Research Project Guidelines

PHYS &221

RESEARCH PROJECT GUIDELINES

I. WHY A RESEARCH PROJECT?
In short, because it represents a genuine research activity. Your physics research project is an opportunity to
exercise your creativity, interests, critical thinking, ability to make contacts, procure resources and information, and
ultimately to provide you with increased opportunity, including a nice, polished example of your work that you can
show to college admissions boards and/or future employers that will set you apart from your competition.
II. TYPES OF PROJECTS: EXPERIMENTAL vs. THEORETICAL
Physics project types fall into two basic classes: Experimental or Theoretical1
Experimental
Experimental projects are very hands-on, involving setting up, and in many cases, construction of your
own experimental equipment. You will be able to borrow whatever equipment we have available for your
project, and sometimes you might have to purchase some miscellaneous (but inexpensive) items, or build
them from scraps you hunt-down. Experimental projects tend to be very straightforward to do once youve
come up with your idea, and they also tend to be self-running in the sense that once you get started, the
ideas and results keep flowing-in quite naturally.
Theoretical
Theoretical projects tend to be much more difficult because (1) there is a much higher knowledge-base
required before most people are ready to carry out an original calculation, and (2) because of this, one
can easily fall into the trap of producing merely a scientific book-report a collection of other peoples
ideas with little or no original student input. Original student input does not necessarily mean an original,
earth-shattering discovery; rather it can be a calculation that is not necessarily original to others, but is
original to you; nevertheless, it must also be a calculation that isnt so common that it can simply be copied
from elsewhere. There have been a few very successful theoretical student research projects in the past, so
they are certainly do-able, and you are free to do one if thats what youre interested-in.
Keep in-mind that your physics research project will be something very different from a Book Report or a Research
Essay that you may be familiar with from some of your other classes. The skills that you have practiced in your
other writing-requirement classes will come in very handy for doing the background research, but in addition to that,
you will have to formulate your own research questions, design and construct your own experiments, collect and
analyze data, and form conclusions which are based on quantitative measurements and calculations. You will
actually have to do something, and then write about what youve done, rather than simply summarizing what some
other people have done.
III. LEVELS of PROJECTS
Both Experimental and Theoretical projects may be at different levels, depending on the interests, level of challenge,
and goals sought by the student, for example:
One-Quarter Projects
Minimal, course-requirement-fulfilling projects are those that can be finished in one quarter and reflect
about four weeks worth of work, with consideration given of your regular course load, background
research, experimental time, equipment procurement/construction time, and writing time.
Multi-Quarter Projects

Most researchers spend all of their time doing either Experiment or Theory because each in itself requires such
substantial and different special knowledge and skills that it is practically impossible to do both. Every now and
then, however, Nature will provide us with someone like Enrico Fermi, who was capable of doing both equally-well.
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Oftentimes, a student will shoot for a one-quarter project and then find that they want to continue building
on the same project in subsequent quarters. Likewise, a student might start-off interested in topics that will
necessarily take more than one-quarter to complete. With these more-ambitious projects, getting to an endresult in one quarter is not always possible, but that is fine - simply demonstrating the same kind of
progress outlined in the minimal one-quarter requirements towards the eventual goal is sufficient. Most
one-quarter projects tend to turn into multi-quarter projects quite naturally as the student progresses.
IV. RESEARCH POSTER REQUIREMENTS
A. TYPESETTING and LAYOUT
There are no tight rules here. Your typeset must be big enough and clear enough to read from 3-5
ft away (imagine a group of about 4 people all trying to read your poster at the same time).
Posters are a visual product, so you want images to dominate, but use your text to explain the
images and insert the real content.
Make sure that your poster has a natural flow, so viewers are guided through the information in a
meaningful way.
Finally, make sure that your poster is both attractive and professional looking! Use colors, fonts,
and decorations to attract viewers, but not distract viewers.
C. USE of EXTERNAL CITATIONS and RESOURCES
Your research project must be your own, original work, written in your own words. Nevertheless,
research papers and posters necessarily include references to the work of others. All referenced
work must be properly cited, and any sentences or paragraphs which are directly taken from
external resources must be properly cited and attributed to the original authors.
Sentences and paragraphs which are directly taken from other works must appear in blockquotations, and under no circumstances may the word-count of any poster (or future paper) exceed
10% directly-quoted or paraphrased material.
Please see Section VI: Formatting of Citations and References below for more information about
citations and references.
D. FORMATTING AND SECTIONS
The below are general guidelines for the information to include in your poster. In the back of our
lab there are some example posters to make the formatting described below a little more clear.
ABSTRACT
An abstract is a really brief summary of your poster. This should include
(1) A brief description about the specific physical phenomenon you studied.
(2) A statement of your testable hypotheses.
(3) A brief description of your experiments.
(4) Whether your experimental data supports or rejects your hypotheses.
(5) A brief summary of your conclusions.
BODY
Introduction
The purpose of this section is to provide readers who may not be experts in your specific
topic with sufficient background information to be able to understand what your poster is
about.

