General: A laboratory report should be written as if you were writing a real scientific paper. Therefore, it may be very convenient for you to have a real scientific paper beside you as you write. In this way, you can see how figures and tables are formatted, and have a concrete example (hopefully) of solid scientific writing.

In this course, and others in the Biology Department, we adopt the style of the National Research Council Press; this is Canada's official agency for the publication of scientific and engineering research. The NRC Press publishes 16 journals, the most pertinent to this course is The Canadian Journal of Zoology. Although this is journal reflects the typical format that we use in our Biology Department, individual courses vary.

Look specifically at the Canadian Journal of Zoology's Parts of the Manuscript.

Page limits:

• Double-space your report, except for the Literature Cited (though put a space between entries), and table/figure captions. These should be single-spaced.

• When writing about what you did, or what others found, use the past tense. When writing about your predictions, write in the future tense.

• Always write the report as if you were an unbiased third party – in other words, don’t say "We measured haemolysis with a spectrophotometer" but say, "A spectrophotometer was used to measure haemolysis." There is a trend away from doing this, so some of the literature you will read is written in the first person; we will not adopt that in this course, though some other courses in this department allow for it.

• Don't indent paragraphs.

• Number the pages (by hand is ok, MS doesn't do pagination well in my opinion). Justify the text to the left.

• Do NOT start each section on a new page - conserve paper! However, don't leave a title to a new section hanging at the bottom of a page (a "widow").

• Multi-faceted reports - be sure to mention each facet in each section, preferably in the same order. Headings are very useful to subdivide sections.

SECTIONS of the REPORT - the full version of the instructions are at the NRC site.

TITLE and AUTHORSHIP

• Written reports should start with a title and the authorship (student name, student ID, date, and course name and number). Do not use a separate title page, this wastes paper. The title should convey the theme of the report in only a few words or phrases; the title does not have to be a sentence.

ABSTRACT

• The Abstract starts with a very brief outline (one or two sentences) of the experiment which include what phenomenon is being studied; what animal is involved; the scope of the experiment; and the primary method, when suitable (if it's special or unique. Most of the remainder of the abstract is a concise interpretation of the results. One sentence usually expresses one conclusion nicely (e.g. "The plasma glucose concentration declined by 20% and 40% in the rats receiving, respectively, the low and high doses of porcine insulin, indicating a dose-dependency of the hypoglycaemic response to the hormone"). Note that you do not quote your statistics in this section. The abstract usually ends with one overall summary statement.

Except in rare circumstances, there are no citations to the literature nor references to figures. Do not include statistics (e.g. standard error) in this section.

INTRODUCTION

• The Introduction starts with a synopsis of what is already known on the topic. What have other researchers found on this topic? Many of your references should be cited in this section. Outline the previous research of others in the context of what you want to accomplish in your experiment. The introduction always ends with a statement or two that outlines the goals of this experiment in light of what you just described. In other words, you could start these final sentences with, "Having said all that, what this experiment is designed to show is…" (but don't use that wording, it sounds a bit odd in a formal paper).

  
  Never refer to your experiment's results in this section.

   

  Materials and Methods
   

You must name the species used, sexes, ages (or age categories, e.g. adult, newborn).

Typically, an author doesn't describe absolutely everything s/he did or how it was done. There are two reasons why you wouldn't do this.

• If the methods/materials are outlined in another publication, authors briefly describe, what they did and refer the reader to the source where details can be found (a lab manual or a journal article, for instance). Include the number of animals or subjects. In a lab report, students should cite the lab manual, noting any corrections or deviations from that published source. Any citation of other works must appear in the Literature Cited section (see below).
   
• Secondly, if the method is very routinely done (taking temperature, weighing an animal, measuring a volume of liquid) then you don't have to detail the method, nor mention the thermometer, balance or graduated cylinder (unless there is something unique about them).

