master of science (msc) in the biodiversity and taxonomy of ......msc in the biodiversity and...

Master of Science (MSc) in the

Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants

Programme Handbook - Academic Year 2020-2021

MSc in the Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants Programme Handbook 2020-21 ______________________________________________________________________________________

WELCOME to the Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants (BTP) MSc programme at the

University of Edinburgh and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and welcome also

to Edinburgh, to Scotland, and to the United Kingdom, if these are new to you. We

hope you will have a successful and enjoyable time with us.

The programme represents a unique partnership between the Royal Botanic Garden

Edinburgh (RBGE) and the University of Edinburgh (UoE). You are situated in the most

ideal place for this course; the setting of the botanic garden provides expertise, living

and herbarium collections, research facilities, and a comprehensive library. RBGE has

a unique environment, with a strong education department linking science with

horticulture.

In this booklet you will find an account of this year's programme, and some guidance

about where to find further information if you need it.

You will meet many teachers and researchers during the year, and also others who,

though not involved in your course, are related to the friendly taxonomic plant world at

Edinburgh. This post-graduate course is an important opportunity to make informal

professional contacts as well as carry out your research training. Make the most of all

these opportunities.

We hope you will find this handbook useful and that it will answer most of your

questions, but if there are any other queries you may have about the programme,

please do not hesitate to contact us.

Louis Ronse De Craene MSc DSc – MSc Programme Director (RBGE)

Andrew Hudson BSc PhD – MSc Programme Director (UoE)


Contents

1. A brief introduction to the partners 5

1.1 The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 5

1.2 The University of Edinburgh 8

1.3 Contact details of the Programme Directors 10

2. Timetables 11

3. Aims and Scope of the Programme 11

4. Careers and Future 11

5. Programme Outline 13

5.1 General 13

5.2 Mark allocation 13

6. Student-Staff Liaison and Feedback 16

7. Programme Duration and Term Dates 2020-21 16

8. Programme Structure 17

9. Courses 19

10. MSc summer research projects 28

11. Examinations 34

12. Study Tours & Visits 39

13. List of Recommended Reading 39

14. Student Services & Support 43

Appendix 1: Advice to project report writers in postgraduate courses 46

Appendix 2: How to research, plan and write a scientific essay 51

Appendix 3: Preparing and delivering an effective talk 54

Appendix 4: RBGE Referencing Policy 62

Appendix 5: General guidelines for thesis writing at RBGE 71

Appendix 6: Plagiarism and copying 73

Appendix 7: University of Edinburgh Marking Scheme 77

Appendix 8: University of Edinburgh assessments and regulations 78

Appendix 9: Complaints and Appeal Procedure 79

Appendix 10: Student Disability Services at the University 80


Appendix 11: A Guide to Filling in Special Circumstances Forms for

Students

80

Appendix 12: Out-of-Hours Student Support 84


1. A brief introduction to the partners

1.1 The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

The mission of RBGE (www.rbge.org.uk) is to “explore, explain and conserve the world

of plants for a better future”.

RBGE is an independent institute founded over three hundred years ago (1670), with

a long history of excellence in botanical research and teaching. It now has about 180

staff, 50 of whom are scientific staff. Initiated as a small physic garden to provide

medicinal plants for the Professor of Medicine, it has undergone several changes of

site and status to become the multifaceted organisation it is today. James Sutherland,

one of the earliest Keepers of the Botanic Garden, was appointed Professor of Botany

at Edinburgh University in 1695, thus beginning the long association between the two

institutes. Apart from a break early in the 18th century, the posts of Regius Keeper

(Director of RBGE) and Professor of Botany remained united until 1956, and the

University Botany Department was based at RBGE until 1965, when it moved to King's

Buildings.

In 1763, the second move within its first century, found RBGE on a 2 hectare site to

the west of Leith Walk, which then ran through open country between Edinburgh and

Leith. Sixty years later, however, it was beset with problems; glass-houses had

become seriously dilapidated and the nursery had been built over due to the expansion

of Edinburgh.

In 1823, an area of 6 hectares at Inverleith, the nucleus of the present garden, was

bought from James Rochied, a local landowner; this was next to land owned by the

Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society, with whom RBGE still has strong Links. Since

that time several other adjoining parcels of land have been acquired, including that of

the RCHS, resulting in the present garden of 28 hectares, and a nearby nursery of 3

hectares.

Research at RBGE is based on three major resources: the herbarium, the living

collections, and the library.


Herbarium

The Herbarium sits at the heart of the research programme of the Garden. There are

more than 2 million accessions, including dried material and spirit collections as well

as items prepared for microscopy and photographic slides. The collections of the

Herbarium are especially rich in European, Asian, South African, Brazilian and

Malaysian flowering plants, conifers and cryptogams, including ferns, bryophytes,

algae, lichens and fungi. There are ancillary collections of carpological, timber and

spirit-preserved material, and also a large photographic slide collection of both wild

and cultivated plants. The cryptogamic collection is considerable.

Living Collections

The Living Collections of about 12,500 species are of international importance and

comprise 27 hectares of garden and 4.6 hectares of nursery at Edinburgh, 44 hectares

at the Younger Botanic Garden, Benmore, 25 hectares at Dawyck Botanic Garden,

Peebleshire and 11.4 hectares at Logan Botanic Garden, Wigtownshire. At Edinburgh

there are 5,170m2 of display glasshouse open to the public and 1,947m2 of glasshouse

area devoted to plants for scientific and horticultural research. The four gardens

represent a wide range of soil, aspect and climatic types, allowing an extraordinarily

wide range of plants to be grown.

Library

The Library holds 75,000 books and about 100,000 volumes of journals. It obtains by

subscription or exchange nearly 1,600 current journals, making it one of Britain's

largest specialist botanical libraries. There is a collection of about 250,000 "cuttings",

some of which are original artworks, together with a large number of botanical

illustrations. The Historical Archives Collection consists of about 20,000 items of

correspondence, diaries and other manuscript material relating to the history of the

garden, and to botany and botanists. The Library provides full research library services

to RBGE staff. This includes cataloguing to AACR2 standards; analytical indexes for

taxonomic, current awareness and enquiry services; literature searching using on-line

databases; inter-library loans facilities; and full loan and circulation services. Electronic

access to the University of Edinburgh library is also offered to the MSc students.


