How to write a proposal for a neutron scattering experiment at a JCNS instrument at
SNS
Writing proposals is an additional burden imposed by bureaucracy. Neutron scattering
experiments are pretty expensive and so we have to justify where the money goes.
However there are also positive effects of writing a proposal: gathering the information
necessary helps you to define what you expect from the experiment and how to achieve it.
A good planning documented in a well-written proposal will be a helpful guideline during
the execution of your experiment.
The proposal form consists of four pages.
Page 1 includes obvious information such as title, main proposer, co-proposers, requested
local contact, status of the proposal (new, continuation, resubmission, ..), requested
instrument, requested beam time, unacceptable dates, availability of the sample(s).
Page 2 includes technical information, such as sample description, safety aspects,
experimental details and sample environment. If you have doubts on these information,
please do not hesitate to contact the instrument scientist of the requested instrument.
Pages 3 and 4 include the abstract (about 100 words) and the scientific background with
its four parts (Introduction and state of science, previous results, aim of the proposed work
and proposed experiment.
Important information:
- recommended fonts are arial 12pt
- a continuation proposal will only be accepted if experimental reports of previous
experiments have been submitted
- if you do not have your sample ready to be measured shall be specified when it will be
available. If you leave this field open it is assumed that you already have an
experiment-ready sample
- please estimate the activation of your sample after the experiment. A table for this
purpose is included in the 'Neutron Data Book' issued by ILL, Grenoble. If you are in
doubt ask your Instrument Scientist. If you are sure that activation will not take place
you may enter a zero
- the full proposal shall not exceed 4 pages
- the use use of figures is highly recommended, but avoid large graphics files. Please use
figure sizes which allow discrimination of symbols and legibility of labels. (Reducing the
figure size usually does not reduce the file size.)
- the proposal should give the referee a self-contained description of your experiment.
The information given in the proposal should be
• Why is this research interesting?
• What previous work has been done?
• Why is it necessary to use neutron scattering?
• Why is the particular instrument chosen?
• Why is a certain beam time requested? We highly recommend to provide a detailed
estimation of the requested beam time, such as, for example, "5 samples x 5
temperatures x 2h per scan = 50 hours".
- Proposals longer than 4 pages will be automatically rejected.
- Please convert the proposal form .doc file into a pdf file for the submission.