Duke-NUS Medical School

GMS1000 Project Assignment

Introduction

You are given an exciting and rare opportunity to propose a research study from the topics handpicked by
the project mentors. The list of topics will be uploaded separately. Your team must decide on one topic of
choice to propose a novel research idea. Be as innovative or creative as you wish yet grounded in sound
scientific justifications!

Expectations and Assessment

You are expected to work as a team and find possible solutions to your questions before approaching your
project mentor. Your project mentor is there to guide you at two specific points during this assignment,
which will be outlined below. However, your mentor is not there to spoon‐feed your group with ideas or
help you write your assignment.

The written assignment will be assessed using the following criteria:

1. Is the title appropriate and reflective of the proposed study?

2. How important is the proposed study to furthering knowledge and understanding within its field?
3. How well conceived and organised is your idea?
4. Is the methodology clearly explained and thorough?
5. Does the proposed study use sound methodology that will allow you to answer your specific aims?

How to Get Started?

1. Pick a topic of interest from the list.

2. Critically review current literature around the topic of choice.
3. Identify the critical gap of knowledge which you intend to address.

Checkpoint #1: Brief Proposal with Hypothesis and Two Specific Aims (Due 6 Feb 2024,
12pm)
This submission is mandatory.

Your brief proposal is limited to 100 words and MUST have the following sections: a preliminary title, a
hypothesis and two specific aims that will answer your hypothesis.

Please submit the brief proposal in MS Word Document on Elentra. Only ONE member in your team is
required to submit a copy of the brief proposal.

You will then receive feedback from your project mentor on how to improve your hypothesis and specific
aims. Receiving this feedback is critical because the rest of the written assignment revolves around having
a well‐formulated hypothesis and specific aims.

Here are some resources to help you out with the brief proposal:
a. The Anatomy of a Specific Aims Page

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b. Do’s and Don’ts of Specific Aims

Checkpoint #2: Draft of Written Assignment (Due 5 Mar 2024, 12pm)

This submission is mandatory.

Your draft MUST have the following sections: Background and Clinical Significance, Hypothesis and
Specific Aims, Methods/Approach, Reference list.

There are two points of submission of the draft written assignment: first on Turnitin, and then on Elentra.

The purpose of submitting your work on Turnitin before the actual submission on Elentra is to check for
possible plagiarism to existing literature sources. Please note that this is mandatory.

Upon submission of your work to Turnitin, you will receive an Originality Report which indicates a Similarity
Index. Ideally, you should receive a similarity index of below 30% for your assignment to be deemed
acceptable for submission. If your similarity index is 30% or above, you are expected to further revise your
work, so as to achieve the acceptable index by the time you submit your final written assignment.

For submission on Turnitin, please follow these steps:

Steps For existing users of Turnitin For new users of Turnitin

1 Click here to log in.
2 Click the button that says “enroll in a class”.
Enter the following details:
Class ID: 40346612
Class Enrolment Key: 23242
Click Submit.
Click here to create your user profile. Click on
Student to begin.
Enter the following details:
Class ID: 40346612
Class Enrolment Key: 23242
Enter all other fields in this page. Please enter your
NUS email address as your login email for Turnitin.

Click on I Agree -- Create Profile.

3 You are now in your home page.
Click the class name GMS1000 Premed Project Assignment (AY23-24 S2).
4 You are now in your class homepage. Click Submit (for Draft Written Assignment).
5 Choose your file and upload. Click Confirm to submit your file.

Next, please submit your draft written assignment in MS Word Document on Elentra. Only ONE member in
your team is required to submit a copy of the draft assignment on both Turnitin and Elentra.

Your project mentor will be expecting to receive a draft that is close to what you will submit for the final
written assignment. The reason for this expectation is to help you maximise the yield in feedback that you
can get from your mentor, as a complete draft will allow them to give feedback on the ideas and prose.
Outlines, point‐form, or incomplete drafts are highly discouraged, as you will receive less optimal feedback
and be less equipped to improve on your written assignment. At this stage, your draft may exceed the 5
page limit (hopefully not by much). This is okay, as working to trim down your draft is an expected part of
the revision process as you work towards your final written assignment.
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You will receive the mentor’s feedback on your draft on the week of 11 Mar 2024. Please read through the
feedback and, as a team, come up with ideas on how to incorporate the feedback into your written
assignment to improve upon it. Come ready to discuss these ideas at the Team Meeting on the week of 11
Mar 2024 with your mentor.

Final Written Assignment (Due 26 Mar 2024, 12pm)

You are expected to revise your draft using the feedback given by your project mentor to arrive at your final
written product.

Format:
The written assignment should be a maximum of 5 pages in length, not inclusive of abstract, figures and
references, 1.5 line spaced, with 2.0 cm margins and a minimum of 12point Arial font. Instructors will not
grade anything past the 5-page limit.