Staff Expertise

The BTP programme currently benefits from suitably qualified and experienced

members of the botanical staff within RBGE involved with teaching and tutoring on the

component courses. As you would expect, the focus is on learning about plants and

one of the key features of the programme is that many of the staff at RBGE are

scientists and horticulturists of international standing. Their expertise and contribution

to the course provides a most valuable opportunity for students to learn at first hand

from some of Britain’s most respected researchers of particular plant groups. The staff

complement is augmented by specialists hired from outwith RBGE. Lecturers

participate from the Universities of Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and Aberdeen, as well as

other research institutes such as the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Natural

History Museum. In the past this mix of teaching staff and in-house scientists with

external practitioners, has provided an effective and valued teaching resource.

Publications

A major taxonomic journal, The Edinburgh Journal of Botany (formerly Notes from

the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh), is produced at RBGE, with parts being

published three times a year, while news of the Garden and its activities, is published

four times a year in a newsletter called The Botanics. Articles of horticultural interest

are produced in the journal Sibbaldia. Administrative notices are either circulated

fortnightly in the Staff Bulletin, or if urgent, sent out separately as Garden Notices.

Friends of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

This recently instituted organisation was founded to accommodate the large number

of people who wish to have some sort of link with the activities of the Garden. The

Friends support the Garden in many ways, not least by fund-raising, and also run a

series of local events. Moreover, every year the Friends put money aside to fund an

MSc student. The activities and news concerning the Friends are published in The

Botanics or at URL http://www.rbge.org.uk. More information about the Friends can

be obtained from the Honorary Secretary, Friends of the Royal Botanic Garden

Edinburgh, at RBGE.


The Botanical Society of Scotland http://www.botsocscot.org.uk

Throughout its auspicious history, this ancient yet also very modern society has had a

close relationship with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. It was founded in 1836

following discussions with Dr John Hutton Balfour who later became Professor of

Medicine and Botany in the University of Edinburgh, and Regius Professor of Botany,

Keeper of the Garden and Queen's Botanist in Scotland. In 1863, the donation of the

Society's herbarium of many thousands of specimens and in 1872 of its valuable

library formed the nucleus around which the Garden's extensive Herbarium and

Library have been built.

BSS is a scientific forum where both professional and amateur botanists can promote

and discuss their interests. It is a focus for joint activity by universities and research

institutes with interests in plant science. BSS actively promotes interests in Plant

Science in schools and is concerned with flora writing and conservation in a Scottish

context. The Society holds lectures, field trips, conferences, and publishes the new

journal “Plant Ecology and Diversity”. The Society is very active in Edinburgh and you

will notice its operations at the Garden, and at King’s Buildings. Perhaps you will think

it a useful thing to join the Society. You will be welcomed.

1.2 The University of Edinburgh

For the UK, Edinburgh is a big university, with over 30,000 students and about 5,000

staff. It is in a phase of rapid expansion at present, and has a very large income from

research grants and contracts, as well as from the Treasury (via the Department of

Education and the Scottish Universities Funding Council). For full details see the

annual University Calendar, but here are a few key points:

The University of Edinburgh was originally the College of Edinburgh or the Tounis

College, founded in 1583 by the Town Council of Edinburgh, under general powers

granted by the Charter of King James VI, dated 14 April 1582. From the first the

College possessed the privilege of conferring degrees. This privilege was ratified by

the Act of Confirmation, passed in 1621, which secured to the College of James VI as

it had come to be called all the rights, immunities and privileges enjoyed by the other

Universities of Scotland. This ratification was renewed in the Treaty of Union between

http://www.botsocscot.org.uk/


England and Scotland, and in the Act of Security. Gradually, in Acts of the General

Assembly, of the Town Council, and of Parliament, the College of James VI came to

be styled the University of Edinburgh; but it remained under the control and patronage

of the Town Council until 1858 when, by the Universities Act, all the Universities of

Scotland received new and autonomous constitutions.

Histories of the University have been compiled from time to time. In connection with

the 300th anniversary of the foundation of the University, the History of the University

of Edinburgh 1883-1993, edited by Local Turner, was published: this volume was in

continuation of Grant's Story of the University of Edinburgh during its first three

hundred years. The most recent work, however, is Professor Horn's A Short History

of the University of Edinburgh 1556-1889. Edinburgh University: an Illustrated

Memoir, published on the occasion of the University's Tercentenary, selectively

illustrates aspects of Edinburgh's history. Ronald Birse's book, Science at The

University of Edinburgh 1583-1993, is an illustrated history which marks the Centenary

of the Faculty of Science and Engineering. The University's collection of over 250

portraits is described in The University Portraits (2 vols), with biographies of the sitters.

Lists of former holders of chairs and lectureships are given in the 1967-68 and previous

editions of the Calendar.

The University’s science campus, at King’s Buildings in the south of the city, houses

most of the science departments and institutes of the University. Other medical and

veterinary departments are located in the city itself. At KB, biological science is

encompassed by the School of Biological Sciences http://www.biology.ed.ac.uk. One

of its six institutes, Molecular Plant Science is to be found in the Rutherford Building,

on the Mayfield Road side of the campus. The School of Geosciences at King's

Buildings also contains a number of plant scientists (http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/).

