SSC Psychiatry Research with
Neuroscience
2012/13 academic year
Phase 4 Block 1 Module 1
Dr Siobhan Lynch
Room 2.16, 2nd Floor,
Department of Psychological Medicine
Institute of Psychiatry
King's College London
Weston Education Centre (WEC)
Cutcombe Road London
SE5 9RG, UK
Email:sscpsychresearch@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7848 5807
Mobile: 0753 085 4993
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Welcome
Welcome to the SSC Psychiatry Research with Neuroscience. We hope you will enjoy the
module and want to help you get the most out of it. To this end we would like to encourage
you to keep an open dialogue with the course tutor (Siobhan Lynch) about your experience of
the course and anything you would like more support with. We really listen to student
feedback and don’t want to wait until the end of the module to hear what you think.
The module enables students:
1) To further understanding and knowledge of the issues pertinent to psychiatry research
2) To broaden skill-base relevant to research, including conducting literature searchers and
writing systematic literature review
3) To participate in the preparation of academic papers for presentation/publication
The learning outcomes are:
1) To understand the issues relevant to psychiatry research
2) To be able to use referencing software and retrieve published data from various sources
3) To gain experience of conducting a review of the literature in one area of particular interest
4) To be able to prepare the literature review for a presentation at the end of the SSC
Publications
One of the main aims of the SSC is to help students to publish their literature review in a peer
reviewed journal. Successfully publishing your work as a medical student gives you massive
brownie points on your CV. When you apply for your Foundation Year posts there are specific
points awarded for published work. If you are thinking about applying for a Foundation Year
Academic post or an Academic Clinical Fellow post when you qualify, having a publication
and is pretty much essential in order to acquire one of these posts. We will offer help and
guidance with preparing your manuscript as well as advise you about suitable journals to
submit to.
Students should be aware that it is very unusual to get a paper into good enough shape to be
submitted during the SSC and most students have had to put in some extra work both
during and after the SSC. The students who postpone writing up their work are likely to find
it harder to complete their submission. It is realistic to achieve a successful publication within
6 months of finishing the SSC. In our experience, students that leave it longer than this are
unlikely to be successful in getting their work published.
This is a challenging module but we want to help you come out with a piece of work you can
be proud of.
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Module structure
The module has two core components, the seminars which run for the first 6 weeks and the
ongoing preparation of your review.
Seminars
We have organised a series of seminars facilitated by senior academics from the Institute of
Psychiatry. The reading will be provided ahead of each seminar and it is absolutely essential
for the seminar’s success that you read the papers. Seminar attendance is compulsory and
we will keep a register of attendance. Your absence will be excused only in exceptional
personal circumstances. If you are unable to attend you need to inform SSC tutor before the
seminar either via email or a call/text to her mobile (see contact details above). Your
attendance and the contribution to the seminars will be taken into account when evaluating
your overall performance on the SSC.
Research projects
The project booklet will be made available to you prior to the commencement of the SSC.
Please note that if you have a particular research interest we will do our best to accommodate
you. The sooner you contact the SSC tutor about this the more likely it is we will be able to
find you a suitable supervisor. On the induction day we will hold an informal meeting between
students and supervisors over lunch. You will be asked to indicate your three project
preferences after the meeting. If there is more than one student interested in the same project
these projects will be allocated randomly. The project allocation will be completed by the 21st
of September. The course tutor, Siobhan Lynch, will be available to address any academic
and logistical issues related to the projects, and to meet with you regularly to answer
questions and guide you in developing your reviews.
Schedule (please see timetable full details)
The induction will be on the 14th of September. Seminars will run from the 21st of September
until the 19th of October. The remaining period will be self-directed study. During this time, you
are expected to keep in regular contact with the SSC tutor and your project supervisors. This
will involve both email and face to face meetings. You will need to submit your review on the
7th of December (5pm) by uploading it to the virtual campus and sending an electronic copy to
the SSC tutor and your project supervisor.
A word on time management - past students have flagged up that they wished they had
gotten started on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of their review much earlier. During the first 6 weeks,
when you are reading a couple of articles and attending the seminars, you might feel as
though everything is on track. However, if you want to avoid stress in the second six weeks it
is important that you meet with your supervisor and start your search and write up ASAP.
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Deadlines

2nd November – submit a draft of your review (via email to SSC tutor & your
supervisor). This does not need to be perfect and will not be marked directly,
however it is considered part of your participation in the module. However, we expect
that it will include at least a skeleton introduction and method section and an
indication of your results. In terms of words aim for 800-1000 words. Past students
have said that this really helped them stay on track and that the early feedback was
useful for them.

