Grantmanship in nursing.

ever, regardless of the source of the problem the proposal development process requires a thorough exploration of all completed research on the topic, a clear operationalization of the study variables, and the selection of a design that controls for extraneous variables and holds the potential for replication.2 Thus, in order for a reseach proposal to be sound it must be grounded in theory and hold the potential to serve as a basis for subsequent research. It is therefore important for the researcher to critically review the literature and then summarize the completed work in order to link the proposed research with the body of existing literature. After the research problem has been explored within the context of completed research on the subject, and prior to the actual writing of the proposal, the researcher needs to consider a number of