The Materials and Methods also includes how you performed calculations and the way you did the statistics (which tests, which software). No sample is necessary unless you're doing something very odd - which likely won't happen in your coursework.

Omitting data: If you did not use all the data provided, why not? You cannot arbitrarily choose to omit data, though if a point is clearly an outlier, it can be omitted.

RESULTS

The presentation and description (but no interpretation) of the pooled Results (using statistical analysis if possible) will be of considerable weight in determining marks. Do not mention, describe or analyze your own results, unless that is what the instructor asks you to do. In other words, do not (DO NOT) include Raw Data; I don't want to see print-offs from spreadsheets or tables of raw data.

There are two fully integrated components to this section, the text and the visuals (figures, tables etc). Figures and tables are incorporated within the text that describes them (i.e. do not pool them at the end of the section). In other words, present the figures in the order described. Within the text, you must refer to the tables; see this webpage for examples on how to do that, and much more.

Tables are lists of numbers that are useful for presenting a lot of data; appropriate headings for each column and row are necessary and the caption goes above the table. Units are listed in the column headings, not with each datum. A downloadable document on how to create a table can be found by clicking here.

Figures include diagrams, photographs, and graphs; the caption goes beneath the figure. Tips on graphing with (or without) a spreadsheet program are available at this webpage.

Some critical points:

• axes labels, including units
• keep the number of decimal places reasonable and constant.
• do not smooth the curves

Text: Report trends (or lack of a trend) and pertinent values in the text component of this section. Each figure or table that you present must be described in the text. The text should describe a figure so well that someone who hasn't seen the figure should be able to draw a good approximation of it.

Use short sentences.

Categorize the text into sections (each with its own title) if appropriate. The description of the results may sound rather mechanical, you are to describe (almost robotically) what your graphs and tables show. Do this in the order that the figures appear (and put your figures in a logical order). Remember, no interpretation of the results goes here (in other words, describe what the results show, but do not explain what the results mean).

Report the outcome of statistical tests on the data as you report those data. e.g. There was no significant difference between the urine output of those who drank the salt and bicarb solutions (p > 0.05). However, please remember that you are to describe the data, not the statistics. The statistics are one component of describing the data, but do not write things like, "Since the calculated value of t was not greater than the critical value of t, we conclude that there was no significant difference between groups."

These two sentences say the same thing:

1. The two groups were statistically significantly different.
2. The two groups were significantly different.

In other words, the word "significant" means that you did the statistics, so there's no point in saying "statistically significant".

You never (rarely?) mention the results of other peoples' experiments in this section, therefore, we do not expect to see citations in this part of the report. In other words, the Results is a description of your data and only a description (no interpretation) of your data.

Do not include standard curves - these are not data; they are however, methods.

Marks are assigned half for the text, half for the figures.

DISCUSSION
 

• The Discussion is a comparison of previous, related research (i.e. from other people) with your findings (therefore, you have to cite references in this section, and you will have to refer to your data that you presented in the Results.

• Your Discussion should attempt to explain how your results fit with the current theories and hypotheses, why your results might not agree with previous work and whether a new hypothesis is called for on the basis of your results. A discussion is not an essay. The difference between a discussion section in a lab report and an essay is that the latter tells the reader the current state of knowledge (i.e. what other researchers have found), whereas the former tells the reader the current state of knowledge and how that knowledge relates to your results. Therefore, you must make reference to your data (typically in the order you presented them). You must tell the reader to look back at each of the figures and tables.

• Do not use long, complex sentences.

• Avoid using direct quotes from the literature unless the wording is very important to the argument that you are trying to present.

• Negative results are often explained by citing errors in technique. If your results vary from those observed by previous workers, look for and discuss possible reasons for the discrepancy. Having said this, students have a tendency to "cop out" by blaming their own mistakes for anything that does not "fit." Remember that your results are your results. They are very likely good results. Try to explain your results as if they are correct, not as if they were in error.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LITERATURE CITED

DO NOT use web pages as literature sources. Some scientific papers are available on line and those are fine to use; generally, these are available through Electronic Resources from the library's web site.

