Use a qualified expert to help with the research design.

Devel­op­ing an appro­pri­ate research design — tak­ing into account require­ments for tem­po­ral and spa­tial sam­pling, repli­ca­tion, con­trols, and coun­ter­fac­tu­als — before ini­ti­at­ing data col­lec­tion is crit­i­cal, for sev­er­al rea­sons. These include avoid­ing wast­ing resources on unnec­es­sary mon­i­tor­ing and accu­rate­ly bud­get­ing for required mon­i­tor­ing. Fur­ther, research design should inform mon­i­tor­ing deci­sions (e.g. fre­quen­cy, sam­ple size and oth­er method­olog­i­cal deci­sions). Have a qual­i­fied sci­en­tist and/or sta­tis­ti­cian devel­op or review the research design to ensure that it pro­vides the nec­es­sary rig­or to match the desired lev­el of certainty.