Biology at Edinburgh is collectively one of the largest concentrations of national

investment and employment in the subject. The research income and output is very

considerable. The University of Edinburgh has a well-developed website at

www.ed.ac.uk from where you can get much more information.

http://www.biology.ed.ac.uk/

http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/


1.3 Contact information for the Programme Directors:

The Programme Director (Royal Botanic Gardens - RBGE) is Dr Louis Ronse De

Craene ([email protected]; Tel: +44 (0)131-248-2804

Royal Botanic Garden, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR

The Programme Director (University of Edinburgh) is Prof Andrew Hudson

(andrew.hudson.ed.ac.uk; Tel: +44 (0)131 651 3383

Institute of Molecular Plant Science

Rutherford Building, King’s Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JH

mailto:[email protected]



2. Timetables:

A general timetable will be given to you during the induction week. For each course a

teaching scheme will be given to you. Changes in the timetable during the year are

inevitable and will be communicated to you in due time.

For information only the timetable of the induction week and associated events is

communicated here.

*see also: http://www.ed.ac.uk/staff-students/students/new-students

3. Aims and scope of the Programme:

The MSc programme in the Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants will equip botanists,

taxonomists, conservationists and ecologists alike, with a high level of skill and a

breadth of knowledge in pure and applied plant taxonomy and related fields, including

cryptogams and fungi. This balance of academic rigour and practicality forms a bridge

between traditional and modern approaches. Four main areas will be covered:

- Basic taxonomic and botanical knowledge

- The investigation of plant diversity and its evolution

- The management and use of taxonomic collections

- The challenges for conservation and sustainable plant use

The MSc is a 1-year full time programme, including two terms of lectures and a

research project during the summer. There is the option to do the course over two

years with the spreading of credits over both years and the dissertation at the end of

the second year.

4. Careers and Future:

This MSc is an ideal opportunity for those wishing to develop a career in botany, where

a deep knowledge of taxonomic investigation and resources is essential. It is to be

expected that the looming biodiversity crisis will stress the need for more trained

taxonomists. Course graduates should be employable in a wide range of fields

http://www.ed.ac.uk/staff-students/students/new-students


including survey work in threatened ecosystems, assessment of plant resources and

genetic diversity, management of taxonomic institutes and curation of taxonomic

collections, university and college training, and pure taxonomic research. The MSc in

Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants also functions as an efficient stepping-stone for

those wishing to start a PhD.

Opportunities for career development need to be considered throughout the

programme. Students should be reminded that, once started, it usually takes 6-9

months to get a job, sometimes longer in a really specialized area. So start early! Ask

your tutors about any opportunities or openings they may know of, keep a close watch

on advertised posts in the quality and scientific press (e.g. New Scientist, Nature,

Science, etc.). Scrutinize the electronic notice board.

Also make use of the University Careers Service. It exists to serve you. We organize

a career session in the first term where you will receive more information from a

qualified staff member. Careers Services in other universities are also available. Do

not forget the commercial and Local Authority Services, though these are often better

for less specialized sources of employment. A guide for postgraduate grant

applications is also obtainable from Louis Ronse De Craene or the library. We

organize a career session in the first term to provide crucial information to prepare you

for the labour market.

PhD positions are sought by writing to the potential supervisors in universities and

research institutes. Ask your teachers or tutors for ideas. We organize an information

session about PhD’s at the end of term 1. The School of Biological Sciences at the

University, which is a co-producer of this programme, is always interested in PhD

applications from well-qualified students seeking a higher degree with a taxonomic

framework. The rule generally, like so many things in life, is ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t

get’!


5. Programme Outline:

5.1 General

The programme starts in mid-September, lasts twelve months and involves two terms

of lectures, practicals, workshops and investigations, including essays and short

projects, and final year practical exams. On the basis of this course-work, students

then either embark on a four-month research project to qualify for the MSc, or are

awarded the Diploma.

In the autumn term, a number of pieces of written work will be submitted. One is a

research project about some aspect of Angiosperm Biodiversity followed by a seminar

in January. A second is a 5000 words essay on a question relating to the evolution of

plants. Another report is written as part of the Cladistics course. Finally, a full flora

writing report on a genus will be produced as part of the Taxonomy and Collections

course. In the second term several shorter reports will be produced: a second report

of the Cladistics course (Population genetics), a "research paper" resulting from the

cytogenetic investigation, the writing of a research grant application linked to the plant

geography course, two short reports as part of the course in Conservation and

Sustainability, and two assessments related to the biodiversity of cryptogams.

Students will be encouraged to give seminars for different exercises, which are

assessed separately.

Due to Covid-19 there will not be the possibility for a two-week field-trip to Colombia.

However, we will replace this by an extended training in field botany spread over the

two terms. Training in tropical plant identification, collection and inventory will be

given, as well as ecological and ethnobotanical investigations of the vegetation.

5.2 Mark allocations

Course Credits % of total mark

Term 1 Phylogenetics 20 16.67

Taxonomy and Collections 10 8.33


Evolution of Plants 10 8.33

Biodiversity of angiosperms 20 16.67

Term 2 Biodiversity Cryptogams–Fungi 20 16.67

Conservation and Sustainability 10 8.33

Plant genomics 10 8.33

Plant Geography 10 8.33

Field Course 10 8.33

TOTALS 120 100

A practical examination will be organized for the practical-based courses, such as the

field course, the Biodiversity of Angiosperms, and the biodiversity of cryptogams

course. Some courses will be assessed by an essay.

1) LATE SUBMISSION PENALTY: unless there are certified medical or other,

pre-approved reasons for late submission of formally required written work, it

will attract a mark penalty of 5% per calendar day that the submission is

delayed beyond the announced hand-in date. For example, if you hand in work

2 days late and receive a mark of 65, you will receive a late penalty of 10%,

and a final mark of 55. This applies for up to 7 days, after which a mark of 0 will

be awarded.

2) Students who obtain a combined mean mark of 50% or more in their

examination results and in-course assessments may proceed to the

Dissertation work and are on track for an MSc. Students who score a

combined mean of less than 50% and not less than 40% are eligible for a

Diploma. Students who score a combined mean mark of less than 40% will

have failed and will be required to withdraw from the programme.


3) The Board of Examiners determines the marks to be assigned to students, with

the assistance of an External Examiner. This determination of marks takes

place in early May.

