Tutorial – Appendix 5 & 6: Guidelines for Laboratory Report Writing – Level 1

Appendix 5: Generic guidelines for laboratory/ field report writing

Text that differs from Appendix 6 (i.e. items not necessary in a scientific poster) is identified in blue.

Below are generic guidelines on how to write a laboratory or field report. Specific information regarding the format and length of the field project report will be available in the assessment area on Blackboard of each field unit. NB: Any question regarding the content of the practical needs to be directed to the member of staff in charge of the field course – **NOT** to your Academic Advisor.

A lab/field write-up is designed to provide sufficient experimental detail so that anyone could, in theory, perform the experiment(s) to the same specification that you have followed. It should also accurately report your findings (results/data), include an evaluation of the accuracy and limitations of your data, and conclude with a discussion of this data with reference to the experimental aims and what others have published on the topic.

In a laboratory/field report, you therefore need to describe why you did an experiment, how you did it, what happened and what the results mean – did you expect these results? Why/ why not? How do they compare to what is published? Are there any limitations to your experimental method? To achieve this, you must spend time identifying the most effective way to present your data, remove any information that is superfluous, and write in a clear and concise manner.

NB: In scientific writing, the traditional convention is to use the past, impersonal tense (e.g. “blood pressure was measured every 10 min for 1 hour” rather than “I measured the blood pressure every 10 min for 1 hour”). This will apply to all sections of the report. Note however that this convention can vary slightly and in ‘real life’ each publisher provides detailed guidelines to authors which scientists must strictly follow.

The write-up must be written in your own words (see notes on collusion and plagiarism in the First Level Handbook). If it is not, you will be penalised.

As in an essay, when referring to the work of others, appropriate citations and acknowledgement of the source of information must be included in the report text, and full references listed at the end (see section on referencing in Appendix 2). NB: Similarly to lecture notes, the field course manual is not a source that is available outside this University, so you should not refer to it in the text, nor copy any part of it; instead you should find other sources that convey similar information.
As many practicals involve group work, it is possible that the data you will present will be very similar, if not identical, to another student’s data. This is perfectly acceptable provided that the content of the report is thought through and written independently.

Personal details

Should include Swipe Card Number and Degree Programme in a header or footer.

Title

This should be a succinct and descriptive statement that clearly indicates the subject matter of the report.

Introduction

The introduction should give a short and clear account of the background or theory behind the experiment (progressing from general to specific). It should give an outline of the scientific purpose(s) or objectives of the experiment and place the work in context, with supporting references where appropriate. The introduction should end with a short paragraph stating the aims of the experiment and how you intended to achieve them. You will need to cite your sources of information in the right places and provide the full reference at the end (see section on referencing in Appendix 2). You can also include figures to enhance your text, but make sure that you always refer to every figure in the text, number it, and give it a title and an appropriate legend.

Material and Methods

The materials and methods used must be described in sufficient detail to allow the experiments to be interpreted and repeated by the reader.

Typically, what we provide in the manual in recipe style needs to be rewritten. You first need to identify superfluous information (e.g. turning the heat block on at 100ºC, describing which pipette you used to get 80μl). You then need to transform the bullet point lists of instructions into a description of what you did as prose in impersonal past tense, e.g. Water (10 ml) was swirled in the mouth vigorously for 1 min to collect cheek cells (N.B. You should not start a sentence with a numeral (e.g. 10 ml of water….).

You should use subheadings for each experimental stage. Usually, one first describes the specimen used (e.g. bacteria strains used, inclusion criteria and consenting process for human volunteers), culture conditions if appropriate, sample preparation, measurement methods (there may be several subsections), and to conclude a section on data analysis/calculations/statistics as appropriate. Only include a figure for a complex experimental setting if you think it will help the reader.

Major items of equipment should normally be described in the text, including make and model number, but trivial things such as pipettes, cuvettes etc need not be described in detail. NB: If you did not write down the models of the equipment used in class, then write (model unknown) after the major pieces of equipment described.

