Project Report¶
Weeks 3-6
Your project report will probably be the most important output from your project. It will enable others to learn about your work and make use of it, whether in research or clinical practice. I’d encourage you to structure your report using the standard structure of articles reporting scientific experiments (with some additional flexibility):
Abstract: (write this last) An Abstract provides a concise overview of a scientific study. Typically 200-300 words in length, it should give the reader an overview of the study, containing only the most important and essential points. The reader should be able to decide, based on the Abstract, whether they want to read the accompanying paper (or, in this case, the remainder of the Project Report). Further details on writing an abstract are provided below (see the Section on Conference Submission).
Introduction: The introduction should:
Motivate the work: Provide the motivation for both the broad topic of your work (e.g. identifying atrial fibrillation) and the specific issue that you have focused on (e.g. accurately identifying ECG recordings for clinical review). Minimum length: 1 paragraph.
Summarise the state-of-the-art: Describe the state-of-the-art in tackling the specific issue, making reference to key publications (perhaps 5-10 references). If there really is no prior art in tackling this particular issue, then refer to works which have tackled similar issues. Minimum length: 1 paragraph.
Introduce your study: State the aim of the study in a single sentence. If necessary, use an additional sentence to state the objectives (i.e. the smaller aims). Describe key aspects of the methodology used in your experiments in 1-2 sentences, focusing on those which make your experiment(s) particularly valuable (e.g. using a large dataset which is representative of real-world conditions). Whilst there is no need to state the results at this stage, you could briefly mention how the results are significant (e.g. “the results will be valuable for the design of AF screening programmes”). Minimum length: 1 paragraph.
Literature review (optional): Although this section isn’t usually included in a scientific article, it is likely that your literature review was a key component of your project. Therefore, you may wish to include an additional section in the report in which either the literature review is inserted in full, or a summary of it is inserted. Examples of articles in which an additional ‘literature review’ section was inserted after the Introduction are this one (in which the section is called “Respiratory rate algorithms”), and this one (in which the section is called “Review of previous work”).
Methods: In this important section you should provide a comprehensive description of the methods used in your experiment(s). Ideally, the description should be sufficient for an experienced researcher to be able to repeat your experiments (a bit like a cooking recipe). It is helpful to split the ‘Methods’ section into subsections, which could include:
Dataset(s): A description of the dataset(s) used in the experiments. This should provide the key information about aspects of the dataset which relate to the experiments. This will help the reader understand why the dataset was suitable for addressing the research question(s). You do not need to provide a comprehensive description of the study in which the dataset was originally collected - only a brief summary, and those details which are relevant to your study need to be included.
Data processing: This should describe how the data were processed in order to perform the experiments. For instance, you may have only used data from individuals meeting specific criteria (such as those aged over 75), or you may have calculated new variables from those in the dataset (such as calculating the Body Mass Index from height and weight). These methods should be described.
Statistical analysis: This section should state any statistical techniques or tests you used (e.g. Pearson’s correlation coefficient), and what they were used for (e.g. was used to assess the correlation between X and Y). There is a tension between providing all the necessary details, and keeping the description concise. You will need to use your judgement to discern which details are required, and which should not be included, perhaps because: (i) they are intuitive to someone experienced in this field of research; or (ii) they had little impact on the results.
Results: This section should present the results of the experiments. Key results are most often presented in Figures and/or Tables, which can help to quickly convey them to the reader. Key results are also stated in the text, e.g. “as shown in the box plot in Figure 1, there was a significant difference between the heights of 5 and 15 year olds (100 vs. 150 cm, p<0.05)”. Minor results are usually provided in the text. It is useful to state the key findings in the text (for instance, the significant difference in heights is stated here). However, further discussion of the results should be reserved for the ‘Discussion’ section.
Discussion: Discuss the key findings and their implications. It is helpful to start with an introductory paragraph stating the key findings and the key aspects of the experimental methods which led to these findings. This paragraph should emphasise the novel points of this study. The remainder of the discussion should consider:
Context: How the results sit in the context of the wider literature. What was known before this study, and how does this study add to our understanding?
Significance: What are the implications of the results? For instance, could they impact future research, device design, or clinical practice?
Limitations (often a subsection): What were the limitations to this study? How generalisable are the results?
Future work (often a subsection): Discuss potential directions for future work to build on this study.
Conclusion: A short section stating the key conclusion(s) of the work. Often this only needs to be a few sentences in length.
Acknowledgment: Acknowledge any funding providers.
Appendices (optional): In many reports there is no need for appendices. However, they can be a useful way of documenting additional work you have done (such as results which don’t relate to the main research question(s)).
Report Templates: You may find it helpful to use a template for your report, such as the Microsoft Word or Latex templates provided in the ‘Instructions for Authors’ section of this webpage.