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Term Paper Guidelines

A final term paper, a review paper of your scientist (the Nobel Prize laureate of the panel that you co-organize), will serve as the final exam of this course. The paper will constitute 30%, i.e., 30 points (pts), of your final grade (refer to the end of the guidelines for detailed point division/distribution).

You should first collect data from any trustable sources you can find, for example, officially published books, peer-reviewed journal articles, and trustable internet resources, and in particular, the “main references” of our course (refer to the syllabus.)

Once you have collected enough data, you should complete your own analysis and interpretation of the data, and follow this writing guideline to independently finish your paper (that is, each student will write his/her own paper).

The term paper can be submitted through BlackBoard as an assignment (checked by SafeAssign) at any time before the deadline – the end of official Final Exam time for our course (Refer to the syllabus). No submission after the deadline will be accepted at any occasion. General Rules:

[Note: The current “Term Paper Guidelines” as well as the “Term Paper Writing Template” and the “Term Paper Writing Template-References” are all composed following these General Rules. Please download the “Term Paper Writing Template” and the “Term Paper Writing Template-References” and write your paper directly on these templates without changing any format.]

You will submit your term paper in two files: 1. The term paper text (Should be named as “[Your scientist’s name] by [you name]-text”, such

as “Marie Curie by Qin Leng-text”). Figures and tables (if necessary) as well as their captions/legends should be included in this file. SafeAssign will be used to check the similarity of this file of your term paper with the Institutional and Global References Database.

2. The term paper references (the “reference list”) (Should be named as “[Your scientist’s name] by [you name]-refs”, such as “Marie Curie by Qin Leng-refs”). To separate your reference list from the text is to avoid increasing the SafeAssign “similarity” of your term paper.

American English should be used to write the term paper while non-English words or phrases (e.g., vise versa) can be embedded in necessary places. The writing should be free of grammatical or spelling errors.

Metric units (SI-International System of Units) must be used throughout the paper. Convert English units to metric or use both.

Font must be in 12-point, Times New Roman. Single spaced all through the paper, including title, all chapters, and figure and table captions (if

necessary). Necessary figure(s) and table(s) can be included and all of them must be referred to in the text, in

the order of appearance. For example:

“Groves of native dawn redwood trees were shown in Figure 1.” “Table 1 shows the data of samplings of native dawn redwood trees.”

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Under each figure and table there should be a caption/legend. Figure and table numbers are formatted in CAPITAL letters, BOLD, followed by an em dash (–). Unless the figure was created by yourself, the source of the figure/table should be cited clearly at the end of the caption/legend. Examples:

FIGURE 1 – Reconstructed Arctic ecosystem during the early Paleogene

global warming period (From Leng and Yang, 2009, cover figure)

FIGURE 2 – Position of Metasequoia (indicated by an arrow) in the phylogenetic tree of the family Cupressaceae [From “http://www.conifers.org/cu/Cupressaceae.php” (retrieved 01

September 2016), with the arrow added by the current author]

Reference and Citation Formatting: Every reference from which you obtained data/information both for the text and for figure(s)/table(s)

should be cited in both the text and the reference list. We use the “name-year” citation style of “Council of Science Editors. Style Manual Committee.

2014. Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 8th edition. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. 722p.” The style can be found from: http://www.scientificstyleandformat.org/Tools/SSF-Citation-Quick-Guide.html]:

Click “SCIENTIFIC STYLE AND FORMAT CITATION QUICK GUIDE” at the left column and click “NAME-YEAR” under “Scientific Style and Format Citation Quick Guide.”

As SafeAssign will be used to check the similarity of your term paper with the Institutional and Global References Database, to avoid increasing the “similarity” of the report of SafeAssign on your

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term paper, the reference list (the “References”) of your paper should be submitted in a separate word file. Please use the “Term Paper Writing Template-References” which can be downloaded from BlackBoard to fill in your reference list.

Paper Organization:

Please organize your paper according to the following sequence: Title—The full name of your Nobel Prize laureate followed by his/her birth date and an em dash in

parenthesis if he/she is still alive [such as Example 1] or by his/her birth date, an em dash, and death date if he/she passed away [such as Example 2]. Add his/her Nobel Prize and the year in the following line. Both lines should be centered and bold.

Example 1: Shinya Yamanaka (4 September 1962 –)

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012

Example 2: Marie Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934)

The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911

Short Biography This session constitutes 5 pts. It should include at least: Date and place of birth of the scientist, date

and place of death of the scientist (if passed away), family of the scientist (particularly family members who influenced the scientist remarkably), education background (under graduate to graduate should be at least included) of the scientist, major career experience of the scientist, and a list of outstanding awards/honors the scientist received.

Major Scientific Achievements and Impacts

This session constitutes 15 pts. You should summarize the major scientific achievements of the scientist and discuss the major impacts of his/her work, particularly the impacts on biological sciences. Don’t provide a list of awards/honors the scientist received (which should be included in the “Short Biography” session.)

One or more separate paragraph(s) focusing on the Nobel Prize winning research of the scientist and its scientific (biological) background should be written specifically.

My Reflection

This session constitutes 3 pts, containing your personal reflection after doing research and co-organizing a panel on your scientist. Any other comments or remarks can be also included in this session.

(All these three headings — “Short Biography,” “Major Scientific Achievements and Impacts,” and

“My Reflection” — should be centered, with sentence caps, and in bold, as shown above).

References

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A complete list of all references you cite in the text should be compiled, following the format described in “Reference and Citation Formatting.” (Note: This session should be written and submitted in a separate word file.) ****************************************************************************** Distribution of the 30 pts:

1 pt for the proper length of the paper (between 2,500-5,000 words, no less or more, with the reference list excluded).

3 pts for the formats and general rules. 3 pts for references and citations. 23 pts for the text of the paper, which are further divided as:

i) 5 pts for “Short Biography” session. ii) 15 pts for “Major Scientific Achievements and Impacts” session. [Note 2: Final pts of i + ii (in total 5 + 15 = 20 pts) will be scaled down by the following

SafeAssign Similarity Percentage: 0-20% = × 100%; 21-30% = × 90%; 31-40% = × 80%; 41-50% = × 70%; 51-60% = × 60%; 61-70% = × 50%; 71-80% = × 40%; 81-90% = × 30%; 91-100% = × 20%]

iii) 3 pts for “My Reflection and Others” session.