Thesis proposal guidelines

Guidelines for preparing thesis / dissertation proposal

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Follow the General Instructions on the guidelines for preparing thesis / dissertation manuscript
Include information relevant to the topic only
Must be in a paragraph format with appropriate subheadings
Include References following the format set in the guidelines for preparing thesis / dissertation manuscript

CAPSULE PROPOSAL w/ references

Prepare text in A4 paper format, single spaced, and paragraph format
Limit to 1 page only (excluding references)
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".
Be consistent with verb tenses (e.g. use present tense throughout the proposal except for the summarized experimental design which should use future tense)
Include a thesis title in a sentence case format NOT all caps or capitalized per word [A thesis title should be general and NOT a hypothesis unlike a paper to be submitted to a journal]
Include a Rationale of the study with the following information (no headers): (a) Background, (b) Significance, (c) Problem, and (d) Hypothesis
Include a Study Objective with the following information (no headers except for Specific Aim 1, 2 , etc.):
1. General Objectives - can be combined with the hypothesis
2. Specific Aims (one for BS, two for MS, and three for PhD)
  1. Each aim should start with “To determine whether…”, so that the aim will be answerable by yes or no
  2. Followed by a summarized Experimental Design right after each aim.
Do not put subtitles or subheaders
Include References following the format set in the guidelines for preparing thesis / dissertation manuscript
Submit all text in a single MS Word file

FULL THESIS PROPOSAL

Format according to the guidelines set by the Institute of Biology (IB) and must include: (a) Title page with title, name of student, and name of adviser, (b) Introduction [containing contents of the capsule proposal - no subheadings], (c) Review of Related Literature, (d) Materials & Methods, (e) References, (f) Tables and Figures (if any), (g) Line-item budget, and (h) Timeline
Follow the thesis guidelines set by CS and IB for undergraduate and graduate students and the guidelines for preparing thesis / dissertation manuscript but keep the verb tense for the Materials and Methods in the future tense
Include research budget from scholarships (e.g. DOST or CHED) under the Line-item budget section
Include a Gantt chart of activities per month (actual months) from the start of the experiment until the submission of the bound manuscript under the Timeline section