30th November (lunch time) - Oral presentations. It is important that you plan to stay
for the entire session to support your peers.

7th December – Submit your review (upload to virtual campus, send a copy to the
SSC tutor & you supervisor). If you have any mitigating circumstances, such as
serious illness or family issues it is vital that you get in touch with the registry as soon
as possible. It may be possible to arrange an extension for you, but this is only
possible in serious cases.
Course assessment
The SSC will be assessed with the following:

Seminar participation (10%)

Oral presentation of the systematic literature review (20%)

Systematic literature review (70%)
Seminar participation
The seminar participation will be assessed by the student’s contribution to the discussion of
the papers and engagement with the seminar leaders. This assessment criterion is not
designed to penalise the student, but rather serves the purpose for boosting the overall mark.
Oral Presentation
The presentations will be evaluated by the project supervisor (where possible) and 2 other
academic staff. The presentations will be 10 min long with 5 min for questions and answers.
In line with KCL’s green policy, we ask you not to provide the handouts of your presentations.
A good tip is to plan to have one slide for every minute you are speaking. The assessment
criteria will cover different aspects of the presentation including:

the clarity and the content of the oral delivery

the clarity and the content of the slides

the overall presenting skill of the student
Format and word length of the literature review
All coursework should be submitted electronically via the virtual campus and emailed to SSC
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tutor on sscpsychresearch@kcl.ac.uk by the 7th of December 2012.
Course work should be presented in the following way:

Student name on each page

Typed on A4 white paper with at least 1.5 line spacing

Font size 12

Page number of each page

Harvard style referencing

3500 words +/- 10%
All course work should include a cover sheet with the following information:

Title

Names of the student and the supervisor(s)

Year of study

Abstract

Word count
Assessment Criteria
The tables below show the generic assessment criteria against which all assessed work will
be marked. Examinations and other forms of assessment are marked numerically as a
percentage and capped at 85%. The following scheme shows the general criteria used to
assess the quality of the work.
Overall
Equivalent (%)
Description
A
70-85%
Well-written, logical, organised and accurate answer, covering all the major aspects
of the topic. Evidence of independent study and critical evaluation demonstrated by
selection and presentation of material. High standard of presentation and analysis.
B
60-69%
Well-written, logical, organised and accurate answer covering most of the major
aspects of the topic. Some evidence of independent study. Demonstrates a clear
and accurate understanding. High standard of presentation and analysis.
C
50-59%
Accurate answer covering most of the major aspects of the topic, but with little
evidence of independent study or critical evaluation. Acceptable standard of
presentation and analysis.
D
40-49
Fail
<40
An adequate essay, with skeletal coverage of basic material, showing basic
understanding, but superficial and of low quality in a number or areas.
An essay that is unsystematic, incomplete or inaccurate. Key issues not identified,
use of inappropriate material and/or disorganised.
Marking
All examined work for all programmes is marked by two internal examiners. Before any marks
are provisionally awarded, the essay or report (or other assessed item) is judged against a set
of criteria to decide the appropriate grade.
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Feedback
Feedback will be provided for both oral presentations and the literature review at the end of
the module. For any questions about feedback and if any additional feedback is required, you
are encouraged to contact the course tutor Siobhan Lynch.
Referencing
www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c4/43/02/citing.pdf
College Policies
www.kcl.ac.uk/college/policyzone
Equality & Diversity
www.kcl.ac.uk/equal_opps
Health and Safety
www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/departments/?locator=409
College regulations
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/about/governance/regulations/students.html
Photocopying & printing
Access to a photocopier is available on the 3rd floor of the Weston Education Centre; the code
for the photocopier is 2236. You will be given £5 worth of printing credit at the start of the
module.
IoP events
You can find out about the events at the IoP by going to: www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/events
There you will find a broad range of seminar topics covering different aspects of psychiatry
research, including basic and cognitive neuroscience, affective neuroscience, genetics,
epidemiology, psychotherapy and others. There are also events such as Journal Club, which
are very useful for developing an ability to critically evaluate published research.
Also of interest are Maudsley Grand Rounds to which treating teams within the trust bring
particularly difficult or controversial patient cases to be discussed by the broader academic
community. Perhaps the most popular event is the Maudsley debate, which usually
commands big crowds, including the IoP and SLAM staff, as well as patients and their
caregivers.
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