Key Pointers
- Follow word for word the Departmental Long Essay Instructions
- Read, consult and eventually cite reliable Papers/Book chapters. Where do you find reliable sources?
- PubMed (listing all peer-review papers in the universe)
- Google Scholar (papers + books, some of which might not be peer-reviewed)
- University of Malta HyDi (search & access to papers that are free to members/students of the University of Malta)
- What if you cannot get access to an extremely important article? Try good old Google or progressive Bing - it might be free somewhere out there! Still unlucky? Try to contact the author to forward you a PDF version of the article.
- In researching your topic, you will come across 2 types of Journal Articles (or Papers):
- Original Contribution: This type of paper is usually divided into (1) Introduction, (2) Methods & Materials, (3) Results, (4) Discussion, and (5) References (though sequence might vary). Original contributions report original research findings. Example: Cacciottolo et al. Sci Rep 2019
- Review: A review paper has a flow similar to a chapter in a medical textbook. It is a review of the significant contributions so far on a particular research topic. Titles of divisions are author-defined and a reference section is usually present at the end of the paper. Example: Lanfranco et al. Front Mol Biosci 2017
- You’re advised to reference or cite both original contributions and review. However, you’re essentially writing a scientific mini-review article, hence, take note of tips for writing a scientific review article.
- So your experiments are done, you write a nice paper and have reached a wonderful conclusion ... What happens next? The life of a Scientific (Nature) Paper: from submission to peer-review to publication ... and it’s a hard life!!
- How do you Read and Understand a Scientific Paper? A Step-by-Step Guide for Non-Scientists
- Having difficulty in compiling your references? Welcome to Automatic Reference Generator!
- Be aware of plagiarism (copying someone else’s words or ideas and presenting them as your own)!!! Do not copy and paste information!! Always use your own words and cite papers from where you get the information to build your arguments. If you plagiarise, you will be detected because every essay is analysed by a plagiarism detection software!!
- Be as creative as you wish! However, do adhere to the essay regulations! Consulting past essays by students tutored by Prof. Cauchi might also be helpful.
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Dept. of Physiology & Biochemistry
Faculty of Medicine & Surgery
Centre for Molecular Medicine & Biobanking
U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A L T A
Dept. of Physiology & Biochemistry
Faculty of Medicine & Surgery
Centre for Molecular Medicine & Biobanking
U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A L T A
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