanding of the existing knowledge in the field. In addition, a well-written literature review achieves these things:

• Justifies the need for your research
• Summarize the key findings and arguments of relevant studies
• Identify gaps in current knowledge and explain how your research will address these gaps

To write a compelling literature review, conducting thorough research beyond a narrow focus on just a few studies is essential. Instead, aim to investigate a broad range of theories, methods and debates within your field.

Not only will this help you identify the similarities and differences between various approaches, but it will also enable you to critically evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. You'll also be able to demonstrate how your own research builds upon, challenges, or synthesizes prior studies.

This approach will enrich your understanding of the subject matter and lend credibility and depth to your review. To provide a comprehensive overview of the subject matter, tap into different information sources, such as:

• Scholarly articles
• Conference papers and proceedings
• Journal publications
• Government statistics and data
• Industry reports and whitepapers
• Surveys and peer group sessions
• Textbooks, monographs and edited volumes
• Online search engines
• News articles
• ​​Social media and online communities
• Professional associations and networks and much more.

Research Design and Methodology

The research methodology is the backbone of any research project. Whether you’re preparing a research proposal or research presentation , it not only shapes the entire research process but also determines the quality, reliability and credibility of the study's outcomes.

The section should outline the specific methods and practical steps you plan to use to conduct your research. Describe the overall approach, including the research design, methods, data collection and analysis techniques and procedures for data interpretation.

Specifically, this section should capture these details:

Research Approach

• Qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods?
• Data sources—primary, secondary and tertiary sources, archival data, unpublished data
• Chosen research designs—experimental, non-experimental, descriptive, correlational, retrospective, prospective, cross-sectional, etc.?

Population and Sample

• Who or what will you study? (individuals, groups, objects, phenomena, or concepts)
• How will you select your subjects, items, or data points from a larger population? Sampling strategy examples include random, non-random, systematic, probability, non-probability, cluster sampling, etc.
• What will the size of the sample be?
• When, where and how will you collect your data?

Research Methods

• What data collection procedures and tools will you use (e.g., surveys, interviews, observations and experiments)?
• Why are you using this design and data collection method?

Data Analysis

• How you will analyze the collected data (e.g., statistical techniques, content analysis, thematic analysis)?
• What data analysis tools are you using?

Ethical Considerations

• How will you get informed consent from participants?
• What approach will you take to protect vulnerable populations, like minors, seniors, or those lacking autonomy?
• How will you respect participants' privacy and prevent unauthorized access to their information?
• What steps will you take to manage and disclose any potential conflicts of interest?

Practicalities

• What is the anticipated timeframe for data collection, analysis and reporting?
• How do you plan to secure access to the target population for your research?
• How will you facilitate effective communication channels among team members, collaborators and stakeholders involved in the research?
• How will you address logistical considerations such as travel, fieldwork arrangements and scheduling interviews or surveys?
• What strategies will you employ to overcome any challenges or barriers?

Contribution to Knowledge

This section should explain how your research addresses the identified gap and its potential contributions and impact on the field of study, policy or society.

To make a compelling case for your research, identify practical applications and policy implications of your study. Also, describe how your research will advance knowledge or understanding in the field.

For example, your research has the potential to make a significant impact in various ways, such as:

• Enhancing best practices in the field
• Informing policy decisions with evidence-based insights
• Contributing to the development or refinement of theoretical models
• Challenging prevailing beliefs or assumptions in the scientific community
• Laying the groundwork for future research initiatives

Reference List

List all the sources cited in your research proposal. Your references must be formatted according to the appropriate citation style (APA, MLA, or Chicago). In the reference list, make sure to include a mix of primary and secondary sources and recent and classic works.

Properly reference your sources to avoid plagiarism and credit the original authors. This will show your commitment to academic integrity and ensure that your research is built on a solid foundation of existing knowledge.

Research Schedule and Timeline

When writing your research proposal, provide a detailed timeline for completing each stage of the research process. Create a table with activities on one side and estimated completion dates on the other. Allow for flexibility in case unexpected issues arise during the research process.

Here’s an example of a research schedule:

When applying for research funding, a detailed budget is typically required. This document outlines your estimated costs and resources needed to complete each aspect of your project,

Before drafting your budget, verify the types of expenses that the funding body will cover. Then, for each item, include the following information:

• Cost: Specify the exact amount of funds requested.
• Justification: Explain why this cost is essential to the research's success.
• Source: Describe how you calculated the amount.

To determine your budget, consider the following categories:

• Travel costs: Will you need to travel to gather data? If so, factor in transportation, accommodation and subsistence expenses. Also, account for the time spent traveling and the specific activities you plan to conduct at each location (e.g., interviews, archival research).
• Materials: Are there any tools or technologies you need access to? Include costs for equipment, software, or other materials essential to your research.
• Assistance: Will you require research assistants for tasks such as data collection, analysis, or transcription? Specify the number of assistants needed, their roles and the compensation they will receive.

Remember to include contingencies and unexpected expenses that may arise during the research process.

Attach any additional materials that support your proposal, such as survey questionnaires, informed consent forms, or supplementary information.

The appendices should be well organized, labeled and easy to navigate. Make sure to only include supplementary materials or documents that:

• Provide additional information to support your proposal
• Enhance the understanding of your research proposal
• Serve as a valuable reference for future use

Wondering what great research proposals look like. Here are a few research proposal examples and templates to help you start on the right foot.

1. Research Proposal Presentation Template

Are you tired of boring research proposals that put your audience to sleep? Look no further! This research proposal sample is just what you need to create a presentation that stands out from the crowd. Not only does our template feature a stylish blend of blue and white color themes, but it also incorporates eye-catching red bars in each slide to grab your audience's attention.

The subtle background images add a touch of elegance. The circular images and icons drive visual interest, while the table helps you visualize the proposed research timeline easily.

But that's not all—the template is also fully customizable, so you can easily tailor it to fit your specific research project.

You can edit content, swap image(s), apply custom colors, use your own fonts and logo and more. Plus, it's easy to follow and navigate, ensuring your audience stays engaged and interested throughout your presentation.

And don't forget about the content! Our template includes sections to help you articulate your research background, questions, objectives, literature review, methods and plan in a concise manner.

2. Research Grant Proposal Template

Unlock the door to funding success with our cutting-edge research proposal template. This template features a bold and modern design with vibrant colors, compelling images, and dynamic graphics.

With a professional layout and engaging visual elements, this template is the perfect tool to help you showcase your ideas and make a lasting impression on funding agencies.

Feel free to change colors or fonts and stand out from the crowd. Take advantage of customizable charts and widgets to help you visualize key data. Download this template and increase your chances of securing the grants you need to drive your research forward.

RELATED: 9 Winning Grant Proposal Templates & How to Write One

3. Health Care Research Proposal Template

Get ready to take your research to the next level with the help of our innovative one-page proposal template.

This template distills your ideas into a concise summary. But despite its brevity, this template captures the essence of a research project, conveying the key elements in a concise and compelling way.

Another key feature of this template is its clean and elegant layout. The structure is organized into clear and logical sections, each building on the previous one to create a coherent narrative.

​​These visuals are well-designed and easy to interpret. But you can spice it up further with Visme's interactive elements . You have the option of adding hover effects or pop-ups to reveal additional information. Or just add hotspots that link to the full research proposal, website or landing page

Whether you're a seasoned researcher or just starting out, this template will inspire your proposals and help you secure funding for your next research project.

4. Sales Research Proposal Template

Confidently present your request for research funding focused on sales-based topics or survey proposals by using this research proposal template.

Its minimalist layout with monochromatic tones allows you to eloquently lay out background information, objectives, methodology, budget, as well as the expected impact, key performance indicators (KPIs), and your research expectations.

You can also change the color palette of the template to a much brighter tone or to match your brand colors with ease. Visme provides a wide range of color palette options you can instantly change your template to or allow you to customize manually.

In addition to customizing it to your brand, you can also add dynamic fields. Dynamic fields enable you to instantly update information, data, dates, and more across multiple projects with just one click. You can use dynamic fields for your company details, results, or modify the proposal's recipient should you plan on sending multiple proposals to prospective funders or clients.

5. General Funding Research Proposal Template

Maybe you're looking for a template that comes with a striking design, one that is sure to create a great first impression with your potential sponsors. This general funding research proposal aligns with all these requirements.

This contemporary design features a soft pink color scheme with black accents and fonts, complemented by warm and brown-toned images. It also incorporates ample empty space, ensuring a clutter-free and straightforward layout to enhance readability while directing the reader's attention to key aspects of the provided text.

This template is not only customizable but can also be effortlessly adapted for any topic, regardless of the type of research request you have in mind. Edit, add, or remove pages as needed until you have completed your research proposal to complete satisfaction.

6. Product Research Proposal Template

As a product manager or expert, you want to ensure that your product research is positioned in a way that stands out against the competition. Here's a product research proposal template that not only neatly packages your request but also leverages the power of storytelling and dynamic graphics and designs to persuade readers to support your proposal.

This template is designed with black tones and fun accents of yellow and white. Each element is balanced to provide a futuristic yet vibrant look and feel.

The pages feature tech-forward and focused layouts, enabling you to present key objectives, use structured flowcharts or diagrams to illustrate your methodology, and include a timeline tree that outlines the entire execution process from start to finish.

7. Tech Research Proposal Template

Most people are visual learners and are more likely to remember your proposals and their content through the visuals you use. If you’re looking for a proposal that smartly uses visuals to make your content more memorable, then this tech research proposal template takes a brilliant approach to balancing text and the heavy use of imagery.

The theme features strong tones of purple, complemented by white and yellow accents. Each page is presented with beautiful visuals that match the content presented. It is also accompanied by simple icons, charts, and graphs that align with the overall theme.

You can easily replace the current images by uploading your own. Maybe the images you have look great but need a bit of editing. Use Visme's AI Touch-Up Tools to quickly unblur, sharpen, remove backgrounds, or erase and replace items until your image is perfect and ready to be used in your template.

8. Marketing Research Proposal Template

For marketers who need a tech-focused design approach to impress potential clients and attract sponsors for funding, this template is tailor-made for you. It was designed with marketers in mind, offering sections for the scope of work, budget overview, research timeline. It includes placeholders for you to add your website, company logo, or brand colors.

