Admission requirements
For master students of Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences only. The student has succesfully completed the research proposal and the lab safety exam in the Introduction course. The student has completed the larger part of the Research Project 1 practical work.
Description
After 28 weeks of practical work for Research Project 1, the student will start writing his/her thesis. The thesis allows the student to demonstrate his/her competence to critically and systematically integrate the knowledge obtained during Research Project 1 in a comprehensive and concise report written in academic English. In general, the thesis contains the following components: public summary, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion and references and is expected to be completed in approximately 3.5 weeks.
In general draft versions of the thesis should be evaluated minimally once and maximally three times before a final mark is provided, thereby allowing the students to optimize the thesis based on supervisor feedback. Guidelines are available in the Brightspace module ‘MSc Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences’.
Course objectives
At the end of the course, the student:
can write a coherent, well-argued and logically structured scientific report about his/her research.
can write a well-structured introduction section covering relevant scientific literature and with a clear problem definition.
can write a concise materials and methods section with appropriate details allowing others researchers to repeat the experiments.
can write a coherent results section in which data are presented in clear figures and/or tables and results are systematically described, highlighting the most relevant observations for addressing the research problem.
can write a well-argued discussion section with proper data interpretation and placement of the research findings in the broader perspective of the scientific literature.
can write in grammatically correct Academic English with appropriate register and use of sentence structure and paragraphs.
Timetable
Research Project 1 is scheduled to start in November (semester 1, period 2). It takes 33 weeks of 40 hours a week, including 28 weeks for practical work, 3.5 weeks for writing the thesis, and 1.5 weeks for preparing and delivering the oral presentation ('colloquium'). For the oral presentation a fixed date is planned for all students that started in November with the Research Project 1.
Mode of instruction
Self-tuition, tutoring
Assessment method
Written report; The assessment will be performed by the supervising LACDR staff member and an independent examiner, based on the evaluation criteria as laid down in the Research Project 1 Assessment Form.
The final grade is expressed using an integer between 1.0 and 10.0 and can be rounded off/up to a half integer, with the exception of the grade 5.5. The final grade should be ≥6.0 to successfully complete this course.
In case the final assessment of the Thesis and/or Oral Presentation of Research Project 1 is graded as "insufficient", the student may rewrite the Thesis and/or retake the Oral Presentation based on the feedback of the supervisor/examiner. Please note that in case the final grade of the Practical Work of Research Project I is graded as "insufficient", the entire Research Project 1 will need to be conducted again, including the Thesis and the Oral Presentation, under supervision of a different daily supervisor and first examiner.
Reading list
During Research Project 1, the student is expected to get up-to-date with the relevant scientific literature in the subject area of drug research.
Registration
Before starting the Research Project 1 the student needs to complete the RP1 registration form in ProjectMAP to get approval from the supervisors and the programme office. A project description needs to be included. As part of the RP1 placement procedure, students from the bachelor BFW programme also need to send in an RP1 registration form with a motivation letter expressing their interests in the specific areas of drug research. This procedure starts with a pre-registration in spring and ends with a definite registration in September.
Registration for the course via MyStudymap is not needed.
Contact
For general information about the Research Project 1, please contact the study advisor (studyadvisorBPS@lacdr.leidenuniv.nl).
Remarks
This information is without prejudice. Alterations can be made for next year.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.