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When it comes to making a dissertation, or a thesis, it means spending lots of time doing research, looking through case study after case study, and going to school. With all these tasks, you need to plan them all out in a timeline. A research timeline template is a reliable source for any professionals and students who are at the task of writing a research. As years go by, making research becomes easy with the help of the newest innovation under Plan Project Timeline Templates that is accessible online. Here, setting your sample plans for the research paper is well outlined and a manageable way to accomplish where users can have an idea on how to create a perfect research template equipped with useful tools. With our templates, you will be able to make a timeline for your research. We have a variety of samples whether it’s for 3-year research or one for a master’s degree, all of which can help you get the job done!

Simple Research Timeline Template

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Sample Research Timeline Template

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How to Make Research Timeline Plan

What are involved in research timeline plan.

• Setting up the main objectives and the research basic template questions is the primary thing to start so you will know what you must do and how you can do it for the research paper you have.
• The timeline layout you will have can confirm whether the research topic and method you will use are correct. There is always a factual basis for each research question and the means to solve must be viable too.
• The professional schedule that will be used, must be following the methodology that will be applied in the research paper.

Tips for Using Research Timeline Template

• The free templates must be following the overview of the scope and duration of the research process.
• Have the sample template that is suitable for the research paper you are working on, as every research has its timetable to follow
• Make sure that all that is written in the timeline in PDF can be worked on based on the time given and can be completed by the researchers to meet their deadline.

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What’s Included: Research Proposal Template

Our free dissertation/thesis 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 research proposal 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 cleanly-formatted Google Doc can be downloaded as a fully editable MS Word Document (DOCX format), so you can use it as-is or convert it to LaTeX.

PS – if you’d like a high-level template for the entire thesis, you can we’ve got that too .

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 .

Further Resources: Proposal Writing

The template provides step-by-step guidance for each section of your research proposal, but if you’d like to learn more about how to write up a high-quality research proposal, check out the rest of our free proposal-related resources:

• Research Proposal 101
• Examples of research proposals
• How To Find A Research Topic
• How To Find A Research Gap
• Developing Your Golden Thread
• How To Write A Research Proposal
• 8 Common Proposal Writing Mistakes

You can also visit the Grad Coach blog for more proposal-related resources.

If you’d prefer 1-on-1 support with your research proposal, have a look at our private coaching service , where we hold your hand through the research process, step by step.

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Top 5 Research Timeline Samples with Templates and Examples

Ashima Monga

When it comes to doing a thesis, project report, or dissertation, you spend lots of time doing research through case studies. It, however, always works best if you planned everything in a given timeline. Thus, a research timeline template is beneficial for writing a research report or project presentation for sponsors or investors.

To address this pain point of business, SlideTech offers you invaluable help in building innovative research timeline templates that give you the outline to create perfect project reports, add or remove new tasks and milestones, and change the deliverable dates of your project with a few clicks. Our templates provide an overview of the project plan’s events, highlight important points in time, break down the project’s agenda and distill important information about your products or services, etc.

In this blog, we are introducing our top-notch research timeline templates that are perfect for telling stories and visualizing the processes of your project. 

Template 1: Projected Research Timeline Milestone PPT PowerPoint Presentation Ideas Backgrounds

If you need to learn how to make a research document and set schedule activities for each step, then use this fantastic research template that encompasses the content of a well-maintained research paper. Organize your activities and map meetings according to project milestones with this expert-curated template. For instance, use this template to mark out when your ‘reading and research starts and mark it as task 1, with the color-coded legend. Then task 2 could be topic presenting that starts, as soon as task 1 ends. Then, topic interpreting can be task 3 with the same start as the work on the topic started. This editable template lets you change font styles and color themes with a few clicks.

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Template 2: Projected Research Timeline Elements PPT Presentation Infographic Template Skills

When you introduce your new products and services to the customers, get this template where steps are needed to analyze, plan, design, implement, and evaluate a specific product. Adapt this PPT Template to give a comprehensive overview of your products to target audience that you value. This handy template design guides your project from inception to completion dividing your project research tasks into Elements, Tasks and Actions. 

Template 3: Projected Research Timeline Planning PowerPoint Presentation Icon Backgrounds

Manage your planning with this PPT Template design to complete your project research, enlist tasks or activities with its deadline. You can measure the activities you planned through it by going to the timetable you set and evaluating the work progress. Business owners can easily visualize data with customizable maps, widgets, graphs, and charts. The phases are also listed out in detail in this template.