Visme allows you to elevate your presentation game, whether you're presenting your research proposal in person or virtually. With Visme, you can:

• Publish your proposals as a live webpage that reflects real-time updates.
• Use Visme's presenter studio to record your proposal presentation and send it to prospective clients or sponsors as an MP4.
• Download it as a PDF for online or print, giving your readers the flexibility to review it as they prefer.
• And so much more.

9. Environmental Research Proposal Template

This environmental research proposal template is an excellent choice for nonprofits and environmentalists who want to create effective proposals without resorting to overused, boring, or rigid designs.

The template features a white background with green tones and imagery. Its composition is separate, spacious, and filled with clean empty spaces, making it easy to read. It also conveys a calm and peaceful tone that complements any environmental or non-profit topic you intend to use it for.

If you're working on this environmental research proposal with a team, utilize Visme's Workflow feature . This feature helps you eliminate endless email chains and Slack messages, allowing you to manage roles, tasks, progress, and deadlines all in one place. You can set deadlines, add and reply to comments, and even work on your proposal simultaneously without conflicts.

10. General Approval Research Proposal Template

If you are a professional in the medical field seeking to craft a research proposal for approval, this template offers a compelling design layout tailored to the aesthetics of your industry. It has been meticulously designed with a minimalist approach, enabling you to present your request in a polished layout while incorporating vivid and stunning imagery.

Not to mention, for any section of your research proposal where you need to showcase previous data or results, you can seamlessly import your data from sources such as Google Sheets, Excel, or other tools directly into your charts and graphs.

Watch the video below to see how the feature works.

Once your data sources are linked, your charts and graphs will automatically update to reflect any changes made in the external data sources, ensuring that your information remains organized and up-to-date. This functionality enhances the professional presentation of your research proposal while streamlining data management.

A research proposal doesn’t have to be a long, boring document.

With the wide variety of features and templates available in Visme, you can whip up a visually appealing and professional-looking research proposal.

Here’s how to write a research proposal using Visme.

Step 1: Register or Log in to your Visme Account

Sign up for a new Visme account or log into your account (if you’re an existing user). Fill in your login details in the form and you’ll be redirected to the dashboard.

Either way, you'll be able to start exploring all the amazing features and tools that Visme has to offer!

Step 2: Use Premade Templates or Start from Scratch

The next step is to create your proposal. You have the option of starting from scratch or using premade templates.

But why start from scratch when you can build on research proposal examples?

Take advantage of Visme's customizable research proposal templates to streamline your workflow and easily create a professional-looking proposal.

By using a pre-designed research project proposal template, you'll save time and effort while ensuring that your proposal adheres to the standard guidelines and best practices of the research community.

With a wide range of templates available in Visme’s library, you're sure to find a research proposal sample that fits your needs

In the Visme dashboard, click Create New>Project and scroll to the category–Proposal . Browse through the collection of templates until you find one that best fits your industry or company.

Step 3: Write the Content

Once you’ve selected your template, the next move is to write the content.

We’ve already broken down the key elements in a professional research proposal. But stick to the sections recommended by the funding agency or academic institution.

All you need to do is swap out the template’s placeholder content with yours. Visme’s intuitive editor makes it easy for you to add, edit or remove content or move design elements around the canvas.

You can modify your text, including adding, removing and adjusting the font size, style and color. The editor also includes options for changing text alignment and arrangement and animating your text.

When it comes to writing content, the Visme AI writer ensures you never run out of ideas. Simply input your prompt and the tool will generate a high-quality copy for you in minutes. You can even prompt the tool to improve your grammar or help flesh out your ideas.

Step 4: Visualize Data

Data visualization is a powerful tool for your research proposal. With Visme’s data visualization software , you can communicate complex ideas and provide context. To access data visualization features in Visme, click “Data” on the left tab. You’ll find options for

• Charts and Graphs
• Data Widgets

In the methodology section, use diagrams , flowcharts , or infographics to illustrate complex concepts and methods.

Incorporate charts , graphs , or tables to display data and visualize your findings or expected outcomes.

Create a section for the timeline and milestones. Use a Gantt chart or calendar to show the start and end dates for each task and milestone. Include key events such as data collection, data analysis and report submission.

Step 5: Customize Your Research Proposal

Enhance the visual appeal of your proposal with the customization features in Visme.

Keep your proposal's branding consistent with Visme’s Brand Design Tool .

Just input your website URL and the wizard will pull up your logo, colors, fonts and other design elements. With your brand assets saved in your brand kit , you can apply your branding to your proposal in one click.

Incorporate high-quality images and graphics to make your proposal captivating. You can reach into Visme’s library of stock photos, icons, graphics and more. Or better yet, generate unique and high-quality ​​photos, paintings, pencil drawings, 3D graphics, icons and abstract art using Visme’s AI image generator .

Engage readers and keep them interested in the proposal with Visme’s interactive elements, including pop ups, hover effects, clickable menus, hotspots and the flipbook effect. You can even embed videos and incorporate animated icons, illustrations and special effects.

To customize this proposal for multiple agencies without breaking a sweat, use dynamic fields to change key details. Set it up so it's easy for you to change information in seconds.

Step 6: Download and Share Your Proposal

Once you’re sold on your design, you can share it with your stakeholders by generating an online link. This option enables you to retain all the interactive elements in your design.

Also, you can download it as a high-resolution JPEG, PNG, PDF or HTML5 file and share it offline.

With Visme’s analytics tool , you can track how many people have viewed, engaged, or taken other actions.

Writing a successful research proposal requires careful planning, attention to detail and a clear and compelling argument for the importance of your research. Here are some best practices to help you write a strong research proposal:

1. Understand the Requirements

Before you start work on your research proposal, review and understand the specific requirements and guidelines set forth by your university or funding agency.

Although we’ve covered the essentials here, every institution has its own set of expectations.

Pay close attention to the requested format, structure and content expectations. Find out about the citation style, page length, word count limit, font size and type, etc.

Find out about their review process. What do they look for? How will they judge your work?

Understanding these details will help you write a better proposal. You can tailor your proposal to meet the needs of the reviewers and maximize your chances of getting funding or support for your research.

2. Get Feedback from Peers and Mentors

Before you send out your reports, share them with colleagues, advisors, or peers. Ask them to review your proposal and provide feedback. Use their suggestions to improve your proposal and make it more competitive.

The best part is that Visme’s collaboration tool makes this process seamless. You can add multiple people to your workspace and set permissions. Depending on their access level, your team members can edit your proposal, leave feedback, reply to comments, draw annotations and much more.

3. Revise and Edit Your Proposal

Academic writing often requires multiple drafts and research proposals are no exception. To ensure that your proposal is clear, coherent and persuasive, revise it multiple times. And if necessary, rewrite sections to make them even better.

Don't be afraid to make significant changes to the proposal. For example, this may entail reorganizing sections, revising the methodology, or even adjusting the research question entirely.

Thoroughly edit your proposal to correct grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax errors. Also, ensure that your proposal maintains consistent formatting, styling and terminology. This can significantly enhance the quality and effectiveness of your proposal.

4. Incorporate Visual Aids

When writing a proposal , incorporate visual aids like tables, graphs and figures. They enhance the clarity and impact of your proposal. Visual aids simplify complex data and ideas, making it easier for reviewers to understand key findings, trends and patterns.

However, you want to use them sparingly for data storytelling as well. The rule of thumb is to use relevant types of visual aids. Also, visualize the most critical data and concepts that require illustration.

For instance, tables are useful for comparing data, while graphs and charts are ideal for showing trends and patterns. Diagrams and flowcharts can help explain complex processes or systems. Images and photographs are perfect for illustrating specific phenomena or contexts.

Remember, visual aids should supplement and reinforce your argument, not replace it. Embed them seamlessly into the text, providing context and explanation where necessary. This helps the reviewer connect the dots between your arguments and the supporting evidence.

RELATED: 5 Data Storytelling Tips for Creating More Persuasive Charts and Graphs

Easily Create Professional Documents & Proposals with Visme

Whether you're just starting your thesis, seeking research grants, or a professional aiming to make a difference in your field, knowing how to write a compelling research proposal is crucial.

A great research proposal provides a clear sense of purpose and direction. It also increases your chances of obtaining grants, scholarships, or sponsorship.

Ready to create a compelling and effective research proposal? Visme has a wide variety of tools, features and resources to help you create one quickly.

Leverage Visme's proposal templates, intuitive editor and interactive features to make your proposal shine.

Sign up for your own Visme account and start designing your next compelling research proposal!

Easily put together expert research proposals with Visme

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About the Author

The Research Whisperer

Just like the thesis whisperer – but with more money, what’s on a good research project site.

It seems to be the done thing these days to have a webpage about your research project.

In fact, I think it’s fair to say that it’s considered an increasingly essential part of research engagement and dissemination, and – really – it is so easy to set something up these days.

Well…yes and no. (Stay with me, I’m a humanities scholar and that’s how we answer everything)

I had a great chat recently with a researcher who was wanting to set up an online presence for his project. Part of the task of this presence was to recruit subjects for his PhD study.

It was a valuable conversation for him (or so he tells me…!) and also for me, because it clarified our perceptions of what was necessary, good, and ideal.

What I’m talking about in this post isn’t focused on what specific funding bodies may want, or elements that fulfil project final report obligations.

I’m looking at the website as something that showcases the research project and aims to engage the right groups. I’m taking the perspective of an interested member of the public, or a non-specialist academic colleague, more than peers who are in your exact area.

There are heaps of pieces out there about how to create an effective website , but I get derailed when they keep referring to customers and brands. Put your filters in place, though, and you can still glean a lot of good info from these articles. Pat Thomson has written about  her experiences with blogging her research projects , and discusses the uneven results.

This post is my take on what the basics are for a good research project website. It presumes a small to non-existent budget, and no expert team of web-design or site-construction people at your disposal.

For me, a good research project website should:

1. Make a good first impression

• how the project came about and what a great job you and your team have done in this field to make fabulous things happen.
• how people can contribute , give feedback, or participate.
• who the supporting organisations (funding or in-kind) are . Doing acknowledgements the right way encourages smooth sailing should you want to tap them for assistance in the future!
• what the ongoing outcomes and activities are for the project . Some projects use project websites for further recruitment or data-collection, as a stepping-stone to the next project, or open it up for others to contribute to. Some teams link to open access repositories, or upload PDFs of their working and conference papers.
• Plan out what streams of information you want on the site : What’s the set text? Are you going to have a Twitter feed down one side? Will you be updating news in a blog section? Don’t have too many side-bars and feature boxes fighting for attention. It will look cluttered.
• Use striking, meaningful photographs. Ensure you have quality, relevant pics on the site. Nothing worse than pages that look as if they’re populated with stock photos. Make the pictures count, and don’t have them there just to break up text (they do break up text, but they should be doing more than that). Where possible, feature ‘doing’ shots, pics that capture some process or aspect of the research.

