J. GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH PROPOSAL

General Overview:  As part of the Honors Program in Biological Sciences you are expected to undertake research during the summer recess with a declared faculty adviser culminating in the development of a senior thesis as part of 498H.  However, science is an expensive business.  How did your mentor obtain the necessary funds for your research? Who provided the money and how was the decision made?  In most instances, funding for research in universities is obtained through federal, state or private agencies that support science.  Decisions on who and what to fund occurs not by administrative review but through the peer review process which is used to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the relative strengths and weakness of submitted research proposals and ultimately decide, or at least recommend, which science projects are worthy of funding. 

This assignment is, in essence, a research proposal.  In this respect, you are basically proposing to undertake a series of defined studies that you believe need to be fiscally supported. The logic, approach and hypothetico-deductive reasoning behind your research proposal should aim to rationalize the merits of the science and why it should be funded.  By scientifically justifying your studies, this assignment will provide you not only with a strong background and rationale for the studies you will be undertaking as part of your summer research program, but also the techniques you will be using and the types of data you might expect to obtain. 

Format and Forms: Each student is expected to independently write a research proposal as described below. You are required to follow the NSF or NIH guidelines for submission of a  proposal.  Medically related research that has clear implications for human health should follow NIH guidelines.  These proposals have to be submitted using the Grants.gov electronic process.  All other basic or applied research in Biology, Biochemistry or Chemistry should follow the NSF guidelines for submission using their electronic submission process through  Fastlane.  Specific information on which sections of the guidelines and which forms are applicable to your research proposal will be given during the class on March 2rd.  These guidelines can be obtained from the following websites: 

NSF: http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=gpg 

NIH: http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/index.htm

Proposals should be: 

a. Electronically compiled using the electronic submission template/forms through grants.gov or Fastlane. 
b. Graphs, images and figures may be computer generated and, if appropriate, curve fitting and statistical modules can be applied to the data sets.  These can be uploaded electronically into the application.
c. Printed and collated and stapled in upper left-hand corner. 

Deadlines and Point Allocation for Research Proposal:  Submitting the research proposal is a five-step process, involving the submission of an abstract, a literature review, the submission of a draft proposal copy, revision of the draft based upon peer review critiques and then the submission of a final copy. The draft copy of your proposal will be critiqued by two students in your class as well as the instructor. You, in turn, will be required to critique two student proposals.  

You are required to write a short abstract or synopsis of your proposed area of research for approval. This is due March 2rd. The subject matter for the research should be chosen after consultation with your research mentor.  Three copies of the draft proposal should be submitted at the beginning of your scheduled lecture on April 13th.  The first draft is worth a total of 250 points.  Two copies will be peer critiqued by student colleagues. The critiques are worth 50 points each for a total of 100 points.  The other copy of the draft will be graded and critiqued by the instructor and returned with comments.   The critiques from the instructor and students will be returned and distributed back to the authors with comments on April 27th. You have until May 18th to respond to the critiques and rewrite and resubmit a final copy of the proposal. Your critiqued drafts with the peer review comments must be submitted along with your final copy. The final copy is worth 150 points. 

All reports not submitted on time (at the beginning of your scheduled lecture) will be considered as late. If your draft is up to one week late, there will be a penalty of 50% off the total points allocated; if it is more than one week late, there will be absolutely no credit. Late final copies will be subject to the same penalties as for drafts. 

THE FIVE STEPS TO SUBMISSION OF A RESEARCH PROPOSAL:

STEP 1: INITIAL ABSTRACT. 

You are initially required to discuss your project with your declared mentor who will help identify and phrase an important unanswered question in their area of research that you will be asked to address as part of your summer research program. Within this topic area you must propose a testable hypothesis and a series of experiments designed to answer the investigative question.   You may not submit written articles, abstracts, posters, or proposals written previously.  The materials, methods and experiments you describe in your proposal should be original, designed by YOURSELF and NOT YOUR MENTOR, and should aim to test a theorem or help clarify or further improve the conceptual understanding of the subject and your specific area of research. Please note that you will receive no credit for simply making a précis of work or experiments done by others. Clearly, the investigative approach that you choose for your assignment may differ from the one you actually adopt while empirically undertaking the study. Certain techniques may not be available for your investigation and others will be too complex, expensive, intricate or time consuming to fit within the allocated time and framework of your summer research program. 

Once you and your adviser have decided upon your topic, write a short abstract of the proposed study. The abstract should consist of a title and a 200-300 word synopsis of your proposed study. It should introduce the subject matter and inform the reader of the current status of the field. It should also introduce the major issues that remain unanswered in the field and serve to forward the particular question that you have chosen to tackle. The relevance of your question to the field should be made clear. These abstracts, which are due on March 2rd, will provide the instructor(s) an opportunity to assess whether the subject materials you have chosen are appropriate for the assignment. To help assess suitability, you should include with your abstract a photocopy of a key manuscript that will be central to the theme of your paper. The abstract and the photocopied article, with comments, will be returned by March 9th. It is important that you wait for this feedback before you embark on the project. Please do not hesitate to contact the instructor if you have any queries concerning the comments on the initial abstract. 