4) The dissertation will be double-marked by the supervisor and one assessor

(member of the teaching team) using the same mark scheme as that used for

the examinations and the formal written course-work (see mark scheme

below). The mark will be used to determine whether the quality of the

dissertation, and the work on which it is based is good enough to confirm the

candidate as worthy to receive the MSc degree.

5) Candidates must submit THREE hard copies of their dissertation as well as

an electronic (pdf) version for marking. The same policy (a 5% daily mark

penalty) operates for dissertations submitted after the deadline as it does for

in-term formally marked course-work (see 1, above).

6) MSc with Distinction/Merit. The MSc may be awarded with Distinction if a

candidate achieves a mark of 70% for both the Dissertation and the taught

component of the programme. The MSc may be awarded with Merit if a

candidate achieves a mark of 60% for both the Dissertation and the taught

component of the programme. Borderlines for both are considered, at the

discretion of the Board of Examiners. All courses must be passed at 40% or

above for the award of distinction. Students who did not obtain a mark in the

region of 70% for the taught components of the programme, but nevertheless

obtained a mark above 70% for the Dissertation, will receive the mention

“RBGE award”*.

*RBGE wishes to express its appreciation of the quality of a dissertation through this unofficial

mention.


6. Student-Staff Liaison and Feedback:

Feedback to students - of our comments on your submitted work - comes in the form

of diverse sheets of criticism from the various markers. The mark should be

declared, so that students know how they are getting on. Markers are under heavy

time pressure at some times of the year, so feedback will sometimes be slower than

at other times. We will hope to get feedback to students within two weeks of

submission time: University regulations require feedback to be returned within 15

working days of submission. ASK if it does not appear by then. ASK, also, if you do

not understand the feedback or wish it expanded.

Feedback from students - about how things are going, any problems or pressures -

should be continuous. Please let the Programme Directors know if a problem has

developed or is foreseen. Mentoring and discussion of any personal problems can be

done in confidentiality with Mrs Jenny Farrar, MSc course teaching assistant and Dr.

Louis Ronse De Craene.

Formal feedback comes in three ways (1) from a Student-Staff Liaison Committee,

which meets once a term, (2) from course questionnaires, distributed at the end of

courses and at the end of the programme, and (3) from a conversation with the

external examiner at the end of the course.

7. Programme Duration & Term Dates 2020-21:

During the first term most of the MSc lectures and practicals will be delivered on line,

using the virtual learning environment of PropaGate. In the second term lectures will

be a mixture of online lectures and lectures on site at the Royal Botanic Garden but

occasionally some lectures or practicals will be at King’s Buildings, Mayfield Road,

Edinburgh (part of the University of Edinburgh Science campus).

‘Induction Week’ at RBGE: week commencing Monday 14th September 2020.

Autumn Term: Monday 21st September 2020 to Friday 18th December 2020.

Spring Term: Monday 11th January 2021 to Friday 9th April 2021.


Practical exams including field course exam: third week of April- first week of

May.

Summer Research Project: 10th May 2021 to 20th August 2021.

Summer Research project seminars: Early September 2021 (TBC)

RBGE graduation: early September 2021 (TBC).

8. Programme Structure:

Lectures, practicals, workshops and investigations are the main methods of teaching.

Lectures illustrate a number of great themes in the subject, and each will normally

last between one hour and one hour and a half. You should take careful notes; ask

the lecturer about any obscure points. Handouts or electronic presentations of lectures

will be provided to the students at the time of the lecture.

Practicals will be based on set tasks and materials, illustrating themes covered in the

lectures or dealing with distinct subjects. They usually last between 2 and 3 hours.

Online practicals will be organised with specific tasks that students can carry out while

at home.

Workshops are days in which you learn about a technique or a skill in an intensive

way, usually from a single teacher. Workshops may be of one to five days, depending

on the topic. They are opportunities to appreciate and to gain taxonomically relevant

practical competences, or to evaluate the cost effectiveness of methods in different

taxonomic contexts.

Investigations consist of problems you are given to solve, on your own but with some

guidance, usually within a day, - sometimes longer. The problem might be a piece of

identification, requiring your independent use of the herbarium, garden or library - or

all three. It might be a cytological conundrum, or it might be an evolutionary question

or a posed "management" enigma.

You will see blocks of time in the timetables for the two terms that are unmarked. This

time is for you to use as you personally find helpful to your studies. Sometimes it will

be for doing a bit more practical, sometimes reading, sometimes revision, sometimes


composing or planning some written work. This is an important time for you to

command - we shall do our best not to encroach upon it, and even try to engineer

more for you if we can. However, we might use that space in the timetable to schedule

seminars.

We shall tell you about the format of examinations in good time, and also explain the

university marking system to you. All the work you do will be returned with comments

to help you, though of course we shall need to repossess some of it to send to the

External Examiner.

Part-time Study

There is no problem with part-time study (for a non-Tier 4 student), provided it is

clear to the student what the curriculum for each of the two years will be and there

are arrangements for appropriate supervision.

In the case of BTP, students are allowed to take the programme over two years. A

part-time BTP student would take the taught component and assessments along with

full-time students and would then do a project for four months in the following

academic year, presenting a research seminar along with that year’s full-time

students in September. Therefore no change to the current assessment

arrangements would be needed.

There are two pathways available for the part-time programme:

60 credits of courses in the first year, followed by 60 credits of courses and

the dissertation in the second year;

120 credits of courses in the first year, followed by the dissertation in the

second year.

Students wishing to study part-time should be aware that the fees are charged per

credits, and the annual fee will therefore be higher in the first or second year,

depending on the pathway chosen.


