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Research Zernike (ZIAM) Education Top Master Program in Nanoscience

Review paper

Introduction

In the second semester of the first year, each student will write a review paper on a scientific topic.

All learning objectives, teachers, assesments and the time schedule can be found on Ocasys, all additional information can be found on this page.


Subject of the paper

Nanoscience is a rapidly evolving field, often involving alternative or even controversial approaches, with many side branches. Not all of these can be addressed within the limited time for courses, nor have they converged to a state that is ready for a standard course. The present task allows the student to perform an in-depth, critical study of such a topic within nanoscience.

In order that the student gets a broad view of Nanoscience, the subject and the supervisor of the paper cannot be the same as the Small research project nor the Master thesis project.

The topic of the paper is chosen by the student and needs approval of his/her mentor. In case the student cannot come up with his/her own suggestion, the mentor will decide on the topic. In any case, the course coordinator is to be informed about subject and supervisor. (See guidelines for declaring study-program choices).


Supervision and assessment

The students are free to ask any staff member of the Zernike Institute for the supervision during the preparation and writing of the paper. It is best to have a good match between the topic of the paper and the expertise of the supervisor. To initiate the search for a supervisor, the students are asked to discuss this with their mentor. If the student does not bring forward a preference to write the paper on a certain topic, it is adviced that the mentor becomes the supervisor.

NOTE: you must select (=discuss while asking) a supervisor that is frequently available for feedback in February and March.

The supervisor and the course coordinator jointly determine the mark obtained for the paper using this assesment form.


Guidelines for the layout

The paper should not exceed approximately 20 pages A4 (of ~500 words), including figures and references.

It must include:

  • a title page, with name student, title paper, name supervisor and name course coordinator;
  • an abstract;
  • a list of contents;
  • an introduction explaining why this topic has been selected and how it fits in the broad scope of nanoscience;
  • conclusions that not only summarize the findings but also clarify one's own contributions;
  • a complete list of references.

Finally, it is important to also be critical about one's own paper!

The main body of the text will depend on the type of paper, but must be structured by means of sections and subsections. When needed, Appendices with auxiliary information may be added after the References.


Time schedule

General time-schedule:

  • Kick-off meeting; First week of IIA (Onck).
  • Lectures and tutorials about academic writing and literature search (Chiechi and Soni)
  • Lectures about Ethics (Scientific Integrity) (Banerjee);
1. Selection of subject and supervisor (NOTE: select a supervisor that is frequently available for the feedback in February and March).
2. Better defining the topic (Literature study and exploratory discussions with supervisor);
3. Participate in the lectures and workshops on searching and reading literature, scientific writing and scientific integrity and ethics.
4. Writing of a first complete draft; Submitting draft to supervisor, course coordinator and to the peer reviewer (fellow student)
5. Perform peer review on assigned paper and communicate to the author
6. Incorporate proposed revisions by supervisor and peer reviewer
7. Send final version for grading to supervisor and coordinator
8. Supervisor sends proposed grade to course coordinator;
9. Evaluation of all papers by the coordinator and final grading.
10. Finally, once the student has received a pass-grade, the paper has to be uploaded to the repository.

Consult the schedule for the meetings.
The dates for the different steps will be announced by the course-coordinator.


Archive

Here you can find the archive of the research papers written by former Nanoscience Top Master students from cohort 2003-2005 until cohort 2015-2017.

From cohort 2016-2018 you have to go to the university repository and to search for: Research paper (Thesis type) and Nanoscience (Degree programme).

Current students are obliged to upload their review paper to the repository. More information can be found on the student portal of the Master Nanoscience.


Last modified:04 October 2023 4.45 p.m.