THE PAPER MUST BE ON A BIOMATERIALS RELATED LITERATURE REVIEW TOPIC.
Review papers are not research protocols and they are not research papers. They do not have specific aims, materials and methods, results, and conclusions sections. They are essentially a detailed introduction on a given topic. An exception to this rule is that if you are doing research on a given topic, that topic can be used for the Independent Project. In these cases, a section can be included on your research results. However, this project is still mainly a literature review and should follow the below guidelines.
4. A good review should contain some history of the subject, the progression of literature on the topic up to the most modern literature, and some conclusions about the current state of the literature on the subject and what the future may bring.
5. When reviewing the selected papers on the subject, the student should write some notes on each paper that summarize the general subject, methods and results, and significant conclusions.
6. After reviewing the papers (and this should be at least 30-40 references), the student should use their summaries of the papers to assemble a story. After all, a literature review is a story.
7. The story should have a beginning (early history), middle (progression of the literature up to the present, with advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to the problem), and an end (the current views expressed in the literature, your interpretation of these views, and where you think the field is headed in the future).
8. The written portion should be between 14 and 20 pages in length (without bibliography), with margins no more than 1 inch on all sides, and font no larger than 12 pt. It should be 1.5 line spacing. Images included in the text must be tables or figures supplied by the author to be counted in the text. Imported images from other documents may be added (and must be cited properly) but will not count toward the total text. Total and acknowledgements can be no longer than 1 page.
