59  Lab report preparations

Here’s a diagramme of the lab report workflow:

graph TD
    A(Read the instructions) --> B(Create a plan)
    B --> C(Search for and read<br>relevant literature)
    C --> D(Analyse the data)
    D --> E(Write the lab report<br>#40;see next chapter#41;)
    E --> C

59.1 Read the instructions

Read the instructions closely and make sure you understand everything that is requested of you.

59.2 Create a plan

Check the deadline. Decide on how much time to you need for literature search, reading articles, data analysis and writing up. Leave some extra time for unexpected delays.

Tip

It’s often a good idea to work backwards from the deadline:

  • The deadline is on 12/05.
  • I’d like to have one day to go over everything again, with a particular focus on details I might have missed previously. E.g., I’ll check spellings, if all references are in APA style, if sentences are complete, if everything flows well, if tables and figures are numbered correctly. → Do this on 11/05.
  • I’m going to ask my grandmother if she can make sense of what I’ve written. She’ll probably need two days to give me feedback. I’d like to have one day to incorporate her feedback. → Send the draft on 08/05.
  • Etc.

59.3 Search for and read relevant literature

If there are key readings associated with the instructions, read these first. Make sure you understand the key points. Get an AI to explain things to you that you don’t understand, but seem relevant.

Conduct your own literature search. Use Web of Science.1 Take some time to familiarise yourself with the search interface. There is a self-guided Web of Science course you can complete in your own time.

The literature search should be a process with multiple iterations over which you refine your search terms. Sort your search hits by relevance and publication date (newest to oldest) and identify the most relevant recent publications.

Add the relevant papers to your reference management software (e.g., Zotero or EndNote). Both Zotero and EndNote have browser plugins. That is, once you’re on an article page, you only need to click on the browser plugin to add it to your reference management software.

Once you’ve added relevant papers to your reference management software, consider tagging them (e.g., ‘summativeY1’). This will make it easier to find them again in the future.

Then read the relevant papers. Properly. Reading abstracts is not enough. Ask an AI if you can’t make sense of something you read in a paper. Add annotations to the papers, make notes on a piece of paper or use a note-taking app.

Next, identify relevant citations in these articles (i.e., perform a backward search) and read those. Also do a forward search on Web of Science (i.e., find out which newer papers have cited the papers you’re reading) and read the relevant papers identified using this method.

59.4 Analyse the data

Based on the instructions and your literature search, decide what questions you need to answer. Choose appropriate tests. Find out how to run those tests with the software of your choice.

Before you start with the actual data analysis, have a close look at the data: Are there any variables you still need to compute to run your analyses? Are there any outliers that should potentially be removed? Anything else that seems weird about the data set as a whole or about individual participants?

Decide if you want to run parametric or non-parametric analyses. Run your main analyses. Decide if there are any control or explorative analyses you want to perform.

  1. Don’t use Google Scholar. Seriously, it’s rubbish for this purpose.↩︎