B.Sc. (Hons.) Radiography
Special Project
A guide for students
Department of Radiography | Faculty of Health Sciences | University of Malta
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Table ofContents
Contents
Purpose of this guide ............................................................................................3
The purpose of the research project .....................................................................3
The research area .................................................................................................4
Ethics and confidentiality ......................................................................................5
Project management ............................................................................................5
Special Project Supervision ...................................................................................5
Special project schedule .......................................................................................6
Writing the research project .................................................................................7
Abstract ............................................................................................................7
Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................7
Chapter 2: Literature review ............................................................................7
Chapter 3: Research Design / Methodology ......................................................8
Chapter 4: Presentation, analysis and discussion of results ..............................8
Chapter 5 - Conclusions and recommendations ................................................8
Academic style, referencing, presentation and creativity ..................................8
References ........................................................................................................9
Appendices .......................................................................................................9
Important Information and Tips ..........................................................................10
Word count ....................................................................................................10
Plagiarism .......................................................................................................10
Turnitin ...........................................................................................................11
Bibliographic management software ..............................................................11
APA referencing style ......................................................................................12
Special Project Checklist .....................................................................................15
Special Project – Final Submission ......................................................................16
Submission for marking ..................................................................................16
Submission to Health Sciences Library (UOM – MDH) .....................................17
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SPECIAL PROJECT GUIDE
Purpose of this guide
This guide aims to helpstudents through their specialproject. It is inevitable that
it will not answer all students’ questions. It is for this reason that students are
assigned a supervisory team for further advice and guidance. Given that this guide
will surely not cover all aspects of the research process in much detail, it is
recommended that students pursue additional reading.
Students are encouraged to take time to read this guide before they start their
special project. This guide should provide an indicationof what is expected, and help
ensure that students do not waste valuable timeas they were unaware of some
aspects that needed to be covered. The guide should also help students prepare
theirspecial projectmore effectively, in terms of planning the approach and
managing time. Any issues that students are unsure about should be clarified with
the assigned supervisory team at an early stage, before they become problematic.
The purpose of the research project
The research project(study unit code RAD4200) forms an essential component of
your degree. It provides a way for studentsto demonstrate theirability to present
and analyse problems and to evaluate and analyse findings through research In this
regard, the aims of thespecial project are to allow students to: • Define their chosen area of investigation;
• Develop relevant research aims, objectives, questions and/or hypothesis (as
applicable);
• Review the relevant literature;
• Collect and analyse data;
• Integrate the empirical data into the wider context of the subject;
• Draw conclusions/recommendations from the study
The learning outcomes for the specialproject state that on successful completion,
students would be able to:
• Develop and structure arguments supported by evidence or citation;
• Apply an appropriate, logical and reproducible study design;
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• Integrate results into a broader literature or theoretical, technical or
professional framework;
• Apply the research process to current practice within Radiography and
develop greater professional autonomy
Furthermore, by the end of the special project, the students should gain the
following skills and be able to:
• Analyse, critically reflect and evaluate published literature in an appropriate
and thorough manner;
• Examine various methodological approaches and apply the appropriate
design and methodology to the area under study;
• Write a special project that displays evidence of research skills;
• Work independently through the research process to produce a special
project;
• Develop a body of knowledge from which evidence based practice may
evolve
It is important that students understand these outcomes, as they will be
expected to show that such learning outcomes and skills have been achieved
through the process of completing the special project.
The research area
The chosen subject area must be of relevance to the radiography profession.
Your work must not have been researched before locally. Studentsmay re-examine a
previously locally researched area as long as what the students’ intend to do in that
area differs from that of the original work. The responsibility is on the student to
demonstrate the originality / relevance of the study. Students are encouraged to
discussthe subject area with theassigned supervisory team who may be aware of
other works in the intended area of study.
Students are advised to choose something that they find interesting. They should
then focus on a particular problem/question which the proposed research will
attempt to address. Work which is totally descriptive should be avoided. When
formulating ideas about a proposed research area, it is essential to undertake some
preliminary reading around the subject. This will help students refine their ideas and
may lead them to reassess the viability or originality of the intended work. Students
must carefully consider the availability of, and likely access to, personnel and other
resources.