The volume and concentration of reagents, drugs, buffers and other chemicals should be described as appropriate, referring to final concentrations when possible and concentrations should be given in terms of molarity. E.g. You are expected to write: ‘the forward primer was added to the PCR mix to a final concentration of 600 nM’, rather than ‘forward primer (2 µl) at a concentration of 12 µM was added to the PCR mix (final volume 40 µl)’. Both sentences are correct, but the first one is more appropriate because the person who will follow your instructions may not have a primer stock at a concentration of 12 µM, or may decide to run a PCR in a final volume of 50 µl instead of 40 µl. Giving them the final concentration is therefore more useful to them.

The data analysis/calculations/statistics paragraph describes how the data have been processed (often justifying why) and which statistical package was used. E.g.

Data are presented as mean ± SD.
Raw data were converted into […] using [formula].
Data were tested for normality with [name of test] (most adequate for sample size of …) using GraphPad Prism v2.3. When the data followed the normal distribution, [name of test] was used to determine [justify test/aim]. For data not normally distributed, [name of test] was used. P values <0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.

Results

The Results section should NOT be merely a series of figures and tables that the reader must interpret. It is a written section, often organised with subheadings, that comprises a text description of your results (raw, processed, and statistics where appropriate). The Results section is the narrative (story) part of the report; people who read it should be able to follow everything that you have done experimentally in this practical (and why you have done it). N.B. Further experimental details are specified in the “Materials and Methods” section, and further discussion of what the results mean in the wider context of the literature is included in the Discussion. In other words, a person should be able to read just the Results section without reading anything else, and still be able to grasp what has been done, why, and what the result of each experiment was, at least generally. The description of the experimental results should be succinct, but in sufficient detail so that readers who repeat your experiments can compare their results to yours. Where appropriate, the mean results, with standard errors of the means and the number of observations, should be given.

Data should be presented in the form of figures and/or tables (but the same data should not be shown in both forms). Each should be numbered sequentially (i.e. Figure 1 – Figure 10, and Table 1 – Table 10). Each figure/table should have a legend, including a meaningful title and any essential details required to understand the data. A key should be provided if abbreviations or special symbols are used and all axes should be labelled properly. Make sure you explain the meaning of arrows, brackets, etc. where this is not obvious (don’t assume that the reader has expert knowledge of these experiments). Refer to this source to present figures and tables: http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWtablefigs.html

Figures and tables are an essential part of the Results section, but they are not presented as the central piece; they are there to illustrate points made in the text, or give more details on the results that are presented succinctly in the text. In the text, add value to your figures and tables. For example, a graph may show that the mean of one treatment (mean A) is higher than the mean of the control treatment (mean B); when you describe this increase in the text, quantify this increase, e.g. mean A was 2 fold higher than mean B (see figure 1).

Remember to include units for all variables and do not use an excessive number of decimal places. The general rule is to only give as many decimal places as you can actually measure e.g. for blood pressure, you can only measure to the nearest whole number, so report systolic blood pressure as 121 mmHg, not 120.56784 mmHg. Just because your calculator will give 8 decimal places, it doesn’t mean that your measurements are that accurate!

Statistical tests of significance should be performed where appropriate. The description of the outcome of the statistical analysis should be incorporated into the general description of the results; it should not be given in a separate section. Remember that the aim of statistics is to tell you whether the interesting things that seem to be happening are likely to be real effects.

Below are two examples of how a result and its statistical analysis can be reported:

“Drug X increased systolic blood pressure from 120 ± 2 mmHg to 150 ± 3 mmHg 10 min after administration (see figure 2). This 1.25 fold increase was statistically significant (paired t-test, n = 10, t= 4.36, P < 0.01)”.
A two sample t test showed that the treated mice 1.62 (SE 0.14) g were significantly heavier than controls whose mean weight was 1.23 (SE 0.13) g (t₉ = 4.56, p = 0.012)

Discussion

The discussion usually starts by referring back to the aims of the experiment and states whether these aims have been met. It continues by describing how you arrived at your conclusions, including any assumptions that you have made.

