A research question and background literature review about a topic in public health in Saudi Arabia

you will need to articulate a research question that is relevant to the fields of public health and/or epidemiology. You will also need to provide a supporting background literature review giving a critical and reasoned narrative explaining the motivation for your research question. Your work will be assessed based on your ability to develop a clear, focused, and feasible research question, which is well situated within the literature you have consulted and presented. In order to assess the criteria related to the background/context and research question, markers will evaluate your work utilising the marking rubric (in assessment submission guidelines below).

The assignment will comprise of 1000 words (+/- 10%), split into four sections. Here’s a suggested breakdown:

1. Research question (50-100 words)

2. Background (100-200 words)

3. Literature Review (600-700 words)

4. Rationale (50-100 words)

Note: In-text citations do count towards your overall word-count, but your references do not. Below is a description of what you should include in each section.

Research Question

This section should include your one or two sentence research question relevant to the fields of public health and epidemiology. Your research question should be clear, focussed, feasible. Remember there is not one type of research question. Ultimately, the research question should inform public health policy or practice.

Background

This should provide the background literature to a research topic. The size and scope of the problem should be described as well as relevance to policy and practice. This section should indicate why your research topic is important to focus on.

Literature Review

This section should include a discussion of the specific work that is relevant to a research question and motivates your research. It is important to undertake a thorough critical review of the available literature on your chosen topic. This is the first stage of your exploration and constitutes the foundation of any research project. The review has at least three purposes.

It can be used to:

• Outline current theories and concepts (useful for generating topics and research questions)

• Summarise and critique results and data from previous studies (helpful in providing background to the research)

• Highlight gaps along the following: research designs, approaches, methods, techniques and research instruments

Rationale

This section should include three bullet points explaining why you are choosing this research question and pinpoint where the anticipated contributions lie. This rationale section draws from the background and literature review.