Advice from the Director on securing a thesis project

1. Many students do a thesis project in the same lab as a coop. This has significant advantages for you (you can delve deeper into the subject) and advantages for the supervisor since they do not have to pay you for the thesis work and benefit from your continued working in their lab. If you get accepted for a coop position, consider discussing this right away.
2. Cold, generic emails to a potential supervisor are not effective. It’s your job to convince the potential supervisor that working in their lab would be mutually beneficial. Supervisors get dozens of requests for volunteer or coop positions a year, make sure your email stands out with specific details about their lab and why you are interested in their work (everyone assumes you will work hard; it is not enough to say you will too). Most supervisors want to know that you have done research on their lab, know what the lab does and indicate how you could help — even if your assumptions are off, it’s your motivation and drive that matters.
3. A supervisor does not have to be at McMaster — it could be from another university, non profit or even industry.
4. There is no shortcut, plan ahead. It will take time and much effort. Most of you have some goal in mind; extensively research that goal. Find out who is doing what.

How do you get a thesis project approved?

1. The Program Director gives the final approval – complete the thesis approval form with your supervisor and send it to the Program Office (biophrm@mcmaster.ca). Please consider this form a contract, it outlines both you and your supervisors’ expectations and responsibilities.
2. If you take a thesis project with an experienced supervisor, it is almost always a positive experience. If the Program Director has concerns about your supervisor, we will reach out to you soon in the process and discuss. If you choose a supervisor who has never had a thesis student before, contact the Program Director early in the discussion. Clear and realistic expectations on both sides will ensure a good experience.
3. The project should be related to the objectives of the BioPharm program (contact the Program Office for more information). If the project is somewhat outside the scope of BioPharm, but it is perfectly in line with your career plans, contact the Program Director to discuss.
4. If you do the thesis project with the industry, consult the Program Director early in the process. Additional steps may need to be taken regarding data privacy and confidentiality. Inform an industry supervisor that a public defence is mandatory (some confidential details can be omitted).
5. The thesis project does not have to be done in a lab; it can be clinical trial data analysis or theoretical; consult the Program Director if you are unsure.

Thesis Guidelines

1. Must be double-spaced with 1 inch or 2.5 cm margins.
2. Follow the standard IMRAD format (Introduction/methods/results and discussion) and must contain an abstract, list of abbreviations, references, and acknowledgements.
3. Format, including citations and references, should adhere to the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
4. Page length should be between 30 to 60 pages, not including references. If outside this range, consult the Program Offfic.
5. Thesis supervisors MUST receive a final copy of the thesis on or before the submission date. It is critically important that the supervisor approves the thesis and has been given the opportunity to comment and advise.

The thesis differs from a research publication in several aspects. Some general guidelines for the various sections are given below:

• Abstract should be single-spaced but must not be greater than half a page in length. The abstract page should include the author’s name, the title of the thesis, and the supervisor’s name and affiliation. The abstract will appear in a booklet given out prior to the defense
• Introduction should present a review of the literature pertinent to the project. The key words is pertinent to your topic. Not a review on very general aspects of the work. The objectives of the study or the hypothesis to be tested must be clearly stated.
• Methods should be more elaborate than is normally found in a research paper. This section should provide sufficient details for the examiners to gauge the relevance of the approaches taken. Techniques should be clearly described so that the next student can carry on the work using the thesis as the major reference. Consequently, it is not enough to say the method of Burke and Hare was followed in obtaining samples for this study. Remember that analytical and statistical techniques are also methods and should be described adequately.
• Results should include both positive and negative outcomes. Data should be presented in a logical sequence and clearly illustrated through the use of figures and tables inserted in the Results section. Figures and tables should be accompanied by appropriate legends that allow them to be understood without reference to the text.
• Discussion should interpret the results and outline their meaning and significance. The study should be placed in context with the current literature. Avenues for further research should be indicated. Because of limitations of time or the nature of the project – in some cases, few meaningful data are obtained. The examiners are more interested in the approach taken to deal with problems as they arose through the course of the study. Thus, negative outcomes can and should be discussed. A negative outcome can markedly change a hypothesis and a subsequent new approach can be the very positive result of a negative outcome.
• Students can assume that they have discretion over any elements of style not specifically mentioned in these guidelines.

