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University students > Dissertation/thesis guidance
Guidance for dissertation/thesis students Collecting data for your dissertation/thesis with Operation Wallacea is an excellent introduction to planning and implementing ecological field research that enables students to collect valuable data in a safe environment. In addition to data collection, students will gain skills in project planning, time management and risk assessments. Undergraduate dissertation/thesis projects require a minimum of 6 weeks on site and post-graduate projects require a minimum of 8 weeks on site. These minimum time requirements include any on-site training such as learning to dive, or forest/reef ecology courses. Over 95% of the dissertation/theses completed by students working with Operation Wallacea are graded within the top two bands (1st or 2:1 in the UK which is equivalent to an A or B in North America), and many students have received awards for their projects or published the results in peer reviewed journals. There are many reasons for this success including the intrinsic interest of Operation Wallacea’s field sites, the inspiration students get from working with enthusiastic scientists in amazing locations, and the facilities put in place to enable high-quality research. The most successful students are those who plan their survey and data gathering thoroughly, which is why we require all dissertation/thesis students to complete a proposal submission and review process prior to the start of the expedition. Project selection Our brochure provides a list of topic areas that are suitable for study at our sites and for which we have academic expertise on site. Please note that these topic areas are NOT potential titles for thesis projects. The topics areas are merely a guide to the sort of research projects that would be feasible at the field site bearing in mind the facilities, academic expertise, time constraints and conservation goals of Operation Wallacea. Once you have an idea of the topic area which interests you the most, you must discuss your proposed research with your University supervisor and gain his/her approval before going ahead with doing your dissertation or thesis.
Creating the project proposal Once you have chosen a thesis topic area and are booked on to the expedition, you will be contacted by the Operation Wallacea dissertation supervisor (Dr Kathy Slater). Just before Christmas, Dr Slater will send you a recommended reading list for your chosen topic area (these reading lists are also available to download from our website) and will put you in touch with the academic who will be supervising the field aspects of your project. When you return to university after the Christmas holidays you must ensure that you have a faculty member at your university that is willing to be your university thesis supervisor. Once you have read through the reading list for your chosen topic area and have decided upon your research hypotheses, you should work with your field supervisor and university supervisor to create a draft project proposal. This draft proposal must be submitted to Dr Slater via email by the end of February. Dr Slater, your field and university supervisors can then review your proposals to ensure that a) the proposed data collection will be feasible at the field site within the time limits and b) that the proposed projects meets your university requirements for a thesis project. Following the review of your draft proposal, you will need to submit a final proposal to Dr Slater by the end of April. If you do not meet these deadlines then Operation Wallacea has the right to refuse you the opportunity to complete a dissertation or thesis on site. Many of our scientists spend the majority of their time in the field and may take some time to respond to your questions. With this in mind, please cc Dr Slater on all your email correspondence with your field supervisor so that she can respond to your queries and ensure that you get all the help you need as quickly as possible. The proposal should contain the following elements: 1. Title –deciding upon the specific title of your project will be easier once you have reviewed a range of relevant literature. 2. Project Rationale - this is in the form of literature review that incorporates information gathered from relevant books and peer reviewed journal articles. The literature should begin by describing and evaluating current knowledge of your chosen topic area. It should then identify gaps in our existing knowledge, which sets you up nicely to introduce your project aims and the justification for your research. 3. Methods – this section must be divided into 4 subsections: subjects and study site, data collection, equipment requirements, and data analysis. The subjects and study site section should provide some basic information about the field site such as the location, size of area, conservation status (i.e. National Park, protected area, private land), vegetation type etc. It should also provide details of your study species, and if your project involves dealing with habituated groups of animals or a human population then you should provide additional details such as the number of individuals and age-sex class. The data collection section must give details of the number of survey sites to be used, how many times each site will be visited, the actual method for obtaining the data (e.g. capture-mark-release, observations or collecting specimens) and any other relevant information relating to data collection (e.g. proposed number of netting/trapping/observation hours, additional data collection such as GPS locations or vegetation assessment, and ethical considerations of the study where relevant). The equipment list should cover all scientific equipment required for data collection and on-site processing. This includes specific computer software such as ArcGIS. Basic equipment such as pens and paper should NOT be included in the list. Please note that listing the equipment needed for the project is extremely important as we need to ensure that you have everything you need in the field and certain items will have to be ordered and brought to the field site from the UK. The data analysis section should describe how you intend to summarize and present your data (e.g. descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviations, how data will be presented graphically and what software packages you will use to create these graphs), which statistical tests you intend to use (e.g. ANOVA, multiple regression, GLMs), which software packages you will use to conduct the tests (e.g. ArcGIS, SPSS, R), and whether these tests will be one or two tailed. We fully appreciate that you will need support from your supervisors to write this section of the proposal, but it is extremely important to determine how you will analyse the data before you start data collection to ensure that the data will be collected in the correct format for the statistical tests you intend to use. 4. Risk assessments – risk assessments for all of our projects are available for download from our website (www.opwall.com). Download the full risk assessment for your chosen expedition and then extract the sections relevant to your project to create your own project-specific risk assessment. 5. References – please provide a full reference list of the articles used in your literature review presented in alphabetical order of authors.
During the expedition When you arrive on site you will be introduced to the senior scientists for the project and your field supervisor. The senior scientist will be an experienced academic who is familiar with all data collection at the field site. A meeting with the senior scientist and your field supervisor will be scheduled during your first week on site to discuss your project and data collection schedule. The senior scientist will ensure that you have everything you need to carry out your data collection and will be available for advice throughout the expedition. Throughout the expedition you will have the change to consult with your field advisor regarding data collection. You will work directly with your field advisor for some of the time, but as with any dissertation project at home or abroad, you will be expected to work independently and take charge of your project. During your last week of the expedition you must ensure that all your data is entered into the central database, write a brief project report and perform some preliminary analysis in order to create a 5-minute presentation for your fellow students and scientist on the expedition. You will work quite closely with the senior scientist during the last week of your expedition to conduct preliminary analyses of your data and to ensure that you have all the data you need for your project (including additional data such as forest structure surveys, GPS points of transect lines etc). ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE ALL RELEVANT DATA FOR YOUR PROJECT BEFORE LEAVING THE FIELD SITE.
After the expedition We recommend that you finish writing up your dissertation thesis as soon as you can. If you leave it for a few months, it is often very difficult to get back into the detail of the project. Once you have returned to your university you will receive full assistance from your university supervisor and therefore should no longer require help from your field supervisor. However, if you have any questions relating to your project then please contact Dr Slater so that she may forward your questions to your field supervisor (in many cases your field supervisors will still be in the field and out of email contact, hence the need to direct your enquiries to Dr Slater). Please bear in mind that it may take some time for Dr Slater to contact your field advisor so there will be some delay before we are able to answer your questions.
Publication You are strongly advised to think about publishing your dissertation, and if you achieve this, it will make you a stronger candidate for jobs, and further education. Click here for list of undergraduate journals that may be suitable. |
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