3. What is the word limit for the dissertation?
The maximum word count for the main body of the dissertation is 7,500 words but should be no less than 6,500 words. The main body includes Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and also table and figure titles and legends, but not text within tables or figures.
- The respective word counts for each section will vary between different project types and you should therefore use your own judgement in terms of section word counts.
- Elements such as the title, declaration, abstract, acknowledgements, abbreviations and appendices do not contribute towards the final, main body word count.
- The abstract has an independent maximum word count of 300 words.
When you submit your dissertation, you will be required to provide both your abstract and main body word counts on the cover page.
4. What should I include in my dissertation?
The content of the final dissertation should consist of the following in the order listed below:
Title Page
Declaration
Abstract (Up to 300 words)
Index/Contents list
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction*
Method*
Results*
Discussion*
References
Appendices
*Section contributes to main word count (maximum 7,500 words).
The following sections outline the expected contents of each of the above aspects.
Cover page
The title or cover page should include:
- Module code and title (PM-344: Capstone Projects)
- Dissertation title
- Your name and student number
- Your programme of study
- Your supervisor’s name
- Year of submission
- Abstract word count
- Main body word count
A cover page template can be found here Download here.
The dissertation’s title should be informative and concise, with a word count of approximately 10-20 words. Ensure that your title accurately reflects the results of your study. When scientific manuscripts are reviewed by other scientists within the field prior to publication, one of the reviewers’ roles is to ensure that the title is not misleading given the content of the manuscript. It may be pertinent to finalise the title after writing the main body of the dissertation when the final results are known.
Example titles:
- “Good” example:
“Methyl methanesulfonate induces chromosome damage in human lymphoblastoid cell line TK6”
(Specific, descriptive but not overly detailed, mentions specific chemical and cell model)
- “Poor” example:
“Genotoxicity in human cells”
(Too generic, not sufficiently informative)
See also: Scientific journal article titles within your field of study.
Declaration
A copy of this Declaration Form Download Declaration Formmust be signed and included in your final dissertation submission. The “Declaration of originality” states that you understand what constitutes plagiarism and the consequences of academic misconduct; it requires you to acknowledge that work in your dissertation is your own, unless indicated (referenced). If any work has been performed jointly with another student or technician, for example, then this should be acknowledged on the declaration.
Abstract
Word count: maximum 300 (Not included in final main body word count)
The abstract is a concise summary of the project, which conveys the significance of the work to a broad audience. In a scientific journal article or conference proceeding, the abstract is designed to provide the reader with a brief overview of the publication or presentation so that they can decide whether it is of interest to them. It should include an introduction, objective(s), methods, results and discussion element (1-2 sentences for each). The abstract can either be written as a single paragraph or as a structured abstract with subheadings. Unlike other sections, it should not include any in-text citations.
The abstract should quote key results, including specific data and, where appropriate, associated p-values. It may be pertinent to write the abstract only after the main body of the dissertation has been completed, when the findings of the project have been confirmed.
Contents
Your dissertation should include an appropriately formatted index/contents page, providing page numbers for main sections and sub-sections within the dissertation. Page 1 is the first page after the index/contents page, and the index/contents will include information for all sections thereafter. Examples of contents pages are available in the sample dissertations on Canvas.
Acknowledgements
Students should acknowledge their supervisor’s contribution, as well as contributions from any other relevant individuals and institutions. It is important to acknowledge the contribution of any individuals who assisted during the project, including study participants. If other individuals (e.g., other students, laboratory staff) assisted with data collection, for example, then their contribution must be specified in the declaration.
Abbreviations
You should provide a table or list of abbreviations with the full term to which the reader can refer (e.g., DNA for deoxyribonucleic acid). These should be listed in alphabetical order. The first time you use the term in the main body text, provide the full term followed by an abbreviation in brackets. After this, use the abbreviation.
Introduction
The Introduction requires you to inform the reader of the topic of study and how your research question originated. The Introduction involves a review of the relevant literature within the field and how this has led to the identification of a “knowledge gap”.
The Introduction should begin by considering the chosen topic in terms of the broader area of study. For example, if your project is based on the effects of chemotherapeutic agents on the cell cycle of cancer cells, you could begin by stating: “Unregulated cell division is a Hallmark of Cancer…” Such a general statement will provide the reader with an appreciation of the broader significance of the study.
The Introduction should then gradually move towards the specifics of your chosen research topic. It should consider the key publications that have allowed you to identify a knowledge gap and subsequent research question. Relevant and up-to-date literature should be cited throughout. Following this, your Introduction should acknowledge how the information in the specific area of interest is currently limited, leading to a justification for the problem to be addressed in your study.
Following on from the identification of such a research question, the Introduction should conclude with a paragraph stating your hypothesis and objectives. As with the abstract, it might be advisable to write, or at least finalise, the Introduction once all of the results have been collected so that you are clear about what you are introducing.
