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Few tips and advices to help you go through it
How to Write a Master Thesis in Neuroscience
By Aurore Perrault, PhD Student
Plan
• Master thesis 1.01
• Plan of Action
• Academic Form
• General Outline
• Administrative Stuff to Do
• Oral presentation
• Evaluation
• Tips from PhD students
What is a Thesis? How Should it Look Like?
• A master thesis is, basically, a research report on your experiment.
• The content should
• Address a specific issue
• Describe what is already known about this issue
• Describe what you’ve done during these two years of research and its purpose.
• Be enough original to make a contribution to the field.
• The form should• Be well organized with a clear outline• Be written in a simple voice• Understood, not only by expert in your field,
but should be accessible to non-specialist
Plan of Action• Writing a thesis is a long-lasting process!
• Sit and think on how you want to proceed before jumping into the action
• Set a time-frame
• Literature processing
• Idea processing and proposal/improvement by your adviser
• Pure research: experiment, collection of data, analysis
• Thesis writing
• Literature and methods (can be written pretty early during your master)
• Results and discussion
• Conclusion, introduction and abstract
• Re-write until final version
• First draft should be done and send to your adviser 2 months before deadline
• Edition
• Triple-check your spelling!
• Do not skip the formatting part (at least 1-2days)
• Ask at least 2 non-specialist persons to read your work (spelling? global comprehension? outline?... )
Academic Form
• 45-80 pages - A4
• Font
• 12 point font: Time New Roman
• 1,5 line space – 2,5cm margins
• Whole text should be justify
• First line of each paragraph should be moved forward
• Number each pages (except flyleaf, abstract & appendices)
• Print only one sided
• Bind your thesis but do no use staples.
• M-Print-shop(http://www.migrosprintshop.ch/)
• UniCopy (http://www.unicopy.ch/)
General Outline
• Flyleaf
• Abstract
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Review of Literature
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendices
abstract
• 1 page max.
• MAJOR part of your thesis!
• Should contain
• A short introductory sentence: from general theme to your particular research field
• Quick method (techniques, design, conditions, groups of subjects)
• Highlight your best results
• Conclusion on these results/your research
• Ask several persons to read it!
General Outline
• Flyleaf
• Abstract
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Review of Literature
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendices
• One page max.• Can also be the list of
contributions (help from others lab-members…)
General Outline
• Flyleaf
• Abstract
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Review of Literature
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendices
• 1-2 pages• Very precise BUT no
more than 3 subtitles• Use Word « styles »
General Outline
• Flyleaf
• Abstract
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Review of Literature
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendices
• 1page• In alphabetical order or in
order of appearance• Don’t use too many
abbreviation: only if the word/phrase is use >5 times in your thesis
Review of Literature
• 10-30 pages
• «Funnel » theory
• Review of literature should guide the reader from a general theme to your particular field of research
• Present background of this field
• Introduce idea/concept that the reader will need later to understand your work
• Possible structure
• Brief introduction on your field of research
• An organized explanation of the different theories/concepts/brain areas/cells…
• Logical links from the theoretical background to your research
• Question/Objectives/Hypothesis of your research
• Each concept need to be link to your research and well-explained by several references
• Provide non-specialist with a clear understanding of the field
• NO PLAGIARISM ! Be very careful in how you retranslate others’ ideas/results
• 5 - 10 pages
• How did you perform your experiments? What kind of material/methods did you use? What population/cells…?
• Should contains
• Subjects/Groups/Cells…
• Experimental techniques used (staining, patch-clamp, fMRI, EEG, behavioral measures…)
• Experimental design/paradigm
• Data analysis
• Statistical analysis
• No results, only methods
Always anonymize your human subjects!
Materials and Methods
Results
• 10 -20 pages
• Organized and logical presentation of your results
• Do not analyze your results here
• Comment/interpret all your results in the discussion section
• Entitle and comment all your figures, graph, table…
• For statistical results, always specify if it is significant and add the F value (or t, chi2…) and its p value.
33
A conjunction analysis of all the conditions (Figure 3.5) revealed a widely
distributed fronto-parietal cortical areas, importance of the superior frontal gyrus,
bilateral sensorimotor cortices, the ACC, frontal and temporal opercular areas,
occipital areas and superior ipsilateral cerebellum.
Figure 3.2 – FULL condition related activities in controls. The color code (right) represents the Z-score associated with activated voxels. FULL condition activates the IPL, ACC, M1, SMA, S1-M1, DLPFC and cerebellum.
Figure 3.3 – FREE condition related activities in controls. The color code (right) represents the Z-score associated with activated voxels. FREE condition activities are localized in the IPL, SMA, S1-M1 and DLPFC.
