Students will choose an individual article from a selection provided by the course co-ordinators and present it to the class in Week 4. Each presentation will be allocated 15 minutes in total for presentation and discussion. The student will be expected to guide and encourage active discussion about the paper rather than simply giving a talk to the group and waiting for questions. 

The article will be a 'Seminal research paper' ie. an established  publication which has made a significant impact in the field of medical research, as evidenced by very high levels of citation, either by providing a novel methodological advance or a significant conceptual breakthrough.

Students will submit a 500 word article summarising a recent publication (published in the last 3 months) in the field of medical research that would be of interest to a wider scientific readership.  The article must be written in the style that would be seen in popular media scientific publications such as New Scientist or Cosmos.

The article is worth 20% of your total grade and will be marked against its ability to capture the attention of the reader, be understood by a general scientific audience, accurately communicate the key points of the published journal article and be within the required length. The report must be submitted in electronic format (Word doc) via iLearn. Documents must be written in size twelve font using double spacing and 2 cm page margins.  Figures are permitted but will be equivalent to 100 words (i.e. one figure plus 400 words = 500 words). The original article (source material) must also submitted with the article in PDF format.

Critical discussion based around topic of study during the semester

Students will submit an essay that critically reviews a key paper discussed within the context of one of the teaching topics studied during the semester. The essay will be of 2500 words, and it will be worth 20% of your final grade.

The essay will address the question “Discuss the major breakthrough that your chosen article presents, and review the seminal research findings that led to the development of knowledge in this field of research”

The essay will therefore present a clear summary of previous literature that supported the current studies (i.e. background and historical papers) and then a critical review of the primary paper and why it is considered a major breakthrough in the field. The primary paper must be an original research article and not a review paper.

Essays must be submitted in electronic format (Word doc) via iLearn. Documents must be written in size twelve font using double spacing and a 3 cm page margins.  Source material must be referenced appropriately in the format of the journal Neuroscience, using a database management system such as Endnote®. Only high quality references (specialised scientific books and journal articles) should be used as reference material and wherever possible. Encyclopedias, newspapers and popular magazines are not acceptable sources. A maximum of 20 references is recommended. 

Students will participate in a debate on a motion related to either animal or human research ethics. Groups of students will work together to prepare an argument in support of or against the motion: individual students will be responsible for preparation of and delivery of their component of the argument. Grading will be dependent on the cogency of the argument as a whole and also the student’s contribution to it.

The Faculty runs a number of formal presentation series throughout each semester, including Friday afternoon Research Seminars in the Department of Biomedical Sciences (weekly at 3pm in the Seminar Room, Level 1, 75 Talavera Rd), Grand Rounds (last Wednesday of each month from 1pm to 2pm in the Clinic Building, Ground Floor Interactive zone) and other occasional special presentations. MRes students are expected a minimum of 15 hours of seminars over the Semester (minimum of 1 hour of seminar per week), these can include Research Seminars hosted by AIHI, the Department of Health Professions or other Faculties. It is expected that Masters of Research students undertaking Research Frontiers will attend a minimum of 17 hours of seminars per semester, in order to attain a satisfactory level of attendance. To validate your attendance at the different seminars, you are required to have your record of attendance signed by a course co-ordinator, Chair of the Seminar or other senior member of FMHS Faculty in attendance. In addition to the log book attendance record, you must prepare a half page critique for each seminar, providing notes to record the key concepts, theories or ideas presented in the seminar. This log book will need to be submitted to your course co-ordinator upon completion of your unit. You will be awarded 10% of your final grade for submission of a satisfactory log book (attendance of minimum number of seminars and critique provided for each seminar). If the log book is incomplete or insufficient seminars have been attended, a zero grade for this component will be recorded.