Guidelines for preparing thesis / dissertation manuscripts and progress reports

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Follow the thesis guidelines set by CS and IB for undergraduate and graduate students.
  2. Prepare the text in an A4 paper, double-spaced, and paragraph format
  3. Use oxford commas (serial comma or series comma) - a comma placed immediately before the coordinating conjunction in a series of three or more terms. For example, a list of proteins should be punctuated as "TP53, CDKN1A, and CDKN2A".
  4. Be consistent with verb tenses (e.g. use present tense throughout the introduction, past tense throughout the Materials and Methods and Results Section, and present or past tense in the discussion section as appropriate).
  5. Submit all text in a single MS Word file (Acknowledgment Section, Abstract, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion, Reference, and Tables) and figures in a single Power Point file.
  6. Put page numbers at the bottom of every page
  7. ​Remove all track changes and comments after addressing all comments and suggestions from the progress report and previous drafts.
  8. Ensure that the manuscript passed a ​Plagiarism Checker.

TITLE PAGE
  1. Follow the thesis guidelines set by CS and IB for undergraduate and graduate students.
  2. Indicate 'P' under thesis classification and include the statement "This thesis is not available to the public. Please ask the library for assistance." However, you may be instructed by your adviser to put "I" and fill up an "Innovation Form" if your thesis resulted in an invention.

HONOR CODE

ENDORSEMENT PAGE

​ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS SECTION
  1. Indicate the funding source (agency with project code)
  2. Indicate any scholarships received
  3. Acknowledge the Institute of Biology
  4. Acknowledge individuals who provided scientific contributions to the manuscript ​

ABSTRACT SECTION
  1. Provide a one page summary of the entire manuscript in the Abstract section. This section should contain a short rationale (background, problem, and potential solution), summary of results, and overall take home message (significance of the findings)
  2. Put at least 4 keywords at the bottom of the abstract (. These keywords should describe the paper.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES
​
LIST OF FIGURES - indicate the page number of the corresponding figure from the powerpoint (see how to number the pages in the figures under the figures and tables section).

INTRODUCTION SECTION
  1. Revise the hypothesis and aims according to current results
  2. Be consistent with verb tenses in this section. All verbs in the section should be in the present tense, except for those in the objectives section, which should contain future verb tenses for proposal manuscripts AND past verb tenses for progress reports and thesis/dissertation manuscripts.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE SECTION
  1. Include information relevant to the topic (title and objectives)
  2. Create titles per subsections. Titles should be a phrase and describes the topic of the subsection.
  3. For Bio 200b&c, remove this section in progress reports and thesis manuscripts and incorporate relevant information to the Introduction section.

MATERIALS & METHODS SECTION
  1. Indicate the final concentration of the reagents used per solution (for example, 1 μl of 5 mM MgCl2 in 20 μl tube should be reported as 0.25 mM MgCl2)
  2. Create titles per key experiment (subsections). Titles should be a phrase (See published journal articles for examples). Fit one paragraph per section.
  3. Make sure that all verb tenses in this section to future tense for proposal manuscripts AND past tense for progress reports and thesis/dissertation manuscripts.
  4. Include experiments for results currently presented in the progress reports, thesis/dissertation manuscripts, and publications. Do not include experiments that are yet to be done.

RESULTS SECTION
  1. Create titles of subsections in the Results section. The title should be the take home message of the subsection and can fit in one line. The title can be a phrase and need not to be a complete sentence. 
  2. Cite all figures and tables in the Results section. Figure citation should be inside parentheses, at the end of the sentence which describes the figure. For example, “Doxorubicin increased expression of p16 in all cells (Figure 1)”
  3. Provide a short rationale before each result (explaining the purpose of doing the experiment)
  4. Provide a short conclusion after each subsection

DISCUSSION SECTION
  1. Do not put subsections (no titles) in the Discussion section
  2. Summarize the overall take home message of the results at the beginning of the section
  3. Cite at least one reference in every paragraph of the Discussion section and connect these references to the findings of the current study
  4. Do not cite result figures in the Discussion Section

CONCLUSION
  1. Highlight the significance and future implications of the paper
  2. Do not repeat the statement already mentioned in the summary section

RECOMMENDATIONS
  1. Focus on experiments that can be accomplished within the next 2 years

REFERENCE SECTION
  1. Use the reference manager Mendeley Desktop with MS Word Plugin OR Mendeley Cite for Microsoft Office 365 for citations [according to the format of the target journal - use the format of 'Journal of Endocrinology' if target journal is not yet determined]. [Learn how to use Mendeley with Mac and PC.]
  2. Use the “Journal of Endocrinology” format style for citing references
  3. Cite original research articles instead of review articles or books
  4. Do not open the manuscript using Google Docs as the Mendeley link to the references will automatically become disabled

FIGURES AND TABLES
  1. Prepare all Tables in portrait view (A4) format as an editable file (not as photos) in a Word File  
  2. Place all Tables at the end of the manuscript [after the Reference Section] in one Word File
  3. Place each Table on separate pages (1 table per page)
  4. Remove vertical lines from the Table (Use horizontal lines only)
  5. Place all figures in one Powerpoint file with portrait view (A4) format (1 figure per slide) then number the slides from the last page number of the Word File (manuscript / table).
  6. Generate high resolution figures in Powerpoint/Adobe Illustrator at the correct size (put original file size – at least 600 dpi). See Elsevier for instructions.
  7. Reduce the amount of white spaces on graphs (e.g. put all legends within the graph and remove the title of the graph).
  8. Add figure legends at the bottom of each figure with the corresponding content:
    1. Title - describes the take home message of the Figure. The title should be bolded.
    2. Description – should have a brief summary of the experiment. [The reader should be able to interpret the data without reading the materials and methods]
* No need for a timeline and budget for the progress report and final manuscript.

APPENDIX
  1. Attach a copy of approved IACUC certificates for thesis/dissertation involving animals and other relevant permits.
UP Diliman | UPD Institute of Biology
Copyright ©2016, University of the Philippines Diliman, Institute of Biology, Regenerative Biology Research Laboratory
​