6.2
2.3
6.3
2.3
Z =
Z =
Discussion
• 5 -15 pages
• Interpretation of your results and how you include them in your field of research (link to background part)
• Possible structure
• Recall your project
• Summarize and analyze results presented
• Possible interpretation and comparison with others’ theories
• Consistent with others’ results? Why or why not?
• Support or contradict theories?
• Strengths and limits
• Place your findings into a bigger perspective
• How your experiment could be improved
• Direction for future studies on the subject
• Possible clinical application…
General Outline
• Flyleaf
• Abstract
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Review of Literature
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendices
• 1-2 pages• Recall of your research,
results obtained and possible interpretation
references
• Minimum 50 references – There is never too much references!
• No outdated research sources!
• Use the most up-to-date research/articles/authors…
• Except if seen as a basic
• Alphabetical order or order of appearance
• In the text: (Neurogod et al., 2013)
• APA format
• Neurogod, A., Biogoddess, B. & Psychogirl, C. D. (2013). How to write a thesis. Journal of Important NeuroStuff, 7 (45), 314-356
• http://citationmachine.net
General Outline
• Flyleaf
• Abstract
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Review of Literature
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendices
• Not numbered• Can be:
• List of participants (age, gender, condition…)/Type of cells…
• Details on the procedure/technique/conditions…
• Complete table of your statistical analysis
Administrative Boring Stuff to Do (I)
• When you and your adviser decide that you’re ready to graduate:
• Email your faculty and Mona Spiridon
• Find 2 jury members (ask your adviser)
• One must be a UNIGE faculty member (professor, assistant, MER…)
• They should represent at least 2 institutions: Faculty of medicine (HUG, CMU, Belle-Idée), faculty of psychology and/or sciences.
• Fix a date for your oral presentation
• At least 2 weeks after all the jury members receive your thesis
• Book a room for the oral presentation (Unimail, CMU or Sciences)
• Make sure you fulfill all the requirement to graduate
• Acquisition of mandatory and optional credits (30ECT)
• Complete seminar sheet
• Supplementary internship
• Presentation of your project/data at a LabMeeting
Administrative Boring Stuff to Do (II)
• Send an email to your faculty and Mona when you’re ready to graduate and ask them about their protocol
• Mandatory documents
• Official report of your master thesis
• Attestation for the supplementary internship
• Seminar sheet (12)
• Each faculty has a different protocol to validate your master
• Psych: go directly to the faculty desk and give: official report of your master thesis (+attestations), attestation of research, attestation of the library (psych intranet), flyleaf of the thesis, digital version of your thesis (CD-ROM)
• Science: give directly to Mona Spiridon the 3 mandatory documents + copy of your thesis binded
Oral Presentation
• Your adviser + 2 jury
• 30min presentation + 30min of questions
• Brief PowerPoint with an emphasis on your results and interpretation
• Send your final version of your thesis at least 2 weeks before the presentation
• Can be in English or in French (ask your adviser)
• Do not forget to bring the official report of your thesis!
Evaluation
• Characteristics of evaluation
• Clarity of the research question and goals
• Scientific knowledge and insight on the field of research
• Justified methods
• Precision of the data analysis and controllability of the data
• Discussion argumentation
• Data fit in the discussion
• Care given to the presentation and language
• Appropriate layout
• No grammatical, structural or spelling errors
• Coherency, organization, comprehension
• If the jury think that your thesis doesn’t reach these criteria (grade <4), you’ll have 1-2 weeks to re-write
• In master thesis, they won’t judge you on your results but on the knowledge and insight you have on your research!
Master Thesis Tips From PhD Students (I)
• No plagiarism!
• Read a LOT of articles
• Take notes and references for every articles
• Do not wait the last months to write your review…
• Manage your time
• Should be understand by non-specialist reader. Explain any scientific jargon that is not common knowledge (ex: calcium dye, BOLD signal…)
• Articles in your field can help you organized your thesis but also write the methods section…
• Keep track of everything you do/your results/material you use in a labnotebook
• All results must be explained and linked to theories in your field
Master Thesis Tips From PhD Students (II)
• Think about the way you will be read! What do you want them to keep from your thesis? Is it clear?
• Rule out what is not necessary/ambiguous
• Be careful with long sentence… sometimes short is better!
• All your figures/graph/tables should have a title and explained
• Don’t forget about the scale for fMRI scans…
• Plan ahead your outline and time-frame!
• Don’t get lost in all your data/articles/ideas… Don’t be a mess!
• Don’t play solo: ask for help when needed, take everyone’s comment into account, talk with your adviser regularly
• Do not wait until the last minute!
Questions?
Thank You for your attention & Good Luck!
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