HindRight Species occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis occidentalis Run # 0 0 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 Specimen # 18 8 9 9 11 11 1 1 42 42 10 10 41 41 29 29 5 5 25 25 30 30 Sex F M M M M M F F Juvie Juvie M M M M M M F F M M M M Body Mass Body Length Tail Length (g) (mm) (mm) 6.7 58 68 14.2 72 123 8.2 66 82 8.2 66 82 17.8 76 107 17.8 76 107 8.9 60 85 8.9 60 85 2 43 70 2 43 70 11.6 68 110 11.6 68 110 8.9 62 90 8.9 62 90 8.8 61 84 8.8 61 84 11.2 69 90 11.2 69 90 9 64 62 9 64 62 8.9 60 101 8.9 60 101 L.Length (mm) 43 50 48 48 58 58 43 43 32 32 51 51 48 48 47 47 50 50 40 40 49 49 Max Sprint Speed (m/s) 0.36 0.2 0.88 zero.5 1.29 0.61 0.55 0.31 0.67 1.08 0.71 0.49 0.17 0.4 0.37 0.73 0.97 0.65 0.29 0.3 0.61 0.43 Temp (Celsius) 33.6 31.4 33.6 32.6 33.6 33.6 34.4 34.4 27 27 31.8 31.8 32 32 34.2 34.2 32.8 32.8 32.6 32.6 31.8 31.8 Condition (wet/dry, etc.) dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry Notes Spring 2019 Espinoza, 1 Herpetology A Brief Guide to Laboratory Reports General Dos and Don’ts Lab reports should be submitted in a form of a scientific paper. The headings to the sections listed below should be included. You may include (or omit) additional sections as needed depending on the content and materials covered in a particular activity. This is a chance to sharpen your critical writing skills and to develop your unique writing style as a scientist. However, no matter what your style, make sure that you write with clarity, precision, and economy. Make sure you have grammatically complete sentences, use proper punctuation, and label tables and figures appropriately. Each sentence should convey the meaning you intend in the clearest way possible. Remember to stay in the past tense in all sections except the Discussion (which should be in the present tense); don’t switch tense from sentence to sentence. When in doubt about detail, ask yourself, “Would a person with equivalent skills, equipment, and supplies be able replicate my experiment and achieve similar results given the information I have provided?” Title The title of your report should be at the top of the first page; do not include a title page (waste of paper/trees). Your title should reflect the content of your report while being brief, specific, and descriptive. It should not be more than one sentence long. It could include the nature of the study, the organisms used, the place of a field study, and the technical approach (but all these things need not necessarily appear in the title). Some scientists like to pose their titles in the form of a question; for example “Does temperature have an influence on growth in tortoises?” This may make the reader curious and apt to read further. Some researchers like to keep their titles very simple and others prefer to make them more complex and descriptive. This is your chance to be creative. Abstract Abstracts were created so that busy scientists (such as yourselves), who don’t have the time to read through an entire paper, can read just a succinct summary the main points of the study. Thus, the abstract should contain everything that the full report has, but in a concise and abbreviated form, typically ~1/2page or less in length. The abstract should set up the problem, include your hypotheses, summarize the results and conclusions of the paper, point out new information, and indicate the relevance of the work. Avoid citing references within the abstract. Introduction The introduction should open with a succinct statement of the subject. It should explain the purpose of the investigation and briefly orient the report within the general field of study by citing the work of others in your broader and more specific area(s) of research. It should flow from the broader aspects of your study (e.g., thermoregulation, communication, ecomorphology, etc.) to the most specific and culminate in your hypotheses. Do not include a historical review of the topic or species under investigation unless this is pertinent to the study. This section will usually not exceed a few paragraphs in your reports. Be brief, but be sure the reader knows what to expect in the rest of the paper. Materials and Methods This section describes the methods used to conduct the research. It should be specific and thorough enough that a reader with similar equipment, supplies, animals, and skills can duplicate your experiment/observation exactly as you executed it. Include in this section (where relevant) a description of any study sites, the number, species, age, sizes, sexes, and origin of organisms used, the method of data collection (e.g., trapping, dissection, counting, measurements, etc.), and any analytical techniques used (e.g., behavioral assays, etc.). Unless the equipment is new or unusual, it is not necessary to describe its operation in detail, but the type of apparatus (dimensions, properties, etc.) used should be included. The types of statistical analyses used to analyze the data should also be described in this section. Spring 2019 Espinoza, 2 Results Your results are the data or observations or other information that you gathered over the course of the study. These may include, but are not limited to a list of observations, tables, figures (graphics, drawings, etc.), and written observations. They should be well thought out and organized and in a form as to make their meaning and relevance unambiguous (i.e., presented in the clearest manner possible). Frequently, when the results cover several aspects of a problem, it is helpful to subdivide the Results section with appropriately titled subheadings. It is not enough to present just the numerical results (i.e., a table or figure) of your study. That is, a written summary (not word for word!) of the results should be included in this section as well. All tables and figures should be titled with a phrase or sentence that clearly describes the purpose, relevance, or relationship that the information is providing. Legends should appear above each table, and below each figure. Every illustration is either a figure or a table; do not use terms such as plate or graph. Use only SI (metric) units. Any calculations you perform should also be included in the Results section. It is important that this section is as objective (unbiased) as possible; that is, just the facts (numbers, etc.) that you have obtained. Save your explanations and conjecture for why you think you achieved these results for the Discussion section. Discussion Your discussion section should include more than a restatement of the results. What have you learned from the study? Did you notice any patterns, relationships, or make any observations that are noteworthy? You may also include here why or why not your results are acceptable to you. Have other researchers discovered just the opposite of what you found (does this matter?)? Did you make any mistakes along the way or were there potential sources of error that might compromise the results that you obtained and therefore bias the conclusions that you might draw based on those results? Make sure it is clear you are speculating if you make comments that are not based on your results. This is also the section that you need to relate your study to the “big picture” of your field of study and any other field that may be relevant. Discuss the new findings in the context of previous knowledge (cite specific literature) in the field and include logical deductions from the new data. Indicate the limitations of the study as well as its general implications. Literature Cited List here, in alphabetical order (by author) any literature cited in the report. Follow the exact format in the citations below (note capitalization, punctuation, order of authors’ initials, placement of dates, spacing of words, etc.). Do not abbreviate journal names. Websites are generally not to be included (except electronic peer-reviewed journals or sites developed by professional groups or scientists), but if in doubt, check with the instructor. Book Pianka, E. R. 1986. Ecology and Natural History of Desert Lizards. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Chapter in an Edited Volume Dawson, W. R. 1975. On the physiological significance of the preferred body temperatures of reptiles. Pp. 443–473, in: Perspectives of Biophysical Ecology. D. M. Gates and R. B. Schmerl (eds.). SpringerVerlag, New York, NY. Article in a Journal Martín, J., P. López, L. M. Carrascal, and A. Salvador. 1995. Adjustments of basking postures in the high-altitude Iberian rock lizard (Lacerta monticola). Canadian Journal of Zoology 73:1065–1068. Spring 2019 Espinoza Herpetology Tips for Written Papers & Lab Reports These are common oversights and mistakes seen in previous papers and reports. Before you turn in your next written assignment, scan this list to make sure you have not made any of these errors. General Writing Mechanics • follow directions (e.g., formatting sections, putting your Literature Cited in the prescribed format, etc.) • use page numbers (upper right corner is most convenient, bottom is OK too) • tables should have table legends above, and figures should have figure legends below • numbers ≥10 should be written as numerals and
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