Make a Research Project Timeline

A research project timeline lays out the stages of a study in order, from settling the research question to handing in the final report. You might need one for an undergraduate or master's thesis, a capstone project, a lab study or the timeline section of a research proposal. Supervisors and review committees read it to see whether the work fits the time available, and it helps you spot early whether data collection or writing has been left too little room.

For a doctorate, which runs for years and has its own exams and reviews, see Make a PhD Timeline. For the work plan a funder asks for, see Make a Grant Proposal Timeline.

What to include

Fields differ, but most research projects pass through the same stages:

• Research question: choosing the topic and narrowing it to a question you can answer in the time you have.
• Literature review: reading what has already been done, which often carries on in the background for the whole project.
• Proposal and approvals: writing the proposal, getting it signed off, and any ethics or review board approval the study needs before it can start.
• Methods and pilot: designing the survey, experiment or interview guide, and testing it on a small group.
• Data collection: fieldwork, experiments, interviews, archive visits or surveys.
• Analysis: cleaning the data and working through the results.
• Writing and revision: drafting each section, time for your supervisor's comments, and the revisions that follow.
• Submission and presentation: the deadline, plus any poster, talk or oral exam.

Plan in weeks or months, not days. A timeline is the overview; Timeline vs Schedule explains how it differs from a day-to-day task list.

An example

Here is how a two-semester undergraduate thesis might be laid out, with the hand-in date in mid-April:

The approval is the stage most likely to slip, and everything after it waits on it, so it is worth starting early and leaving a few weeks of slack before the data collection.

Building one in Preceden

Create a timeline and pick the Gantt Chart layout under Choose an initial layout. It lists each stage's name down the left, so the plan reads from top to bottom in order. Creating Gantt Charts with Preceden has more on that layout.

Add each stage as an event. You don't have to work out every end date yourself: type a duration such as 6 weeks as the end date and Preceden adds it to the start date. Supported Date Formats lists everything Preceden reads.

If the project has parallel strands, such as reading that continues while you collect data, rename the starting layers by clicking their names in the list below the timeline, then use the Add Layer button above the timeline to add more. Choose each event's strand from the Layer menu.

Link the stages that wait on each other

Data collection can't start until the approval comes through, and the analysis waits on the data. Open the later stage, check Dependent, and choose the stage it starts after from the menu. Its start date then follows that stage's end date. Dependent Events explains how it works.

If the approval takes three weeks longer than planned, change that one stage and every dependent stage after it moves too, as long as they end with a duration rather than a fixed end date. You can see straight away whether the submission date still holds.

Mark the fixed dates

Under More Options in the event dialog, check Make this event a milestone on the dates you can't move, such as the proposal deadline, a committee meeting and the final submission. Preceden draws a milestone as a full-height vertical line, so every stage can be read against it. Make a Milestone Timeline has more on choosing them.

Keep it current

Pick a Percent Complete value (also under More Options) on each stage as you work through it. To see the plan against today, click the Appearance button above the timeline, open the Axis section and check Display a line on today's date. Anything unfinished to the left of the red line is behind.

To show your supervisor, share a link to the timeline so they always see the current version, or click Share and download it as an Image or PDF to paste into your proposal. Print Your Timeline covers both.

The free plan allows up to 10 events on each timeline, which is enough for the stages above. If you break the writing into separate chapters or add more checkpoints, our paid plans lift the limit.