Writing Guidelines for the research report
Research reports should be formatted in a manner consistent with their scientific discipline. We encourage students to use a paper from their mentors favorite journal as a stylistic model.
The research report will be:
Typed
12 pt font
1 inch margins
Double spaced
3000-3500 words not including references
In-text citations in a format used by your journal of choice
The research report will be divided into the following sections in this order, each section will start on a new page:
Cover page
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Conclusions/Discussion/Future Directions
Acknowledgements
References
Figures and Legends
Each section will contain:
Cover Page–Header containing:
First Author, et al, Year. Running title
Tile
Authors designating affiliations
Address research was performed
Running title
5 keywords
Grant Support
Corresponding Author, Address, phone, fax, email
Abstract - Short description of entire report in 300 words or less.
What was done, why, what was observed and what was concluded (no refs)
Introduction – The introduction sets out the context of the work providing citations from primary literature to support the “history behind the project”. The hypothesis should be clearly outlined towards the end of the introduction.
Materials and Methods – This should indicate (not list) all the essential chemicals, reagents and materials used whilst collecting the data. The company that provides these and the city and state where the company is located should also be included. Eg. Anti-GAPDH was purchased from Cell Signaling Technologies (Danvers, MA).
A precise yet concise description of what was done experimentally. This should contain all the information another research in that discipline would need to repeat you experiments. Major Equipment used should also be stated and include the supplier, city and state. Eg. Flow Cytometry was performed on a Beckman Coulter XL-MC flow cytometer at the Massey Cancer Center Flow Cytometry Core Facility. Data was analyzed using the EXPO32 ADC software (Beckman Coulter Inc, Fullerton, CA).
Primary literature should be used to cite commonly used techniques.
Results - A clear description of the results/data obtained with an appropriate statistical analysis. The results should be described with no discussion of their significance or relationship to those of others. Information in this section should be conveyed in text and appropriate tables and/or figures and/or graphs which will be referred to throughout the results section.
Discussion -This section provides a detailed critical evaluation of the experimental methodology and results in relationship to the AIMS OF THE PROJECT, the OUTCOMES of the project and how that intersects with the work of others. Students must use citations from the primary literature to show how their integrates with that of others.
Acknowledgements – it is an expected courtesy to acknowledge help given to you by others. Don’t overdo it!
References - This is NOT a bibliography. The articles to be referenced here are those to which specific statements were made in the text (citations). The references should be in a uniform format applicable to your research discipline. All articles featured here must be cited in the text. We discourage the use of books and web-sources and these will not count towards the required 8 citations.
Figure legends – Figure legends should be a concise description of what the figure shows. It should not contain any method but can include volumes, doses, timing, statistical results and information about the reagents used.
Figures -Figures should appropriately describe the results of the experiments conducted. Either in graphs, tables, photos, images, etc. All figures should be clearly labeled so that the reader can navigate the information presented.