Delivery: This is a part-time full year unit.

Resources: IT facilities available in the research group, Department as well as the library will be available for literature review, word processing and data analysis. Additional facilities, such as access to specialist facilities or the use of specific instruments as required by the project will be organised by the supervisor.

This unit requires an average of 15-20 hours per week commitment spread over session 1 and 2.  Labopratory work, will be with supervision. Normal laboratory working hours are Mon-Fri: 9 am - 5 pm. After hours laboratory work may be required as approved by the supervisor and Head of Department.

Lab safety induction must be undertaken BEFORE working in the research labs - contact your supervisor to organise this.

A/Prof. Joanne Jamie is convening the unit.  A hurdle task of a literature review and research plan has been added to assist in student understanding of their research project, provide supervisor feedback and help in student time management of the report writing.  A supervisor formal mark will also contribute to the final grade.

The CBMS881 report can be submitted either as a dissertation (Option 1), suitable for both a research project (Option 1.A) as well as a research internship project (Option 1.B); or as a scientific manuscript suitable for publication (Option 2), suitable for a research project. Please discuss with your supervisor the most suitable format for your report.

A softcopy (PDF or MS Word) of the dissertation should be emailed to the unit convenor, to facilitate rapid assessment, especially by external examiners.

General guidelines:

Clarity of expression, presentation of results and their discussion and citation of relevant literature will be taken into account in the assessment. Figures and Tables as required to present your results are essential. Large amounts of data (verifying spectral data, computer programs, etc.) should be placed as Appendices to the dissertation.

The report will normally require considerable effort and should be developed during the course of the semester and completed in the last few weeks prior to submission.

The report should be certified as your own work by the supervisor - scanned signatures may be used.

Option 1: Report by Dissertation (a concise thesis)

Dissertations should not exceed 50 pages of doublespaced text (12 pt in a legible font).

A. Research Project Report

The following sections must be included in your research dissertation:

1. A cover page giving the title of the project, your name and qualifications, followed by a statement on the course details, e.g. “A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the M. .... Degree" (please specify degree here)
2. A 300-word abstract
3. Abbreviation list specific to your work
4. Introduction summarising background literature and the scope of the project
5. Materials and Methods
6. Results & Discussion (together or as separate sections)
7. Conclusions
8. References including titles and full author listing of cited papers
9. Appendix (optional: max. 20 pages, in addition to the report's 50 pages)

B. Research Internship Report

The following sections must be included in your research dissertation:

1. A cover page giving the title of the project, your name and qualifications, followed by a statement on the course details, e.g. “A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the M. .... Degree" (please specify degree here)
2. A 300-word abstract
3. Abbreviation list specific to your work
4. Introduction summarising the scope of the project
5. Learning Outcomes
6. Self Evaluation
7. Appendix: additional materials (optional: max. 20 pages, in addition to the report's 50 pages)
8. References including titles and full author listing of cited papers

Option 2: Research Report by Publication-style Manuscript

This is in the form of a manuscript suitable for submission to a leading international peer-reviewed publication in the area of your project. Your contribution must be sufficient to justify yourself as the first author of the paper, with the supervisor as corresponding author. The report should adhere to the overall guidelines for authors set out by the selected journal. Page restrictions set by the journal can be exceeded, to a maximum of 20%, if justified.

The following sections must be included in your manuscript:

• A cover page giving the title of the project, your name and qualifications followed by a statement on the course details, e.g. “A report submitted in partial fulfilment of the M. .... Degree," (please specify degree here) " for submission to … "(please provide the full name of the journal name here).
• A manuscript including the following general sections:

1. A 300-word Abstract
2. Abbreviation list specific to your work
3. Introduction summarising background literature and the scope of the project
4. Materials and Methods
5. Results & Discussion (together or as separate sections)
6. Conclusions
7. References including titles and full author listing of cited papers
8. Additional or Supplementary information (optional: max. 20 pages)