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All of the rules under the Rice Honor Code apply to BIOC 311. When you turn in an assignment, you must be able to make the statement, "On my honor, I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this assignment." This pledge applies to notebook entries, pre-lab quizzes/exercises, homework assignments, section drafts, and the final paper.

You are encouraged to use resources available at Rice's Center for Written Oral and Visual Communication (CWOVC); however, you are NOT permitted to meet with a CWOVC consultant for help with any writing assignments for this course.  Please consult with me if you have any questions.

Laboratory Notebook

• Notebook pages that you turn in must be exact copies of the original page in your permanent notebook.  Making changes on the "copies" or the original notebook pages AFTER removing them from the notebook or leaving the lab is an honor code violation, unless you notify an instructor or teaching assistant in advance and have the alteration initialed.
• All corrections must be indicated in the notebook when the mistakes are discovered, even if it's days or weeks after that particular entry was made; do not attempt to "line-up" the copy page under the original to make a correction.
• All notebook entries must be dated with the actual date; that is, you cannot "pre-date" or "post-date" pages to agree with a particular lab session.
• The notebook is a "real-time" record of the procedures, problems, and results that occur during lab; you are not allowed to come to lab with the daily objectives and protocols already written in your notebook.  You must take notes during lab as you work in your own words.
• You may paraphrase from the protocols that you print from the course web site, but you must not enter the information word for word in your notebook. Document exactly what you did, including any mistakes, problems, setbacks, etc.   All specific information that you use for your materials and methods section should come from your notebook, not from the original protocol or the course web site.
• Since you work as a team, you are expected to share "raw data" that is generated during lab.  However, you absolutely must not copy procedure details directly from another student's notebook!. Communicate with your co-investigators and share the information by word of mouth to confirm what steps your team members carried out so that you may enter the information in your own words; include the name of the team member who performed the experiment as well as the page #'s in her/his notebook which contain the information.
• The notebook must contain evidence that you personally did the manipulations required to calculate all of the data presented.
• Although the notebooks will contain similar data, the presentation of this data and how it was obtained, as well as the objectives of each lab, experiment summaries, and conclusions, must be unique to each student.
• All notebook pages recorded DURING lab are due in your folder at the end of that lab session (i.e., you must turn them in BEFORE you leave lab).
• Do not remove notebook pages from your folder until after they have been graded.

Section Drafts and Final Paper

• You must individually create all text, tables, graphs, and figures that are presented in the paper. Acknowledgement as to the source of the data is required.
  You must write each section of the paper entirely on your own. The instructor needs to know your own understanding of the concepts in your own words. NEVER quote directly from ANY source, and never paraphrase or summarize someone else's interpretation.
• Do NOT share any form (electronic or hard copy) of any version of your lab notebooks, rough drafts, final drafts with anyone.
• Do NOT discuss the organization and/or structure of any section of the paper with anyone.
  
• Feel free to discuss strategies for data preparation and interpretation but do not write your lab paper with anyone else.
• Literature references must be cited both internally (by a number in [  ] following the information) and in the References section (complete reference) of the paper.
• DO NOT LET ANYONE ELSE "CRITIQUE" OR "PROOFREAD" ANY FORM OF ANY VERSION OF YOUR PAPER.

• RAW DATA may be exchanged freely among CURRENT class participants, including chart recordings, instrument readings obtained during an experiment, and photographs or photocopies of original gels.
• Do NOT exchange notebooks or lab papers even for the purpose of sharing data.

Written reference material

• You may consult your notebook, the lab manual, reference readings, textbooks, review articles, and primary sources (published research papers).
• You may consult any of our web resources on writing, including guidelines, presentations, and examples at any time during preparation for the assignment and during the writing itself.
• You may NOT consult another student's lab paper or notebook, from this year or from any previous year.
  

Data preparation

• The paper requires that you report your findings for both sources of the enzyme. Final numbers, such as relative molecular size, isoelectric point, and kinetic constants, are exchangeable among teams.
• Final numbers may also be accumulated from as many teams as you wish to strengthen the analysis of the comparison. You will need to interpret data records and to prepare computer-generated graphs and tables.
• You are encouraged to work with each other while learning how to work with the data. Teach each other - that's the best way to learn. However, once you know what to do and how to do it, I expect you to prepare your own graphs, tables, and figures.

Copyright, Acknowledgements, and Intended Use
Created by B. Beason (bbeason@rice.edu), Rice University, 9 June 1999
Updated 19 September 2013