MED4302: Medical science honours research project

- Department oral presentation (5%)
- Minor thesis (80%) (Hurdle)
- Faculty oral presentation (7.5%)
- Faculty poster presentation (7.5%)

This is the other unit as part of the "Medical Honours year" - and it's the big one. This unit is weighted as 75% for the whole BMedSc(Hons) year, while MED4301 was only 25%. So... It's a really big deal and can make or break your final grade. There's a bit less for me to say here, given everyone will have their own unique projects with their own unique challenges, but I'd like to echo some points from my previous post on MED4301, and give some other pointers where I can.

Being organised is so important. Force yourself to do little bits of the minor thesis every single day. Even if you're slaving away with your experiments or analyses and don't have results yet, you can always be refining your lit review for the 'Background' section of your minor thesis, refining your Aims and Hypotheses, or writing up your Methodology section. There are always bits you can be writing or doing. Doing these little bits will give each day some sort of rudimentary purpose, and will definitely reduce the stress coming towards the end of the semester.

When doing your experiments or analyses, just be aware that even with your careful and meticulous planning... Sometimes shit just happens. Maybe your results won't turn out they way you expected, maybe someone threw away something super important, maybe you get sick, maybe you find someone who has done your exact study but its better than yours, maybe your computer dies and you can't find your back-ups, etc etc. These things can just happen. Don't expect the unexpected, but keep it in the back of your mind that although it might be smooth sailing now, it might not be smooth sailing in 2 months time. This is why it's so important to do work as you go, because a big setback can really increase the work you have to do before submission, and if you've got large chunks of your minor thesis done and dusted, you'll be thanking yourself a lot.

If something happens, make sure "official" people are aware early: get your supervisor(s) and the faculty on board as soon as possible. I know people who had their projects completely fall apart, to the point where many of their analyses could not be performed and those that could be were massively under-powered - and that's ok. You can still score an H1 if you explain what happened and why in your minor thesis, and if you let the right "official" people know. The people marking your minor thesis know that this could be your first exposure to research, and they know research is always a bit of a gamble. Stay calm and seek support and you'll be right.

Jumping into the nitty-gritty of it all, the format of your minor thesis will be a fairly standard one that should be guided by your marking sheets. Mine was:
- Title page
- Table of contents
- Declaration of originality
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Background (ie. altered lit review)
- Aims
- Hypotheses
- Methodology (including study design, ethics approval, data collection, statistical analysis)
- Results
- Discussion (including limitations, strengths, implications for future research)
- Conclusion
- Appendix (including actual ethics approval forms)
- References

Now some of that should look familiar from your lit review, especially the "Background" section However, I would refrain from copy and pasting your lit review into this section. This is because as you progress through your project, you'll find that some parts just aren't that relevant, and you'll find that the assessors of your lit review provided some feedback. This feedback is important, because it's highly likely the same people will be marking your minor thesis, so not taking into account their feedback is a bit of a bold and arrogant move. Furthermore, you may want to cut back on some parts for the dreaded word limit. Lastly, you may also want to update your literature review with advances in the field that have happened since you submitted it, so make sure you're keeping on top of your Twitter feed or whatever else, to ensure you don't miss anything major.

The word limit of the minor thesis is set at 15,000 words, again it might have a +/- 10% leeway. Now, as I said in my MED4301 review, the word count is NEVER enough. You can use the same cheeky tactics as from the lit review to combat this word limit, but you can additionally cut from the Background section (it should still be about 40% of the minor thesis imo) and you can add excess info to the Appendix.

Just a few words of advice on some of the sections. The Aims and Hypotheses might also need updating from your "ideal" ones you had in your lit review. Don't feel bad about chucking some out, or adding some, that's all part of the scientific process. Ensure your Aims and Hypotheses are specific and address what you actually did or tried to do. Some of my colleagues included a "global aim" and a "global hypothesis", I didn't really think that floated my boat, but it's a fair idea if it matches your project.

Your Methodology section should be so detailed and clear, that someone could literally repeat your project. You may have read over a hundred papers at this point and each has a detailed methodology section, yours needs to be MORE detailed than that. This can take a few thousand words. Use figures and flow-charts to your advantage here to demonstrate pieces of equipment or patient selection protocols, or whatever else. Ensure it's crystal clear. Furthermore, don't forget about ethics and a section on statistics, these little things earn you those hidden marks.

The Results section should be concise. I actually got marked down from both my assessors, fortunately not enough to keep me from that sweet H1, for having a verbose and lengthy Results section. Ideally, your tables and figures should be relevant, and there should be a matter-of-fact tone about the section where you're just stating this and that, without delving into what it means at all. Your Results should follow a logical order, and that might be dictated by your Aims and Hypotheses (*hint hint*). You may need some help with the Results section, particularly with the stats, and you should get that organised EARLY. The resident statistician isn't sitting in his/her office waiting for the lowly Hons student to come knocking - they're serving the whole Clinical School and are busy. You need to make an early appointment and be polite and patient. Their advice is very valuable and you're lucky to get it free of charge!

Your Discussion shouldn't be a surprise for your assessor, it should naturally make sense from reading the the preceding parts of the minor thesis. Having said that, that doesn't mean your Discussion should be bland and boring - this is your chance to really let the assessor know why your project was worth spending a year on. The core of your Discussion should answer "why should I care about this project?" in the assessor's mind. The only way to answer that question for the assessor, is by answering it for yourself first. For some, that might be easier than others, and writing this section is arguably the most important and hardest thing you're going to do in the year. You need to think a LOT about what you're going to write here and how you're going to do it. Remember to think broadly, and don't jump to one conclusion. There are often multiple reasons why something could be what you've found, so explore these things. Think outside the box.

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5/5

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None needed, although some choose to peruse statistics books as well as textbooks specific to their field of research as the year progresses.

completely varies depending on your project, but expect to be doing fairly full-on days for 5 days a week.

Semester 2, 2016