Diagrams are permitted in the dissertation’s Introduction provided that they contribute substantially to communicating the overall “message” and are clearly labelled. It is not necessary to include diagrams if they do not enhance the reader’s understanding of the topic or repeat information in the text. The construction of original diagrams is preferable to “lifting” diagrams directly from pre-published works.
Methods
The Methods section reports the techniques and approaches applied to answer your research question (e.g., laboratory techniques, literature search strategy, questionnaire design and distribution). This section should contain sufficient information for other researchers to be able to replicate the study exactly. Methods will therefore need to contain specific detail of the procedures used.
The Methods section should be written in continuous prose, rather than the step-by-step list of instructions provided in many laboratory protocols (e.g., those provided with molecular biology kits). If you have followed a published methodology, this must be cited. If you have deviated from a cited method, then the modifications should be stated clearly in the Methods section.
Examples of key information that should be included are cell types used, details of participants, volumes, concentrations and details of equipment (e.g., manufacturer, model) used. Sub-headings for different approaches should be used to divide the Methods section.
Examples of subheadings: “Cell culture”, “Protein extraction”, “Protein quantification”, “Western blotting”, “Statistical analysis”.
Each subsection should begin with a brief justification of the method for the particular application. Within the description of each method, include the manufacturers of consumables and equipment used as well as the location of the manufacturer’s site from which the item was purchased.
Example: “PCR was performed using a T100TM Thermal Cycler (BioRad, Hertfordshire, U.K.).”
Tables and diagrams may be included in the Methods section if relevant. If preliminary experiments were performed to optimise a method, small amounts of data from this can also be included in Methods.
A “Statistical analysis” section can conclude the Methods section if relevant. This should indicate the type of test(s) used (i.e., test name, parametric or non-parametric), the software used for statistical analysis and the number of replicates. Any tests for normality or data transformation performed should be stated. It is also important to state the p-value threshold deemed statistically significant (usually, p ≤ 0.05). It is good practice to include results tables for statistical tests as an appendix.
Ethical approval
You must gain appropriate ethical approval before conducting data collection using human participants/animals, and you must clearly state in your methods section that the project has been granted ethical approval before commencement of data collection. You should include your ethics application as an appendix. Discuss with your supervisor whether ethics approval is required from the SUMS Ethics Committee or the NHS, for example. Your supervisor may have already obtained ethics approval.
Results
The “Results” section of the dissertation is a key component as it communicates the new knowledge that the study is contributing to the field. The content of this section should always be relevant to the original research question. The results of the study should be presented using tables or figures (only very rarely should the same data be provided in both forms) and also described using text, however the text should complement tables/figures as opposed to repeating the data presented or figure legends. The results section should not seek to interpret the data (this will be in the 6.10 Discussion section) but should report on your statistical analysis and comment on the quality or reliability of results. Use of subheadings is encouraged and can help correlate the results to the study objectives.
Data analysis, volume and quality
While you are not expected to collect enough data for a journal publication, this is not an excuse for minimal data collection. You should collect enough data to robustly and thoroughly answer your research question. If data collection is delayed or limited due to uncontrollable circumstances, then details of this should be included in the dissertation. You should include all data analysis performed (e.g., tests for normality) and you should state the p-value threshold deemed statistically significant (usually, p ≤ 0.05). It is good practice to include results tables for statistical tests as an appendix.
Displaying data
Tables and figures should be presented in a logical order to best tell the “story” of the project; this does not necessarily need to be chronological order of data collection. Consider the most suitable format for presenting each dataset that you have collected; for example, a bar graph may be of greater relevance than a line graph if you have categorical variables on your x-axis. It is not necessary to represent the same data in both tabular and graphical form within the results section, as duplication of information should be avoided. However, if you wish to include the raw data for a figure, this can be included in the appendix. Figures and tables should be clear, consistently formatted, and straightforward for another researcher to interpret. They should be constructed using computational software, as opposed to being hand-drawn.
Figures should be labelled in order of appearance (e.g., Figure 3.1, Figure 3.2, etc.) and must include a figure title and legend below them. Axes on graphs should be labelled with the variable followed by the units in brackets (e.g., Mutation frequency (%)). Axes displaying the same variables on separate graphs should have the same scale (displaying the same maximum values) to allow direct comparisons between graphs. Tables must be labelled independently of figures (e.g., Table 3.1, Table 3.2, etc.) with a title and legend above the table. Statistically significant changes should be clearly indicated on the graph/table; for example, adding asterisks next to statistically significant data points; the “meaning” of such symbols should be indicated in the legend (e.g., * = p ≤ 0.05; ** = p ≤ 0.01; *** = p ≤ 0.001).
The figure/table legend should describe the content in 2-3 sentences. Legends should allow the figure or table to act as a standalone piece of information describing the data; how the data was obtained, number of replicates (e.g., n=3), etc, without requiring the reader to refer to the main text.