Oral Defense Guidelines

1. Dress business casual, according to your own standards and culture.
2. Everything on the slides should be readable and accessible to your audience. Use less text and include explanatory figures. Omit everything that the audience does not need to read.
3. All fonts should be accessible (including type of font, font size and colours). Helvetica or Arial and black/white or colour text is appropriate. Avoid red-green combinations, a significant portion of the audience will be red-green colour blind.
4. The greatest level of care to each slide should be given, typos are not acceptable.
5. Consider the defense presentation as a formal presentation for a sophisticated audience, but not necessarily experts in the field, so you may need to explain terms and methods.
6. Refrain from using figures or tables too detailed or not relevant, redo figures or tables for the purpose of the presentation. Explain the axis info, too often, a student will assume that the audience understands a results figure.
7. Take note of the font on the Y axis and X axis, which should be readable.

Commonly used presentation guidelines:

1. A brief introduction that explains your objective. It’s easy to feel like you need to add in more but please keep it brief. LIMIT IT TO 3 MINUTES MAX. The correct formulation of the objective is critically important, without it, nothing makes sense to the audience. This does not have to be the original objective; it is the objective that fits your final story.
2. Methods should be brief but explanatory. It is critical the audience understands the results slides, what they mean, and how they were achieved. Hence, part of the explanation of the method can be done when you introduce the results slides. Important tip: be sure to explain what is on the Y- and X-axis of figures.
3. Results are the most critical part of the presentation — and likely why your audience is there. If your talk is long winded, cut out sections from the intro but not the results. You will not have time to show all your results, focus on what best fits the story you want to tell the audience.
4. Discussion, make it clear why you are (or are not) excited about your new findings. Statistical significance may be important, but clinical, physiological, or pharmacological significance is much more important. The scientific literature is full of papers showing P<0.05 with much excitement but no clinical or physiological relevance. And studies with P>0.05 that are ignored but contain critically important hypotheses. Discuss what went wrong, what should be done next, what are the limitations, if applicable.
5. Thank your supervisor and anyone that helped you. Also, the funding of the project, if applicable.

Schedule at a Glance for 2 day of Presentations* (sample)

6-8 weeks prior to defense: final thesis project handed in and preparatory work for oral defense begins.

4-5 weeks prior to defense: A draft schedule will be shared with students and thesis advisors. Mandatory attendance is required of thesis students for all presentations. Only under exceptional circumstances may special permission be given to miss part of the presentations. Some schedule flexibility may be possible for thesis supervisors. All special requests must be submitted in writing to the Program Office no later than 3 weeks before the thesis defense.

2 weeks prior to defense: Final schedule share with students and thesis supervisors, no further modifications will be made. A link for guests to attend the presentations virtually will be sent.

*Level 3 and 4 program students are highly encouraged to attend some or all the presentations.

Assessing the BioPharm Thesis Defense

While listening to the presentations, the examiners will ask themselves the following questions and then allot an overall mark:

• Did the student give a brief succinct outline of the study proposed?
• Were the objectives of the study clearly stated?
• Did the student explain clearly why the approach(es) were taken?
• Did the student state what she/he expected to find using the approaches defined?
• Did the student appear to understand the conceptual basis of the approach(es) used?
• Did the student know the strengths/weaknesses of the approach(es) used?
• Were the statistical tests appropriate?
• Were the results presented clearly? Were important issues highlighted?
• Did the student clearly explain the significance of the results obtained?
• Was the student able to give reasons for failure of a particular approach (may/may not occur)?
• Was the student able to suggest further avenues for exploration?

Guidelines for Grading a Thesis

Guidelines for Oral Presentation