M.S. Qualifying Research Paper Writing Guidelines

An important part of your master’s education is the writing of your final master’s qualifying research paper (also called a master’s thesis). To aid you in this process we have assembled the following guidelines.

Qualifying research papers fall into two categories, those based on laboratory research and those based on literature research. Both types are mentored by a faculty member or principal investigator of a research laboratory sought by the student. For laboratory research, the student will write the paper based on original experimental results obtained in the laboratory of the mentor. For a literature-based thesis, after selection of a suitable topic by the student and mentor, the student will research the topic by reading and analyzing original literature on the subject, and then prepare a substantive analysis that will constitute the paper. All qualifying papers are graded "Pass", "Pass with Distinction" or "Fail". Further information can be found at the M.S. in Biology website.

STYLE INFORMATION

Qualifying papers in the Department of Biology should follow the structure of the types of papers that appear in the journal Cell. Laboratory research based papers should be modeled after a Cell research style articles and library research based papers should be modeled after Cell review style articles. Example articles with links are listed in the notes below.  

    Laboratory Research
Based Paper		   Library Research
Based Paper
Cell Style   Research article   Review Article
Title Page   You should include the following on your title page:
  • Paper title
  • Your name
  • Your mentor’s name
  • Paper due date.
  • The following statement: “A thesis in fulfillment of the Masters in Biology Degree”.
Note: Your title should describe the main theme of your research project or topic.
Summary   Limited to 200 words or less. Should summarize the main findings of your research.
Introduction   The introduction provides background information on the field of study and includes references to previously published works. You are describing where the research has come to this point.
Methods   This section should be well developed/detailed and include all the laboratory techniques that you performed to obtain your results.   No methods section.
Results   This section comprises the experimental results you obtained in the lab.   No results section.
Themes   No themes section.   This section contains a heading for each subtopic of your paper. where you describe in more detail the different specific findings. You may use figures in this section to illustrate your main points. Figures that come from published articles MUST be referenced in the figure legend.
Discussion   This section should be well developed/detailed and include your interpretation of your results and can include proposed models.   No discussion section.
Perspective/
Conclusion		   Optional if not fully covered in the discussion.   This section discusses the direction the field of study is headed and/or your ideas, hypotheses or proposals for future research.
References   In the body of the article you may reference text in parentheses in the format of Cell (Smith et al., 2012) OR with a superscript number in the format of Nature23. See note on references.
In the reference section list all references in the format of Cell however they can be listed in alphabetical order OR in the order they appear in the text.
Figures   Figures should be original and based on your research. It is best if figures are inserted into the appropriate place in the text rather than listed at the end of the paper.   If they come from a published article they MUST be referenced explicitly in the figure legend. It is best if figures are inserted into the appropriate place in the text rather than listed at the end of the paper.
Length   25-30 pages double spaced
Submission   Your mentor may request a PDF or hard copy for grading. The Biology office requires a PDF version of your paper. Please do not submit hard copies to the Department. Your mentor will receive a grade sheet to use.

IMPORTANT NOTES

  1. Plagiarism is an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author: This means that you cannot copy lines of text from another source without noting that it is a quote (“put quotes around the text”) and citing the reference. In general avoid direct quotes from other sources unless the quote makes a strong point. General facts do not need to be referenced, but more specific facts and ideas must be referenced, even if they have been rewritten in your own words

  2. Sample articles:
    • Litertaure Review: Lopez-Otin et al., 2023. Hallmarks of Aging: An Expanding Universe. Cell 186(2), 243-278.
    • Research Research: Lyons et al., 2023. Functional partitioning of transcriptional regulators by patterned charge blocks. Cell 186(2), 327-345. 

  3. Steps for Literature based thesis:
    1. Seek a thesis mentor and decide on a topic to study.
    2. After beginning your literature research, provide a list of references you are reading to your mentor.
    3. Proceed to write a brief outline of the paper with subsection ideas, then a more detailed outline with subsection descriptions, and share with mentor for comment.
    4. Proceed to write a first draft of paper, which the mentor will read and provide suggestions/questions for comment.
    5. Revise accordingly and submit the final version of your paper (~ 25 pages double spaced and reference list). Use citation format (Jones et al., 2023) and reference list as done in Cell papers (see above links). All figures taken from articles must be cited in the legend.