Protocol & Ethics | PHRPS Module 4

Choose your mode

Standard mode works through each tool step by step with coaching dialogue. Express mode delivers structured output immediately across both tools.

Standard

Guided learning

You'll justify your choices at each major decision point — the same way a proposal committee, thesis defense, or journal reviewer eventually will. It takes more effort now, but you arrive at each of those real checkpoints already prepared.

Express

Direct feedback

Submit your context and receive structured output across both tools immediately. Coaching detail collapsed — expand any section to explore. Tip: Be as specific as possible.

Your research context

Bring forward the key decisions you already made in Modules 1–3 — paste them in below. There's no automatic handoff yet, so a few lines summarizing each is enough.

Research question or objective

0 / 300

Study design

Geographic scope / setting

Target population & eligibility summary (from Module 3)

Sample size & sampling strategy summary (from Module 3)

Methods scaffold inputs

Tool 1 will check your methods section for completeness and internal consistency, then scaffold its structure — headings and guiding prompts, not finished prose.

Key variables being measured

Data collection methods & instruments

Planned analysis approach (optional — Module 6 not required yet)

Before we examine your methods scaffold

Standard mode asks you to articulate your reasoning first — so the coaching responds to your thinking, not just your inputs.

Think about who will actually read this methods section first — a thesis committee, an ethics reviewer, or a journal reviewer. What order or structure did you have in mind for presenting your methods, and why does it fit that reader?

Tool 2 — Ethics Preparation

Ethics review is a reasoning exercise, not a form to fill out. This tool coaches you through the same questions a reviewer will ask, grounded in the Belmont Report's core principles and the Declaration of Helsinki.

Ethics committee jurisdiction (optional — sharpens terminology, not required)

Vulnerable or special populations involved (select all that apply)

Children / minors Pregnant women Cognitively impaired / reduced capacity to consent Prisoners / institutionalized persons Low literacy population None of the above

Proposed consent process

Rationale for this consent process

Key risks to participants

Anticipated benefits

Data privacy & confidentiality plan

Funding source (optional)

Before we examine your ethics preparation

Standard mode asks you to articulate your reasoning first — so the coaching responds to your thinking, not just your inputs.

Build your methods section scaffold, prepare for ethics review