9. Courses:

Degree Programme Title: The Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants (MSc/Dip)

Programme Code PTMSCBITXP1F

Degree Type: Postgraduate Taught Masters / Diploma

Semester Course Course code

Credit

total

Level

2 Conservation and Sustainability PGBI11043 10 11

1 & 2 Phylogenetics and Population Genetics PLSC1103 20 11

1 Evolution of Plants PGBI11002 10 11

1 & 2 Biodiversity of Angiosperms PGBI11044 20 11

1 & 2 Biodiversity of Cryptogams and Fungi PLSC1105 20 11

1 Taxonomy and Plant Collections PLSC1106 10 11

2 Plant Geography PGBI11012 10 11

2 Plant Genome Diversity PLSC1104 10 11

1 & 2 Tropical Biodiversity Field Course PGBI11046 10 11

3 Project and Dissertation

(Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants)

PGBI11020 60 11

9.1 Conservation and Sustainability PGBI11043 – Semester 2 (10 Credits):

Course Organiser: Antje Ahrends

Lecturers: Antje Ahrends (RBGE), Pete Hollingsworth (RBGE), Chris Ellis (RBGE),

Aline Finger (RBGE), Katherine Hayden (RBGE), Tiina Sarkinen (RBGE), Tony


Miller (RBGE) and team of the Centre for Middle Eastern Plants (CMEP), Phil

Thomas (RBGE), Alan Forrest (RBGE), Martin Gardner (RBGE), Colin Pendry

(RBGE), Peter Wilkie (RBGE), Phil Franks (IIED).

This course introduces the students to major conservation issues and explores how

science can contribute to policy making and conservation implementation. Teaching

on this course has a strong applied focus and consists of a mixture of lectures and

practicals. The main focus is plant conservation but a lot the issues and techniques

that are covered are transferable to other taxa. You will receive an introduction to

current conservation issues and global challenges. This is followed by an overview of

the major international and national conservation policies and bodies. The course will

then explore how biodiversity scientists can help to address conservation issues and

look at ways of implementing conservation, drawing examples from many parts of

the world and covering both in- and ex-situ conservation. The course also provides

you with skills in several state-of-the-art techniques that are used to prioritize areas

and species for conservation. These include some specialist techniques like Red List

assessments but also transferrable skills like GIS, Species Distribution Modelling,

survey design and statistical analysis in R. The aim of teaching these wider skills is

to increase the participants’ employability in conservation and more widely, and to

this end the course will also provide some training in CV writing and job interviews.

Assessment is through two separate assignments in semester 2 (50% each).

9.2 Phylogenetics and Population Genetics PLSC1103 – Semesters 1-2 (20

Credits):

Phylogenetics Course Organizer: Mark Hughes

Lecturers: Mark Hughes (RBGE), Tiina Sarkinen (RBGE), Peter Moonlight (RBGE),

Kyle Dexter (UoE).

Population genetics Course Organizer: Markus Ruhsam.

Lecturers: Markus Ruhsam (RBGE), Aline Finger (RBGE), Mark Hughes (RBGE).

Phylogenetics is a discipline with an ever increasing impact in biology, from

taxonomic classifications, biogeography, trait evolution and biome assembly. The


Phylogenetics Course leads you to the current state-of-the-art in the field, starting

with a historical overview of phylogenetics. By the end of the course you should be

adept at taking raw molecular data and generating phylogenies based on parsimony,

bayesian and likelihood methods in a range of software packages. Population

genetics focuses on examining the amounts and partitioning of genetic variation and

establishing the evolutionary processes underlying population differentiation and

diversification.

This provides insights into how some groups of populations remain on a common

evolutionary trajectory and others diversify into different ecotypes or species.

Population genetic approaches are also widely used in conservation programmes in

which the conservation of genetic biodiversity is an explicit goal. At the interface of

population genetics (diversity and differentiation within species) and phylogenetics

(relationships and differentiation between species) is the nature of the species

themselves. The course ends with a discussion of the definition of plant species, and

how the disciplines of population genetics and phylogenetics can contribute towards

enhanced understanding of the most appropriate concept(s) of what constitutes a

species.

Assessment is through two written assignments, an exercise on population

genetics counting for 1/3 of the mark, and a phylogenetics exercise counting

for 2/3.

9.3 Evolution of Plants PLSC11002 – Semester 1 (10 Credits):

Course Organiser: Louis Ronse De Craene

Lecturers: Chris Jeffree (UoE), Louis Ronse De Craene (RBGE).

This course examines the origins of terrestrial plants from green algae and follows

the timeline of the appearance of their principal innovations, and their evolution from

their earliest known attempts to colonize the land in the early Palaeozoic to the

present day. The major impacts of plants on the structure, atmosphere and climate

of the Earth, and their feedbacks to plant evolution will be discussed in relation to

molecular, ultrastructural and morphological data and fossil evidence.


Plants are the primary producers of terrestrial biomes and not only form the visible

vegetation cover and define the character of the biomes of our green planet but, over

hundreds of millions of years have actually engineered it, modifying the structure of

land surfaces and the composition of earth’s atmosphere. Today’s terrestrial

environments are dominated, in terms of biomass, productivity and biodiversity, by

flowering plants. This is a relatively recent phenomenon, however, and for much of

the time since plants colonized the land, the principal groups of plants on land were

spore-producing bryophytes, ‘pteridophytes’ and various types of early seed plants.

The origin, diversity, distribution and special features of the principal plant groups,

bryophytes, clubmosses, ferns and their allies, gymnosperms and angiosperms are

described. The course ends with an overview of the origins of the angiosperms and

their early evolution. A half day excursion to East and/or West Wemyss (fossil coal

deposits) and a half day visit to the National Museum of Scotland are planned.

Assessment is by a written assignment during semester 1.

9.4 Biodiversity of Angiosperms PGBI11044 – Semester 1 & 2

(20 Credits):

Course organiser: Louis Ronse De Craene/Jenny Farrar

Lecturers: Jenny Farrar (RBGE), Louis Ronse De Craene (RBGE), plus further

RBGE Science staff.

