Guidelines for the Master s Thesis Project in Biomedicine BIMM60 (30 hp): planning, writing and presentation. 1. The Master s Thesis Project The Master s Thesis Project is a mandatory course on the Master program in biomedicine. The focus of the project should be in the field of biomedicine and should have a clear and well-defined question at issue. It is appreciated if the project is of an innovative nature where new ideas are tested. It is not necessary that the project results in a scientific publication, nor do you need any positive data. The important thing is that you as a student get an insight in working in a scientific way and can describe what you have done and why. In addition to laboratory activity the project also includes preparation, literature studies, putting the results together, evaluation, writing reports and completion of mandatory assignments all of which should be carried out during one whole semester. To complete the course you must also have been a student opponent and you must have supervised a student in the lab. Upon the successful completion of all the above requirements the course is registered in LADOK. 2. Documents On the homepage for the course: http://www.med.lu.se/biomedicin/master_programme/master_thesis_in_biomedicine you will find: Syllabus Course schedule Application form Agreement for those students that are performing their project in a company (this document is not mandatory, but will protect your rights) This document: Guide-Lines for the Master Degree Project in Biomedicine BIMM60 (30 hp): planning, writing and presentation The document For supervisors and examiners Assessment forms 3. Strategy to find a project It is important to find a suitable project that you find interesting and start preparing your choice in good time. There are numerous of excellent projects available at Lund University. As a biomedicine student you may carry out projects at the Medical or Science faculties, the Institute of Technology or at a company. The thesis project can also be carried out somewhere else in Sweden or abroad. Resources and tips: the Medical faculty website links to research and research groups: www.med.lu.se/research the Biomedicine website lists projects available for students: http://www.med.lu.se/biomedicin/kontakt_och_information/projektannonser the University website links to research projects and thesis projects here http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/research-and-innovation Contact biotech companies directly
Talk to other students, course coordinators and teachers 4. Project abroad There are many opportunities for students who wish to conduct their thesis projects abroad. You can choose a university that the Biomedical Program has agreements with or a university without agreement. Students may also apply to conduct their thesis project under the agreements established by Lund University. Contact the course coordinator for the thesis project and the International coordinators in good time before your departure abroad. If you perform your project abroad you will still be registered at BIMM60 and do the practical work at the host university and in the end present you thesis in Lund. 5. To contact a research group Once you have found an interesting project the next step is to contact the researcher and discuss the possibilities. There are several issues to consider: Will you be able to work together with the supervisor? Are your personalities compatible? If you are considering doing a PhD following your Masters degree you should discuss the possibility get such position before you start. Try to meet with the other researchers/phd students in the research group. It is important that you discuss your own and your supervisors expectations before you start your project. It is also important that you have other obligations during your thesis work, such as receiving a high school student for one week, and seminars. In you need to discuss your choice of project please don t hesitate to contact the course coordinator for the thesis project. 6. Registration and approved project description The student and supervisor fill out the application form together once they have decided on a project. Use the application form available for download from the Biomedical homepage. Information about you, your tutor and your examiner should be stated. Your supervisor and your faculty opponent (examiner) must hold a PhD degree. Writing the research plan should be done by you, as this is on part of the examination. Thesis projects finish at the end of the semester. If other end dates are considered they must be discussed with the course coordinator before submission of the application. Applications include a short description of the project under the following headings Hypothesis, Background, Experimental design, Methods, Significance, Ethical consideration and health hazards and a Time schedule. The project description should be written in English. Applications must be sent by email to the course coordinator, Thomas.Hellmark@med.lu.se at least one week prior to the start of your laboratory work or at the date that are posted at the homepage. You may not under any circumstances start your thesis project before you are registered in LADOK as you are uninsured until registered. When the application is approved and registered you, your supervisor and the examiner will be notified.
7. The role of the supervisor You may be supervised by persons in the lab not holding a PhD degree but there must be a supervisor holding a PhD who has the overall responsibility and it is this person that should be written in your application. The supervisor has an important role in educating the you in scientific attitude, knowledge in the field of enquiry, laboratory skills and writing scientifically. The supervisor should ensure that the planned project is feasible to complete within the given time frame, provide enough time to write the report, provide feed back on the final report and fill out the assessment form for supervisors. These responsibilities apply equally to supervisors from Lund University and external supervisors. The Supervisor is responsible for the safety of the project and students are not permitted in labs unless a tutor is present. If projects involve elements of risk (e.g. working with radio activity and infectious agents) or animal experiments they must be stated in the application and training will either be provided to the student, or these elements will be carried out by trained personal. During the project the student is expected to be present at the seminars, lab meetings, literature studies etc. These are import parts of the researcher s average working day and therefore it is a part of the learning process. In parallel with you lab-work you have to take part in other activities, such as a seminar series in popular scientific writing and biomedical ethics and how to act as an opponent. In the middle of your project you will also receive a high-school student that you will supervise during one week. It is very important that you discuss these issues with your supervisor before starting your project. 8. Schedule The master thesis project is a course and has a schedule. It is your responsibility to be present on the compulsory lectures and plan your experimental work accordingly. A preliminary schedule for the upcoming semester will be available on the homepage approximately one month prior to start. 9. Mandatory items During the semester students will be given lectures on ethics, popular science writing, writing a scientific paper and opposition. Note that participation is mandatory. If you intend to do your thesis project in another university or abroad you must carry out these elements as a home assignment. Please talk to the course coordinator in advance. 10. Student opposition Students actively participate in the examination of thesis projects as student opponents whose role it is to critically examine and verbally question and assess the work of other students. This is also part of your examination. You will be assigned a project at least two weeks prior to the thesis presentation. You will have access to the thesis project that you will be the opponent of at least five days prior to the presentation. You will be trained in opposition strategies during the course.
