Data Science Project development - CHE00049M

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  • Department: Chemistry
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2023-24

Module summary

Students will learn to develop a research project from an initial idea, through a survey of existing work, to producing a proposal for the project including an initial experimental design, data management plan, plan of work and equality and diversity assessment. Students will select a focus area and a member of staff from one of the participating departments, and plan a research project in that area.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2023-24

Module aims

Students will learn to develop a research project from an initial idea, through a survey of existing work, to producing a proposal for the project including an initial experimental design, data management plan, plan of work and equality and diversity assessment. Students will select a focus area and a member of staff from one of the participating departments, and plan a research project in that area. They will present their plan in an oral presentation, as well as in written documents including a review of the background literature.

Module learning outcomes

Students will be able to:

  • Develop an outline project idea into a plan of work and experimental design.

  • Design both exploratory data analysis and make formal hypotheses for testing.

  • Select, appraise and critique relevant prior research.

  • Create a literature review in a specialist subject area.

  • Develop a data management plan.

  • Analyse bibliometrics to investigate structural biases.

  • Present a project proposal to an audience.

Module content

  • The structure of scientific reasoning

  • Planning a research project

  • Writing a literature review

  • Research data management

  • Structural biases in science

  • Presenting a project

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 50
Essay/coursework 50

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

Literature review of the research project subject area

2000 word written report

50%

Project proposal, ethics and management

Oral presentation 10 minutes + written ethics and data management forms (1500 words)

50%

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 50
Essay/coursework 50

Module feedback

Feedback will be provided through workshops, online exercises and a formative assessment. Feedback on summative work will be provided within 25 working days of the assessment.

Indicative reading

  • Why trust science?
    Naomi Oreskes. Princeton University Press 2019

  • Issues in open research data - Samuel A. Moore. Ubiquity Press 2014