Describing data
Text descriptions should quote specific data from the figures and/or tables, referring to the tables and figures by number as appropriate. You should clearly describe which values are being compared during statistical analysis (e.g., frequency of mutations in a sample treated with hydrogen peroxide compared to a vehicle control sample) and the magnitude of changes observed should be described (e.g., percentage change), as well as the direction of the change (i.e., increase or decrease relative to…). If data are “negative” (i.e., no statistically significant changes were observed) then non-significant trends may be described if desired although such results should be interpreted with caution, given the absence of a statistically significant change. Ensure that all approaches used to generate the results presented correspond to those detailed in the Methods section.
Discussion
The discussion section should provide an unbiased interpretation and critical analysis of the results of your study, and discuss how your work fits in with, completes, or perhaps differs from that of previous investigators. You can also include ideas in relation to future work that could be carried out to extend or clarify the conclusions based on your results.
Discussing your results
The observations made in your results section should be explained in terms of their importance, with relevant literature cited throughout the discussion to support your argument. It is important to remain objective and provide a balanced view, rather than “cherry pick” studies that support your data. If there are key publications that demonstrate conflicting findings to your own, then you should also acknowledge these and consider why the results differ. For example, were there flaws in the design of these previous studies? The discussion should link your findings back to your original hypothesis, which will allow you to answer your research question.
Critical evaluation
As well as acknowledging the potential impact of your study on the field, you should recognise its limitations. While every effort should have been made to collect high quality data, there may be room for improvement. Remain objective and avoid overstating the importance of the findings. It may be true that your study will have a tangible impact on the field, but it is unlikely to be a major breakthrough, which is perfectly adequate. Research is typically slow-moving and knowledge results from small contributions over an extended period of time. You should discuss your finding within the “bigger picture”, for example what are the wider implications of the study for policy and practice? Who might eventually benefit from your findings and how?
References
You should always reference information taken from other individuals’ published work and should be referencing published work throughout the dissertation (not just in the introduction). References should be in the American Psychological Association (APA) 7th referencing style. All references provided in the reference list should be cited in the project. If you choose to use referencing software, please note that manual editing may be required to conform with the correct referencing style.
References should be up-to-date and where possible, from the last five years, although it is acknowledged that older references may still be useful in rare cases. References should also be relevant; there may be a lot of research in your general area of study so try to narrow this down to research that relates to your study. References used should also be from reputable sources; it is expected that the majority of references will be sourced from peer-reviewed journals. Other reference types are permitted if they are relevant (e.g., Government publications), but references such as personal blogs should be avoided.
Appendices
Appendices are optional and do not contribute to the overall word count. Supplementary datasets and other relevant information may be included as appendices, but you should only include appendices if they are a required for completeness of the dissertation, and they should be referred to in the main text. Software files, images used to generate quantitative data, or large amounts of raw data can be included as an appendix. Appendices should be labelled as “Appendix 1, Appendix 2, etc”.
5. How should I format the dissertation?
Dissertations should be word processed and formatting of the dissertation is included in the marking criteria. Your dissertation should be structured in the appropriate sections outlined above.
In addition to this, your dissertation should adhere to the following guidance:
- Text should be in a single column with single line spacing.
- Text should be a minimum size 12 for the main text and 16 for titles.
- Use a standard and easy-to-read font face (e.g., Arial, Helvetica, Calibri, Georgia, Times New Roman).
- Pages of the dissertation should be numbered (Page 1 is the first page after the Index/Contents).
- Subheadings should be used to divide large amounts of text into clearly distinguished topics.
- Sections should be numbered appropriately (e.g., for the Introduction, 1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1, etc.)
6. Are example dissertations from previous years available?
You can view examples of dissertations from previous years below. Please note however that marking considerations for the impact of COVID-19 may have been implemented during the assessment of some of these dissertations. You should use the below as examples of how to structure a dissertation and the level of detail and writing style expected, but you should adhere to all current guidelines provided as part of this module when writing your dissertation.
Example Dissertation 3a Systematic Review.pdfDownload Example Dissertation 3a Systematic Review.pdf
In Zip file format:
example dissertations.zipDownload example dissertations.zip
7. In what file format should I submit my dissertation?
Re-name the file with the following information: your name, surname and student number (e.g., Rishi_SUNAK_123456), and save your dissertation in PDF format. Dissertations should be submitted via Turnitin. The submission point will be set up shortly before the dissertation deadline.
8. Who is the target audience for the dissertation?
The dissertation should be pitched so that other biomedical scientists can understand the content. You must consider your audience when writing the dissertation and explain any topic-specific terms as required.
9. What writing style should I use?
Dissertations should generally be written in the past tense with respect to your study activity (Methods, results, discussion) but should use the active voice (e.g., “We proposed a hypothesis” as opposed to “A hypothesis was proposed”). It may be appropriate to refer to aspects of the current literature in the present tense. Informal language should be avoided (e.g., use “did not”, not “didn’t”).
NOTE :
PLEASE HAVE A LOOK AT THE PROJECT PLAN AND THE FEEDBACK FROM MY SUPERVISOR ABOUT THIS PLAN I HAVE ATTACHED THE PLAN AND THE FEEDBACK BELOW.
I HAVE ALSO UPLOADED SOME EXAMPLES AND THE DECLARATION FORM.