Independent Research Project I (PHIP7280)

This assessment task is designed to enhance your ability to communicate advanced concepts related to pharmaceutical research in a format commonly used in grant applications. Using only one page you must provide the following details about your project:

1. Project title
2. Background (information to your project so that the reader understands your hypothesis and aims)
3. Hypothesis and aims 
4. Potential impact and significance of your project

The expectation is that you will work with your research advisor to develop your hypothesis and aims under their guidance. 

• Significance or impact as defined by the National Health & medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the extent to which the outcomes and outputs from your research will result in advancements to the research or health area. Significance in this context does not refer to the prevalence of disease or magnitude of the issue.
• Your plan must be prepared using 12-point Times New Roman with 1.2 cm margins all around.
• Provide a list of all references cited in the application using the Vancouver reference style (https://guides.library.uq.edu.au/referencing) with numerical in-text citations. References are not included in the 1-page count. 
• See Learn.UQ (Blackboard) for more details and the marking criteria.

This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, successful completion of assessment in this course will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which artificial intelligence will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference generative AI use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI tools.

The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences runs a research seminar program during semesters 1 and 2, with presenters from a wide range of research fields.

There will be four seminars scheduled throughout the year. Additional seminars may be added as the year progresses. More information about seminar schedules will be provided via Blackboard announcements. Everyone is welcome to attend any or all of the seminars, and the school research community (that includes you) are encouraged to attend. You may also attend research seminars in any other school or research institute at UQ and report upon those seminars. Suggested research institutes with seminars include the Translational Research Institute (TRI) and the Institute for Molecular Biosciences (IMB). Search for their research seminars online.

Attending research seminars is not only an opportunity to find out what is currently happening in research, and appreciate the scope of research, but also to consider what you like or don’t like about how different researchers choose to orally/verbally present their work to their peers – i.e. their presentation style. For example, did you understand the material (i.e. could you very briefly sum it up in your own words)? Did the presenter refer to their slides? Did they engage and interact with you (the audience), e.g. did they maintain eye contact, or attempt interaction with you where appropriate? How did they try to maintain your interest throughout the presentation? 

Ultimately, reflecting on presentations by others can help you to consider how to improve your own oral presentations so that your audience finds it engaging and memorable.

So in this course, you will reflect on your experience of any TWO of the seminars presented during the semester 1 2025. The 4 Rs of Reflection will be the approach used in this course. This approach was originally introduced in 2002 by Bain et al. as the 5 Rs for reflections on teaching and has been modified to fit this course (Bain JD, Ballantyne R, Mills C. and Lester NC. (2002). Reflecting on practice: Student teachers' perspectives. Post Pressed, Flaxton, Qld.).

This assessment is NOT about reflecting on the content of the seminars you review. This assessment is about your experience of the seminar.

For TWO of the research seminars that you attend during the semester:

1. Use the oral presentation marking rubric as a guide to assess the seminar presenter
2. Based on this, reflect on your experience of the presentation using the 4 Rs of reflection:

• Reporting
• Responding
• Relating
• Reconstructing

Your response for EACH seminar reflection should be written in 4 paragraphs. Paragraph 1 is "reporting", paragraph 2 "responding", paragraph 3 "relating" and paragraph 4 "reconstructing".

• The word limit for EACH reflection is 500 words. Only the first 500 words for EACH reflection will be marked.
• The average mark from the TWO reflections will be used towards your final grade.

See the course Learn.UQ (Blackboard) site for the 4 Rs of reflection, prompt questions to support your reflection, and the marking criteria. 

This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, successful completion of assessment in this course will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which artificial intelligence will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference generative AI use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI tools.

Prepare a journal article that describes the research that you completed. The article should be prepared in the style of a manuscript ready for submission to a journal in your subdiscipline of research, following the “Instructions for authors” for the chosen journal. 

• The length of the paper should not exceed 4500 words, which overrides the limit set by the chosen journal. Note that this is a maximum limit – it does not imply that you are expected to write 4500 words. While it is acceptable to go up to 10% above this limit a greater number of words probably indicates an inability to write concisely and is likely to be associated with reduced marks for presentation.
• Title, abstract, tables, figures, legends and references do not count towards the word limit.
• Appendices or supplementary files may be included.
• See Learn.UQ (Blackboard) for more details and the marking criteria.

This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, successful completion of assessment in this course will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which artificial intelligence will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference generative AI use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI tools.

You will present your research project in the form of a 10-minute oral presentation (+ 5 minutes for questions). This is an opportunity to put into practice all that you learned by attending and reflecting on research seminars during semester.

• The presentation should comprise a short summary of the background to the project and aims, experimental design and methods, results and discussion/conclusion.
• All students, academic staff and research staff of the school will be invited to attend; presentations will be assessed by all attending academic and research staff with the exception of your supervisor(s). 
• See Learn.UQ (Blackboard) for more details and the oral presentation marking rubric.
• This oral presentation will be recorded and retained as per university policy. The recording will be stored in a secure manner and will only be accessed if required for the purposes of moderation of marking, provision of feedback to student, and/or re-marking following a successful re-mark application.

This task has been designed to be challenging, authentic and complex. Whilst students may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, successful completion of assessment in this course will require students to critically engage in specific contexts and tasks for which artificial intelligence will provide only limited support and guidance. A failure to reference generative AI use may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct. To pass this assessment, students will be required to demonstrate detailed comprehension of their written submission independent of AI tools.

Students will execute a research project while demonstrating effective research performance, systematic data management, and professional engagement. This task prepares you for real-world roles in pharmaceutical research, where meticulous record-keeping, data integrity, collaboration, and clarity are essential. This task evaluates your ability to:

• Conduct research with accountability and collaboration.
• Organize, label, and store research data logically.
• Present findings clearly in written and oral formats.

Your performance will be graded using the following criteria:

• Research Performance (40%): Quality of engagement, time management, and professionalism.
• Engagement with the research team (30%): Engagement with the research team and participation in group discussions.
• Data management (30%): Consistency and clarity in file naming/organization and accessibility of stored data.

Refer to the Learn.UQ (Blackboard) site for the marking criteria.