The purpose of the course is to explain the origin, evolution and special features of

the angiosperms to enable you to understand the relationships of major groups of

plants. The lectures are provided in the context of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group

(APG IV, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 181: 1-20, 2016) and give a broad

outline of the major clades and the evolution of key characters. The major lineages

of Angiosperms are presented with emphasis on major events of evolution and

diversification. Further to this, the evolution of the angiosperms is approached from a

floral structural perspective. Morphological characters linked to the flower are

analysed and linked with the evolutionary developmental genetics underlying floral

development. Other elements affecting floral evolution, such as pollination ecology,

are presented. Throughout, full use is made of the excellent collections of living


plants at RBGE. Twenty practical sessions spread throughout the year analyse the

floral structures of the major orders and families of angiosperms. The practicals give

the opportunity to extend on key characters based on further sampling and

observation of living floral material grown at RBGE. The best way to become

acquainted with the diversity of angiosperm families is through careful observation

supported by drawing half-flowers including floral diagrams and floral formulae.

The availability of living study material involves the study of plants as an entity and

students are encouraged to observe as many structures as possible during guided

walks. After completing this course in combination with the fieldtrip, you should be

able to identify major plant groups by sight, mostly to family level.

Assessment is through a specific research project at the end of semester 1

(50%), and a two hour practical examination using live material at the end of

semester 2 (50%).

9.5 Biodiversity of Cryptogams and Fungi PLSC1105 – Semester 1 & 2

(20 Credits):

Course Organiser: Rebecca Yahr

Lecturers: Neil Bell (RBGE), Chris Ellis (RBGE), Mary Gibby (RBGE), Katy Hayden

(RBGE), David Mann (RBGE), Heather McHaffie (RBGE), Robert Mill (RBGE),

Rebecca Yahr (RBGE).

Though sometimes inconspicuous, algae, fungi and non-flowering plants are

extremely diverse and play crucial roles in nutrient cycling, as environmental

indicators and in the evolution of diversity. Many cryptogams, including bryophytes,

fungi, and lichens are important indicator organisms, increasingly used to monitor

environmental change and pollution over timescales of years to millions of years.

Despite their importance, expertise in identifying cryptogams is nationally and

internationally rare. This course is designed to develop skills in interpreting

cryptogam diversity in workshop-style sessions including practical, hands-on

examination, as a basis for identifying algae, fungi, lichens, bryophytes, ferns and


their allies, and conifers. Application of these skills in conservation and monitoring

will also be discussed. Within the UK, RBGE is unique in offering training of this kind.

The evolution of the major groups of cryptogams, their ecological significance and

conservation are discussed. The course strengthens familiarity with cryptogams

through an applied project examining the ecology of cryptogamic epiphytes and

responses to habitat and pollution. Data collected by students in the field, and

analyzed under supervision, will be written up as a mini report. This course also

comprises a number of excursions in Scotland, including a fungus foray (Dawyck), a

lichen excursion in East Lothian, and a bryopyhte and fern foray at Rosslyn.

Assessment is by: 1. Your choice of a synthetic essay topic in cryptogams

(30%, semester 1); 2. Epiphyte ecology project write-up (20%, semester 2); 3.

Exam – a two-hour practical examination using live material (50%, semester 2).

9.6 Taxonomy and Plant Collections PLSC1106 – Semester 1 (20 Credits):

Course Organizer: David Harris

Lecturers: Eimear Nic Lughada (RBG Kew), Crinan Alexander (RBGE), Mark

Watson (RBGE), Kerry Walter (RBGE), Colin Pendry (RBGE), David Harris (RBGE),

Elspeth Haston (RBGE), Axel Poulsen (RBGE) and various members of the

herbarium staff.

The aim of the herbarium taxonomy course is to understand its crucial role in plant

biology and its power and elegance as a technique to study plant diversity. By the

end of the course you will have experience of working in a large international

herbarium and the curatorial and taxonomic skills required for a career in curation or

research. The course consists of an introduction followed in depth coverage of plant

specimens collecting, curation, nomenclature of wild and cultivated plants, taxonomy

of cultivars, surveys and monitoring, the production and use of taxonomic tools,

monographs, floras, checklists, keys, and data bases. After 8.5 days of preparation

in a combination of practicals and lectures the students carry out a piece of original

curation and make a short presentation at a seminar. The course culminates in a

piece of original taxonomic research called the mini-revision.


Assessment is through a flora writing exercise on a selected genus or group

of genera in semester 1.

9.7 Plant Geography PGBI11012 – Semester 2 (10 Credits):

Course Organizer: Tiina Sarkinen

Lecturers: Tiina Sarkinen (RBGE), Richard Milne (UoE), Hannah Atkins (RBGE),

Mark Hughes (RBGE), Caroline Lehmann (RBGE & UoE).

Biologists have sought to understand patterns of species distribution, richness and

endemism across the globe for over two centuries, a field of enquiry called

biogeography. This field is vital for planning effective conservation strategies and

being able to predict how organisms will react to anthropogenic environmental

change. Surprisingly, however, we still lack data to understand plant species

diversity across many areas of the world. Models are now being used to predict

patterns where data is lacking, but because of the complex interplay of contemporary

ecology, earth history, organismal extinction and evolution, universal biogeographic

explanations are still elusive. This course provides a background to the discipline of

plant geography, including an account of its history, overview of basic concepts, as

well as explanations of the most modern biogeographic tools used. This theoretical

material is interspersed with examples based upon areas that are under active

research at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and University of Edinburgh.

Teaching will involve several group discussion tutorials, where students will be

encouraged to read, interpret, and criticise recently published research articles in the

field.

Assessment is through written course work in the form of a research proposal.


9.8 Plant Genome Diversity PLSC1104 (10 Credits)

Course organizer: Catherine Kidner

Lecturers: Catherine Kidner, Mark Hughes, Greg Kenicer, Michael Moeller, Crinan

Alexander (all RBGE)

The Plant Genome Diversity course explores the structure and function of plant

genomes, the effects of genomic-level change on plant evolution and provides a

practical approach to the study of this topic. The structure and arrangement of DNA

in plants is described and methods for extraction and purification introduced by Mark

Hughes and Greg Kenicer. Lab work in the molecular Biology teaching labs at Kings

Buildings provides practical experience in the techniques.