2. Have text that is succinct, jargon-free, and well proofed.

Distil the information down to what you want to convey most, and make sure it’s stripped to core text that tells the story of your research project. Nick Feamster wrote about  good storytelling for academics . While he’s talking specifically about academic papers, the advice is also relevant for nutting out website content, particularly where he talks about building the scaffold of the story. For medical science types, this listing of 10 tips for writing a lay summary is very useful.

Always run the text past another pair of eyes (or two), and get non-specialists to check its tone and whether it’s jargon-free.

3. Contain consistent team information

Present the research team’s information in a consistent manner. Don’t have reams of stuff on the lead Chief Investigator, then small paras for the rest. This is not a good look. Have the same kinds of info for each person, and definitely the same space allocated to each.

The website should feature similar profile pictures of the team (if you decide to have team photos – I like them). Have consistency in the images’ size, framing, and resolution. I’m a fan of semi-formal group shots, where the researchers look human, but aren’t hanging out in board-shorts and sculling drinks.

4. Have everything in its place

Navigation for your website should be logical and clear. I think there are some standard pages for research project websites: ‘About the Project’, ‘Contact’, ‘Supporters’ (or ‘Sponsors’), and ‘The Research Team’ (or similar). Other than these, you might have: ‘Publications’, ‘Events’, ‘Get Involved’, or ‘Updates’.

As with the website text, run the site past various people, to test whether the navigation logic you came up with actually works for a broad audience, and that there are no gaps or repetition in the information.

That should get you well started on the basics of what should be part of a good research project site. Which platform should you use? Well, Lifehacker’s ‘ Best platforms for building websites ‘ can probably give you that answer.

Want to point out something I’ve missed? Vehement objections to what I’ve said? Go on, do it in the comments!

Below are some of the research project website suggested to me when I crowdsourced for some ideas for this post on Twitter . They vary immensely in terms of how much resourcing was behind them, and how ‘academic’ they perceived their audience to be. Have a look through and see what works for you, and the kind of work you want to get out there.

Recommended research project websites:

• Framingham Heart Study  (suggested by @tassie_gal)
• CelebYouth.org  (suggested by @drkatyvigurs)
• Early Childhood Connect  (suggested by @elfriesen)
• Culturizing Sustainable Cities  (suggested by @WFGP)
• Quality in Alternative Education  (suggested by @thomsonpat)
• School Accountability and Stakeholder Education  (suggested by @drkatyvigurs)

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10 comments.

Very helpful. I started a blog at the beginning of the year to write about my research project for Master’s, and while looking for tips and ideas I also got sidelined by talk about brands and customers and things like that. My blog is definitely not very formal and it only involves me, but this post has made me think about a few improvements I could make.

Glad you found it useful, K.! There are some very complex (expensive) sites out there, but most of the researchers I know have no resourcing for this kind of thing. It’s good to have them up, and the more sustainable they are as sources of info/comms, the better.

Drop your project URL here – would like to check it out. 🙂

Hi Tseen, thanks for the interest. My blog is rather informal, and there are some random things around, but I describe my Master’s project here: http://kvanderwielen.wordpress.com/current-project/ . It’s really more about coming to grips with the project and how the process unfolds in South Africa. I’ve noticed that most sites and blogs available are generally aimed at PhD projects. I think this might be because most countries have moved toward a taught Masters. In South Africa most humanities subjects generally do Masters by thesis. However, a lot of what’s written for PhD candidates is helpful for us, so I’m grateful for resources like this one.

Hi Tseen, just a minor comment, but I think you will find the SASE project website is actually run by Andrew Wilkins (@andewilkins) rather than Katy Vigurs.

Hi Scott! Yes, it’s Wilkins’ project/site – Katy Vigurs suggested it (all the handles featured in the list are the suggesters from Twitter, not the investigators/project leaders). 🙂

Thanks for this helpful brief!

Happy you found it useful! Let us know if you think anything needs to be added.

Great post and step by step explanation. Keep sharing your thoughts more often

Reblogged this on Research Staff Blog .

Reblogged this on Literacy Teaching and Teacher Education and commented: I (Clare) thought this post about a research blog would be relevant for our research blog. Terrific suggestions lots of which I will follow.

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• Library Catalogue

The latest news and answers to your questions about scholarly publishing and open access.

Building a website for your program of research, project, or lab? My top 10 tips

A website is a commonly used tool for knowledge mobilization for research projects and labs. I often get asked (or provide unsolicited advice!) on how to do this well. For those that don’t ask, or I haven’t connected with yet, I have put together my top ten tips.

Note: I’m a knowledge mobilization expert, not a web designer. This list is based on a non-comprehensive review of expert opinions, blog posts, and my past experience. I’ve highlighted some of my favourite resources for this work below.

1. Identify your target audience and objective for the website

With all knowledge mobilization and dissemination efforts, you should always first know what you hope to achieve and who you need to reach. This informs all your other decisions. Don’t skip this step! Need help figuring this out? Get in touch with the SFU Knowledge Mobilization Officer .

2. Assess your resources

Consider how much time, technical ability, and financial resources you have and are willing to dedicate to developing and upkeep of the website. If all are limited, then keep it basic.

3. Determine and develop the content and tone of the site

This will be informed by your audience and objective. For example, if the audience is other researchers, and the objective is to build new collaborations, you may want the content to be more technical and the tone professional. If you are looking for students, the tone might be more fun and emphasize the activities of the lab. If it is for the public, perhaps it is more plain language, informational, and engaging.

4. Avoid overcrowding

A layered structure, with brief overviews that can be clicked through to more information, is often preferable. However, avoid very complicated sites with multiple clicks to arrive at desired information. SFU’s Scholarly Communications Lab website is a nice example of how to do this well: https://www.scholcommlab.ca/

5. The layout of each page should flow, be uncluttered, and organized

This can be achieved by organizing in a grid, column, or horizontal layout. Use negative (blank) space to facilitate readability and navigation ( scan-ability ). The image below places two websites side-by-side and illustrates why this is important to consider. Which page do you find easier to read – right or left?

6. Choose images that are specific to your research, in focus, with sufficient resolution

Include an up to date image of your team or project lead(s), and consider how your website images compliment and align with your social media accounts. For example, the website top image and your headshot could be the same as your photo and cover image on Twitter and LinkedIn. For accessibility, be sure to include alternative text that explains the image – sometimes called “alt-text.” If you are including images or graphics of humans, use diverse representation and avoid stereotypes.

7. Use simple fonts

Choose a maximum of three complementary fonts (one for title, heading, and body). Often a sans serif font (without extra embellishments such as Helvetica) is preferable for large text (titles and headings) and serif (e.g. Times New Roman) for small text (body). Dark text on light backgrounds are easier to read and provide a more accessible experience for viewers.

8. Pick a colour scheme of three complementary colours (and maybe an accent or two)

Choose colours that align with your audience, objective, research and tone. Check out Canva ’s colour generator for help and inspiration.

9. Consider diversity, equity, and inclusion

How we design and write can influence our audience’s sense of inclusion and more. This needs to be considered in selection and use of colours (e.g. colour blindness ), font (readability), images (think about representation and messaging), language (e.g. use inclusive and plain language ), and assumptions.

10. Get feedback and support

Reach out to available SFU resources (e.g. communicators, Knowledge Mobilization Hub, Digital Humanities Innovation Lab) for guidance and feedback. Consider hiring a professional web designer if you can afford it, and/or graphic artist. Before you launch, ask friends and colleagues to review your site.

Want to learn more?

More blog posts.

Here are some useful blog posts that dive deeper into strategies, process, and considerations:

• SFU Library’s advice on visibility and your online presence
• The Social Academic's blog post on developing your personal academic website
• The Leveraged PhD's blog post on creating a personal website
• These two blog posts offer tips from researchers on creating a good lab website by  Nature  and Edge for Scholars .

Resources and supports

Here are some platforms, templates, and services to get you started (paid and free):

• Designs that Cell -- A Canadian research-focused scientific illustration company.
• Science Project -- A subscription-based website platform for scientists.
• Squarespace  -- Includes marketing and e-commerce features.
• Wordpress  -- Very customisable but does not include hosting.
• Wix  -- Allows you to build webpages using drag-and-drop features.

What does a good website look like?

It’s always good to have a few examples of websites that you like. Some of this is personal preference of course, but here are a few project or lab websites that I like:

• Chatr Lab  
• Science Up First
• Amplify Podcast Network
• Multimedia Lab

Siteinspire is a whole site dedicated to the collection of creative websites. I choose a few from their list in the education and science space that might offer some inspiration:

• Whitehead Institute  
• Vital Strategies  
• Simons Foundation

Originally published May 14, 2021 by Lupin Battersby

Contact us : For assistance with scholarly publishing, please contact  [email protected] .

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• Knowledge Base
• Starting the research process
• How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates

How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates

Published on October 12, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Tegan George. Revised on November 21, 2023.

A research proposal describes what you will investigate, why it’s important, and how you will conduct your research.

The format of a research proposal varies between fields, but most proposals will contain at least these elements:

Introduction

Literature review.

• Research design

Reference list

While the sections may vary, the overall objective is always the same. A research proposal serves as a blueprint and guide for your research plan, helping you get organized and feel confident in the path forward you choose to take.

Table of contents

Research proposal purpose, research proposal examples, research design and methods, contribution to knowledge, research schedule, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about research proposals.

Academics often have to write research proposals to get funding for their projects. As a student, you might have to write a research proposal as part of a grad school application , or prior to starting your thesis or dissertation .

In addition to helping you figure out what your research can look like, a proposal can also serve to demonstrate why your project is worth pursuing to a funder, educational institution, or supervisor.

Research proposal length

The length of a research proposal can vary quite a bit. A bachelor’s or master’s thesis proposal can be just a few pages, while proposals for PhD dissertations or research funding are usually much longer and more detailed. Your supervisor can help you determine the best length for your work.