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Experiment
Materials and Apparatus
This purpose of this section is to provide other researchers with sufficient information
about the materials and apparatus that you used that they would be able to independently
reproduce your experiment. A picture is worth a 1000 words here!
If you are using apparatus manufactured by a third party, you should include enough
information about the apparatus, such as names, descriptions, and model numbers that
another researcher would be able use the same or similar apparatus.
If you are constructing your own apparatus, you should provide sufficient materials
descriptions, instructions, diagrams, and photographs that other researchers would be able
to independently construct and use the same apparatus.
Procedure
The purpose of this section is to allow other researchers to follow the same procedures
that you did in order to independently verify (or refute) your findings.
Data and Analysis
This section should contain clearly-labeled data tables, charts, and graphs, and your data analysis
and error analysis. When planning your experiment, you should think carefully about how much
and what kind of data you will need in order to be able to accept or reject your hypothesis.
Conclusions
This is where you will conclude that you must either accept or reject your hypothesis based on
your experimental findings. Your conclusion needs to be supported by your experimental
evidence.
Future Work
This is where you make suggestions for experimental improvements and further work related to
your experiment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is where you thank other people who were helpful with your research. If, for example, you
got help with your project from somebody in another department or another at EdCC, someone in
the community, or at another institution you should acknowledge them here.
REFERENCES
This is where you list all of your references cited on your poster.
V. PRESENTATION REQUIREMENTS
FORMAT
You will participate in three (or more) poster sessions during our final class meeting. During one of these
sessions you will guide viewers through your poster with a short (~3 minute) presentation, and then be
available for questions. As people mill about during the poster session, you may make your presentation 3
or more times. During the other 2 (or more) sessions, you will be a viewer, learning about your classmates
projects, reading posters, and asking questions. Participation in the poster session will count for 15% of
your poster grade.

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VI. FORMATTING of CITATIONS and REFERENCES
A. The Big Idea
All scholarly fields share in the idea that information and work taken by an author from other authors
should be clearly attributed to the original authors. Information and work used by an author without
attribution to the original authors is called plagiarism.
Since the discovery of even a seemingly minor scientific fact or insight often has come only from a person
having invested their entire lifes work in it, plagiarism is considered to be a very serious transgression
among scientists. Even unintended plagiarism can result in permanent excommunication from ones
scientific community.
In practice, the accepted format for presenting these attributions depends not only on accepted norms of the
particular discipline, but also on the particular journals in which an author is seeking to be published.
Most, if not all, of you are already familiar with the MLA and APA citation formats used for research
papers in your English and other Humanities courses. The reason these citation formats are taught to you
is because they are the ones generally preferred by the people and professional journals in the Humanities.
For example, when the APA citation format prefers that your in-text citations cite external resources in
(Name, Year, Page) format. An in-text citation might be, for example:

In 1932, Jones was the first to discover that peanuts went well with chocolate, stating:
Hey, this chocolate goes really well with peanuts! (Jones, 1932, p.1539).

