CCC8013 The Process of Science

Research Report

Intended learning outcomes (ILOs)

Align with the updated ILOs (see Course syllabus on Moodle)

Submission guidelines

•     The word limit is 1,500-2,500 words (not including references, tables, and figures).

•     Use Times New Roman font, font size 12 with single spacing.

• In-text citation and a reference section are required.

• A title is required, but a title page is NOT required.

•     The total number of figures and tables should be 3~5.

•     At least 5 academic references are required.

•     Submit your report in a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx format) file via Turnitin (on Moodle) by 3rd Dec (Tue), 23:59

•     Late submissions will be penalized based on the rules listed out in the document “CCC8013 Important Things”

Grading of assignment

This assignment contributes towards 30% of your final grade for the course. See the last page of this document for the detailed breakdown of how this assignment will be graded.

Instructions for assignment

Your job in this assignment is:

•     Choose any topics under the theme: what can we do to promote one of the SDGs.

•     Write a 1,500 – 2,500-word project report, following the standard scientific report conventions (see Format of Research Report.docx).

•     Any supplementary information (e.g., raw data, questionnaire) can be included in the appendix (see Format of Research Report.docx).

•     Include a reference list (i.e. bibliography) for all your sources, and include in-text citations. The reference list will NOT be counted towards the word limit. Citation format: You may use any commonly accepted citation format (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard…etc.) [see below]

•     Be careful not to plagiarize! Never copy and paste! Paraphrase instead [see below]

Guidelines for references/citations

Areference list (or bibliography) 1) credits authors whose work you referred to, and 2) helps readers locate your information sources. As a minimum, references must include:

• Journal articles: Author names, year of publication, title, journal name, journal volume, page range

• Books: Author names, year, title, publisher

• Websites: Author names, year of publication, article title, website name, URL, date of access

•     Examples of “Biological Conservation” journal:

Reference to a journal publication: Van der Geer, J., Hanraads,J.A.J., Lupton,R.A., 2010. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51–59.

Reference to a journal publication with an article number: Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2018. The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon. 19, e00205.

Reference to a book: Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 2000. The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Longman, New York.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book: Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 2009. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones,B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.

Reference to a website: Cancer Research UK, 1975. Cancer statistics reports for the UK. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutcancer/statistics/cancerstatsreport/ (accessed     13 March 2003).

Reference to a dataset: [dataset] Oguro, M., Imahiro, S., Saito, S., Nakashizuka, T., 2015. Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions. Mendeley Data, v1.

Reference to software: Coon, E., Berndt, M., Jan,A., Svyatsky, D., Atchley, A., Kikinzon,  E., Harp,D., Manzini, G., Shelef, E., Lipnikov, K., Garimella, R., Xu,C., Moulton,D., Karra, S., Painter, S., Jafarov, E., & Molins, S., 2020. Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS) v0.88  (Version 0.88). Zenodo.

In addition to your reference list, in-text citations are required.

•     In-text citations = a short version of a reference, but located within your main text

•     Typical format: (author’s lastname, year of publication)  • Examples:

… Fishes are one of the most diverse groups of animals, making up a quarter to half of all vertebrate species globally (Stiassny, 1996) …

Two authors: (Chan & Ng, 1996); >2 authors: (Halloran et al., 1996)

Checkout the citation guidelines provided by our library. Any citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Harvard) is acceptable, but please use only one style. throughout your paper.

Plagiarism (IMPORTANT)

Plagiarism  =  presenting  someone  else’s  work  or  ideas  as  your  own,  whether intentionally or unintentionally. Plagiarism is considered intellectual dishonesty (i.e., cheating) and comes with grave consequences.  See “IMPORTANT: Avoid Plagiarism” document on course Moodle page. Also, checkout the Lingnan University guide onways to avoid plagiarism.

Plagiarism can happen when:

•     Copying and pasting text from sources

•     Using information without crediting the source

•     Using direct quotations excessively (even with proper citations)

To avoid plagiarism:

•     Always paraphrase (= rewrite using your own words)

Paraphrasing DOES NOT mean copying and pasting, and inserting a few extra words

More information about paraphrase is available on the “CCC8013 Process of Science - ENGLISH SUPPORT” Moodle page

•     Always cite your sources (in-text and reference list) • Avoid   using   direct   quotations  unless necessary. Use quotations marks (“ ”) for quotes.

Turnitin is a plagiarism-detection software. Your assignment will be compared against the whole internet and other student submissions (past and present), and a similarity score will be calculated. If the  similarity  of  your  assignment  exceeds  the critical threshold of 20%,  excluding  properly referenced material, it will undergo a thorough plagiarism assessment process. In such case, you may get zero marks and be referred to the university for further disciplinary action (e.g., automatic failure for the course).

Grading Rubric of Independent Research Report (total of 30 marks)

FORMAT (up to 10 %):

Follows   formal   scientific   report   conventions,   which   includes   Title,   Abstract,   Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, References (see Format of Research report.docx).

CONTENT (up to 80%):

• Title: concisely presents the content of the report.

• Abstract: summarizes the major aspects of the entire report.

o   The question investigated.

o   The experimental design.

o   The major results.

o   A brief summary of conclusions.

• Introduction: reviews the available studies on this topic and states the problem investigated, methods employed and major conclusion achieved.

o   Background and motivation. (Why choosing this topic, why is it important)

o   Literature review. (What has been done on this topic, what are the remaining issues)

o   Research question. (What problems are you going to handle through this research)

• Methodology: describes extensively how the data were collected/chosen.

o   A brief description of the method or plan.

o   Technical details (Repeatability and reasonability).

• Results  and discussion: present the data in a logical order and provides Data, Tables and Figures. Discusses topic thoroughly and objectively. (Results and Discussions can be combined or written separately.)

o   Figure.

o   Explain the results.

o   Analyze the results. (Which pieces of evidence (supported by data) suggest that the proposed solution will be able to handle the question we raised in the introduction?)

o   Compare with existing work. (What is the benefit of using our method, compared with the existing ones?)

o   Limitation & future research.

• Conclusion: includes an effective summary of the major points based on the data.

• References: are correctly cited in a consistent format.

• Appendix (optional): is clearly and completely provided.

STYLE/TONE (up to 5%):

Uses precise, technical/professional language, is unified and coherent, varies sentence length and structure to keep reader’s attention, connects ideas effectively.

GRAMMAR/SPELLING (up to 5%):

Shows effective use of proof-reading and editing: Eliminates all but a few minor errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, acronym usage, and capitalization.