One trick to get started is to think of your proposal’s structure as a shorter version of your thesis or dissertation , only without the results , conclusion and discussion sections.

Download our research proposal template

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Writing a research proposal can be quite challenging, but a good starting point could be to look at some examples. We’ve included a few for you below.

• Example research proposal #1: “A Conceptual Framework for Scheduling Constraint Management”
• Example research proposal #2: “Medical Students as Mediators of Change in Tobacco Use”

Like your dissertation or thesis, the proposal will usually have a title page that includes:

• The proposed title of your project
• Your supervisor’s name
• Your institution and department

The first part of your proposal is the initial pitch for your project. Make sure it succinctly explains what you want to do and why.

Your introduction should:

• Introduce your topic
• Give necessary background and context
• Outline your  problem statement  and research questions

To guide your introduction , include information about:

• Who could have an interest in the topic (e.g., scientists, policymakers)
• How much is already known about the topic
• What is missing from this current knowledge
• What new insights your research will contribute
• Why you believe this research is worth doing

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

• Academic style
• Vague sentences
• Style consistency

See an example

As you get started, it’s important to demonstrate that you’re familiar with the most important research on your topic. A strong literature review  shows your reader that your project has a solid foundation in existing knowledge or theory. It also shows that you’re not simply repeating what other people have already done or said, but rather using existing research as a jumping-off point for your own.

In this section, share exactly how your project will contribute to ongoing conversations in the field by:

• Comparing and contrasting the main theories, methods, and debates
• Examining the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches
• Explaining how will you build on, challenge, or synthesize prior scholarship

Following the literature review, restate your main  objectives . This brings the focus back to your own project. Next, your research design or methodology section will describe your overall approach, and the practical steps you will take to answer your research questions.

To finish your proposal on a strong note, explore the potential implications of your research for your field. Emphasize again what you aim to contribute and why it matters.

For example, your results might have implications for:

• Improving best practices
• Informing policymaking decisions
• Strengthening a theory or model
• Challenging popular or scientific beliefs
• Creating a basis for future research

Last but not least, your research proposal must include correct citations for every source you have used, compiled in a reference list . To create citations quickly and easily, you can use our free APA citation generator .

Some institutions or funders require a detailed timeline of the project, asking you to forecast what you will do at each stage and how long it may take. While not always required, be sure to check the requirements of your project.

Here’s an example schedule to help you get started. You can also download a template at the button below.

Download our research schedule template

If you are applying for research funding, chances are you will have to include a detailed budget. This shows your estimates of how much each part of your project will cost.

Make sure to check what type of costs the funding body will agree to cover. For each item, include:

• Cost : exactly how much money do you need?
• Justification : why is this cost necessary to complete the research?
• Source : how did you calculate the amount?

To determine your budget, think about:

• Travel costs : do you need to go somewhere to collect your data? How will you get there, and how much time will you need? What will you do there (e.g., interviews, archival research)?
• Materials : do you need access to any tools or technologies?
• Help : do you need to hire any research assistants for the project? What will they do, and how much will you pay them?

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

Once you’ve decided on your research objectives , you need to explain them in your paper, at the end of your problem statement .

Keep your research objectives clear and concise, and use appropriate verbs to accurately convey the work that you will carry out for each one.

I will compare …

A research aim is a broad statement indicating the general purpose of your research project. It should appear in your introduction at the end of your problem statement , before your research objectives.

Research objectives are more specific than your research aim. They indicate the specific ways you’ll address the overarching aim.

A PhD, which is short for philosophiae doctor (doctor of philosophy in Latin), is the highest university degree that can be obtained. In a PhD, students spend 3–5 years writing a dissertation , which aims to make a significant, original contribution to current knowledge.

A PhD is intended to prepare students for a career as a researcher, whether that be in academia, the public sector, or the private sector.

A master’s is a 1- or 2-year graduate degree that can prepare you for a variety of careers.

All master’s involve graduate-level coursework. Some are research-intensive and intend to prepare students for further study in a PhD; these usually require their students to write a master’s thesis . Others focus on professional training for a specific career.

Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.

Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.

The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. & George, T. (2023, November 21). How to Write a Research Proposal | Examples & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved August 6, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/research-process/research-proposal/

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A template for a Research Lab website, built with Jekyll.

ericdaat/research-lab-website

Folders and files.

Repository files navigation

Research lab website template

This website is built with Jekyll . It is derived from the great template provided by the Allan Lab , at Leiden University.

Clone this repository, then install the dependencies:

Run the local webserver with:

Add a new member

New members are stored as markdown files under _pages/team/_posts .

Each new member .md file must look like this:

Add a new publication

Publications are stored as .json file under _data/publications.json . This json file is exported from Zotero bibliography tool.

Just add a new entry to the list like this:

News are stored as .yml file under _data/news.yml .

An entry looks like the following:

Edit template

We use Bootstrap for designing the website. Feel free to modify either the _pages or the _layouts components.

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Click edit and create your own amazing website

Researcher - Website Template

Professors, Academic Professionals, and Lecturers

Description:

Are you looking for a website to help organize your work and track your academic progress? This professional and functional template is the perfect solution. It's a great way for you to store publications, research papers and personal journals, ensuring that your site visitors are always up to date. Be sure to upload your CV and contact information, add a blog, then click publish as soon as you're ready to go live.

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Research Proposal Template

The fastest (and smartest) way to craft a convincing proposal and get your dissertation or research project approved.

Available in Google Doc, Word & PDF format 4.9 star rating, 5000 + downloads

Step-by-step instructions

Tried & tested academic format

Fill-in-the-blanks simplicity

Pro tips, tricks and resources

What It Covers

This free proposal template covers the core essential ingredients for a strong research proposal. It includes clear explanations of what you need to address in each section, as well as straightforward examples and links to further resources. The template covers the following core elements:

• Introduction & background (including the research problem)
• Literature review
• Research design/methodology
• Project plan, resource requirements and
• risk management

The Google Doc can be copied to your Google Drive 0r downloaded as a fully editable MS Word Document (DOCX format), which you can also use in LaTeX.

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FAQs: Research Proposal Template

Research proposal template faqs, what types of research proposals can this template be used for.

The proposal template follows the standard format for academic research projects, which means it will be suitable for the vast majority of dissertations and theses (especially those within the sciences), whether they are qualitative or quantitative in terms of design.

Keep in mind that the exact requirements for the introduction chapter/section will vary between universities and degree programs. These are typically minor, but it’s always a good idea to double-check your university’s requirements before you finalise your structure.

Is this template for an undergrad, Master or PhD-level proposal?

This template can be used for a research project at any level of study. Doctoral-level projects typically require the research proposal to be more extensive/comprehensive, but the structure will typically remain the same.

How long should my research proposal be?

The length of a research proposal varies by institution and subject, but as a ballpark, it’s usually between 1,500 and 3,000 words.

To be safe, it’s best to check with your university if they have any preferences or requirements in terms of minimum and maximum word count for the research propsal.

How detailed should the methodology of the proposal be?

You don’t need to go into the fine details of your methodology, but this section should be detailed enough to demonstrate that your research approach is feasible and will address your research questions effectively. Be sure to include your intended methods for data collection and analysis.

Can I include preliminary data or pilot study results in my proposal?

Generally, yes. This can strengthen your proposal by demonstrating the feasibility of your research. However, make sure that your pilot study is approved by your university before collecting any data.

Can I share this template with my friends/colleagues?

Yes, you’re welcome to share this template in its original format (no editing allowed). If you want to post about it on your blog or social media, we kindly request that you reference this page as your source.

What format is the template (DOC, PDF, PPT, etc.)?

The research proposal template is provided as a Google Doc. You can download it in MS Word format or make a copy to your Google Drive. You’re also welcome to convert it to whatever format works best for you, such as LaTeX or PDF.

Do you have templates for the other chapters?

Yes, we do. We are constantly developing our collection of free resources to help students complete their dissertations and theses. You can view all of our template resources here .

Can Grad Coach help me with my dissertation/thesis?

Yes, you’re welcome to get in touch with us to discuss our private coaching services .

Additional Resources

If you’re working on a research proposal, you’ll also want to check these out…

1-On-1 Private Coaching

Research Proposal Bootcamp

The Grad Coach YouTube Channel

The Grad Coach Podcast

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Research Template

Keep all your user research in one place and collaborate with your team.

Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies

About the Research Template

Teams can document findings from usability testing sessions and customer interviews into a systematic, flexible user research template. Collecting everyone’s observations into a centralized location makes it easier to share insights company-wide and suggest new features based on user needs. 

Keep reading to learn more about the Research Template.

What is a Research Template

Research templates can be adapted to work with different design methods or user research techniques. When it’s your job to ask questions, take notes, learn more about your user, and test iteratively, a Research Template can help you validate your assumptions, find similarities across different users, and articulate their mental models, needs, and goals. 

User research helps teams avoid designing for themselves, and instead turn their attention to who will actually use your product, in what context they’ll be using your product or service, and what they need or expect from your brand or organization. 

Research templates can be used to record two different types of data or observations:

Quantitative:  numbers-based research, or anything you can count. This includes the number of users and percentage changes. It helps teams understand what is happening on a website or app. 

Qualitative:  opinion-based research, or anything that can take place in the form of a question-and-answer format (closed questions), or conversational exchange (open questions). 

Whichever way you choose, a Research Template will help you keep your designs informed, contextual, and user-centric. 

When to use Research Templates

A Research Template can be used at any stage of the product or service design life cycle. 

Right now:  No time like the present. The earlier you start your research, the bigger the impact your research findings will have on your product or service. 

At every stage of the design process:  User research can reveal important findings that can be applied to your product or service. This increases its value.

In the earliest stage of the project:  Not every team can budget for research every step of the way. In that case, do the most research as early as possible in the project. Make sure to reserve some time and budget for conducting supplementary research later on in the process, too.

Create your own Research Template

Participating in user research efforts as a team is important. Everyone can get involved, better understand the user they’re designing for, and clarify why certain decisions are based on user research findings. 

Get started by selecting the Research Template, to make one of your own:

Record your observations and make revisions where needed.  Assemble a cross-functional team who can empathize with your users: designers, engineers, product managers, user researchers, marketers, and support team members will all have valuable input to contribute. Nominate someone in your group to facilitate. This person will lead the conversation with the user participant. Everyone else will listen and watch for potential roadblocks and epiphanies for the user.

