You find detailed information about degree projects as well as registration forms on the learning platform in Canvas.

Overview

Before the start

Contact a supervisor within the area of your interest and discuss the general outline of the project. A 30 credit project should be about 20 weeks; 45 credits correspond to 30 weeks and 60 credits correspond to 40 weeks. Before proceeding, you should show your CV and LADOK excerpt to the supervisor. Note that the project can be conducted outside the university, at a company. If you do not find what you want, your Master’s programme coordinator will give advice.

Write a project plan together with your supervisor when you have decided about a project. The plan should be brief, but give a clear description of your specific project (2–3 A4 pages). It should contain:

• Project title
• Name and e-mail addresses to you and the supervisor
• Topic, time, and number of credits
• Introduction, with a theoretical background to the project and key references (5-10)
• The specific aim(s) of your project
• Methods
• Time plan 

If the project is carried out outside of Lund University, a contact person from within Lund University (Internal supervisor) has to be appointed.

During the project

Carefully document your work. You should document your work systematically in a README file. With the aid of the README file, you or another person should be able to recreate the current results from the original data. The README file may be used in the final examination and grading of your project.

You should participate in group meetings, seminars, and such that may be arranged in the group or at the department where you are working.

The report

The project shall be presented as a scientific report in English. The format of your report should follow the instructions on how to write manuscripts for PLOS One. Your final report can be in manuscript form or you may choose a layout that is more similar to a printed paper.

Plagiarism. You are not allowed to present someone else’s work, such as text, figures or results, without giving proper reference. You may of course refer to the works of others, but you must write about it in your own words and refer to the source of information in a correct way. To prevent plagiarism, all Master's project reports are sent to "Ouriginal" (information to students on Urkund's website, a program that uses internet/databases to scan a report for plagiarised text. Your text is also added to the database, which prevents the contents of your report to be plagiarised by someone else in the future.

The examination

The examination committee consists of:

• Examiner. The programme coordinator will act as an examiner or appoint another examiner within the Department of Biology.
• External examiner: The external examiner is suggested by the supervisor and then appointed by the examiner.

Supervisor: Can take part in the discussion, but not in the decision (like at a PhD dissertation). If the supervisor is not present, the examiner will contact the supervisor for his or her opinion.

Seminar. At the examination, the student will give a presentation (about 20–30 min). After the presentation, the examination committee will ask questions and discuss the report and project, and thereafter the audience will be invited to ask questions. Finally, the examination committee has an internal discussion before the examiner decides about the grading.

Evaluation Criteria:

The Process is primarily evaluated by the Supervisor:

• Independence of the student
• Ability to carry out the project (knowledge and competence of the 
  student)
• The student´s biological understanding of the project.
• The student´s ability to structure and write the report.
• The student´s commitment (is the student hard working and interested 
  in the subject?)

 The Product is primarily evaluated by the Examiner:

• Quality of the written report.
• Ability to explain the work and put it into a larger perspective.
• Quality of the presentation (including discussions during and after the 
  presentation)

You find detailed information about degree projects as well as registration forms on the learning platform in Canvas.