Instructor: Jim Dooley - BSC 428; x 8227; jdooley@muskingum.edu

Course Meetings:  MWF: 9:00-09:50  BSC 441

Texts:

• Choosing and Using Statistics: A Biologists Guide. - Dytham - Blackwell Science; ISBN = 978-1-4051-0243-8
• A Short Guide to Writing About Biology - Pechenik - Addison Wesley Longman Inc. ISBN = 978-0321385925
  

• A Primer of Ecological Statistics: Gotelli & Ellison - Sinauer Associates.  (ISBN = 978-0878932696)  (Note This book is not required because we will only use two chapters from this text but it is tough reading and you will be responsible for the material.  I will assume you have access to the book if you choose not to buy it - you may want to share a copy)
• A Beginner's Guide to the Scientific Method: - Carey - Wadsworth. (ISBN = 0978-534584504)  (Again, not required but lecture material will be derived from this text. You will be responsible for the material.  I will assume you have access to the book if you choose not to buy it - you may want to share a copy)

• A Crash Course in SPSS - Corston & Colman - Blackwell Science

Overview: This is the first of three courses you will take in order to complete your senior research requirement for the Conservation Science or Biology degrees.

The first challenge we face is to get everyone moving very quickly on developing a solid research proposal.   In order to facilitate this objective, we will begin the semester with a "fast start" emphasis on proposal development and writing.

A major goal for this semester then is to produce a formal research proposal (12-15 pages) that:

1. Identifies a significant area of scholarly investigation,
2. Motivates an important research question(s) or test hypothesis(es) that would advance scholarship within the issue of interest
3. And outlines a research design (including both data gathering and analysis) that can rigorously address the question(s) at hand.

How to Develop a Research Proposal:

The ability to peruse the literature, synthesize information, and write a research proposal that clearly defines the objectives and goals for a body of research is one of the most important and arguably one of the most challenging aspects to developing a successful research project.

OK so how do we start into this task of developing such a beast?  Let's start with considering what a good proposal has in it  in terms of both structure and content.

A research proposal has three major sections: Introduction, Methods, and Literature Cited.  You should plan that your proposal will be a minimum 12 double space pages in length excluding the literature cited at the end
. 

I. The Introduction section should:

1. Start by explicitly identifying an important scholarly issue or area of research that the project will be addressing (e.g., the impact of habitat fragmentation on migratory songbird communities, conservation medicine in the context of captive management, impacts of habitat alteration and over harvesting on relict plant communities).
2. Overview what is known and unknown about that area of research:
• Broadly outline what is already known about the general subject through reference to scholarly literature.
• Identify areas of uncertainty or open questions within the larger field of inquiry (e.g., does habitat fragmentation impose an important impact on the foraging success of grassland birds species in east-central Ohio?) - again based on careful reference to the scientific literature.
• Through the course of addressing the above, identify what the most important or pressing areas for the next steps in research for that area of scholarship might be.
3. Explicitly identity specific research objectives, questions or project hypotheses that will be addressed or tested through the course of this particular research project.

1. Outline the methods that will be used to gather data (e.g., field or laboratory procedures)
2. Identify what variables will be measured and what comparisons or data summaries will be made.
   
3. Overview the methods that will be used to analyze the data once they are collected (e.g., statistical tests or simulation analyses).
4. Present a timeline that traces the anticipated progression of your project from data collection through submission of your final thesis document.

III. The Literature Cited Section is simply a listing of literature cited in the body of the proposal. All citations should follow the APA (American Psychological Association) standard.
 

How to get started:

Now that we've outline what a proposal is and what sort of form it might take, we need to move next to a consideration of how to get going.  In many ways, taking the first step can seem like one of the hardest parts.   What you have to do to get going is reflect a bit on what parts of conservation science you find particularly interesting.   Here are some practical steps:

1) You might want to start by returning to your major course texts: flip through them and consider what ideas or issues leap out to you as particularly compelling or interesting. Once you find a few general issues you are interested in, you are ready to move on to more primary sources for information: scholarly journals, technical reports, and topical books.