While discussing data, you should present your interpretation of the results against the background of existing knowledge (i.e. scientific literature). Do your data agree with previous experiments or the theoretical framework of the experiment (your elements of comparison need to be described here if you did not do so in the Introduction)? If not, why might this be the case? Do not copy information from other sources, rather, describe the findings of other scientists in your own words and include a citation to their original work. It is expected that you will be using citations quite a lot in the Introduction, when talking about the background information, and again, in the Discussion section, because there you will be comparing your results to the literature.

It is appropriate in this section to suggest improvements or future experiments that could be performed, but please do not give a long list of things that went wrong with your experiment, as it is assumed that you carried out the current experiment to the best of your ability.

The discussion usually concludes with a concluding paragraph summarising the main outcome(s) of the experiment(s) and what you think the results mean.

References

Refer to Appendix 2 for details of how to cite references.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ADVISORS WILL NOT READ OR COMMENT ON DRAFT VERSIONS OF YOUR WRITE-UP. FEEDBACK WILL BE PROVIDED ON THE SUBMITTED REPORT ONLY.

Appendix 6: Generic guidelines for producing a scientific poster to present laboratory practical data in Semester 2

Text that differs from Appendix 5 (i.e. items specific to a scientific poster) is identified in blue.

Below are generic guidelines on how to produce a scientific poster. Specific information regarding the content and format, and resources to help with its production will be available in the assessment area on the Blackboard sites of the practical unit you have enrolled on. NB: Any question regarding the content of the specific practical needs to be directed to the member of staff in charge of the practical – **NOT** to your Academic Advisor.

A scientific poster is a concise version of a lab write-up which tends to be focused largely on the methods and results, with a brief introduction and aims and a concise conclusion. You should provide sufficient experimental detail so that anyone could, in theory, perform the experiment(s) to the same specification that you have followed. It should also accurately report your findings using appropriate graphs/ tables, which should be described using text. The conclusion should state briefly what the results show and why these findings are important.

N.B. This is different from a complete lab write-up or field report, which would also include a more detailed introduction, reviewing similar recent studies, an evaluation of the accuracy and limitations of your data, and a discussion of this data, with reference to the experimental aims and what others have published on the topic. Appendix 5 and the online resources provided present what is included in a full report and test your understanding of how to write a full report.

Opening remarks:

Many practicals involve group work, so it is possible that the data you will present will be very similar if not identical to another group’s data, but it is crucial that the poster is thought through and written independently as a team to avoid collusion and plagiarism, as otherwise you will be penalised (see the practical unit introduction document (course information area) and the First Level Handbook)
A poster is a short communication, so one of your big challenges will consist of identifying the most effective way to present your data, removing any information that is superfluous, and writing in a clear and concise manner.
NB: In scientific writing, the traditional convention is to use the past, impersonal tense (e.g. “blood pressure was measured every 10 min for 1 hour” rather than “I measured the blood pressure every 10 min for 1 hour”). This will apply to all sections of the poster. Note however that this convention can vary slightly and in ‘real life’ each publisher provides detailed guidelines to authors which scientists must follow strictly. As in an essay, when referring to the work of others, appropriate citations and acknowledgement of the source of information must be included in the report text, and full references listed at the end (see our advice in the references section at the end of this appendix). NB: Similarly to lecture notes, the practical manual is not a source that is available outside this University, so you should not refer to it in the text, nor copy any part of it; instead you should find other sources that convey similar information.

Title

This should be a succinct and descriptive statement that clearly indicates the subject matter of the poster.

Names of group members

These should be included underneath the title.

Introduction

The introduction should give a short account of the background or theory behind the experiment. It should give an outline of the scientific purpose(s) or objectives of the experiment and place the work in context, with supporting references where appropriate. The introduction should end by stating the aims of the experiment and how you intended to achieve them. You will need to cite your sources of information in the right places and provide the full reference at the end (see section on referencing in Appendix 2). You could also include a figure to enhance your text, but if so, it needs to be referred to in the text, numbered and given a title and an appropriate legend.

Material and Methods

The materials and methods used must be described in sufficient detail to allow the experiments to be interpreted and repeated by the reader.

