An introduction to research for primary dental care clinicians part 6: stage 7. Piloting the methodology and project management.

Introduction This paper, the sixth in the series, will address the seventh of the ten stages of a research project suggested in the first paper in the series. The ten suggested stages are: 1. The initial idea (asking a research question). 2. Searching the literature. 3. Refining the research question. 4. Planning the study. 5. Writing a protocol. 6. Obtaining ethical approval and funding. 7. Piloting the methodology and project management. 8. Collecting data. 9. Analysing the data. 10. Writing up and disseminating the results. A previous paper1 outlined how to write a protocol, which provides the blueprint for a project. Once ethical approval and funding have been obtained, the next stage is to pilot (test) the project and manage it.