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Ethics and confidentiality
It is imperative that students consider any ethical implications that the proposed
research might have, and should seek advice from the supervisory team early where
there is any degree of uncertainty. Students will not be allowed to do anything
considered unethical. Ethical approval can take a considerable amount of time so it
is important to plan well ahead. Students mustconsider questions of confidentiality
and the implications of any legislation governing the use of personal data, especially
in respect of its storage and manipulation on computers.Studentsshould be aware
that, depending on their type of study, they may need to seek and obtain several
permissions from relevant authorities prior to seeking ethical approval.
More information concerning the procedure to be followed when applying for
ethical approval from the FREC and UREC may be found on the University of Malta
website:
FREC:
UREC:
http://www.um.edu.mt/healthsciences/resources
http://www.um.edu.mt/urec/gpropform
Project management
It is good practice that students set and try to adhere to deadlines, for their own
good as well as for the benefit of those involved in the research. Students should
acknowledge that data collection can take longer than anticipated, and therefore
they should allocate adequate time to ensure that this is carried out within a
reasonable timeframe. Students are encouraged to start as early as possible, in
order to help avoid being under unreasonable pressure to finalise the data analysis
and write up of the dissertation. Students should also give due consideration to the
cost implications of the study.
Special Project Supervision
A supervisory team will be appointed by the Board of Studies (BoS) of the
Department of Radiography to provide guidance and advice to students on work
leading to the writing of a special project. Such guidance shall be provided during the
origination, planning, execution and bringing to completion and the writing of the
special project.
One of the members of the supervisory team will have the role of the primary
supervisor. The primary supervisoris responsible to organise and schedule a
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minimum of three (3) supervisory meetings with the student. Minutes of these
meetings are to bekeptso as to have a written recordof the student’s research plan,
progress and recommendations made. It is suggested that the meetings are
scheduled as follows:
i. Prior to submission for ethical approval
o The supervisory team will evaluate and provide feedback on the proposed
ethics proposal form
ii. Prior to any data collection
o The supervisory team willevaluate and provide feedback about the
methodology and tools for data collection
iii. Prior to submission to the Board of Examiners (BoE)
o The supervisory team will evaluate and provide feedback of the final draft
of written project
Special project schedule
The Board of Studies has agreed on a time schedule of when students should
submit their special project proposal, as well as how they should progress
throughout the final year of study. The agreed dates are as follows:
Event
Undergraduate
Group 11
Undergraduate
Group 22
Formal presentation of
research proposal
November, Yr 3
April, Yr 3
December, Yr 3
May, Yr 3
1st meeting beforesubmissionto
University Research Ethics Committee
End January, Yr 3
End June, Yr 3
2nd meeting
October, Yr 4
October, Yr 4
3rd meeting
April, Yr 4
April, Yr 4
Submission
May, Yr 4
May, Yr 4
Acceptance of research proposal &
appointment of primary supervisor
and thesupervisory team
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Group 1 refers to those students who are in Malta during the first semester (Sept to Jan)
Group 2 refers to those students who are in Malta during the second semester (Feb to Aug)
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Writing the research project
Abstract
Word count 300, mark 5%
The abstract should be concise and clear. The word count should not exceed 300
words and should be presented on a single page with single line spacing.
The abstract should be structured as follows:
• Purpose
• Objectives or Research Questions
• Methodology
• Results
• Conclusions
Chapter 1: Introduction
Word count 800, mark 10%
The introduction should introduce the reader to the area of study. It should state
the problem being investigated. The research aims, questions, objectives, hypothesis
(as applicable) should be made explicit. The student should outline the overall
structure of the special project and set the limits of the study. The background to the
research should include references from the literature which would substantiate the
problem statement and a description of the context in which the study is to take
place if relevant.
Chapter 2: Literature review
Word count 3500, mark 30%
A literature review should identify literature relevant to the research and discuss
the debates in terms of perspective, approach and interpretation. The literature
review should demonstrate that the student has discovered, reported and critically
evaluated what was found to be relevant in the literature. It should provide details
of the resources, search strategies and key words used. The relevance of the
literature and any inadequacies/deficiencies/gapsfound should be highlighted and
discussed. Indeed, this chapter should not just include a description of the literature,
but it should also include critical appraisal of the works of others (i.e. comments on
the strengths and weaknesses of the research studies found).
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Chapter 3: Research Design / Methodology
Word count 2000, mark 20 %
When discussing the research design / methodology, the student should answer
the following questions:
• How was the study undertaken and why was it done in that way?
