Literature Review Biomedical Sciences

12 EC

Semester 1 & 2, period 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

5234PAP12Y

Owner Master Biomedical Sciences
Coordinator dr. J.E. Seppen
Part of Master Biomedical Sciences, year 2

Course manual 2018/2019

Course content

The Literature Thesis is a mandatory part of the Masters in Biological, Biomedical and Life Sciences. To inform and guide both student and supervisor a protocol is available discusses the following topics:

  • Objectives and outline
  • Guidance and supervision
  • Assessment of the Project

Both supervisor/examiner and student are expected to read this protocol.
The protocol can be found at http://www.student.uva.nl; choose your master?s programme, study plan and `research project and literature thesis?.

Objectives

Writing a literature thesis has a number of objectives:

  • The student is challenged to make a detailed study of the literature on a chosen subject. In this respect it broadens and/or deepens certain knowledge gained earlier in the master programme.
  • The student is expected to collect scientific information on a specific subject in a short period (approximately two months), to formulate a clear question, to write a structured summary and report and to give critical evaluation. It is, therefore, important that the period available for writing a thesis is used to the full but also that this period is not exceeded, since this may cause delays in your study planning.
  • A critical evaluation entails that, in addition to classifying known data, the student develops his/her own perspective in the literature. This usually amounts to a consideration of the shortcomings of existing knowledge and a suggestion as to how new insights might be obtained in the future.
  • The student will improve his/her skills in writing a scientific paper in English in a coherent and reflective way. The supervisor is expected to give the student constructive support in acquiring this skill.

Teaching methods

    Students usually choose a topic within the scope of the programme in which they have a special interest. However, the content should be sufficiently different from the issues addressed in the student?s research projects. The choice of subject is of paramount importance: the topic must be broad enough to justify writing a thesis on it, but not so broad that the existing knowledge on the subject cannot be summarized in the time available. The supervisor is requested to justify this estimation when the choice of topic is finalized by writing (or approving) a Literature Thesis outline.

    Learning activities

    Activity

    Number of hours

    Zelfstudie

    336

    Attendance

    The programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER-B).

    Assessment

    Item and weight Details

    Final grade

    Final grade

    Fraud and plagiarism

    The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

    Course structure

    Weeknummer Onderwerpen Studiestof
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    11
    12
    13
    14
    15
    16
    17
    18
    19
    20
    21
    22
    23
    24
    25
    26
    27
    28
    29
    30
    31
    32
    33
    34
    35
    36
    37
    38
    39
    40

    Contact information

    Coordinator

    • dr. J.E. Seppen