Template 4: Dissertation Projected Research Timeline Analysis PPT PowerPoint Presentation Professional

Fashionably present your research project through this ready-made Presentation Template and keep track of project deadlines. This goal- oriented template breaks down your project’s events or tasks in chronological order, giving a high-level view of the project's planning and reflecting your business plan. Use color hues for each task that differentiate each task from others on the timeline, schedule prioritize tasks, and make information more visual.

Template 5: Dissertation Projected Research Timeline Research PPT PowerPoint Presentation Topics

Grab this research timeline to illustrate and represent roadmaps for your project and highlight the planning process’s goals and tasks over a specific period. Color-coding of this template makes your design more readable, differentiating tasks, defining specific daily, weekly, or monthly activities, etc. The project manager can visualize processes and their status quo and also create natural flow of information among team members. 

The Final Word

Running a business smoothly is a very tricky job and sometimes may be hard to manage. Our beautifully crafted research timeline templates provide the most solid foundation that builds something genuinely remarkable for your business that will captivate your audience, stakeholders, investors, etc. Our research timeline templates communicate the business’s core message clearly and emphasizes timely project delivery to your potential customers. You can always modify our templates to fit your business’s needs. 

FAQs on Research Timeline

What is a research timeline.

A research timeline is an essential part of any project proposal. It defines the chronological order of events of your project plan that includes aspects such as reading & research, analysis results, milestones, preliminary data results, literature review results, etc. It gives a broad overview of your project’s planned activities at a glance.

How do you write a research timeline?

Writing a research document for any project comes with levels of complexity. You must follow some guidelines while writing a research timeline to keep yourself on track. Write the research timeline of the project in stages and give enough time to complete every step of your work.

• Define research ideas, objectives, and resources and then prepare the research proposal.
• Develop a research design for it
• Capture relevant information to create a sampling plan
• Carry out data collection to write it up 
• Prepare data for analysis and draw conclusions or recommendations
• Write the final draft of the application.
• Again, review it and edit it if required and submit the final research proposal.

How long should a research timeline be?

A research timeline project can be eight weeks, six months, one year, two years, three years, or more, depending on the requirement of the project proposal. But it would help if you remembered to complete it timely while planning these periods.

How do you write a  PhD research timeline?

A PhD Research Timeline is a challenging process that spans across years. Sometimes, researchers can feel quite overwhelmed. Some tips for writing a perfect PhD research timeline are:

• Decide what elements like data collection, fieldwork, experiments, data analysis, writing plan, conferences, publications, coursework, etc., you must include in your PhD research timeline.
• Share or discuss your ideas and thoughts with your guide or PhD supervisor and get their views. Note the discussion points during the meeting and edit your provisional PhD research timeline, accordingly. 
• Think about the design of your PhD research timeline and prepare it across tasks and milestones.
• Track your tasks and update your PhD research timeline to prioritize tasks and set achievable and concrete goals when needed.

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Planning your PhD research: A 3-year PhD timeline example

Planning out a PhD trajectory can be overwhelming. Example PhD timelines can make the task easier and inspire. The following PhD timeline example describes the process and milestones of completing a PhD within 3 years.

Elements to include in a 3-year PhD timeline

The example scenario: completing a phd in 3 years, example: planning year 1 of a 3-year phd, example: planning year 2 of a 3-year phd, example: planning year 3 of a 3-year phd, example of a 3 year phd gantt chart timeline, final reflection.

Every successful PhD project begins with a proper plan. Even if there is a high chance that not everything will work out as planned. Having a well-established timeline will keep your work on track.

What to include in a 3-year PhD timeline depends on the unique characteristics of a PhD project, specific university requirements, agreements with the supervisor/s and the PhD student’s career ambitions.

For instance, some PhD students write a monograph while others complete a PhD based on several journal publications. Both monographs and cumulative dissertations have advantages and disadvantages , and not all universities allow both formats. The thesis type influences the PhD timeline.

Furthermore, PhD students ideally engage in several different activities throughout a PhD trajectory, which link to their career objectives. Regardless of whether they want to pursue a career within or outside of academia. PhD students should create an all-round profile to increase their future chances in the labour market. Think, for example, of activities such as organising a seminar, engaging in public outreach or showcasing leadership in a small grant application.

