GUIDELINES – QUICK REFERENCE
Ecology and Evolution Basic Lab Report Guidelines
Your Lab report assignment should contain the elements of
all scientific publications. I briefly
describe the essentials of a good lab report (scientific publication) (also provided in Methods in Ecology Lab). Please
review and make sure your paper follows these basic formatting guidelines!
Lab reports should at least contain the following:
Basic rules of science writing:
· Dates are reported as follows: 8 February 2009 (day comes before month).
· All science is metric. Everything should be reported in the metric measure.
State the nature of the problem to be addressed. Draw on the information that we discuss in the lab set-up and any handouts I may have given you. But you may need to seek out additional information (any textbook would be a good resource, including ours).
The introduction should end with a clearly stated objective(s).
Detail the procedure that you used. Always keep in mind that other researchers need to be able to duplicate your methods, therefore they should be detailed. Use only metric measurements.
Clearly state the facts found. Results should be stated in written form and using tables, charts and figures to visually represent the data. Refer to your lab book section on the appropriate way to refer to the table, charts and figures in the text.
This is the section of the paper where you critically evaluate and discuss the results you obtained. You will need to include citations to help describe your findings.
Literature Cited - At least 8 (minimum) references from peer-reviewed literature, books or textbooks. Be very careful with internet/web citations. Only peer-reviewed web information may be cited. If you are unsure, check with me first.
EXAMPLES
Bickham, J.W. 1983. Conservation
and human values. Pp. 96-106, In C.M.
Brown-Cox, S.M. Chambers, B. MacBryde, and W.L.
Thomas (Eds.). Conservation for the Twenty-first
Century. Vol. 1. Benjamin
Publ.,
Brodie, E.D., Jr., and E.D. Brodie, III. 1980. Differential avoidance of mimetic
salamanders by free-ranging birds: The effect of temperature. Science
208:181-182.
Conard, H.S., Jr.,
and P.J. Redfearn. 1979. How to Know the Mosses. Wm. C. Brown,
Smith,
J.B. 1941. The Spruce-fir Forests of
The following are basic rules for tables and
figures:
§
Basic rules:
o
No vertical lines in tables.
o
No color in tables or figures.
o
Make sure the axes are labeled correctly and
clearly.
o
Table title goes above table; figure title
goes below figure.