The study of the packaging of plant nuclear DNA into chromosomes is termed

cytology. Two lectures from Micheal Moeller and Crinnan Alexander introduce the

diversity of plant chromosomes, the methods for their study and their use in

taxonomy. These are followed by a week of practical work in the Kings’ Buildings

Molecular labs producing a cytogenetic study of the genus Tulbaghia. New methods

of DNA sequencing are revolutionising our study of plant genomics. The fourth week

of the course begins with a lecture from Catherine Kidner describing the new

sequencing techniques and methods of genome assembly, annotation and analysis.

The evolutionary patterns of plant genome dynamics, which have been revealed

using these methods are described in a second lecture. The final class is a workshop

on preparing a research proposal in this field.

Assessment is by a Scientific Report for the cytology practical (2000 words,

50%) and a Research Proposal (1,000 words, 50%).

9.9 Tropical Biodiversity Field Course PGBI11046 – Semester 1-2 (10 Credits):

Course Organizers: Louis Ronse De Craene, Tiina Sarkinen, David Harris (RBGE)

Lecturers: Core staff (TBC each year)

The course is one of the few in the world that teaches students to identify plants

based on vegetative characters alone. Most courses and identification books focus


on the use of flowers and fruits for identification, which is more relevant to working in

herbaria or in temperate regions. Field studies in the tropics require the ability to

identify plants based on vegetative characters alone, and this is the skill emphasised

by this course. We will cover the most important tropical plant families and genera,

and you will also gain experience in conducting qualitative and quantitative

ecological surveys and how to collect five star herbarium specimens. The specific

objectives of the course are:

• To learn vegetative characters of some of the important tropical plant families and

genera, and to understand the processes involved in field identification.

• To acquire botanical field experience and skills in plant collecting and specimen

processing.

• To practice qualitative and quantitative habitat survey techniques.

Assessment is through a presentation of two plant families in the second term

(20%), a field logbook (40%), and a practical examination at the end of the field

course (40%). Passing this course entitles students to receive a Certificate in

Practical Field Botany delivered by RBGE.


10. MSc Summer Research Projects PGBI11020:

Programme Directors: Louis Ronse De Craene and Andrew Hudson

An integral part of the MSc is a summer research project, which is carried out for the

final four months of the programme (after the completion of the exams and the field

trip). This exercise is designed to give students direct experience of carrying out a

piece of independent research under the guidance of one or more supervisors. The

research project is written up as a Dissertation (PGBI11020) and counts for 60 credit

points. The MSc project should allow students to:

develop understanding and critical thought in a well-defined subject.

learn experimental techniques and/or other skills.

gain experience in organising and writing up a discrete piece of work (which

should lead to a publishable result).

plan and deliver a short (15 minute) seminar using visual aids, summarising

your work and results.

There is some flexibility in the choice of research projects. In the first instance

students are able to choose from a selection of projects offered principally by RBGE

and UoE staff. These projects will generally contribute to research programmes at

RBGE and UoE. Occasionally, projects may be available at other institutes, which can

give students the opportunity to experience a different work environment, and to make

new contacts.

A list of projects offered is compiled and presented to students in mid-February as a

project booklet and they are encouraged to discuss the various options with the staff

who will supervise each project before making their final choice. It should be stressed

that it is possible for a student to have some input into the formulation of a summer

research project, although it must fit with staff interests and expertise. However, once

the students have made up their choices, they cannot change this.

In a second instance, some students have much focused interests and they can

come up with a project of their own, provided that they find a suitable supervisor and

make a firm commitment before the end of November. They need to write up a project


proposal with their supervisor, and this will be vetted by a steering committee before

it is accepted.

The dissertation is examined separately from the theoretical part of the programme.

To be able to do the summer project the student needs to have at least 50% for the

theoretical part of the course. Students who have a mark close to 70% or above are

eligible for a distinction, if they obtain a similar mark for their dissertation, and have

passed all taught courses with a mark of 40% or more. Students who did not obtain a

mark close to 70% and have 70% or more for their dissertation are eligible for the

RBGE award.

(i) Planning

So that they can progress through the dissertation process smoothly and with

confidence, students should produce three documents, with help from the

supervisor, either before or at the very beginning of the dissertation period:

a short proposal (or concept note) - indicating the aims and justification of the

dissertation, specific research questions, literature and empirical work to be

covered, as well as a provisional outline of chapter titles and sub-headings;

a plan or timetable - indicating how the work is going to be undertaken, and

flagging deadlines and critical points when the supervisor and student should

meet, etc.

a detailed costing – indicating the approximate costs for the dissertation

(materials, traveling…). This is submitted as an exercise before the end of term

II.

While the details of the plan will vary, it is of paramount importance in all cases

that draft chapters be submitted to the supervisors in enough time for them to

provide feedback, and for students to revise accordingly.

(ii) Dissertation

Timetable for dissertations

- early May: Start of projects


- mid June: Meeting with Louis to discuss progress of dissertation

- end July: Submission of draft of dissertation to supervisor

- end July: Laboratory facilities will not be available to Msc students after

this date

- end August: submission of dissertations

- Early September: dissertations seminar day, examiners meeting,

announcement of results

- Mid September: possible corrections to dissertations before final pass

awarded. Please be aware that you may have to be in Edinburgh

until this date to carry out corrections

(iii) Research Interests of Staff

Many people contribute to the teaching in the programme, in line with the policy of

maximising contact between MSc students and professionals engaged in botanical

work. The list below is therefore probably incomplete even for 2018/19 but is an

attempt to display the interests of the teaching force.

Caroline Lehmann, grasses, savanna ecology (UoE, RBGE)

Leonie Alexander, urban biodiversity project officer.