Then, in the References section of the poster, the reference for this citation would be given in (Name/Year)
format:

Jones, A. B. (1932). Peanuts enhance chocolate flavor. Peanut Psychology, 34, 1257-1794.
On the other hand, many Physics journals dont use either APA or MLA format, preferring instead a certain
minimalism on their in-text citations. The typical in-text citation appearing in Physics journals uses a
[Citation Number] format. For example, the same citation above would appear in the journal Physical
Review as:
In 1932, Jones was the first to discover that peanuts went well with chocolate [3].
Or
In 1932, Jones was the first to discover that peanuts went well with chocolate, stating Hey, this
chocolate goes really well with peanuts! [3]
Then, in the Reference section of the poster, the reference for this citation would be given in [Citation
Number] format:
[3] A.B. Jones, Peanut Psychology, 34 (1932).

Notice how the Physical Review style is much more minimalistic than the APA style. The in-text citation
appears as just [3], and the reference includes only the author, journal name, volume number and year.

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Exactly how an article versus a book versus an internet references versus a phone conversation, ad
nauseum, should be formatted is determined solely by how a particular journal (or teacher) wants it
formatted. APA is very specific, Physical Review is very minimalistic, and other journals tend to be inbetween these two extremes. The only way to know these details is for them to be provided to you as a
required style. English teachers will often refer you to APA or MLA styles as their required style. (See
for example http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/ for APA and MLA styles, and see
http://forms.aps.org/author/styleguide.pdf for the Physical Review Style Guide.)
Regardless, what all citation formats have in-common are that they contain enough information for your
audience to be able to easily verify an attribute the sources you use. Both the APA and Physical Review
styles are the same in this regard.

B. Specific Citation and References Style for Your Research Poster (and future papers)
For the purposes of your poster, please use a [Citation Number] format like in the Physical Review style.
Give me an in-text number [N] for your citations and a corresponding numbered-entry in your References
section that is sufficient for another party to be able to independently verify your citations. You will
otherwise not be expected to become experts in all the details of Physical Review style.
C. The 10% Rule
If you take word-for-word material from another resource, you must (1) cite it in your text, (2) include the citation in
your references, and (3) put it in block-quotes. For example,
Jones indicated that she
observed unusual amplification of salivary responses among patients consuming peanut-doped
chocolate emulsions. [3]
On a word-count basis, your writing may consist of no more than 10% of this type of quoted material.

D. Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing means to say the same thing that someone else has said but in a slightly different way, using perhaps a
slightly different sentence structure and/or different words. For example, suppose that you use an internet reference
in your poster that reads:
Einstein revolutionized the way that early 20th-century physicists understood the nature of space and
time.
This statement is of course true, and because of its linguistic simplicity it would not be hard to imagine that several
authors over the past 100 years could have made exactly that same comment independently and originally. Such an
accident of sentence structure independently-made would of course not be plagiarism, but one would never, ever
want to be in a circumstance where someone else says I found exactly this same sentence published by Jones five
years ago. I think you plagiarized it!
If you really like the way the sentence is said, but you did not honestly think of the sentence yourself, feel free to use
it, but just cite it and put it in block-quotes.
A paraphrasing of the above sentence would be a variation on it such as
The way that 20th century physicists though about physics was changed dramatically by Einstein.
Was this sentence original and spontaneous, or did somebody just steal the former sentence and change the wording
around in and attempt to hide the fact that they stole it?

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Again, its hard to tell for sentence structures that occur with high-probability such as the two above. It is on the
other hand very easy to tell for more complicated sentence structures that include less-than-common knowledge.
Deliberate honesty is always the guide to not accidentally falling into the abyss of plagiarism. Question yourself and
question how others may question you about your claims, and you will very comfortably never have to deal with
accusations of plagiarism.

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