plan specification study design A study design is a plan comprising of protocols and/or data transformations that are executed as part of an investigation. The objective of the study design is to produce results (information). The study design specifies how the different data produced in the execution of the investigation are related, how they are interpreted, and what are the desired results. http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi.owl A plan specification comprised of protocols (which may specify how and what kinds of data will be gathered) that are executed as part of an investigation and is realized during a study design execution. study design