2) Your next step should probably be the campus library.  The good news is that  you can do much of your "searching" from any computer on campus.  Muskingum does not have an extensive collection of scientific journals here on campus (however, there are some important exceptions such as Science, Nature, and the Journal of Wildlife Management) however, it's important to note that  you can obtain hard copies of just about any journal article you might need (and not be able to download through the electronic journal facility) through interlibarary loan.   You will be charged per page for hardcopies, but the price is very reasonable. 

3) You can access the library via the Muskingum Home Page or more directly through (http://muskingum.edu/~library/):

Through the library, there are a number of options for electronic database searches that can be initiated through the Muskingum Library home page.

• You will probably find the "Find an Article" on the left side of the web page link to be particularly helpful.  Once there you will notice a number of important tools:


• The Electronic Journal Center is a large collection of scholarly journals that you can search and download from right from your computer.
  
• The Periodical Search Functions and OhioLink Research Databases will allow are very powerful.  See the library reference staff with any questions about how to proceed.  

• In addition, you may find that the library itself or our other sister libraries in OPAL have books that might prove helpful (whether or not this is true will depend on the nature of your topic - OPAL libraries are all small).

• Proceeding on to the OhioLink Central Catalog will vastly increase the scope (and effectiveness ) of your search.  Remember, you can order any book in the system and it will be delivered right here to Muskingum within a few days

Absence Policy:   Unless you are seriously ill, we will expect you to attend all of class meetings. Unexcused absences or persistent lateness may result in a docking of final grade.
 

Grading: Course grades will be based on the following formula:
 

Participation in Discussions & Quiz Grades	20%
Research Prospectus	5%
1st Oral Report	5%
Introduction Section of Proposal	15%
2nd Oral Report	5%
Final Proposal	30%
Final Exam	20%

A Word About Commitment: This semester you will be developing a research proposal and learning a great deal about experimental design and data analysis.  Those students who plan to go on to actually conduct research (all CVSC 437 students and some Biol 420 students) need to understand that undertaking a research project is a serious commitment.   There are two more graded research courses after this one.  In some cases you may actually need to undertake data gathering at odd times: e.g., during the summer, on weekends, during breaks.  Field projects often have a limited window for gathering data and you'll need to consider whether you can follow through in all ways necessary before deciding what work you want to do.   During key points of the project, your commitment to your research project may need to come before your commitments to work, athletics, and your personal life.  Careful planning is the key to successfully navigating this challenge and we will expect that this sort of planning has taken place. 

If you are a senior taking Biol 420 you will also be expected to fully participate in all Biology Department assessment activities.  Participation in these critically important activities will be reflected in your participation grade.

Timeline: In order to ensure that students make adequate progress towards the timely development of their project proposals we will be enforcing a rather strict timeline. To that end you should expect to hit the ground running.

• 1 February: By this date I will require that you turn in a prospectus for your research (2 pages of text and then list of citations) which will include:

• A title for your proposed research project,
• Identification of the overarching scientific issue your project addresses
  
• A description of what is generally known and unknown about your topic as well what you see as the scholarly significance and potential of the project. In this section you should associate ideas you have gleaned from your reading of journal papers using the APA citation style,
• A bulleted list of assumptions you must make in proposing your research
• A bulleted list of testable questions or potential test questions,
• A list of 20-25 citations germane to your topic.

You do not need to have all the citations in hand by this date, but you should be well on your way to building your reference collectio  Please note, I want 1 document (not a separate document with your literature citations).  

• 20-22 February 12-minute oral progress reports to the class.

•   1 March: This "D-day!!"  The Introduction section to your proposal (at least 8 double spaced pages) including formal citations to at least 40 others sources of scholarly information is due. THIS IS NOT A DRAFT: YOU WILL RECEIVE A GRADE FOR THIS DOCUMENT.  After spring break you will receive the proposal back. Your should plan on addressing our comments, refining your methods based on our discussions of experimental design and turning in revised versions before the final draft is due on 27 April.

• 26, 29 April: - 12 minute presentations on your topic area as well as your proposed questions and methods.  Presentations should include a thorough motivation of the project, review of different methods under consideration and review of options for data analysis. Discussion and feedback follows each presentation 
  

• 1 May: Final proposals due (12 pages of text minimum).   
  

• ?? May (): Final Exam.