The words et al. are not to be found in this section. All authors' names are written out.

Use these formats: See the NRC site for more examples, specifically the Canadian Journal of Zoology's Parts of the Manuscript. Note, for example, punctuation, order of the elements (e.g. date, title...), position of initials, and journal abbreviations.

for a journal article:
 

Lauff, R.F., and Wood. C.M. 1996. The effects of training on respiratory gas exchange, nitrogenous waste excretion, and fuel usage during aerobic swimming in juvenile Rainbow Trout. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 54: 566-571.

Sterling, J.T., and Ream, R.R. 2004. At-sea behavior of juvenile male northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus). Can. J. Zool. 82(10): 1621–1637. doi:10.1139/Z04-136.


for a book:
 

Schmidt-Nielsen, K. 1997. Animal Physiology. 5^th ed. Cambridge University Press, New York.


Remember, this is a Literature Cited section, not a References section. The only literature that goes in this section are those you actually cited in the body of the report.

Citing References:

Within the body of the report, all literature is cited by the author’s (or authors’) last name(s) and the year of publication. Never use the title, author’s initials nor page numbers.

The proper procedure for citing a reference within the body of your report follows these examples (note the punctuation):
 

Northern Hawk Owls have been known to breed in Nova Scotia since 1996 (Brennan and Lauff, 1998).

or,

In 1996, Brennan and Lauff (1998) found the first nest of a Northern Hawk Owl in Nova Scotia.

or,

In 1998, Brennan and Lauff reported the first nest of the Northern Hawk Owl in Nova Scotia.

...but you never do this:

Brennan and Lauff reported the first nest of the Northern Hawk Owl in Nova Scotia (1998).

In other words, you always keep the authorship and the date together.

Statements which are backed up by two or more papers are cited like this:
 

Amphibian gills and skin are both used for gas exchange and ionoregulation (Saunders, 1966; Phelicity, 1998).


Note that the cited papers are listed chronologically and ascending, not alphabetically. If two papers share the same publication date, then list those papers alphabetically by first author.

In some cases, scientific papers are authored by three or more authors. In these cases, you would only cite that paper by referring to the first author and the expression et al., which translates to "and others". Note that the expression is always written in italics and there is a period after al. but not after et (since the latter is a whole word, al. is an abbreviation for alia).
 

Sea turtles have several physiological mechanisms which allow for prolonged dives (Thomlinson et al. 1977).


If you want to include information which you learned from class, that is certainly fine. This is known as a "personal communication". This type of information would be presented in the body of your report, something like:
 

Smaller mammals tend to have faster resting heart rates than those of larger mammals (W.S. Marshall, pers. comm.).


Verbal communication (including someone lecturing to you) is not "literature" and thus does not appear in the Literature Cited section. Note that "pers. comm." is italicized.

Journal articles will be available in the lab for your inspection and assistance in using correct format. Many journals are available in the library, though we will adopt the format used by the Canadian Journal of Zoology.

Marks for this section will be deducted for incorrect citations (and personal communications) in the body of the report.

Acceptable References: Scientific articles and books. Don't use encyclopaedias - that's grade school level information. Web sites shall not be used. Remember, anyone can post anything to a website; there’s no guarantee of truth. You can use peer-reviewed scientific papers from the web, these are available on publishers' websites or author's websites. The papers are normally in PDF format.
 

• Appendix: You may be asked to include the raw data and/or calculations in this section. DO NOT include an appendix unless asked.

Other

• Inserting symbols into text. In MS WORD, click on Insert|Symbol and a box appears with all sorts of choices. You can choose mathematical symbols, Greek lettering, etc. These symbols are often used in denoting quantity (e.g. micro = m) or symbols on a graph, denoted in the caption (e.g. ■▲●).