Take notes.  The user research template’s columns and rows are customizable and can be renamed to record elements such as observational goals, tester details, and emotions that emerge during the conversation. These notes can also be useful for people unable to attend the session. 

Bring it all together.  After the user interview sessions are done, group similar notes into themed clusters. What are the pain points for the customer? Where were the opportunities for delight? Sometimes notes will come together into logical themed clusters, but sometimes you’ll have “odd one out” observations that don’t fit anywhere. You can gather these into a “basket” or collect them into a separate area in case they may become useful later.

Adapt as needed throughout the research and design process.  Ideally, this process will help you develop features side-by-side as a team, rather than go through a hand-off process with all the involved departments. The Research Template is flexible enough to be adapted to best serve your team’s needs.

Get started with this template right now.

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User Interview Template

Desk Research, Product Management

A user interview is a UX research technique in which researchers ask the user questions about a topic. They allow your team to quickly and easily collect user data and learn more about your users. In general, organizations conduct user interviews to gather background data, to understand how people use technology, to take a snapshot of how users interact with a product, to understand user objectives and motivations, and to find users’ pain points. Use this template to record notes during an interview to ensure you’re gathering the data you need to create personas.

Experience Mapping Template

Desk Research, Mapping

Plan your product according to your customer’s needs and desires with the Experience Map Template. Bring a customer-centric approach to product development and branding.

Spider Chart Template

Spider Charts (or star plots) prioritize thoughts and ideas by importance. They help visualize complex information with significant items in the center and less important items progressively farther from it. Radar spider charts help understand relationships between information for better decision-making.

UI Flowchart Template

UI, UX, UX Design, Design, Product Design

Our UI Flowchart Template unlocks the potential of seamless design collaboration. Map user flows and product interactions, providing a structured canvas to articulate the intricate journey of users through your digital interface. One key benefit of this template is its ability to facilitate real-time collaboration, ensuring everyone is on the same page and fostering a shared understanding of design decisions. Elevate your design game, enhance collaboration, and bring clarity to your projects with our UI Flowchart Template.

Meeting Reflection Template

Meetings, Brainstorming, Team Meetings

When schedules get hectic, “learning by doing” becomes the default way to learn. So make time for your team to learn in other valuable ways — by reflecting and listening. Led by “learners,” (team members who share with the rest of the team), a meeting reflection lets teammates share new information about a client’s business or an internal business initiative, offer problem-solving techniques, or even recommend books or podcasts worth checking out. Meeting reflections also encourage colleagues at all levels to engage in each other’s professional development of their teammates.

The Ultimate Website Project Plan Template

How-to guides.

Designing and building websites involves many steps and moving parts. A website project plan template can make this process easier.

• Every website build needs a project timeline and roadmap to track progress and keep stakeholders updated.
• A project plan template helps designing this roadmap.
• Use this to hold team members and freelancers accountable, ensure stakeholders send assets on time, and manage the website build in real time.
• This plan and free template includes everything you need to plan and prioritize assets, visuals, design, and development sprints, and automate the process.

Read on for details 👇

What is a website project plan template?

A website project plan template is a document you can use to roadmap a website design and development project.

You can use this for end-to-end project management, from idea through to launch.

With a website project plan template, you can:

• Better manage time and resources
• Keep track of tasks and deliverables
• Communicate with stakeholders throughout the project

This makes completing website projects faster and more straightforward.

Simplify your client website projects with this free project plan template for agencies.

Website Project Plan Template

A website project plan organizes, tracks, and executes web design and development projects for clients.

Download your website project plan template here (Google Docs) .

Using a template helps a busy agency in several ways:

• It outlines the project's scope , timeline, milestones, dependencies, resources, and client communication points
• Project managers can plan the budget, time, and resources needed, including team skills and tools
• It ensures you have all necessary resources from the client or third parties , like graphics, documents, images, videos, and web copy
• It clarifies when client input or feedback is needed on design, beta testing, and final testing before launch

In this template, we include:

• A Project Overview
• Scope of Work
• Design & Branding Guidelines
• SEO & Content Strategy (Web Copy)
• Timeline and Project Milestones
• Budget, Time & Resource Allocation
• Internal & Client Communication Plan

Let's explore these components.

1. Website Development Project Overview

Every web project starts with a brief description of objectives, such as why the website is being built, and a list of stakeholders/team members.

The first step is the onboarding or discovery phase. Here, you need to understand:

• The target audience (personas) and purpose of the website
• The Jobs to be Done (JTBD) by the client's products/services and how these are reflected in the website's design
• The client's competitors and what makes them unique

With this information, you can plan the project and timeline and gather everything needed for the web design or redesign.

‍ A new client commissioned you to design and build a website for them.

It’s a website overhaul project (also known as a redesign), so you’ve already got something to work with.

In most cases, the discovery process starts before a client gives the go-ahead.

Whether you’ve pitched cold or they’ve come to you, the aim during this phase of the project is to understand:

• What a client wants from a new website
• The features and functionality needed to achieve their website/marketing goals: a B2B SaaS website requires different features than an eCommerce site
• How to make this website stand out against their competitors
• What the clients already have vs. what they need and/or who’s delivering aspects of the project.

Until you’re clear on every element of the project and expected timelines, it’s impossible to give them an accurate price for the work.

That’s the aim at this stage of any website project.

For most web dev and design agencies, the best way to scope out a new client project is by using an onboarding questionnaire and a discovery call.

It’s helpful to do both: a questionnaire first, if possible, and then a discovery call to collect further details from a client.

With this information, you can map out the scope of work (SoW) and give the client a final price and timescale for the website project.

2. Scope of Work (SoW)

The scope of work (SoW) outlines the project details, including:

• A list of deliverables like web pages, features, and functionalities
• The technologies used to develop the website e.g., WordPress, Drupal, Webflow, or static coding
• Hosting solutions you want to use

Document everything in the SoW to refer back to during revisions and ensure client requests fit within the project scope.

‍ With all the information collected from calls with the client and the onboarding questionnaire, you can map out the scope of work (SoW).

Don’t leave anything out. This should include a detailed list of every element of the website project and who’s delivering them.

Also include delivery end dates and deadlines. So, if a client has hosting and needs to get you logins, this needs to be provided at project kick-off, not three weeks later.

The same applies to any design assets such as logos, fonts, color schemes, etc.

Your team needs them at the start of a project, not after several annoying weeks of chasing for the relevant assets.

Being clear on all of this in the SoW avoids mission and scope creep or a client complaining about delays.

‍ A Scope of Work is based on all the information a client provides in onboarding and discovery calls and questionnaires.

It should outline everything your agency is delivering, with a price, timescales, and intermediate milestones.

An effective SoW should also include deadlines for when a client or another agency or freelancer is delivering elements of the project, e.g., SEO and web copy, or design assets.

If your agency is doing these then they need to be included in timescales and costings.

You can use this SoW to map out individual tasks within your PM suite and notify the client of when they can expect to review elements for feedback.

3. Design & Branding Guidelines

Website design requires clear design and brand guidelines. These can come from the client or be created by your team, depending on the project scope.

• Client’s branding guidelines (colors, logo, fonts, etc.)
• Design preferences and inspirations
• UX/UI considerations for the website based on the audience and goals

‍ Ask your client whether they’ve already got design and brand guidelines, logo design files, color schemes, and fonts.

If your team is doing this work, or improving on what they’ve already got as part of the website project, then you need raw (design) files.

If the client wants to start from scratch then it’s helpful to get a design brief from them. Do they have a vision, a look they’re aiming for?

‍ During the onboarding/planning process, ask the client for all relevant design files.

Or if they want you to design something from scratch, make sure to get a handle on:

• How do you want the logo and website to look like?
• Are there any brands, businesses, or competitors you like the look of?
• Are there any colors, fonts, or other graphic ideas you want us to incorporate into the design?

4. SEO & Content Strategy (Web Copy)

SEO and content strategy are more than just filling pages with the right words.

You need to know:

• The client's core messaging, USPs, and CTAs
• The purpose and content of each page
• SEO keywords, including title tags and metadata
• Who is providing the content and images/videos for every page, such as client case studies, testimonials, product images, and team bio images?

‍ If a website is a few years old and not performing well, then new SEO-optimized web copy, alongside a redesign, should make a big difference.

When mapping out SEO and web copy work, it’s useful to know:

• The website’s size (e.g. number of pages, products…)
• Has any SEO keyword and competitor research been done?
• If your agency is doing the SEO, then this needs to be factored into the scope of work, project costs, and deliverable timescales.

‍ Delivering on SEO involves having a copywriter or freelance SEO implement the following for a client:

• Understanding the audience and website goals . Is it B2B SaaS, service, or eCommerce? What does the client need the website to achieve?
• Keyword research . What keywords does the website need to target? How can it beat competitors?
• Mapping to content (blogs/pages). Which keywords are mapped to which pages, and how can SEO content drive traffic?
• Technical SEO optimization . Also known as on-page and technical SEO implementation. All of this would be delivered within this part of the website project.
• Measuring and optimizing . This is done over time, once the website is live, and can be delivered as ongoing retainer work.

You could be quoting for this work and delivering it as part of the project.

Or it could involve you coordinating with another vendor to ensure it’s delivered on schedule within the project plan template.

Either way, it’s important to know what’s expected and how it factors into the project roadmap, deliverables, and tasks you assign to team members.

5. Timeline and Project Milestones

The timeline and milestones guide the project schedule.

It should include:

• Ideation: turning client ideas into a website concept
• Prototyping: creating wireframes for the website's design
• Development: building the website with chosen technologies
• Testing & Feedback: getting internal and client feedback from testing is essential to identify and fix bugs before launch
• Launch: going live and gathering feedback

These milestones are important for keeping the client and team updated.

‍ Now, with all the information from the project overview, scope of work, and details about the design and web copy elements, you can map out a clear timeline and project milestones.

‍ In many ways, this is quite simple. You could do this in a document (e.g., using the free template in this post), before implementing it via the project management tool.

Simply outline the following for every element of the website design and build project:

• Deliverable X by Y date
• Internal feedback and review of the above by Y date
• Client feedback and review of the above by X date

...and keep doing that for every element that needs delivering, including who’s providing feedback.

Then use all of this to outline the roadmap and milestones with the client, and create each task into your PM tool so you can start assigning the work with the relevant deadlines.

💡 Pro Tip: Whenever possible, always give yourself a day or two of room to spare between when a client expects something and when one of the team needs to deliver the work.