The most common elements included in a 3-year PhD timeline are the following:

• Data collection (fieldwork, experiments, etc.)
• Data analysis
• Writing of different chapters, or a plan for journal publication
• Conferences
• Additional activities

The whole process is described in more detail in my post on how to develop an awesome PhD timeline step-by-step .

Many (starting) PhD students look for examples of how to plan a PhD in 3 years. Therefore, let’s look at an example scenario of a fictional PhD student. Let’s call her Maria.

Maria is doing a PhD in Social Sciences at a university where it is customary to write a cumulative dissertation, meaning a PhD thesis based on journal publications. Maria’s university regulations require her to write four articles as part of her PhD. In order to graduate, one article has to be published in an international peer-reviewed journal. The other three have to be submitted.

Furthermore, Maria’s cumulative dissertation needs an introduction and conclusion chapter which frame the four individual journal articles, which form the thesis chapters.

In order to complete her PhD programme, Maria also needs to complete coursework and earn 15 credits, or ECTS in her case.

Maria likes the idea of doing a postdoc after her graduation. However, she is aware that the academic job market is tough and therefore wants to keep her options open. She could, for instance, imagine to work for a community or non-profit organisation. Therefore, she wants to place emphasis on collaborating with a community organisation during her PhD.

You may also like: Creating awesome Gantt charts for your PhD timeline

Most PhD students start their first year with a rough idea, but not a well-worked out plan and timeline. Therefore, they usually begin with working on a more elaborate research proposal in the first months of their PhD. This is also the case for our example PhD student Maria.

• Months 1-4: Maria works on a detailed research proposal, defines her research methodology and breaks down her thesis into concrete tasks.
• Month 5 : Maria follows a short intensive course in academic writing to improve her writing skills.
• Months 5-10: Maria works on her first journal paper, which is based on an extensive literature review of her research topic. At the end of Month 10, she submits the manuscript. At the same time, she follows a course connected to her research topic.
• Months 11-12: Maria does her data collection.

Maria completed her first round of data collection according to plan, and starts the second year of her PhD with a lot of material. In her second year, she will focus on turning this data into two journal articles.

• Months 1-2: Maria works on her data analysis.
• Months 3-7: Maria works on her second journal paper.
• Month 7: Maria attends her first conference, and presents the results of her literature-review paper.
• Month 8: Maria received ‘major revisions’ on her first manuscript submission, and implements the changes in Month 8 before resubmitting her first journal paper for publication.
• Month 9: Maria follows a course on research valorisation to learn strategies to increase the societal impact of her thesis.
• Months 9-12: Maria works on her third journal paper. She uses the same data that she collected for the previous paper, which is why she is able to complete the third manuscript a bit faster than the previous one.

Time flies, and Maria finds herself in the last year of her PhD. There is still a lot of work to be done, but she sticks to the plan and does her best to complete her PhD.

• Month 1: Maria starts a second round of data collection, this time in collaboration with a community organisation. Together, they develop and host several focus groups with Maria’s target audience.
• Month 2: Maria starts to analyse the material of the focus group and develops the argumentation for her fourth journal paper.
• Month 3: Maria presents the results of her second journal paper at an international conference. Furthermore, she helps out her supervisor with a grant application. They apply for funding to run a small project that is thematically connected to her PhD.
• Months 4-9: Maria writes her fourth and final journal article that is required for her PhD.
• Month 10: Maria writes her thesis introduction .
• Month 11: Maria works on her thesis conclusion.
• Month 12 : Maria works on the final edits and proof-reading of her thesis before submitting it.

Combining the 3-year planning for our example PhD student Maria, it results in the following PhD timeline:

Creating these PhD timelines, also called Gantt charts, is easy. You can find instructions and templates here.

Completing a PhD in 3 years is not an easy task. The example of our fictional PhD student Maria shows how packed her timeline is, and how little time there is for things to go wrong.

In fact, in real life, many PhD students spend four years full-time to complete a PhD based on four papers, instead of three. Some extend their studies even longer.

Furthermore, plan in some time for thesis editing, which is a legitimate practice and can bring your writing to the next level. Finding a reputable thesis editor can be challenging, so make sure you make an informed choice.

Finishing a PhD in 3 years is not impossible, but it surely is not easy. So be kind to yourself if things don’t work out entirely as planned, and make use of all the help you can get.

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