11. Popularized Scientific Summary Students write a short popularized scientific summary in Swedish or in English. The purpose of the summary is to write it in a way that a layman is able to understand it. Therefore it is important that the student limits and explains technical terms. You will get feed back on your popularized summary from a journalist. Information about this is provided during the lecture covering this topic. You can also ask your friends or relatives without any background in science to read it. The summary is also evaluated by the examiner and is part of your examination. The summary should be attached to your final report 12. Written report The written report should be written in English in a clear way. You will find instructions regarding the design in Instructions to authors from a scientific journal. You will find one example of instructions to authors for manuscripts for the EMBO Journal here: http://www.nature.com/emboj/about/authors.html The written report differs from the scientific publication in two aspects: The introduction should be longer to give a relevant background to the thesis project. Results that are normally not published in a scientific journal (e.g. trials aiming at optimizing a technique, trials that have failed etc.) can be presented and discussed. This is important if you haven t had enough time to get sufficient results for a proper publication (which is normal). This is important in order to give your examiner a possibility to evaluate the extent of your thesis project. You can choose to submit your thesis in one of two formats: 1. As a manuscript; In a manuscript you gather the text in the first part of the document (e.g. EMBO J: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Materials and methods etc.). Figures and Tables are attached separately at the end of the manuscript. You are free to choose the layout of another journal but you need to provide information about what journal you have chosen. 2. As a printed-paper; you must have the same headings as above but you can put your figures and tables in the text. You do not have use a specific format for the test mass, i.e. double-spaced, 3cm margins, times 12pt, etc. This format often looks nicer but is harder to read. No later than 5 working days before your examination date you must send an electronic version (word or pdf) of your thesis including the popularized summary to: The course leader, the biomedicine office, your supervisor, the student opponent and your examiner. This submission day is provided in the schedule. Students may, if they wish, provide extra copies of reports to the audience. If the examiner or student opponent ask for a printed version of your report you should without delay be able to provide this. 13. Presentation The thesis project will be presented at a seminar arranged by the program that also assigns a chairman who is responsible for the examination. At this seminar your supervisor, your examiner, your student opponent and the chairman must be present. Other persons such as personnel from the research group or family may attend. The student has approximately 25-30 minutes to present his/her project orally,
followed by a student opposition (about 5 minutes). Then the examiner discusses the thesis with the student for approximately 20-25 minutes. At the end of the discussion the audience is invited to pose questions. The chairman will assess the student opponent and the examiner the oral presentation, the written report and the popular scientific summary using the assessment form. When the examination is over the chairman collects the assessment forms from the supervisor and the examiner. The chairman, the examiner and the supervisor will then discuss, based on these assessments, what the students needs to correct, change or supplement before the report can pass. If judged incomplete, any supplementary work will be agreed between the student, the supervisor and the examiner in the presence of the chairman. The student will thereafter make the changes required and send in the final version of the written report including the popularized summary in a pdf file as a single-spaced document with the popular scientific summary attached as the final page to the course coordinator that will finally approve the report. This is the document that will be archived. You will also get a printed official version of your thesis based on this submission. In order to limit the chances of unpleasant surprises students are encouraged to bring their own computers, however computers with PowerPoint will be available for the presentations. The computers have Office 2010 (Windows) or Office 2011 (MacOSX) installed. If you chose to use the computers placed at your disposal you should bring your presentation on a USB-memory device. 14. To pass the exam you need to have: Written a project plan with little or some help from your supervisor passed by the course coordinator. Been a tutor for a student in the lab passed by the course coordinator. Performed the laboratory work in an independent way, and contributed to the project by interpreting data and /or suggesting additional relevant experiments assessed by the supervisor and passed by the course coordinator. Performed an oral presentation of your project - assessed by the examiner. A written report in English in the lay out of a scientific article - assessed by the examiner and passed by the course coordinator. Been a student opponent assessed by the chairman. Written a popularized science summary in English or Swedish passed by the course coordinator Participate in the mandatory lectures.