| name | plan-a-field-research-study |
| category | school |
| description | Plan field research through site access, sampling, safety, consent, logistics, data custody, adaptation rules, and exit obligations. Use when evidence must be collected in real-world settings. |
plan-a-field-research-study
Operational feasibility and participant safety are part of the method.
When to use
- Use for observation, interview, environmental, ecological, archaeological, ethnographic, or operational fieldwork.
- Do not enter sites, collect data, or represent authority without permission and appropriate review.
Preconditions
- Define question, sites, populations, seasons, methods, partners, permits, ethics, hazards, languages, accessibility, and resources.
Procedure
- Map site owners, community authority, permits, gatekeepers, participants, bystanders, and vulnerable groups.
- Design sampling, recruitment, consent, observation, measurement, refusal, withdrawal, and nonresponse handling.
- Assess travel, weather, terrain, health, security, political, equipment, wildlife, lone-work, and safeguarding risks.
- Create communications, check-in, emergency, evacuation, medical, incident, and stop plans.
- Pilot instruments, translations, equipment, identifiers, storage, backup, and transfer.
- Define daily provenance, quality, deviation, consent, custody, and debrief records.
- Preauthorize bounded adaptations and require review for changes that affect inference or consent.
- Plan site restoration, participant follow-up, data return, compensation, reporting, and exit.
Failure plan
- Stop for unsafe conditions, invalid permission, compromised consent, equipment invalidity, or custody loss.
- Quarantine questionable data and record the deviation rather than repairing it silently.
Worked example
A coastal survey defines tide and storm stops, land permissions, paired equipment checks, encrypted daily transfer, nonresponse logs, and community result return.
Done
- A field-research plan documents access, sample, consent, safety, logistics, instruments, custody, adaptations, incidents, and exit
- Permit, ethics, equipment, translation, emergency, communication, backup, deviation, and site-restoration rehearsals verify readiness
