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Preamble ignore_heading
Frontmatter ignore_heading
Abstract ignore_heading
Keywords ignore_heading
Introduction
Introduction giving the rationale and background to your work. This also should justify and clearly state your aims and objectives.
There are two typical ways of structuring the introduction. The more compact form is to combine the `context' and `literature review' in a single main section, where the context is presented immediately after the section heading (ie, no subsection), and then structure the literature review as subsection within the first section, finishing off with a final subsection which states the aims and objectives as well as a paragraph describing the structure of the remaining paper.
The more extended form is to separate the context and aims from the literature review. In this case, the first 'Introduction' section presents the context and concludes with the aims and objective plus the paragraph outlining the structure of the remaining paper. The literature review itself will then be the main Section 2, with suitable subsections to structure the material.
The introduction and literature review usually makes up about 20 to 30\% of the overall paper. Make sure that all the material is relevant to your research question and your research. An example of a typical balance of the different sections expected in a standard paper is given in Tab.~\ref{Tab:method}. However, each dissertation is different, and might end up with a different balance, as long as the overall length is not exceeded. In particular, the number of figures, tables and reference can vary widely (and wildly), very much depending on the type of work carried out.
\begin{table} \protect\caption{Illustration of relative length of different sections, taken from a representative paper from a previous student.\label{Tab:method}} \begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|} \hline Section & Word count & Number of figures and tables\\ \hline \hline Introduction and Literature Review & 1500 & 2 Figures \\ \hline Apparatus and Methods & 1500 & 3 Figures and 2 Tables \\ \hline Results & 1000 -- 1500 & 5 Figures \\ \hline Discussion and Conclusions & 1000 -- 1500 & 1 Table \\ \hline Conclusions and Future work & 500 & 1 Table \\ \hline References & & 25 -- 35 references; 60\% journal articles, 10\% books, 30\% websites \\ \hline \hline Total & 6000 & 10 Figures and 3 Tables\tabularnewline \hline \end{tabular} \end{table}Style guide
Page and text formatting
If you use the provided templates, the style requirements are already the default settings — so don't tinker with them! This LaTeX template is based on the Elsevier class but using 11pt (instead of the standard 10pt). We use the single-column format for practical reasons.
The document has to be prepared for the UK standard paper of A4 size with a text area of 16.45~cm by 21.9~cm using single columns at a `normal' serif font (e.g., Times New Roman or Cambria) with font size 11pt.
Word count
The expected word count is between 5000 and 7000 words. The word count includes everything from the start of the Introduction to the end of the Conclusions, including text in figure captions and tables. Excluded from the word count is the front matter (from the title to the end of the abstracts and key words) and the end matter (acknowledgements, references, appendices).
If you try to cheat the word count by having a lot of important information in appendices: remember that appendices only provide supplementary material, not essential material for the assessment. The markers are not required to read any appendix during the marking of the dissertation.
Section and item numbering
Paragraphs are justified on both sides and start with an indent. Section numbering is numeric, with `section' headings in bold but sub-section and subsub-section headings in italics. Each heading is preceded and followed by some space (about 6pt or half a line).
Figures, tables, and equations are numbered consecutively: Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1, Table 2, (1), (2), and so on. That means that they are not sub-numbered for each section, so no Figure 1.2. However, a figure might have two or more graphs. In that case, each graph is labelled a), b) and so on. Similarly, equations can be single equations such as \begin{equation}\label{eq1} e = m c^2
\end{equation} or they could be a set of equations, using the environment `subequation' from the subcaption package, \begin{subequations} \label{eq2}
\begin{gather} C_p = \frac{p}{\frac{1}{2} \rho U^2} \label{eq2a} \\ C_P = \frac{P}{\frac{1}{2} \rho A U^3} \label{eq2b} \end{gather}\end{subequations}
When referring to these objects in the text, you can use either `figure~\ref{exFigure}', `Figure~\ref{exFigure}', or `Fig~\ref{exFigure}', as long as you do it consistently. A specific graph in a multi-graph figure would be referred to as, for example Fig.~2b. Likewise, for referring to a table, you would use table, Table, or Tab.~\ref{Tab:method}, and equations are referred to as Eq.~(\ref{eq1}), Equations~(\ref{eq2}) or equation~(\ref{eq2b}).