Do the same when a client needs to provide feedback and when the team needs to get on with the next phase of the project.

For testing and feedback, tools like Marker.io can streamline the process by allowing easy bug reporting and feedback collection.

With Marker.io , you can:

• Gather detailed bug reports with automatic environment and record logs capture
• Receive visual feedback with screenshots and annotations
• Sync bug reports automatically with your project management tool of choice (e.g., Jira, GitHub, Trello, Asana, and others)
• Use session replay to understand user actions before a report
• Analyze network requests as if you were using the tester’s dev tools

Reporting a bug through Marker.io is a simple three-step process for reporters:

• Click the button when they’ve found a bug.
• Fill out the feedback form and input details.
• Click on “Report Feedback”—done.

Everything reported through the Marker.io widget will go straight into your project management tool.

This saves a lot of time compared to receiving fragmented pieces of feedback via email, Slack, Zoom calls, and other channels.

‍ Try Marker.io for free today to save hours on bug tracking and feedback management.

Pricing: Starts at $39/mo.

6. Budget, Time & Team or Tools Resource Allocation

The budget is usually determined before starting the project.

This section should include:

• Estimated costs and timescales for different stages;
• Resource allocation, including tools, team members, and any freelancers involved.

This helps agency owners understand the total cost and ensure there's room for profit and adjustments.

‍ An agency conundrum is always knowing how much revenue you’re bringing in, never how much profit you’re making.

One way to solve this is with a standard operating procedure (SOP) document that works out the time every aspect of a website project should take so you can figure out the cost and, therefore, the profits.

‍ Look at every aspect of a website design and build project and break them down into the following:

Person doing the work = hourly rate x hours worked on X (e.g., logo design) + feedback + internal + client communication team + SaaS tools for the work / per user or number of hours the tool was used for = Cost for delivering X

Now work out, the price you charged the client for X (e.g., logo design) - the cost = your per deliverable profit.

💡 Pro Tip: Do that for one project and you’ve got a better idea of your average profit margins.

Make this an SOP or KPI for everyone in the company and you’ve got a fantastic way to increase margins and profits.

7. Internal & Client Communication Plan

A communication plan is crucial for smooth project execution.

It should cover:

• Team communication methods and schedules;
• Reporting structures and tools;
• Client check-ins, status updates, and feedback sessions, ensuring clear responsibility.

‍ Have a process and a single set of tools for client and internal comms. Don’t overcomplicate it.

If your team uses Slack, great, then ask if clients want a dedicated Slack channel for their project.

If not, then stick to email and video calls (Google Meets or Zoom) as required according to the project timeline.

For QA testing and client feedback on the website, you’ll need a bug reporting tool.

Naturally, we recommend Marker.io, especially as every piece of feedback goes into your PM suite.

‍ Design a one-size-fits-all internal and client-facing comms process. Make it part of the client onboarding process.

Give the client the relevant logins and access on day one, and make sure they know who they’re engaging with daily so that messages don’t get mixed up.

Download your free website project plan template here (Google Docs) .

Wrapping up...

We hope these 7 steps help web dev agency owners manage projects more effectively.

Do you have anything else you’d include in web dev projects for clients? Let us know by e-mail or on Twitter!

Continue reading

Bug triage: how to organize, filter, and prioritize bugs, website project management 101: ultimate guide, 7 ways to present a website to clients before going live, frequently asked questions, what is marker.io, who is marker.io for, how easy is it to set up, will marker.io slow down my website, do clients need an account to send feedback, how much does it cost, get started now.

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Creating a simple and effective academic personal website

November 29, 2012 | 6 min read

By Elsevier Global Communications

How to build a website that highlights your research, achievements and personality

Today, creating an academic website goes hand-in-hand with creating your CV and presenting who you are to your academic and professional peers. Creating and maintaining your website is an essential tool in disseminating your research and publications. Use your academic personal website to highlight your personality, profile, research findings, publications, achievements, affiliations and more. In addition, by using some of the many social media tools available, you can further amplify the information contained in your website. An academic personal website takes you a step further in terms of increasing your visibility because it is an ideal place to showcase your complete research profile. You will attract attention to your publications, your name recognition will increase and you will get cited more. Moreover, a website is also useful for networking and collaborating with others, as well as for job searching and application.

This guide helps you to take that next step and informs you on how to easily create an effective academic personal website.

Getting started — the technicalities

Registering the domain name.

Think of a few good domain names  you would like to use for your website. Try your name or a combination of initials and last name. The domain name should be simple, preferably without hyphens or numbers, and easy to spell. Registering a domain name is never free, but it is low cost and worth it. Select a domain name with ‘.com’ if it is available.

You can check availability of domain names and register them onsites such as: godaddy.com opens in new tab/window , register.com opens in new tab/window and domainregistry.com opens in new tab/window

Getting hosting for the website

After registering a good domain name, you need to buy hosting, i.e. the virtual location and server where your website is stored and managed. Some of the domain registration companies also offer hosting. See the next section on ‘Creating the Website’ for a list. Among the items offered in most hosting packages, one or more free e-mail addresses at the domain name you registered is included and a certain amount of storage space is also provided.

Some examples of companies where you can get hosting are: www.register.com opens in new tab/window , www.godaddy.com opens in new tab/window , www.justhost.com opens in new tab/window , and www.ipage.com opens in new tab/window

For a list of more hosting options, visit https://www.top10bestwebsite hosting.com/ or Google ‘web hosting’.

Creating the website

Once you have registered a domain name and secured web hosting, you can start creating your website. It does not have to take a lot of time or technical knowledge to create a good website today because there are some easy-to-use platforms or Content Management Systems (CMSs) available.

Sites where you can create your academic website include: jibr.com, wordpress.com opens in new tab/window , squarespace.com opens in new tab/window , weebly.com opens in new tab/window ,  

blogger.com opens in new tab/window , yola.com opens in new tab/window , jigsy.com opens in new tab/window and drupal.org opens in new tab/window .

Some website platforms also offer web hosting. These include Jibr, WordPress, Blogger and Yola.

Look and feel of your website

Your academic website should be a clean presentation of you academically and professionally. It should not be too cluttered, but it should also be thorough since it is essentially a detailed CV.

Choose a simple layout offered in the several templates available on the website platform or CMS you have selected. Choose a layout which appears straightforward to edit and is not too colorful. Two or three colors are sufficient.

Choose a light colored background and a dark font color to ensure the text is easy to read; never the reverse.

Use a legible standard font type and size for your site. It is best to use one, maximum two, font types. Using bold, italics and underlining for emphasis is suitable, but don’t overdo it. Be consistent in the use of these embellishments.

Present the text in a spacious, organized manner. Use ample spacing and bullet points, and do not include numerous lengthy paragraphs of text.

What information to include on your website

As your academic website is a reflection of you academically and professionally, you can use the same elements as those on your CV. On the website, you can be more detailed in explaining items. Although, do not write more than a few sentences, or a short paragraph, on each element. Include bullet points and links where possible to save on writing too much text. Items to address on your personal academic website:

Profile and expertise

Links to all types of publications (journals, books, etc.)

Current research and research goals

Honors and achievements

Funding awards

Professional and academic affiliations

Teaching and other relevant professional experiences

Forthcoming speaking appearances

Presentations, videos, photos

Links to your blog, academic social networks and institution

Social media widgets for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blog, etc.

Links to your blog, or enable blog posts to appear on your website

Basic contact information

Any other information you deem relevant

Broadcasting your website

Once you have completed your website, you should share include a link to your website in your e-mail signature. Including the URL of your website on your business card is also helpful.

Also, be sure to share the link to your website on all of your online and social media profiles to gain maximum exposure. Share links to your new website on  Academia.edu opens in new tab/window ,  Twitter opens in new tab/window ,  Facebook opens in new tab/window ,  LinkedIn opens in new tab/window  and beyond. Most, if not all, website platforms offer social media widgets enabling visitors to click and easily share your post or website link in their social media networks. Be sure to add these widgets to your website and place them ideally at the bottom of the page, in the sidebar, or at the top right.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your academic website

You can use certain keywords to increase the number of visitors who find your page through search engine searches. This process of tailoring the words to increase visits is called search engine optimization (SEO). Figure out which keywords are best to use with regard to your academic field using the  Google AdWords keyword tool opens in new tab/window  and  Google Analytics opens in new tab/window . You only need to use some of the top searched keywords a few times on your website.

Furthermore, simply by keeping your website and publication links up-to-date will increase the SEO of your website. The links on your website which link back to the publications are captured by Google’s algorithmic tools and help to increase the ranking and visibility of your publications and, in turn, the ranking of your academic website.

Tracking the outreach and effectiveness of your website

It's important to measure the effectiveness of your website and understand the behavior of your visitors. Google Analytics is one of the tools which enable you to measure the impact of your site. You can see how frequently it is visited, the physical locations of visitors to your site, the most visited pages of your site, and more. Tracking the visitors to your website can help you tailor it to further increase the traffic to your website.

Useful Sources

https://www.top10bestwebsitehosting.com/ opens in new tab/window

https://townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/blog/personal-academic-webpages-how-tos-and-tips-better-site opens in new tab/window

https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=413005 opens in new tab/window

https://assett.colorado.edu/resources/create-your-website opens in new tab/window

https://ltlatnd.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/three-easy-ways-to-make-academic... opens in new tab/window

https://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/do-you-need-your-own-website-while... opens in new tab/window

https://jbdeaton.com/2011/how-to-build-a-great-academic-website/ opens in new tab/window

https://www.ehow.com/how_4884357_create-academic-website.html opens in new tab/window

https://web.library.emory.edu/blog/ins-and-outs-professional-academic-web... opens in new tab/window

https://www.createchange.org/ opens in new tab/window

Contributor

Elsevier global communications.

Prompt Design at Character.AI

Author: James Groeneveld Github: https://github.com/character-ai/prompt-poet PyPi: https://pypi.org/project/prompt-poet/

At Character.AI, mastering the art and science of Prompt Engineering is crucial. Constructing prompts in production involves considering a wide array of data and factors: current conversation modalities, ongoing experiments, the Characters involved, chat types, various user attributes, pinned memories, user personas, the entire conversation history and more. Given the billions of prompts we construct per day, the need to maximize the use of expanding LLM context windows, and the diversity of our use cases, a robust and scalable approach to prompt design is essential. We advocate transitioning from traditional 'prompt engineering' to 'prompt design'—a shift that moves us away from tedious string manipulations towards designing precise, engaging prompts. This post introduces Prompt Poet, a solution we've developed to do just that.