• Could it have been done in any other way and why was this method
chosen?
• What weaknesses / problems were there with the methods?
The student should address the issues of reliability, validity and
representativeness. Any flaws, weaknesses or other difficulties with the methods
should be identified and discussed. Whenever possible, the student should provide
details of anything that was done to minimise potential weaknesses/bias. The
chapter should defend the choice of research design/methodology, and should
provide relevant detail about the research approach, research strategy, research
design, target population, sampling, data collection technique, research
tool/instrument, and data analysis (as applicable to each study). Furthermore, the
chapter should discuss ethical considerations.
Chapter 4: Presentation, analysis and discussion of results
Word count 3000, mark 25%
This section should present the data and a critical analysis / discussion of the
data leading to conclusions. Presentation and analysis of the data may take different
forms. The discussion of the data and conclusions from the data should be
supported.
Most studies are likely to have a large amount of data which has to be
considered. This must be organised and presented in a logical and structured
manner. It is important that students present those findings that are relevant to
their research aims/questions and not include all that was found out.
Chapter 5 - Conclusions and recommendations
Word count 700, mark 5 %
In this chapter the student should summarise conclusions and make
recommendations from the study.An indication of the total word count should be
included on the last page.
Academic style, referencing, presentation and creativity
Mark 5%
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References
All references used must appear both in the text and in the reference list, and
should be presented according to the APA 6th editionsystem of referencing.
Students are responsible for the accuracy of references used andmay make use
of bibliographic management software to organise their references.
Appendices
The appendices compliment the student’s work on the subject area and should
be in the order that they are referred to in the text.
Students should be aware that appendices do not carry any marks, and therefore
should be attentive as to what to put in an appendix.
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Important Information and Tips
Word count
The special project should have a word count of 10,000 words.
This word count is to be calculated from the start of chapter 1 till the end of
chapter 5. In this regard, an indication of the total word count should be included on
the last page of chapter 5. Any diagrams, illustrations, tables or charts are
considered to have the same word count as the page space they occupy (1 page is
equivalent to approximately 200 words).
Students should note that the Board of Examiners may take the final word count
into consideration when deliberating the mark to be awarded.
Plagiarism
In any thesis, dissertation, report or project, unacknowledged copying or
plagiarism is not acceptable. All sources utilised in the course of your study must be
acknowledged. Students are advised to refer to university policy on the subject.
Plagiarism means using the work of others in preparing an assignment and
presenting it as your own without explicitly acknowledging, or referencing, where it
came from. Plagiarism can also mean not acknowledging the full extent of
indebtedness to a source. Work can be plagiarised from many sources including
books, articles, the internet, and other students’ assignments. Plagiarism can also
occur unconsciously or inadvertently. Direct copying is definitely plagiarism.
Paraphrasing of another work without attribution is also plagiarism. Submitting
someone else’s work or ideas without acknowledgement or attribution is not
evidence of the student’s own grasp of the material and cannot earn the student any
marks. Further information may be found from:
UoM Plagiarism
Guidelineshttp://www.um.edu.mt/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/95571/University
-Guidelines-on-Plagiarism.pdf
How to avoid
plagiarismhttp://www.um.edu.mt/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/95568/how-toavoid-plagiarism.pdf
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Turnitin
Turnitin is a web-based originality checking service that is used by many
universities worldwide. When a student’s work is submitted to Turnitin it is matched
against millions of internet pages, electronic journals, books, and a database of all
previously and concurrently submitted assignments. Turnitin then generates an
originality report providing a summary of matching or similar text found in the
submitted paper. Turnitin can be used to check sources have been correctly
acknowledged and cited. The student should ensure that, irrespective of the results
of the Turnitin originality report, all copyright requirements as well as the
University’s standard on avoiding plagiarism are met.
Additional information on Turnitin is available from:
• UoM student user guide: http://www.um.edu.mt/vle/pds/students/pdstraining
• Turnitin website http://www.turnitin.com
Bibliographic management software
Students are encouraged to become familiar and make use of bibliographic
management software, such as Refworks. The use of such software will help in the
organisation of references and allows for bibliographies to be easily presented in any
of the major referencing styles, saving a lot of valuable time for the student.
