MSc/MRes Drug Design Research Project
Written dissertation
Submission deadline - 29 Aug due by 12pm (noon)
• To be written by the student and to be between 10,000 - 11,000 words (15,000 - 16,000 for MRes) in length. We will not accept any dissertation that is under 10,000 or over 11,000 words. Your work will be returned and then be resubmitted, noting that penalties for late submission will apply.
• Use of specific practices such as tables, pictures and graphs are recommended. However, students should always consult their supervisors or course coordinator for numbers of specific allowed, based on the nature of your project.
• The project supervisor is expected to provide comments when given adequate time to do this before the submission deadline. An agreement for the timetable for this will be set early in the project, between the supervisor and the student.
• The dissertation will count towards 69% of your final mark for this module - MSc Drug Design; and 70% - MRes Drug Design.
• Submission
o Submit electronic version via Moodle as a Word document by 12 pm (noon) 29 Aug. This is the official deadline for the dissertation.
• The submission date will be strictly enforced. Extensions will only be granted under exceptional circumstances (e.g. if you are ill and have a certificate from your doctor). If the dissertation is submitted more than seven days late and has not been granted an extension in writing by the Course Committee, the mark will be recorded as zero but the assessment will be considered to be complete.
• At least > 40 references will reflect the amount of reading you have done.
• Introduction and background can be between 30-40% of the total text.
• Text in the Reference section is not counted towards the total word count.
• Legend and caption in tables and figures are counted towards the total word count.
Assessment
The dissertation is assessed using the following criteria:
• General presentation
• Content
• Understanding of the problem
• Review of previous work, literature and theory
• Presentation of data and results
• Analysis, discussion and conclusions
The practical performance of students (when working on their projects) is assessed using the following criteria:
• Motivation and effort
• Initiative
• Technical ability
• Degree of supervision required.
Thesis Organisation
Font: Arial, Calibri, Courier New for table
Font size: 11 or 12
Space: Double-spaced (including text, references, tables and legends)
Margin: 2.54 cm or 1 inch on each side
Page: A4 Portrait, all pages numbered.
Layout: Title page - Title, Student candidate ID, Programme name and
Organisation (i.e The Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, UCL)
Statement of plagiarism - copy text from P.4 Table of contents - All pages numbered.
Abstract - Less than 150 words
Introduction - Rational and objectives of project and background material
Aims - What are the research aims or research questions, or/and hypothesis
Material and Methods - Experimental description (with Tables and Figures if necessary)
Current Knowledge - only for Literature Review projects
Results and Discussion - Data, results, and analysis of the data (with Tables and Figures necessary)
Conclusions
Outlook or Further directions
References - Use a consistent style, e.g ACS (guide in Moodle) Acknowledgement - Optional
Appendix - Optional, for better organisation for mass data
Others: All text (including the title page, abstract, all sections of the body of the paper, scheme, and references), tabular material, and graphics should be in one file.