Human Biology Research Paper Guidelines

Research Paper Guidelines When writing a research paper, you utilize a collection of sources of information on your topic that includes books and journal articles. The purpose of a review paper is to succinctly review recent progress in a particular topic. Overall, the paper summarizes the current state of knowledge of the topic. It creates an understanding of the topic for the reader by discussing the findings presented in recent scientific papers. Your research paper synthesizes the results from several scientific papers to produce a coherent argument about a topic or focused description of a field. The reader should be able to recognize the goal of your paper and appreciate how well you have integrated your sources. You should provide a comprehensive synthesis and analysis of information on your specific topic in biology. Make sure to strictly follow the formatting guidelines described. General Paper Format A. Page Allocations 1. Title Page -Title of paper - Name - Section # 2. Five pages of text with properly indented paragraphs 3. Bibliography - References used in paper ► NOTE NO less than 5 pages of text will be accepted, if you have a lot of graphics, these graphics should be placed at the end of the paper after the 5 pages of text!!!!!! B. Page Setup 1. 10pt. Times New Roman Font 2. Double spaced 3. 1-inch margins all around 4. No fancy plastic covers Guidelines For Body Of Paper A. General things You Must Address 1. General information on the “Skin” its function as an organ, the layers and type of cells it is composed of etc. 2. The type of skin cancer you have chosen, general statics on its prevalence and what kind of cells become malignant. 3. Symptoms, progression and treatments of the type of skin cancer. 4. Briefly address other general characteristics or interesting focus point of the topic you have chosen. B. Organization Of Paper Your paper must be organized into 3 main sections: i) Introduction ii) Body ii) Conclusion. These headings are NOT to be included in the paper, but I should be able to recognize these sections in your paper. Below is a general idea about what should be included in these sections. I. Introduction - Brief background and general scope on your topic. II. Body Detailed discussion and development on your topic. III. Conclusion General Summary of your paper as well as your own concluding ideas and analysis of your information. C. Reference Page (use heading) 1. You must have at least 7 References. You will find you may need more. - 6 MUST be Scientific Journal Articles. - Other 1 references may come from text books. - Absolutely NO WEBSITES!!!!!!!!!!! 2. References MUST be done in proper format!!! - Literature references must be as follows: The author names in your references must be listed in your bibliography in the same order that they appear on their papers or books. For Journal Articles Author last name Author First initial. Title. Name of Journal. Volume, Issue #: pages. Example: 1) Only ONE author Smith J. 2003. Mole rats affected by sunlight on sunny days. Journal of Small Mammals.73:227-299. Example: 2) More than one author Smith J, Beckford N, Elkin T. 2003. Mole rats are affected by sunlight on sunny days. Journal of Small Mammals. 73:277-299. ► Note where the spacing occurs and where the periods and other punctuation occurs. For Books Author last name First Initial. Year Published. Tittle of Book. Publisher, Place Published. Example: Brown H.E. 2004. Mole Rats of the United States. Academic Press, New York, NY. ► NOTE - Citations should be in alphabetical order, based on the last name. - Make sure your bibliography is done correctly, points will be taken off if proper format is not used. ALL SOURCES must have been used and cited in the text of your paper If you did not discover the information yourself, then you are using other sources for your information. These authors must be recognized, which means you must cite them and have in-text citations within the main body of your paper. DO NOT think just because did not copy word for word that you are not plagiarizing. If you do not have in-text citations or insufficient citations, it is also considered PLAGIARISM!!!!!! DO NOT think just because did not copy word for word that you are not plagiarizing. Text Citation Guidelines Read your plagiarism document again before writing, I will NOT accept any excuses for plagiarism!!! A. Citing Text Within the body of your paper, cite using parentheses to show your readers where you found each source you used. Textual citations allow the reader to refer to your Reference page for further information. To cite the text you use the format (Author Last Name Year). Example: 1) Only ONE author The WPT virus is transmitted by looking directly into an infected person’s eyes (Miller 2006). Example: 2) Only TWO authors The WPT virus is transmitted by looking directly into an infected person’s eyes (Miller and Brown 2006). Example: 3) More than two authors The WPT virus is transmitted by looking directly into an infected person’s eyes (Miller et. al, 2006). B. Citing Pictures, Graphs, Diagrams etc. Any pictures, or diagrams that you include in your paper has to be cited. There must be a Figure legend as well with the Figure # , a title or short description of what the figure is representing and the reference. Example: 1) Figure 1. Picture of Smiley Face (Turry 2006). Pictures may be taken from websites. To cite these in text: Figure 1. Picture of Smiley Face (http//www.smileyface.com). ►NOTE all pictures and diagrams that are used must be referenced in the bibliography. Here is an example of how this is included. Happy Faces.http//www.smileyface.com. Retrieved March 6th 2008. ►NOTE if you include a figure make sure you refer to it in the TEXT! Example: Smiley faces are known to be cute as seen in Fig. 1. OR Smiley faces are known to be cute ( Fig. 1). NOTE!! Do not forget to italicize or underline any scientific names for organisms, e.g. Artemia franscicana or Artemia franscicana. The first time it is mentioned the full name must be written and then in brackets the shortened version e.g Artemia franscicana (A. franscicana). After throughout the text only the shortened version may be used.