BIOM5712 Postgraduate Research Project Module Handbook 2026

BIOM5712 Assessment :

Module Overview

Welcome to the Research Project module. The aim of this module is for you to complete and submit an independent Master of Science research dissertation. Undertaking a project of substantial length is a vital part of your academic training since specific and transferable skills are gained and nurtured which are deemed essential for post-degree activities.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the module, students should be able to:
1.  Demonstrate critical awareness of current problems and/or new insights, much of which are at, or informed by, the forefront of biomedical science to present a research topic through the production of a research proposal which, where necessary, involves gaining ethical approval.

2.  Critically appraise the methods of collection and analysis of data, demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of applicable techniques.

3.  Demonstrate self-direction, independence and originality in tackling and solving problems in the chosen research area, together with a practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry are used to create and interpret knowledge in biomedical science.

4. Synthesise sustainable conclusions from the research in the chosen area of biomedical science and make recommendations for future research or practice innovations, developing new hypotheses or formulate solutions where appropriate.

5.  Present the above by means of an oral presentation and a dissertation using correct scientific writing style and citation methods to a specialist audience.

Assessment BIOM5712 – 60 CREDITS

ASSESSMENT DETAILS

COURSEWORK 1: RESEARCH PLAN/PROPOSAL (formative)

This document, to be completed relatively early in the project, is a piece of writing (1500 words ± 10%) that will be an initial draft of your project introduction/background literature review.  When producing this item, you are asked to think critically about the project area, supporting literature, hypothesis, experimental approach/methodology and context in the subject area/future potential. Any ethical issues must be discussed and even if there are no ethical issues, you should explain why there are none. The project abstract provided by the supervisor could form a starting point for this piece of work, as project supervisors are offering projects in a research area(s) where they feel competent to offer support and that fits in with their overall research interests.

The research plan/proposal is a formative assessment.

Submission is via Turnitin by midday (12pm, noon, middle of the day) on Monday 06/07/26.

This assessment will be assessed by your supervisor who will provide feedback and commentary for improvement. It is intended that this item of work will form the initial part of your dissertation and will be expanded by the addition of methods, results and discussion sections to form the final dissertation.

COURSEWORK 2: DISSERTATION (summative)

You are strongly advised to start preparing and editing your dissertation from the start of the project.

The dissertation is a 10,000 ± 10%-word document detailing the background to the project, materials and methods used, presentation and analysis of laboratory data and a discussion explaining the results and placing them in the context of the existing scientific literature in the project area. Additionally, this element of the module marks contains the supervisor’s assessment of your Record Keeping (Laboratory Notebook) and Laboratory Performance (comprised of an assessment of the following: practical competence; initiative, independence and originality; commitment; organisation and planning).

This dissertation is summative and accounts for 60% of your overall module mark.

This is a must pass assessment with a minimum pass mark of 50%.

Submission is via Turnitin by midday (12pm, noon, middle of the day) on Thursday 03/09/26.

A complete version of the Dissertation, as a Microsoft Word document only (accounting for any limitation on file size) should be submitted. This is an independent piece of work that should be written in your own words, not produced by another individual or programme, e.g. via a contract writing service or generative AI programme. Submission via Turnitin will allow you to check for plagiarism and correct this prior to marking. You should allow up to 24 hours for Turnitin to check the document and generate an originality report before final submission.

Your supervisor will act as first marker and a second marker from the module teaching team will be nominated. This means that the second marker will have sight of the first marker’s marks when making their evaluation. An agreed mark will be decided by discussion between the two markers, which will usually be the average of the two marks if the marks differ by 5% or less. If marks differ by 5% or more a discussion between the two markers will arrive at an agreed mark and failure to agree will involve marking by a third marker. The agreed mark in this case will be the average between the third mark and the closest first or second mark. With second marking in place, formal moderation will not be conducted, however the external examiner will be involved in marks ratification.

Laboratory Notebook

You must keep a bound hardback laboratory notebook, filled in daily and written in pen. The notebook must be available to supervisors when requested, and contain the following: Plans, thoughts, ideas related to your project; daily records/discussion of experiments, including elemetns such as weithgs and volumes of materials used etc.; experimental data (raw data and processed results) with observations/results interpretation; summaries of meetings with your supervisor. Submission of this notebook is to be within 24 hours of submission of the dissertation. There are 2 ways to submit your laboratory notebook. Submit the notebook to the Course Collection Zone in the Student Advice Centre (CCZ in SAC; Lower ground floor, Edith Murphy Building) by 4 pm the day after the dissertation submission deadline (SAC closes at 4 pm daily.) When completing the paperwork in the CCZ make sure that the notebook is for the attention of your supervisor. Alternatively, electronic laboratory notebooks should be made available to your supervisor, by email or other electronic transfer within 24 hours of the dissertation submission date and time. The laboratory notebook will be marked exclusively by your supervisor and will form part of the marks for the dissertation.

COURSEWORK 3: VIVA (summative)

This is a 10-minute oral presentation of your research project, followed by an approximately 10-15 minutes of questions and answers to assess you understanding of the work. The presentation should contain a description of project background including aims and objectives, methods, results/discussion. You may have cue cards to help you present, but you would obtain no more than 40% for the presentation marking itself if you read from a pre-prepared script. Practice of the presentation before the event is highly recommended.

This assessment will be marked by your project supervisor and the second marker for your dissertation who will already be familiar with your work and thus primed to ask questions.

This is a summative assessment and accounts for 40% of your overall module mark. This is a must pass assessment with a minimum pass mark of 50%.

Submission of presentation slides is via Turnitin by midday (12pm, noon, middle of the day) on Monday 07/09/26.

A Powerpoint file containing the slides should be submitted via Turnitin. Slides uploaded via Turnitin by the deadline will be the slides used for the presentation, no further editing of slides will be permitted after submission. Submission of slides in a format other than Microsoft PowerPoint will be considered a non-submission, resulting in no marks awarded for that element of the viva marking. The time and date for your presentation and further instructions regarding the presentations will be provided via the module shell on Learning Zone closer to the project slides submission deadline.

Referencing

A reference is the detailed bibliographic description of the item from which you gained your information. In simple terms, this means the details of the items that you have used, e.g. author, title, date of publication. References are briefly cited within the text, and then given in full at the end of your work in a reference list.

References are used to:
•    Enable the reader to locate the sources you have used;
•    Help support your arguments and provide your work with credibility;
•    Show the scope and breadth of your research;
•    Acknowledge the source of an argument or idea. Failure to do so could result in a charge of plagiarism.

•    The new updated default style for DMU is Harvard (Cite them Right). 
A video has been created and has been uploaded to the Library’s YouTube Channel and is available here: https://youtu.be/yLA60JC12TU

•    Online guidance is provided for the Harvard (Cite Them Right) referencing style using the Cite Them Right Online Tool. 
Cite Them Right Online helps you learn the principles of referencing and the concepts of good academic practice and why this is important. The tool also provides guidance on how to reference over 150 source types, all with examples.
•    You can use this link to https://library.dmu.ac.uk/refguide to access the guidance that you will need. 

IMPORTANT - PROVIDING ACCURATE DOI VALUES, OR OTHER TRACEABLE DOCUMENT/ARTICLE IDENTIFICATION REFERENCING, IN THE DISSERTATION REFERENCE LIST IS MANDATORY.