Deadlines:
2/15/08
Submit IRB
application
3/14/08 Beta Sigma
Kappa grant application deadline
3/14/08 Methods
protocol due
April Recruit subjects, begin collecting data
4/30/08
Introduction + Methods draft due
Information on course grade
Your course grade will be based completion of the following
assignments, which were mentioned in the syllabus and this web page.
* Did you meet the IRB deadline?
(Everyone for whom it applies did.)
* Did you receive IRB approval?
(Everyone for whom it applies did.)
* Methods protocol grade from your advisor
* Methods protochol grade from Dr. Salmon
*
Have
you completed a trial run of your experiment? Show me a written
record of when you did it, who were the subjects, and what trial data
you collected, to receive credit for this part.
Completion of these five items will constitute 50% of the course
grade. The remaining 50% will be based on the introduction and
methods paper, due on April 30. Please submit both a printed
version and an electronic file to me by midnight of April 30. The
paper's grade will be based both upon it's scientific merit (refer to
Dr. Bradley's
advice) and the
quality of writing. It must be well written in terms of
grammar, and clarity of logic. It should be easy for me to read
and understand. Formatting should follow the guide that Dr.
Wickham gave you last semester. You are not required to submit an
abstract for this assignment. If you have questions, please
contact me (Dr. Salmon).
Introduction + Methods section
At the end of your project you will submit a final paper, which
should be 4,000-6,000 words long for a typical 2-person project.
It will follow a standard scientific format with a brief abstract,
followed by sections for the introduction, methods, results, discussion
and references. Since you have written the literature review and
research protocol, you have nearly all you need to write the
introduction and methods. The best time to begin writing those
sections is now. Therefore, your final assignment for this
semester is a draft of the paper's introduction and methods
sections. The introduction and methods sections each should be
about 1,000 words long. If you write 333 words per page, that
would be 3 pages each. Cite references following the Optometry
and Vision Science style and include a list of references at the end
(not part of the word count). The methods section should include
figures showing the experimental setup if applicable. This
assignment is due on April 30. This will not the final version,
but rather a well-prepare initial draft.
During graduate school, one of my professors, Dr. Arthur Bradley (a
world-class scientist) wrote a nice summary of how to write a research
paper. Please read his handout for excellent advice on how to
write your paper.
Click here
for Dr. Bradley's advice (MS Word format).
Protocol
Click [MS
Word or PDF] for Dr. Salmon's protocol
template.
Protocols due on 3/14/08.
They should be written in
enough detail so someone else could read it
and duplicate the entire study.
You should begin trial runs of
your experiment on each other to work
out specifics of methods and data analysis.
IRB
Submit IRB application (3
copies) to Dr. Thomas Jackson (NSU
Admin building) by 2/15/08.
Work closely with your faculty
advisor to finalize the methods protocol.
Literature review
The literature reviews
are being graded based on their
scientific merit and quality of writing by both the faculty advisor and
Dr. Salmon. Dr. Salmon will decide the final grade, and this will
become the course grade for OPT 6122 Optometry Project I. To
receive an A, you must, not only review and summarize approximate 50
articles, but you must also show how they fit together into your
particular topic of interest. That is, you must demonstrate
interpretation and integration of what you learned, and it should
provide background that points to the project. Also, it should be
written well enough that it's easy to read. If you have
questions, contact Dr. Salmon.
Beta Sigma Kappa
grant
Funding available through Beta
Sigma Kappa.
Consider applying for this if
you need funding for supplies, materials,
subject incentive pay, travel funds to present the results at a
meeting, etc. Click here
for more
information.