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PPS Projects List |
TSMB Projects List |
TSMB students who have already taken PPS projects should note that their projects should not heavily overlap. Please pick a different subject area!
Students are reminded that if they do not submit work on time then they must
follow the LATE SUBMISSION PROCEDURE or they will not get any marks.
The project should be zipped
or compressed into a single file and
emailed to Dave
Houldershaw. Dave will email the course mailing lists with more
details towards the end of your project work.
Although we expect you to use the unique facilities of the Internet for presenting images and linking to external sites, we do not expect you to become Web programmers - therefore Perl, Java and stylesheets are not required to get high marks, although you will not be penalised for using them.
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Marks will be awarded for a clear overview of the context. What is the current scientific interest in the topic chosen, and how does this relate to any special features of the biology of the system along with the potential wider benefits of that understanding? The introduction should provide a clear and concise outline of the range and content of the project, and you will need to demonstrate an understanding of the underlying significance of the area you are investigating in relation to advances in the field. |
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You need to investigate your topic thoroughly. Marks will be awarded for a wide survey of the scientific literature around the topic and this should be both factual and relevant. Think carefully about the structure of your project. The underlying science needs to be laid out in a clear manner and it should flow naturally in a structured and logical way. In other words, the scientific argument should appear seamless to the reader. Subdivide the project into appropriate parts, each with a particular role in developing the theme of your topic. |
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Marks will be awarded for the discussion, in a critical way, of the scientific evidence you have gathered. Any conflicts within the different sources of research you have found in the literature should be addressed. Issues of quality of data and interpretation may also be apparent and need to be discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of any given approach should be balanced with your own understanding of the validity and quality of the alternative approaches; you should insert information in a clearly thought out manner. If alternative methodologies come to different conclusions, you need to discuss how this could be. The weight of evidence from the literature should then allow you to come to some clear and balanced conclusions based on your own understanding of the information you have researched. |
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Marks will be awarded for coherence in both style and structure. The project should be readable, easily understood and laid out in a structured and logical way. It is a story, but based on a guiding scientific theme. There are a number of previous successful projects, with different styles and structures, available on the project pages for you to view. There is no absolutely correct style and structure, so you are free to develop your own, but it must be logical, coherent and suit the nature of your topic. |
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Marks will be awarded for illustrations that are relevant and self-explanatory, with clear and complete figure legends. The legend should allow you to understand each figure without having to read any of the main text. Figures should add to the flow of your discussion and enhance it. Credit will be given to the production of your own figures, either entirely of your own design (e.g. using Jmol) or reworked and improved versions from a publication. You must acknowledge the source of any figures that are not your own, and if reworked indicate which source they have been adapted from. |
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Marks will be awarded for a good coverage of the relevant literature. You need to consider carefully what sources of information you are using. These should be topical and be mostly original publications. We would expect you to make good use of peer reviewed scientific papers as much of your primary source material. This can entail a great deal of reading and so will use up a large amount of your time. These must be correctly cited in the text and if any direct quotations are used they should be fully quoted to avoid plagiarism. Do not rely on the web to gather your information. The references should follow a standard convention found in scientific papers, e.g. the Harvard system. Published papers should be listed first in the final bibliography followed by the list of any web URLs you need to use. Be consistent and check that all the references in the main text are matched in the bibliography and vice versa. |
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Marks will be awarded for the correct use of the English language, which must be in your own words. The write up should be of a high standard with good spelling, sound grammar and checked to remove simple typing errors. Scientific conventions should be observed, e.g. use of italics [(Jones et al., 2010), Escherichia coli]. You may wish to put a summary into each section, if you feel it is appropriate, and this can help to link the text together. The final conclusion needs to be from your understanding of the scientific knowledge you have gathered from your study of the literature. You should be able to navigate the pages simply and they should be easy on the eyes. We encourage you to look at the HTML source and keep it simple, and we do not encourage the use of HTML generated by Word which is over-fussy and not necessarily good on all browsers. Avoid spaces in file names as this is often a source of problems. |
Marks will be awarded as follows:
All projects mounted anywhere on the Birkbeck hypertree have at least reached the standard required to pass.
However, the following projects have been judged to have reached a particularly high standard:
PPS
TSMB
If in doubt about the choice of a project or any other aspect of the project procedure, PPS students should email pps09-tutors@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk; TSMB students should consult Nick or Clare by emailing tsmb@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk. There will also be a couple of IM sessions specifically to discuss projects. All PPS students are strongly encouraged to attend one of these, and TSMB students are invited to attend for a "refresher".