Format: 12-point font, double-spaced, Microsoft Word
Section 1: Study Proposal (1-2 pages)
- List your PICO question.
- Describe your proposed study. It should include the basics about how you would conduct it – for instance, where will you find animals? What are the criteria for an animal to be included in the study? Will this be a retrospective or prospective study?
- Give the category of your study (i.e. cross-sectional study, case-control study, retrospective cohort study, prospective cohort study, controlled clinical trial)
- Briefly list a few anticipated limitations, challenges, or sources of bias in study design based on what you’ve learned in class
Section 2: Introduction Section/Topic Review (3-5 paragraphs, likely 2-3 pages)
- I suggest you begin with explaining why this topic is important
- Background on the topic. Write this as though you’re writing a short research report on your topic.
- Introduce your study and a hypothesis as though you’re writing the Introduction Section to your study (see the Intro Sections of many papers we’ve read in class for ideas)
- Make sure to use APA-style in-text citations
Section 3: References in APA style (usually 1 page)
- You should have at least 6 references total
- Most of your references should be other scholarly articles, textbooks, or conference papers. However, it’s ok to also use some high-level non-scholarly sources if you need to, such as those published by reputable (CDC, WHO, WOAH), or the Merck Manual (human medicine) or Merck Veterinary Manual, which are online textbooks. Try to minimize the use of “lay” sources such as clinic webpages, which are intended to be read by clients. It is ok if you absolutely must use them, but cite them correctly.
- Your reference page should only include references you used (do not include references you consulted but didn’t use)
- Every reference should have at least one corresponding citation in your text
Note: For all above sections, it’s ok to go over the page count, within reason – please don’t go over 10 pages total without special permission.
Attached is the work I’ve done so far.