Refworks is available for University of Malta registered users, and allows users to
create a database of references by importing citations for books, articles from online
databases (such as CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PsycInfo, and others) and the Library’s
Online Catalogue. The references can then be used for creating bibliographies for
special projects, dissertations, long essays, papers and assignments. The University
of Malta Library occasionally organises familiarisation courses in Refworks. Further
information may be found from
• Refworks (UOM) http://www.um.edu.mt/library/researchtools/bms
Other bibliographic management software also exist. These include:
• EndNote - http://endnote.com/
• Zotero - www.zotero.org
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APA referencing style
Despite the availability of bibliographic management software, students should
ensure that they are familiar with the APA 6th edition referencing style as they are
still ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the references used.
For this reason, examples of this style of referencing, as adapted from the Study
and Learning Centre at RMIT University3, are being provided in the sections below: Referencing within the text
When citing within the text, the following reference details need to be included: o the authors/s’ surname/s
o the year of publication
o the page number (direct quotes only)
Commas are used to separate information within parentheses (), e.g. author's
name and date of publication. Full stops are always used after the abbreviation p for
page number or pp for page numbers, e.g. p. 34 or pp. 34-35. If the citation is at the
end of the sentence, it is considered to be part of the sentence, so the full stop is
placed after the closing parenthesis.
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https://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/1_studyskills/study_tuts/apa_ll/reference_list.html
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Reference list
All references used need to listed in alphabetical order att the end of the special
project.. The way the reference is listed will depend on the type of reference it is.
Here are a few examples: Book, print version
E-books
Journal article (print) without DOI
E-journal with DOI
E-journal without DOI
Websites
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The APA also have their own website, www.apastyle.org, which provides useful
resources, tutorials and tips that students may use to become familiar with the
referencing style.The following table may also be used as a guide to reference within
text.
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Special Project Checklist
Before submitting you work, ensure that you have the following in order:
□Title page
The title of the dissertation, as submitted when seeking approval from the
University Research Ethics Committee
Students are to inform the Head of the Radiography Department if the title of the
dissertation changed during the course of study
□Declaration
It is here that the student declares that the special project is his or her own work
□Abstract
Structured, in no more than 300 words and presented with single line spacing on
a single page
□Acknowledgements
It is here that the student acknowledges any assistance, support, ideas or cooperation, which they may have received in the course of their work.
□Table of contents
The table of contents should give chapter headings and sub-headings with page
numbers. Separate listings should be given for lists of figures and tables.
□List of tables
□List of figures
□Abbreviations and Acronyms
Definitions of any abbreviations or acronyms used throughout the dissertation,
listed in alphabetical order
□Definition of concepts
Definitions of key words and concepts being used throughout the dissertation,
listed in alphabetical order.
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□Chapter 1
-
Introduction to the study
□ Chapter 2 -
Literature review
□Chapter 3
-
Research Design / Methodology
□Chapter 4
-
Presentation, analysis and discussion of results
□Chapter 5
-
Conclusions and recommendations
□Reference List
□Appendices
Special Project – Final Submission
Submission for marking
Three (3) spiral bound copies and one (1) electronic copy should be presented on
the submission date.
• The work shall be in A4 format
• The size of the character used in the main text shall be font size 12 and the font
Times New Roman or Courier as required by FHS guidelines.
• The margin of the left hand edge of the page shall not be less than 40mm, other
margins not less than 14mm
• Double spacing shall be used in the script except for indented quotations or
footnotes where single spacing may be used.
• Pages shall be numbered consecutively
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Submission to Health Sciences Library (UOM – MDH)
After picking up the marked spiral bound copies read through any comments or
suggestions written and make any necessary corrections/changes.
• Two (2) hardbound copies must be submitted to the Head of the Department of
Radiography prior to graduation (generally before November).
• The outer cover of the work shall be black.
• The outside front board should bear the title of the work in gold lettering (upper
middle section)
• The name and surname of the candidate, the qualification and year of
submission should also be shown on the front cover (bottom right hand corner).
Title of Special Project
Name Surname
B.Sc. (Hons) Radiography
May 2014
• The spine of the work should contain the following lettering in gold, from top to
bottom: candidate’s surname preceded by initial/s, degree details [B.Sc.
Radiography] and year of qualification
A. Surname
B.Sc. (Hons) Radiography
2014
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Department of Radiography
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Malta
October 2013
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