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Project Report

The project report should be written up using a "scientific paper" format.

Your supervisor will supply a copy of a research paper or model report representative of good practice in scientific writing in your area of study. You should submit a first draft of your project report to your supervisor by March 16. It is important to meet this deadline as otherwise the supervisor may not be able to discuss the draft with you before you produce your final report. Supervisor’s assistance at this stage will be limited to general discussion of the basic plan and reporting style, and will not extend to detailed editing of the draft.

The final research project report should be about 12-15 (A4 double-spaced) pages (i.e. 4-5000 words) long excluding tables, figures and references. It should contain the following sections:

Abstract

This should summarise the aims and results of the project in about 100-150 words.

Introduction

This should state the purpose of the work and give a clear account of its relationship to the relevant scientific literature. It will probably be based on your preliminary report.

Methods

This should aim to describe in outline the principal methods which you have used. It should emphasise the purpose of the methods and the underlying ideas, rather than the experimental minutiae of standard protocols (for which references should be cited). However, experimental details should be given where you have made a useful change to an existing protocol.

Standard abbreviations, such as DNA, ATP, Tris, etc., may be used without definition. All non-standard abbreviations should be listed on a separate page and the names given in full the first time they are used in the text.

Units should be given the standard abbreviations. Distinguish clearly between amounts and concentrations. When giving concentrations as percentages describe what you mean e.g. 10% (w/w), 20% (by vol.), 30% (w/v), etc.

Results

It is not always possible to attain the desired research objective during the time which is available for an Honours project. In fact, it is much better to achieve clear-cut results on preliminary or methodological experiments (e.g. was it the vector or the recipient cells which caused that low transformation frequency?), than to try to solve the more complex biological problem from shaky foundations. Your results section should contain some clear-cut conclusions, even if only of the preliminary kind.

You should give careful thought to the best manner of presentation : tables and/or figures; division of the relevant description between the text and the table/figure legends; organisation of tables into clearly designated rows and columns; etc.

Discussion

How far did you progress towards attaining your original objective? What difficulties did you encounter/overcome? Did you make any interesting, unexpected observations? What do your observations mean? These are the kinds of questions to discuss.

References

You should be familiar with at least the abstract of every paper that you cite. There should usually be at least 15 references in a well-organised project report. Give the authors (name and initials), year, title of paper, title of the periodical (consistently abbreviated), volume and page numbers. Your references must be presented in a consistent style.

Typing and submission

The final project report must be typed (you must make your own arrangements), double-spaced on A4 paper. The pages of the report must be numbered. The pages must be well secured by a slide, or multiple-ring binder with a card or plastic cover. The title, your name, the name of your supervisor(s), and the year of presentation, should be clearly visible on or through the front cover.

Two copies of your final project report, to be retained by the Honours School of Molecular Biology, must be handed in to CDG (not to your project supervisor) by Friday of Week 22 (Mar 30).

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