LABORATORY – INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT GUIDELINES
For this portion of the course, you will be required to complete an independent, hypothesis-driven research project of your own choosing. The following discussion provides some background on types of research, where hypotheses come from, writing a research proposal, and writing a research paper. You will be required to take an idea, come up with a hypothesis, and generate a proposal to convince me to allow you to do the experiments. After approval of the proposal, you will complete your experiments and write a scientific paper (Draft Research Paper & Final Research Paper).
TYPES OF RESEARCH
There are a number of types of research, but the basic 3 types are:
- Descriptive – describing a specific case or problem without needing a hypothesis (no hypothesis required) [e.g., a case report on a specific disease that a clinician has had and how they treated it, which would help other doctors in treating patients with similar diseases]
- Corollary – using questionnaires or data analysis to make correlations between various groups of people and/or exposures, nutrition, drugs, etc.; also known as epidemiological research (hypothesis is usually required) [e.g., correlations between the number of moles on a person’s body and their risk of melanoma – see British Journal of Dermatology Paper in the FILES section of Canvas (“Moles Skin Cancer 2017”)]
- Mechanistic – determining the mechanism of action for how things work, typically at the molecular or cellular or organismal level (hypothesis is required) [e.g., understanding the regulation of the folding of human telomerase by molecular chaperone proteins – see Genes and Development Paper in the FILES section of Canvas (“Holt GnD paper 1999”)]
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
All discoveries in science start out the same way – with some sort of Observation, which should lead to a Question and ultimately a Hypothesis. From Chapter 1 in our book, you will recall the steps of the Scientific Method (slightly modified here):[unique_solution]
Observation à Big Biological Question à Hypothesis à Prediction à Experiments à Results à Conclusions
Generally speaking, a Hypothesis is what we think could explain our previous Observations, while the Prediction provides a framework for how we can test our Hypothesis through experimentation. The combination of Experiments and Results would allow for data analysis and then Conclusions. Upon completion of your research, there are a number of things that can be done, including creating additional hypotheses, writing a paper for publication in a journal, and/or writing a grant proposal to submit for funding of future projects. The next 2 sections will focus on the research PROPOSAL and the research PAPER, paying particular attention to the structure and detail of each.
THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL
When writing a Research PROPOSAL, there is a specific structure that needs to be followed, which is fairly similar to the writing of a Research PAPER. The PROPOSAL is designed to communicate what you plan to do for your research project, while the PAPER communicates what you’ve done and what your results mean. The PROPOSAL is written as a way for scientists to obtain grant funding for their work. The formatting of the PROPOSAL should be 12pt Times, 1 inch margins, and double spaced (Title Page and References can be single spaced). The general structure for a Research PROPOSAL is as follows:
Title Page – this section includes the title of your project, the authors and their affiliations (RBC),
and the Abstract. All information should be included on PAGE 1 and can be single spaced.
Structure of the Abstract: This section is essentially a summary of what’s been done and should be the very last thing that is written. It contains all components of the paper itself, including a sentence of Background (what’s been done before), a sentence of Methods (what you plan to do), a sentence of Results (what you expect to find), and a sentence of Discussion (what your Results will mean in the grand scheme of things). You can also include your hypothesis as an extra sentence after the Background.
Introduction/Background/Significance – This section will attempt to answer a number of questions about the Observations you’ve made and the literature research you’ve done. Try to answer the following questions: what’s been done with type of work by others (should cite all of your references in this section; be very thorough!), why you’re doing it (why it interests you), and what the general plan is in the last paragraph – not specifics on the methods, but 2 sentences explaining the project and how it will fit with what’s been done and/or why you are doing it. This section will start PAGE 2 with each of the subsequent sections to follow.
Hypothesis & Specific Aim(s) – This section is just a paragraph of rationale for the project (your hypothesis and your prediction should be included here), then a sentence or 2 on specifically what you are going to do (e.g., “Specific Aim #1 – in order to determine the functional significance of the chaperone interaction with telomerase, we will assess the stoichiometry of the overall protein complex using NMR and X-Ray crystallography.”)
Methods – This section will include how you will do the project, what materials you will need, and what specific protocols you will use.
Anticipated Results – This section will include what you expect to find or observe, as well as what potential problems (pitfalls) you may encounter and how you will overcome those problems (alternative approaches to investigating your hypothesis). You can include a concluding paragraph tying all of the sections together, if you want (not required).
References – This section will include all of the references you used to write your paper, which will be especially important for the Introduction section AND for the Methods section. For all facts or protocols that you use in this PROPOSAL, you will need to cite where you found this information. Please use at least 4 references, with only 2 of them being websites with the rest being primary publications or magazines or books as alternatives. This section should start the LAST PAGE and can be single spaced.
THE RESEARCH PAPER
As with the Research PROPOSAL, there is a fairly similar structure for the writing of the Research PAPER. While the PROPOSAL is designed to communicate what you plan to do, the Research PAPER communicates what you’ve done and what your results mean. The formatting of the PAPER should be 12pt Times, 1 inch margins, and double spaced (Title Page and References can be single spaced). The general structure for a Research PAPER is as follows:
Title Page – this section includes the title of your project, the authors and their affiliations (RBC),
and the Abstract. All information should be included on PAGE 1 and can be single spaced.
Structure of the Abstract: This section is essentially a summary of what’s been done and should be the very last thing that is written. It contains all components of the paper itself, including a sentence of Background (what’s been done before), a sentence of Methods (what you did), a sentence of Results (what you found), and a sentence of Discussion (what your Results mean in the grand scheme of things). You can also include your hypothesis as an extra sentence after the Background sentence.
Introduction/Background/Significance – This section will attempt to answer a number of questions about the Observations you’ve made and the literature research you’ve done. Try to answer the following questions: what’s been done with type of work by others (should cite all of your references in this section; be very thorough!), why you did these experiments (why it interests you), what your hypothesis was, and what you found (briefly). This section will start PAGE 2 with each of the subsequent sections to follow.
Methods – This section will include how you did your research, what materials and specific protocols you used. The Methods will be easy to write after you do your research!
Results – This section will include what you found or observed. You should explain your Results in a written format and in either tables or graphs of your data (pictures of the experiments are also encouraged!). In the Results, you are only describing what you found/observed and NOT what your Results mean (that’s the Discussion).
Discussion – This section will explain your Results and what they mean in the context of what’s been done in the past. In the Discussion, you should also discuss: 1) any problems you had and how you overcame them, 2) how you might do these experiments differently, and 3) what additional experiments you could do as a result of your project (i.e., Future Directions).
References – This section will include all of the references you used to write your PAPER, which will be especially important for the Introduction section AND for the Methods section. For all facts or protocols that you use, you will need to cite where you found this information. Please use at least 4 references, with only 2 of them being websites with the rest being primary publications or magazines or books as alternatives. This section should start the LAST PAGE and can be single spaced.