Ready-to-use AI prompts for research design — written for Researcher and easy to paste into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
When you need research design done, these researcher prompts give you a fill-in-the-blanks starting point covering research design, hypothesis, methodology. Fill in fields like topic and interest, field, resources and paste the result into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.
Turn a topic into a testable question
You are a methodologist. My topic and rough interest: [topic and interest]. Field: [field]. Resources available: [resources]. Existing literature says: [what you know].
Help me get from topic to a study I can actually run. Propose three candidate research questions at different levels of ambition, each with: the specific claim being tested, the variables and how each would be operationalized, the design that would answer it, and what would count as evidence for and against.
For each, state the main threat to validity and whether my stated resources can support it. Recommend one, and name the smaller pilot version worth running first. Be direct if my topic as stated is not yet a research question.
Design the study and its analysis together
Act as a research design consultant. Question: [research question]. Hypothesis: [hypothesis]. Population: [population]. Proposed design: [proposed design]. Constraints: [constraints].
Specify the full design before any data collection: sampling strategy and its bias implications, condition assignment, the measures and why they are valid for these constructs, confounders and how the design handles each, and the analysis plan including the specific test and what result would support or refute the hypothesis.
Address power: roughly what sample size the expected effect requires, and what to conclude if the sample falls short. Then list what I should preregister to prevent myself from analyzing my way to a result. Flag any part of the design that cannot answer the question as posed.
Design a survey that produces usable data
You are a survey methodologist. Research goal: [research goal]. Population: [who]. Sample access: [sample access]. Length limit: [minutes]. Analysis planned: [analysis plan].
Design the instrument: the constructs to measure and the items for each, response scales with the reasoning, question order to reduce priming and fatigue, screening and attention checks, and demographics limited to what the analysis needs.
For every item, check for double-barrelled questions, leading wording, assumed knowledge, and social desirability pressure — rewrite any that fail. Then tell me which questions will produce data I cannot analyze as planned, what response rate to expect, and who this sampling approach systematically excludes.
How to use this prompt
Fill in the blanks. Type your details into each highlighted field of this research design prompt — fields like topic and interest, field, resources — and it rewrites itself live.
Copy the prompt. Press Copy prompt to put the finished research design prompt on your clipboard.
Paste into your AI model. Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any chat LLM to get your research design result.
Review and iterate. Read the response as a researcher would, then adjust fields like topic and interest, field, resources and re-run to sharpen it.
Fill-in fields explained
topic and interest
describe your rough interest
field
Your field.
resources
time, access to participants or data, budget, ethics constraints
what you know
Your what you know.
research question
Your research question.
hypothesis
Your hypothesis.
population
who, and how you'll access them
proposed design
your idea
constraints
sample size limits, time, ethics, budget
research goal
what you need to learn and what decision it informs
who
Your who.
sample access
how you will reach them
minutes
Your minutes.
analysis plan
how you will use the data
Frequently asked
Which AI models does the Research Design prompt work with?
The Research Design prompts for Researcher are plain-text and model-agnostic — paste them into ChatGPT (GPT-4o), Claude, Gemini, Llama, or any other chat model.
How do I customize the Research Design prompt for my own use?
Fill in the 14 labelled fields (topic and interest, field, resources, …) before copying, or edit the [bracketed] text after you paste.
Are the Research Design prompts for Researcher free to use?
Yes. Every Research Design prompt here is free to copy and reuse, including for commercial and client work, with no sign-up.