Abstract
Research proposals must adhere to both scientific and ethical standards to ensure the integrity and impact of research endeavours. However, existing guidelines often fall short in providing comprehensive guidance for non-medical disciplines, requiring separate documents for scientific and ethical reviews, and lacking detailed instructions for specific steps such as risk-benefit analysis and the use of secondary data. This study addresses these challenges by developing a detailed, step-by-step guideline for preparing research proposals that seamlessly integrate scientific and ethical reviews. Through a qualitative research design, involving focus group discussions with ethics review committee members and key informant interviews with experts, combined with a comprehensive literature review, this study identified best practices and challenges in the current review process. The proposed guideline offers a structured approach to preparing research proposals, emphasizing clarity in research objectives, methodology, data analysis, and expected outcomes for scientific review. For ethical review, it provides detailed instructions on risk-benefit analysis, informed consent processes, privacy and confidentiality measures, and the ethical use of secondary or archival data. The guidelines were pilot-tested with researchers to ensure their usability and effectiveness, resulting in a refined tool that can standardize the proposal preparation process and improve the quality and integrity of research across various disciplines.