Your written assignment MUST have the following sections:

1. Abstract: in not more than 150 words, give a short version of your assignment.
2. Background and Clinical Significance: introduce the topic and provide a critical evaluation of the work
that has been done in the field.
3. Hypothesis and Specific Aims: Specifically identify the gaps in knowledge that the proposal intends to
fill (i.e. present the research problem and its significance), propose a hypothesis which will help to
address it. Describe two specific aims to address the proposed hypothesis.
4. Methods/Approach: provide a succinct yet clear description of the research methods that you will use.
Also identify any potential difficulties and limitations of the proposed procedures and alternative
approaches to achieve the aims. You must also provide sound justification of the experimental
approach and state how the methods chosen will help you answer your specific aims. Statistical
justification and how data will be analyzed and interpretation must be included.
5. References Cited: provide a complete list of sources used in this assignment. References are to be
formatted using the American Psychological Association format.

Similar to the draft assignment, there are, again, two points of submission of the final written assignment:
first on Turnitin, and then on Elentra.

For submission onto Turnitin, log in here using the account that you have already created when submitting
your draft assignment, and in your home page, click the class name GMS1000 Premed Project Assignment
(AY23-24 S2) to go into the class homepage. Click Submit (for Final Written Assignment). Choose your file
and upload. Click Confirm to submit your file.

This time, you should receive a similarity index of below 30% for your final assignment to be deemed
acceptable for submission.

Next, please submit your final written assignment in MS Word Document on Elentra by 26 March 2024. Only
ONE member in your team is required to submit a copy of the final assignment on both Turnitin and Elentra.

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GMS1000 (AY2023-24 Semester 2)
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Poster Presentation

You, as a group, will present your improved written assignment as an e‐poster in an in-class grading session
on 9 April 2024. You will be given 15 mins to present your proposal, and 5 mins to field questions. Present
your e‐poster in either PPT or PDF view, and in landscape format.

Standardize the setting in MS PowerPoint (PPT) BEFORE you begin designing your poster:

1. Go to the Design tab > Customize > Slide Size.

2. Click Custom Slide Size. The Slide Size box will appear.
3. Select Slides sized for: Custom.
4. Set Width: 140 cm. Set Height: 120 cm.
5. Select Landscape for slide orientation. Click OK.

NOTE: The official name of the school is Duke-NUS Medical School. Please indicate this name on your
poster. Likewise, the official logo of the school needs to be indicated on your poster. Refer to Elentra for
the zip folder showing all acceptable logos of Duke-NUS.

During your e-poster presentation, you are allowed to either zoom into the specific sections or create slides
with snapshots of the sections. Do not prepare additional slides. This is an opportunity for you to practise
scientific poster presentation.

Timeline
Please use this timeline as a guide to how you would plan to complete your project assignment. Pay
attention to the deadlines in bold.

Date Remarks

Jan 23 Titles are posted on Elentra. Take the week to review background literature.
Sign-up for topics will take place on a first-come-first-served basis. The portal
Jan 23 - 24
will be open from 7.00PM on Jan 23, to 5.00PM on Jan 24.
Submit a brief proposal that contains the preliminary title, scope of the study,
Feb 6
hypothesis and specific aims.
Submit your draft written assignment. The draft should include all the required
Mar 5
content sections listed above.
The draft will be returned to you with detailed feedback from your project
On the week of 11 Mar mentor. You are expected to incorporate this feedback into your final written
assignment as part of the revision process.
Team Meeting. You are expected to have gone through the feedback given and
think about how to incorporate them into your written assignment before
On the week of 11 Mar meeting with your project mentor. This will help give you the most yield during
the team meeting, as you can use that session to clarify doubts and ask further
questions.
Mar 26 Final Written Assignment Submission

Mar 26 – Apr 9 Design e-poster and prepare for presentation on Apr 9.

Apr 9 Poster Presentation

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Common Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Students tend to underestimate the importance of narrowing their focus to a particular research area,
and as a result end up becoming overwhelmed by the amount of scientific literature that they
encounter.

2. They also end up ‘reading too much’ when they are not using the appropriate search terms or search
engines that will lead them to peer‐reviewed literature.

3. Students bite off more than they can chew, so that they end up feeling overwhelmed by the
assignment. Students should keep in mind that not all research are Nobel‐prize winning. And that does
not make it any less important. This infographic perfectly illustrates this point (credit to:
https://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/):

4. Students are unhappy with groupmates. This could be the result of disagreements over ideas or
real/perceived unequal work distribution. When such situation arises, students are encouraged to
voice objections and preferences constructively. Students should also appropriately employ their
listening skills. Students are encouraged to work toward a resolution within the group, and only bring
the issue up to the module coordinators as a last resort.

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GMS1000 (AY2023-24 Semester 2)