Reports

    The research report represents the distillation of many hours of hard laboratory work.  It should clearly and concisely present the results of your research.  The report is often the only lasting record that the research took place.

 

Rules

 

1.A sample report format and the associated LaTeX file can be found on oncourse.

2.All reports should be prepared electronically using LaTeX, see information below.

3.When two students are working together on a lab, each must turn in his or her own, unique report and interpretation of the data.  The data sets may be common.  The two students may discuss analysis issues.  In the end the actual analysis and each report needs to be the original work of each student.

4.When utilizing figures or information from other sources, cite the sources.  Do not plagiarize any other lab writeup, textbook, or any other source.

5.In order to conserve paper and expedite the exchange of information, all reports should be turned into the DropBox on the oncourse site.  Please deposit only a PDF file.

 

Tips

 

1.Do not discuss the chronological development of the experiment.  Often experimental work is full of false starts or mistakes -- this trail of discovery will be evident in your logbook.  Only discuss details that are relevant to the final result in the report.  The reader should never have to ask “why is the author telling me this?”

2.Be sure figures are clear with readable axes labels.  Remove any irrelevant information from figures.  Adobe Illustrator (freely available from IUWare) is an extremely useful tool for editing PDF and postscript figures that are produced by common plotting applications.

3.Use proper English grammar and spelling.

4.Unsure how to format units, numbers, equations, tables?  Check the American Institute of Physics Style Manual (see link below).

5.Active voice is fine.  Some students are taught that scientific writing should only be done in the passive voice; however, active voice is commonly used in modern research publications.  It tends to make the writing more interesting.

 

Useful Links

 

The Science of Scientific Writing

AIP Style Manual (printable), also online here

LaTeX:  the standard application for scientific typesetting

MiKTeX:  the installation of LaTeX that is available on lab computers

TeXShop:  excellent Mac OS X version of LaTeX

 

Please send me any questions regarding LaTeX.  It will often be helpful if you include your source file with any error you might have.  LaTeX can be a little frustrating at first, but once you learn it you will never go back to writing scientific or mathematical documents with Microsoft Word.

 

Final Thoughts

 

    Students are encouraged not to procrastinate in starting to prepare their reports!  The act of having to analyze the data in detail and present it in a streamlined fashion may (and often does) uncover inadequate statistics, untested assumptions, or other faulty experimental logic that will result in the need for additional laboratory work.  If the student waits to long to begin preparing the final results, then there is no opportunity to take additional data.  Reports will typically be due the week following the final lab period devoted to that experiment.

P451 Modern Physics Lab