Brief Overview

Python f-strings (and wrappers around them) are now the industry standard for Prompt Engineers. Using f-strings can be as simple as adding a user's query directly into a string. However, it can also become very complex, involving a lot of manual string manipulation to create the final prompt. It also makes prompt iteration less accessible to non-technical individuals, as it requires writing code.

We believe there's a better way. That's why we created Prompt Poet ( Github / PyPi ), a tool that allows both developers and non-technical users to efficiently design and manage their production prompts. It saves time on engineering string manipulations, enabling everyone to focus more on crafting the optimal prompts for their users.

Borrowing from the world of UI design, we consider a prompt P as a function of runtime state–including the prompt template, data, token limit and more.

Basic Usage

Prompt templates.

With Prompt Poet, the time you once spent on prompt engineering can now be dedicated to prompt design, allowing you to iterate on templates rather than code. These templates use a mix of YAML and Jinja2 , making them both flexible and easy to combine. This approach empowers both developers and non-technical users to efficiently create and manage prompts. Template processing occurs in two primary stages:

• Rendering : Initially, Jinja2 processes the input data. During this phase, control flow logic is executed, data is validated and appropriately bound to variables, and functions within the template are appropriately evaluated.
• Loading : Post-rendering, the output is a structured YAML file. This YAML structure consists of repeated blocks or parts, each encapsulated into a Python data structure. These parts are characterized by several attributes:
• Name : A clear, human-readable identifier for the part.
• Content : The actual string payload that forms part of the prompt.
• Role (Optional): Specifies the role of the participant, aiding in distinguishing between different users or system components.
• Truncation Priority (Optional): Determines the order of truncation when necessary, with parts having the same priority being truncated in the order in which they appear.

Example: Basic Q&A Bot

A basic example of a template for a Q&A bot.

Interpolating Lists

If you have elements (e.g. messages) in a list you can parse them into your template like so.

Truncating Old Messages

Context length is limited and can’t always fit the entire chat history– so we can set a truncation priority on the message parts and Prompt Poet will truncate these parts in the order in which they appear (oldest to newest).

Adapting to User Modality

To tailor instructions based on the user's current modality (audio or text).

Targeting Specific Queries

To include context-specific examples like homework help when needed.

Handling Whitespace

Prompt Poet will strip whitespace by default to avoid unwanted newlines in your final prompt. If you want to include an explicit space use the special built-in space marker “<|space|>” to ensure proper formatting.

Putting It All Together

Compositionality is a core strength of Prompt Poet templates, enabling the creation of complex, dynamic prompts.

Decomposing Into Sections

To maintain DRY principles in your templates, break them down into reusable sections that can be applied across different templates, such as when A/B testing a new prompt.

This is just the beginning of what your Prompt Poet templates could do and we’re excited to see what you come up with!

Design Choices

Prompt poet library.

The Prompt Poet Library provides various features and settings, including prompt properties. Key features like tokenization and truncation help with efficient caching and low latency responses, as explained in Optimizing Inference .

Templating Language

Jinja2 and YAML combine to offer an incredibly extensible and expressive templating language. Jinja2 facilitates direct data bindings, arbitrary function calls, and basic control flow within templates. YAML provides structure to our templates (with depth=1) allowing us to perform sophisticated truncation when the token limit is reached. This pairing of Jinja2 and YAML is not unique – most notably it is used by Ansible .

Prompt Portability

At Character.AI we are constantly improving our models to better align them with user preferences. To do this, we need to reconstruct our production prompts inside offline processes such as for eval and post-training workloads. Templatizing our prompts in this way allows us to easily share template files among teams without having to stitch together disparate parts of our–ever evolving–codebase.

Template-native Function Calling

One standout feature of Jinja2 is the ability to invoke arbitrary Python functions directly within templates at runtime. This feature is crucial for on-the-fly data retrieval, manipulation, and validation, streamlining how prompts are constructed. Here `extract_user_query_topic` can perform arbitrary processing of the user's query used in the template's control flow--perhaps by performing a round-trip to a topic classifier.

An example of template-native function calling with the use of extract_user_query_topic .

Custom Encoding Function

By default Prompt Poet will use the TikToken “o200k_base” tokenizer although alternate encoding names may be provided in the top-level `tiktoken_encoding_name`. Alternatively, users can provide their own encode function with the top-level `encode_func: Callable[[str], list[int]]`.

Passing a custom encoding function to prompt construction.

If your LLM provider supports GPU affinity and prefix cache, utilize Character.AI’s truncation algorithm to maximize the prefix-cache rate. The prefix cache rate is defined as the number of prompt tokens retrieved from cache over the total number of prompt tokens. Find the optimal values for truncation step and token limit for your use case. As the truncation step increases, the prefix cache rate also rises, but more tokens are truncated from the prompt.

An example of cache aware prompt truncation with specified token limit and truncation step.

Cache Aware Truncation Explained

Our truncation strategy plays a significant role in allowing us to achieve an impressive 95% cache rate by optimizing the way messages are truncated from the prompt. In short, every time we truncate we do so up to a fixed truncation point–only moving this truncation point on average every k turns. This allows us to maximally exploit GPU prefix cache described in Optimizing Inference . If instead we simply truncated until reaching the token limit (L) this truncation point would move every turn. The tradeoff in this approach is that we often truncate more than we strictly need to.

Naive Truncation

Consider the following inter-turn example where M1…M10 are current messages in a given chat. If we naively truncate to just below the token limit our truncation point shifts every turn, leaving only a small portion of the prefix to be retrieved from the cache, resulting in significant recomputation costs.

Cache-aware Truncation

Character.AI's cache-aware truncation algorithm truncates up to the same fixed truncation point for every k turns. This means that the sequence of tokens remains unbroken up until the most recent message allowing us to reuse computations stored in GPU prefix cache from the previous turn. Note that k is not directly controllable but is a function of the truncation step and the average number of tokens per message being truncated.

Prompt Poet represents a significant leap forward in the field of prompt engineering, shifting the focus from cumbersome manual string manipulations to a more streamlined and intuitive design-focused approach. By leveraging principles of UI design and applying them to prompt construction, this tool simplifies the creation of complex and personalized prompts enhancing the quality of interactions between users and AI models.

With Prompt Poet, both developers and non-technical users are empowered to focus more on prompt design and less on prompt engineering. This shift towards design over engineering holds the potential to reshape how we interact with AI, making these interactions more efficient, intuitive, and aligned with user needs. As we continue to explore the capabilities of large language models and expand their applications, tools like Prompt Poet will play a crucial role in harnessing their full potential in user-centric ways.

Related Work

• Priompt : Priompt (priority + prompt) is a JSX-based prompting library. It uses priorities to decide what to include in the context window. This project achieves a similar goal in separating a templating layer from a logical construction layer written in and compatible with TypeScript-based usage.
• dspy : Provides a great way of automagically optimizing prompts for different models though lacks deterministic control of the prompt important for things like caching and high-throughput, low latency production systems.
• Prompt Engine : Born from a common problem of production prompt engineering requiring substantial code to manipulate and update strings this Typescript package similarly adds structure to the prompt templating process– though comes across as being somewhat opinionated making assumptions based on the use cases. With last commits being from 2 years ago it does not seem as though this package is in active development.
• llm : Allows basic prompts to be defined in YAML with the Jinja2 enabled features like dynamic control flow, function calling and data bindings.
• LangChain : LangChain has a much larger scope than prompt templates though it does provide some basic templating abstractions. Good for simple templating use cases then starts to get unwieldy as prompts increase in complexity.
• LlamaIndex : Like LangChain, LlamaIndex has a much larger scope than prompt templates though it also provides some basic templating abstractions.
• Mirascope : Implements a novel approach to prompt templating by encapsulating everything in a single python class and using the class’s docstring as the f-string into which to bind data.

How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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Cisco Talos Blog

APT41 likely compromised Taiwanese government-affiliated research institute with ShadowPad and Cobalt Strike

• Cisco Talos discovered a malicious campaign that compromised a Taiwanese government-affiliated research institute that started as early as July 2023, delivering the ShadowPad malware, Cobalt Strike and other customized tools for post-compromise activities.
• The activity conducted on the victim endpoint matches the hacking group APT41 , alleged by the U.S. government to be comprised of Chinese nationals. Talos assesses with medium confidence that the combined usage of malware, open-source tools and projects, procedures and post-compromise activity matches this group’s usual methods of operation.
• The ShadowPad malware used in the current campaign exploited an outdated vulnerable version of Microsoft Office IME binary as a loader to load the customized second-stage loader for launching the payload.
• We also discovered that APT41 created a tailored loader to inject a proof-of-concept for CVE-2018-0824 directly into memory, utilizing a remote code execution vulnerability to achieve local privilege escalation.

Taiwanese Government-Affiliated Research Institute compromised by Chinese Actor

In August 2023, Cisco Talos detected abnormal PowerShell commands connecting to an IP address to download and execute PowerShell scripts in the environment of a Taiwanese research institute. The nature of research and development work carried out by the entity makes it a valuable target for threat actors dedicated to obtaining proprietary and sensitive technologies of interest to them.

Chinese Threat Actors likely Behind the Attacks

Cisco Talos assesses with medium confidence that this campaign is carried out by APT41, alleged by the U.S. government to be comprised of Chinese nationals. This assessment is based primarily on overlaps in tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), infrastructure and malware families used exclusively by Chinese APT groups. Talos’ analyses of the malware loaders used in this attack reveal that these are ShadowPad loaders. However, Talos has been unable to retrieve the final ShadowPad payloads used by the attackers.

ShadowPad, widely considered the successor of PlugX, is a modular remote access trojan (RAT) only seen sold to Chinese hacking groups . The malware was publicly reported being used by APT41, which is a hacking group believed to be based out of Chengdu, China, according to the U.S. Department of Justice .  Along with APT41 it has also been used by other Chinese hacking groups like Mustang Panda and the Tonto Team.

