Topic: from interesting to finishable

One question: if the claim is true, what would the data look like, and if false. If you cannot tell them apart, there is no design.

Task: A topic too large and advice to narrow it.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - field and training
   - data or sample access
   - time available
   - supervisor's area
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- narrow to one population, place and period
- check whether the data is obtainable
- three doable topics with risks
- which one is most likely to yield nothing

[Process]
1. State the question as something falsifiable
2. Name the observation that separates true from false
3. Check whether sample, measurement and control can support it
4. List three things that could overturn it
5. State the scope

[Output]
Question, criterion, method, counter-evidence, scope.

[Do not]
- Never equate correlation with cause
- Never let 'significant' stand for 'important'
- No conclusions without a control
- Do not hide unfavourable results