Guidelines for Student Research Protocols

The entire protocol should be no more than 6 pages (single spaced) in length, plus the face page.  Both the student and mentor must sign the linked face page.  Be sure to follow these directions and format carefully to increase the clarity of your application.

AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND SIGNIFICANCE (1/2 page or less)

1. Describe the specific problem you will investigate:  state the hypothesis to be tested or questions to be addressed.  In this section, be sure to list and describe the specific aims of your project.

2. Describe the significance (potential usefulness or importance)  of your project.

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY (2-3 pages) -- This section should show why the proposed research needs to be performed (e.g. not done before, previous results were conflicting, new materials or techniques to be evaluated).  Any review of literature goes here. 

III.        MATERIALS AND METHODS (2-3 pages) -- This section should show how, when and where the experiments will be performed.

                1.    Describe the materials to be used (e.g. animals, humans, specific tissues).

                2.    Describe the method of data acquisition including any of the following that are relevant to your project:

                          -selection of sample and sample size

                          -type of data to be obtained (qualitative vs. quantitative)

                          -specific measurement techniques

                          -flow chart of experimental design (strongly encouraged)

                3.    Describe methods to be used to evaluate data and (if appropriate) to test hypothesis (e.g., descriptive            

                       comparisons, all or none observations, statistical analysis).

                4.    Briefly discuss any limitations or potential pitfalls of the proposed study (e.g., techniques not perfected,

                       experiment may not work as planned, etc.)

IV.        FUTURE DIRECTIONS -- Briefly describe (2-3 sentences) possible future research projects or interests that might flow from this work.

V.         BIBLIOGRAPHY (1/2 page or less) -- List the references that were cited.  Give authors, title, journal or book, volume, pages and year.

VI.        BUDGET (1/2 page or less) -- A small (up to $350) supply budget is available.  Itemize and briefly justify any supply requests.  NOTE:  Costs for electron and light microscopy are allowable, but use of these funds for presentation materials (posters, slides) is discouraged.  Equipment purchases are not allowed.