Typically, what we provide in the manual in recipe style needs to be rewritten. You first need to identify superfluous information (e.g. turning the heat block on at 100ºC, describing which pipette you used to get 80 μl is NOT necessary). You then need to transform the bullet point lists of instructions into a description of what you did as prose in impersonal past tense, e.g. water (10 ml) was swirled in the mouth vigorously for 1 min to collect cheek cells. (N.B. You should not start a sentence with a numeral (e.g. 10 ml of water….).

Major items of equipment should normally be described in the text, including make and model number, but trivial things such as pipettes, cuvettes etc need not be described in detail.

The data analysis/calculations/statistics paragraph describes how the data have been processed (often justifying why) and which statistical package was used. E.g.

Data are presented as mean ± SD.
Raw data were converted into […] using [formula].
Data were tested for normality with [name of test] (most adequate for sample size of …) using GraphPad Prism v2.3. Where the data followed the normal distribution, [name of test] was used to determine [justify test/aim]. For data not normally distributed, [name of test] was used. P values<0.05 were considered to be statistically significant.

Results

The Results section should NOT be merely a series of figures and tables that the reader must interpret. It is a written section, often organised with subheadings, that comprises a text description of your results (raw, processed, and statistics where appropriate). The Results section is the narrative (story) part of the report; people who read it should be able to follow everything that you have done experimentally in this practical (and why you have done it). N.B. Further experimental details are specified in the “Materials and Methods” section, and further discussion of what the results mean in the wider context of the literature is included in the Discussion [NB: you will not write a discussion for this poster]. In other words, a person should be able to read just the Results section without reading anything else, and still be able to grasp what has been done, why, and what the result of each experiment was, at least generally. The description of the experimental results should be succinct, but in sufficient detail so that readers who repeat your experiments can compare their results to yours. Where appropriate, the mean results with standard errors of the means and the number of observations should be given.

Data should be presented in the form of figures and/or tables (but the same data should not be shown in both forms). Each should be numbered sequentially (i.e. Figure 1 – Figure 10, and, Table 1 – Table 10). Each figure/table should have a legend, including a meaningful title and any essential details required to understand the data. A key should be provided if abbreviations or special symbols are used and all axes should be labelled properly. Make sure you explain the meaning of arrows, brackets, etc. where this is not obvious (don’t assume that the reader has expert knowledge of these experiments). Refer to this source to present figures and tables: http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWtablefigs.html

Figures and tables are an essential part of the Results section; they are there to illustrate points made in the text, or give more details on the results that are presented succinctly in the text. In the text, add value to your figures and tables. For example, a graph may show that the mean of one treatment (mean A) is higher than the mean of the control treatment (mean B); when you describe this increase in the text, quantify this increase, e.g. mean A was 2 fold higher than mean B (see figure 1).

Below are two examples of how a result and its statistical analysis can be reported:

“Drug X increased systolic blood pressure from 120 ± 2 mmHg to 150 ± 3 mmHg 10 min after administration (see figure 2). This 1.25 fold increase was statistically significant (paired t-test, n = 10, t= 4.36, P < 0.01)”.
A two sample t test showed that the treated mice 1.62 (SE 0.14) g were significantly heavier than controls whose mean weight was 1.23 (SE 0.13) g (t = 4.56, p = 0.012)

Conclusion

The concluding paragraph summarises the main outcome(s) of the experiment(s) and what you think the results mean.

References

As the poster has limited space available for text, we recommend you use the Vancouver (numbered) referencing system and we allow you to write ‘et al.’ after the first author surname if there is more than one. For guidance, see http://subjects.library.manchester.ac.uk/referencing/referencing-vancouver and https://wilkes.libguides.com/c.php?g=191948&p=1266506 .

PLEASE NOTE THAT ADVISORS WILL NOT READ OR COMMENT ON DRAFT VERSIONS OF YOUR POSTER. FEEDBACK WILL BE PROVIDED ON THE SUBMITTED POSTER ONLY. It is possible that your advisor may decide to give you feedback on a draft or part of a draft write-up of a different practical that is not assessed.

Tutorial – Appendix 5 & 6: Guidelines for Laboratory Report Writing – Level 1