During the investigation, we observed a couple TTPs or IoC that were observed in previous reported campaigns, including the following:

• The same second stage loader binary : A second stage loader, that acts as a successor to the initial side-loaded ShadowPad loader, discovered by Talos was also linked to ShadowPad  and previously associated with ShadowPad publicly. We have also observed identical loading mechanisms, infection chains and file names being utilized in the current attacks with reliable previous open-source reporting .  
• Infrastructure overlapping: Beside the binary connection, we also found a C2 (103.56.114[.]69) that was reported by Symantec . Although the campaign reportedly ran in April 2022, which is more than one year before the campaign we discovered, there were a few similarities between the TTPs observed in the two campaigns. This includes using the same ShadowPad Bitdefender loader, using similar file names for the tool, using Filezilla for moving files between endpoints and using the WebPass tool for dumping credentials. 
• The employment of Bitdefender executable for sideloading: The malicious actor leverages Bitdefender where it uses an eleven year old executable to sideload the DLL-based ShadowPad loader. This technique has been seen in a variety of reports which have been attributed to APT41. This technique has been reported in multiple reports (Reports: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ).

Chinese Speaking Threat Actor

This attack saw the use of a unique Cobalt Strike loader, written in GoLang is meant to evade detection of Cobalt Strike by Windows Defender. This loader is based on an anti-AV loader named CS-Avoid-Killing hosted on GitHub and written in Simplified Chinese. The repository is promoted in multiple Chinese hacking forums and technical tutorial articles.

The Cobalt Strike loader also consists of file and directory path strings in Simplified Chinese, indicating that the threat actors that built/compiled the loader were well-versed in the language.

Tactic, Technique and Procedure Analysis

In August 2023, Cisco Talos detected abnormal PowerShell commands connected to an IP address to download PowerShell script for execution in the environment of the target. We performed an investigation based on our telemetry and found the earliest infiltration trace from mid July, 2023. We currently lacked sufficient evidence to conclusively determine the initial attack vector. The threat actor compromised three hosts in the targeted environment and was able to exfiltrate some documents from the network. 

Foothold establishment

Upon accessing the network, attackers start to gain a foothold by executing malicious code and binaries on the machine. On the machine with the web server, a webshell is installed to enable the threat actor’s ability to perform discovery and execution. The threat actors also dropped malwares including ShadowPad and Cobalt Strike with three different approaches: the installed webshell, RDP access and the reverse shell.

Webshell drop

Reverse shell drop

We noticed that a couple of the ShadowPad components were detected and quarantined by our solution when being dropped. The threat actor  later changed their tactic to  bypass the detection.The first attempt was running the following PowerShell commands to launch the PowerShell script for downloading additional scripts (PowerShell and HTA) to run backdoor in memory.

However, the attempt was again detected and interrupted before the attackers could carry out further actions. Later on, the attackers used another two PowerShell commands to download Cobalt Strike malware from a compromised C2 server (www.nss.com[.]tw). The Cobalt Strike malware had been developed using an anti-AV loader to bypass AV detection and avoid the security product quarantine. The following command was used by the threat actor to download anti-AV malware and run the malware in the victim's host machine. A more detailed description about the Cobalt Strike loader can be found in the Malware and Malicious Tools Analysis. 

During the compromise the threat actor attempts to exploit CVE-2018-0824, with a tool called UnmarshalPwn , which we will detail in the sections below. 

The malicious actor is careful, in an attempt to avoid detection, during its activity executes “quser” which, when using RDP allows it to see who else is logged on the system. Hence the actor can stop its activity if any other use is on the system. Cisco Talos also noticed that once the backdoors are deployed the malicious actor will delete the webshell and guest account that allowed the initial access.

Information gathering and exfiltration

We observed the threat actor harvesting passwords from the compromised environment. The actor uses Mimikatz to harvest the hashes from the lsass process address space and WebBrowserPassView to get all credentials stored in the web browsers.

From the environment the actor executes several commands including using “net,” “whoami,” “quser,” “ipconfig,” “netstat,” and “dir” commands to obtain information on user accounts, directory structure, and network configurations from the compromised systems. In addition, we also observed query to the registry key to get the current state of software inventory collection on the system with the following command:

Beside running commands to discover the network, we also observed the ShadowPad sample perform lightweight network scanning to collect the hosts in the network. The malware tries to discover other machines in the same compromised network environment by connecting to the IPs under the same C class sequentially. The connections were all sent to port “53781”, with unknown reason. 

To exfiltrate a large number of files from multiple compromised machines, we observed threat actors using 7zip to compress and encrypt the files into an archive and later using backdoors to send the archive to the control and command server.

Malicious Toolkit Analysis 

Although there is no new backdoor or hacking tools in this attack, we did find some interesting malware loaders. The threat actor leverages two major backdoors into their infection chains in this campaign, including both shadowPad and Cobalt Strike malware. Those two major backdoors were installed via webshell, reverse shell and RDP by the attacker themselves. In addition, two interesting hacking tools were also found, one is to get local privilege escalation and the other is to get web browser credentials. 

ShadowPad Loader

During our investigation of this campaign, we encountered two distinct iterations of ShadowPad. While both iterations utilized the same sideloading technique, they each exploited different vulnerable legitimate binaries to initiate the ShadowPad loader.

The initial variant of the ShadowPad loader had been previously discussed in 2020, and some vendors had referred to it as 'ScatterBee' . Its technical structure and the names of its multiple components have remained consistent with earlier reports.

The more recent variant of the ShadowPad loader targeted an outdated and susceptible version of the Microsoft Office IME imecmnt.exe binary , which is over 13 years old. Upon execution, this loader examines the current module for a specific byte sequence at offset 0xE367. Successful verification of the checksum prompts the loader to seek out and decrypt the "Imjp14k.dll.dat" payload for injection into the system's memory.

Furthermore, we conducted a pivot analysis of this latest loader using VirusTotal and other malware cloud repositories. We identified two different loader types, yet both employed the same legitimate binary to launch the malware.

• G:\Bee\Bee6.2(HD)\Src\Dll_3F_imjp14k\Release\Dll_3F_imjp14k.pdb
• G:\Bee\Tree\Src\Dll_3F_imjp14k\Release\Dll.pdb

Cobalt Strike “Anti-AV loader” from Chinese Open Source Project

There is a Cobalt Strike loader also detected in this incident. With deep analysis for this loader, we found the loader not only packed with UPX but modified the section name to anti-unpack the malware. There are some interesting observations here suggesting that the adversary may be speaking Chinese. The loader was developed by Go programming language and string in the binary indicates a project name “go版本” which means “go version” in mandarin. Based on the project name we found that the code was cloned from a GitHub source that was written in simplified Chinese and the project is to avoid the Cobalt Strike being deleted by antivirus products.

Upon analyzing the malware and GitHub page we found, we discovered that the attacker might have followed the GitHub steps to generate this loader and deploy the Cobalt Strike beacon to the victim's environment, the screenshots are shown this loader will get an encrypted picture from C2 server and the code logical same as the one on GitHub. 

It’s important to highlight that this cobalt strike beacon shellcode used steganography to hide in a picture and executed by this loader. In other words, its download, decryption, and execution routines all happen in runtime in memory. This Cobalt Strike beacon configuration shown below. 

Unmarshal private escalation tool

Unmarshal.exe malware decrypts its payload with four stages. The first stage is the executable file which will try to search [filename].tbin, and inject a first stage decryption payload, inject_loader_1.dll, in an allocated memory block. The first stage decryption payload will decompress second stage payload, inject_loader_2.dll, and injection into memory, the second stage payload will also try to search *.dlls or ddb.dlls file for next stage payload. If it can not find the specific file, it will decrypt the final payload out and inject that payload into another memory block. After deep analysis, we found the final payload is UnmarshalPwn malware which is a POC for CVE-2018-0824 and uses a remote code execution vulnerability to get local privilege escalation. 

Related Samples and Infrastructure

With the artifacts we found in this campaign, we pivoted and discovered some samples and infrastructure that were likely used by the same threat actors but in different campaigns. Although we don’t have further visibility into more details about these campaigns at the moment, we hope that by revealing this information, it would empower the community to connect the dots and leverage these insights for additional investigations.

We found 2 other ShadowPad loaders by pivoting the RICH PE header (978ece20137baea2bcb364b160eb9678) of the ShadowPad loader. Sharing the same RICH PE header indicates that these binaries share a similar compilation environment.

• 2e46fcadacfe9e2a63cfc18d95d5870de8b3414462bf14ba9e7c517678f235c9
• eba3138d0f3d2385b55b08d8886b1018834d194440691d33d612402ba8a11d28

One of the loaders were observed downloaded from two C2 servers:

• 103.96.131[.]84
• 58.64.204[.]145

Beside the ShadowPad loader, we found the same Bitdefender loader (386eb7aa33c76ce671d6685f79512597f1fab28ea46c8ec7d89e58340081e2bd) and a payload file on the C2 server. The ShadowPad payload connects to an interesting C2 domain w2.chatgptsfit[.]com for communication.

Cisco Secure Endpoint (formerly AMP for Endpoints) is ideally suited to prevent the execution of the malware detailed in this post. Try Secure Endpoint for free here.

Cisco Secure Web Appliance web scanning prevents access to malicious websites and detects malware used in these attacks.

Cisco Secure Email (formerly Cisco Email Security) can block malicious emails sent by threat actors as part of their campaign. You can try Secure Email for free here .

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Next-Generation Firewall and Firepower NGFW) appliances such as Threat Defense Virtual , Adaptive Security Appliance and Meraki MX can detect malicious activity associated with this threat.

Cisco Secure Malware Analytics (Threat Grid) identifies malicious binaries and builds protection into all Cisco Secure products.

Umbrella , Cisco's secure internet gateway (SIG), blocks users from connecting to malicious domains, IPs and URLs, whether users are on or off the corporate network. Sign up for a free trial of Umbrella here .

Cisco Secure Web Appliance (formerly Web Security Appliance) automatically blocks potentially dangerous sites and tests suspicious sites before users access them.

Additional protections with context to your specific environment and threat data are available from the Firewall Management Center .

Cisco Duo provides multi-factor authentication for users to ensure only those authorized are accessing your network.

Open-source Snort Subscriber Rule Set customers can stay up to date by downloading the latest rule pack available for purchase on Snort.org.  

ClamAV detections are also available for this threat:

Win.Packed.UnmarshalPwn-10019484-0

Win.Packed.CobaltStrike-10019485-0

Win.Loader.UnmarshalPwn-10019486-0

Win.Loader.Shadowpad-10019487-0 

IOCs for this research can also be found at our GitHub repository here.

Share this post

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