STEP 2: LITERATURE SEARCH AND COLLATION. 

Upon approval of your topic matter, you should select a number of current articles pertinent to the topic (minimum 10-15 primary articles). Various databases and Internet reference resources are available in the Library for you to search the literature and collate a reference base. A workshop on the use of these electronic resources has been scheduled for the class on February 25th (to be confirmed).  You should consult the University Reference Librarian if you encounter specific problems using these databases. Occasionally, the Library runs additional student workshops on how to use search engines and reference databases. Ask the librarian if any are being offered during the semester. 

STEP 3: FIRST DRAFT OF RESEARCH PROPOSAL. 

After having read the articles, you should prepare the first draft of your research proposal. Decide whether your research project is more appropriate for funding by the NIH or NSF and obtain the relevant forms from the websites given above.  Since you don't have any real data at this stage, your preliminary results and discussion will have to be based on the findings of other researchers and hypothetical data, that is, you will have to make up some preliminary data that would possibly look like the data that you might gather in your research.  Although the specific formats for NIH and NSF differ in detail, each proposal guideline requires the following sections outlined below. Note the statements indicating what each section should contain. The % value of total points allocated for each section of the draft and final version are given in parentheses. 

TITLE PAGE WITH ABSTRACT/SUMMARY (15%):  The abstract/summary should be capable of conveying the purpose and essence of your work to the reader if published independently from the rest of your report.  Select a short, specific title, not some general statement. Below the title, list your name and that of your research mentor as Co-PI together with your affiliation.  Write a concise summary of your proposal.  It must include a statement of the research problem, a brief description of what is to be done, the predicted results and conclusions drawn from the study. What do you want to specifically investigate? What is your hypothesis?  How will you test your hypothesis? What data would you anticipate from your experiments and what predictions or conclusions will you be able to make from your proposed study?  

INTRODUCTION (15%):  Introduce the main subject of the experiment with some background statements. Refer to, and cite, any references used. State the hypothesis. How does this study fill gaps in our knowledge? What results are expected in this experiment? 

MATERIALS AND METHODS (25%):  From the perspective of this class, this is the most important section of the paper. Write a description of the equipment, organisms (including scientific names, age, and culture condition), chemicals, and procedures (protocols) to be used. You should refer to the detailed research design, statistical parameters and tests and the procedures to be used in the study. This section should not be a list, but should be presented in a narrative form that is sufficiently detailed for others to duplicate independently. 

RESULTS (20%):  Summary Tables and Figures (graphic presentations) of your predicted/ hypothetical results are expected. Some narrative description of the data must be included. All Tables and Figures must have titles (captions for Tables and legends for Figures). Captions of Tables are placed above the Tables, and legends of Figures are placed below the Figures. If in doubt, review the articles you have cited in your bibliography. 

DISCUSSION (20%):  Give interpretations and explanations of the results of this experiment. Did the results confirm or contradict the hypothesis? What were possible sources of error? What conclusions can you draw from your results? What future experiments should be conducted following on from these studies? 

LITERATURE CITED (5%):  Your references must be cited according to conventional scientific format.  Use one of your cited papers as a model for this.

Three copies of the draft research proposal are due April 13th. Your assignment must be typed and should not exceed the page limitations given in the guidelines.  It is critical that you submit your manuscript on time since it has to be critiqued by two colleagues in the class and the exchange of assignments has to be synchronous. Students handing in their assignments 1 day late will forfeit 50% of their grade for the draft. It is therefore in your interest to meet this deadline. 

STEP 4: CRITIQUE OF RESEARCH PAPER. 

Two of the three copies of your draft paper will be forwarded to two fellow students for critical peer review. The instructor(s) will attempt to match up the topics so that you are critiquing at least one  paper comparable to your own. Please prepare two copies of your critique for each proposal evaluated and return the copies of your colleagues papers to the instructor by April 27th. This critique assignment will provide everyone with an opportunity to evaluate other proposals and to have feedback on their own paper prior to submitting their final version on May 18th. You will be graded on the thoughtfulness and rigor of the critiques of your colleague's papers.  

STEP 5: FINAL VERSION OF PAPER. 

The final version of your paper should be handed in on May 18th during class. It must conform to the NIH or NSF guidelines specified in the corresponding application forms.  Diagrams, photographs, graphs and tables are strongly encouraged if they help to exemplify, simplify or clarify particular aspects of the project. 

Please be sure to take advantage of our office hours if you have questions concerning the research paper or any other aspect of the course.