References
These must follow the style of the journal used in the `References' at the end of this template, with an example for citing a journal article given by \cite{article}, for a contribution to conference proceedings by \cite{proc1}, and for a book by \cite{book1} or a chapter \citep{bookchapter}. If you do need to refer to websites, for example for data sources, an example is given by \cite{MIDAS} or \citep{web1}.
You can create your own *.bib file using EndNote or Mendeley and then extract and format the cited references using BibTeX.
Methodology and Apparatus
Clear description of how you approached the problem and what you did (NOT, what somebody else should do…).
This might start with an introductory paragraph providing a high-level description of your overall approach, then some specific subsections on your data sources, the methods to obtain your primary research data, sections on the instrumentation (including their accuracy and precision) or simulation software used, followed by a section how you used those tools, and complemented by an introduction to any more advanced analysis method you might have applied for the secondary analysis.
Especially in the description of your experiments or other activities, tables can be useful to summarise the key information, such as Table \ref{Tab:method}. Make sure it is complete but not too complex. Consider putting large tables in an appendix, but keep in mind the role of appendices mentioned in Section~\ref{S:Wordcount}.
Results
Describe the results and the results of their analysis
Results and primary analysis
Present the primary results in sufficient detail that the reader can get a good insight into what you obtained from your experiments or field work (or whatever you did), but avoid showing many similar graphs. Only show key samples, for example a typical case and a few unusual cases. Here, you will need to make good use of figures, such as that in Fig.~\ref{exFigure}
\begin{figure} \begin{centering} \includegraphics[width=0.7\textwidth]{CP_vs_U_Turb_Farm} \par\end{centering} \protect\caption{Range of observed power output from a single turbine (blue shaded and cross-hatched region) and from an entire wind farm at the same site (red shaded region) against wind speed. Both are normalised by the rated power and number of turbines contributing to the power output (Data source: Vattenfall).} \label{exFigure} \end{figure}Secondary analysis
Try to build up your many results into a systematic analysis which distills the main results and presents them in a clear way in well-designed figures.
Uncertainty analysis
Remember: any result is only credible if the reader knows how accurate your results are likely to be. This needs an error analysis or uncertainty analysis of your results.
Discussion
Here you need to draw together your various results, discuss what they mean and how reliable they are, using your uncertainty analysis and any other aspects which might limit your results such as explicit or implicit assumptions in your methodology. Then discuss how your results contribute to addressing your aims and objectives, and what your contribution to the wider field is.
There are three typical ways how the Discussion can be presented in a paper. The most extensive is to have the Discussion in its own section. From an intellectual point, this would be the recommended approach, at least to start with: it forces you to separate mentally your critical evaluation of your results from the evidence (your results) on which you base the discussion).
Another option is to merge the results and discussion into a single `Results and Discussion' section, but then you run the danger of mixing up evidence and interpretation and your lose strength in your argument.
A third option is to merge the discussion with the conclusions. Here, you run the risk of your main conclusions becoming buried in the discussion, and the reader has to guess a bit as to what your main contribution was.
Conclusions
A fairly concise section which summarises your main findings from your results and discussion sections, identifies your contribution to the field, and suggests some further work.
Bibliography ignore_heading
\appendix
Essential appendices
Essential appendices; ie, detail without which the main paper is difficult to understand should be included here.
List of further material in the Work Progress Report
All working material and non-essential appendices must be submitted separately as the `Work Progress Report'. There is no need to refer to that material. However, if you feel that certain sections or files in that report would be useful to the reader, you can list here that material and how to find it in the Work Progress Report submission.