Antje Ahrends: population genetics, ecology, UK plant conservation

Crinan Alexander (Associate): Nomenclature, European Garden Flora

Hannah Atkins (ex MSc): Gesneriaceae botanist

Neil Bell (ex MSc): Bryology

Alex Davey: Tropical botany, phylogenetics, palynology

Kate Eden: Herbarium mounting

David Chamberlain (Associate): Bryology; Chinese Flora; Rhododendron

Frieda Christie: Electron Microscopy; Image Analysis; light microscopy

Brian Coppins (Associate): Lichenology

Aline Finger: conservation ecology, population genetics


Alan Forrest: Centre for Middle Eastern Plants, taxonomy and phytogeography

Laura Forrest: Bryophytes, genetics

Chris Ellis: Lichenology, ecology of arctic environments, climate change

Martin Gardner: Conifers and Conservation, Flora of Chile

Mary Gibby (Associate): Fern Biology, Geraniaceae

David Harris: Tropical Botany, Zingiberaceae, herbarium management

Elspeth Haston: Gesneriaceae, Leguminosae, Herbarium assistant

Katy Hayden: Fungi, fungal pathogens

Andrew Hudson (UoE): Speciation and morphological evolution in Antirrhinum

Mark Hughes (ex MSc): Begoniaceae systematics and phytogeography

Michelle Hart: Molecular laboratory, Population Genetics

Pete Hollingsworth: Director of Science, Population Genetics, Plant conservation

Chris Jeffree (Associate): Micromorphology, cuticles and plant surfaces, photography

Catherine Kidner: Evo-Devo, Begoniaceae leaf morphogenesis (UoE-RBGE)

Sabina Knees (Associate): European Garden Flora, Flora of Arabia

Elizabeth Kungu (Associate): Bryophytes

David Long (Associate): Floristics, esp. Bhutan; Bryology

David Mann: Algology, especially diatoms

Barbara McKinder: Leguminosae, Sapotaceae

Robert Mill (Associate): Floristics, gymnosperm reproduction

Richard Milne: Phytogeography, molecular systematics (UoE)

Tony Miller: Floristics, esp. Arabia; Centre for Middle Eastern Plants

Michael Möller: Molecular methods, Cytology, Evo-Devo, Gesneriaceae

Sophie Neale (ex MSc): Centre for Middle Eastern Plants, Aloes

Marc Newman: Zingiberaceae, Flora of SE Asia, editor Edinburgh Journal of Botany

Colin Pendry: floristics, Flora of Nepal


Toby Pennington: Molecular Taxonomy esp. Neotropical Leguminosae, phytogeography

Axel Poulsen: Herbarium taxonomy, Asian Zingiberaceae.

Louis Ronse De Craene: reproductive morphology and anatomy, Core Eudicots

Markus Ruhsam (ex MSc): population genetics, plant conservation

Tiina Sarkinen (ex MSc): Plant geography, taxonomy, Solanaceae

Kerry Walter: Orchids, data-bases

Mark Watson: Umbelliferae, Flora of China and Nepal

Peter Wilkie: Tropical Botany, Sterculiaceae, Sapotaceae

Rebecca Yahr: lichenology, fungi

(iv) Past Projects

All past dissertations are held in the RBGE Library. Please make use of these to help

you deciding on a project or in designing your own project together with staff.

Here for information and interest is a list of titles of Dissertations submitted by students

in 2017-18:

A floral ontogenetic study in Croton (Euphorbiaceae) with special emphasis on the evolution

of petals.

Moringa the Miracle Tree.

Characterising the toxic content of the ‘mad honey’ collected by the last honey hunters of

eastern Nepal

Reindeer diet in the Cairngorms: Can fungal barcoding diagnose lichen species?

Addressing unresolved taxonomic and phylogenetic questions in Australasian dendroid

mosses.

Rare trees in the terra firma forest of the Sangha Trinational, Central Africa.

Species delimitation in Neotropical Urera Guadich.

The importance of ecological versus phylogenetic effects in determining Rhododendron

flowering phenology.


Phylogeny, DNA barcoding and a taxonomic revision in an African clade in the Grewioideae

(Malvaceae s.l.)

Morphological studies on the shoot development in Streptocarpus Lindl. subgenus

Streptocarpus section Protostreptocarpus (Gesneriaceae DC.)

Convergent secondary woodiness in Begoniaceae

Consistency of taxonomic assignment methods for Phytophthora sp.


11. Examinations:

11.1 Board of Examiners 2020-2021

Degree progression and awards are determined by the programme’s Board of

Examiners (BoE). The BoE is a committee consisting of internal and external

academics that convenes 2 times per year and are tasked with the remit of:

overseeing the assessment process according the University’s regulations;

reviewing each student’s overall academic performance across the

programme;

taking responsibility for looking at outcomes for students across all elements of

courses for which the Board has responsibility, and ratifying the provisional

marks for these courses;

using academic judgement based on the assessment result to decide which

students meet the progression requirements to proceed to the project stage of

the degree;

awarding the final degree outcomes.

Convener: Prof P Hollingsworth

External Examiner: Prof Beverley Glover (University of Cambridge)

Internal Examiners: Dr LP Ronse De Craene, Prof Andrew Hudson

Board of Examiners: Dr C Kidner, Dr David Harris, Dr Mark Hughes, Dr

Antje Ahrends, Dr Tiina Sarkinen, Dr Rebecca Yahr


11.2 Progression from the Taught Component to the Research Project

Once the taught component of the degree is complete – i.e. once students have

completed the 120 credits of study in Semester 1 and Semester courses from

September to May, each MSc programme Exam Board will meet to:

(a) Ratify the courses the students have studied (finalise the marks)

(b) Decide if each student has met the progression requirements to allow them to

continue onto the research project, or if they must leave the programme at this

stage.

The University Postgraduate progression regulation (regulation 53) states that in

order for a student to progress onto the research project stage of the degree (also

referred to as the MSc stage), students must:

(a) pass at least 80 credits (out of the 120 credits taken) with a mark of at least 50%

in each of the courses studied &

b) attain an average of at least 50% (overall) for the (total) 120 credits of study.

(c) satisfy any other specific requirements for the masters degree programme, that

are clearly stated in respective Programme Handbook.

Successful Progression

If a student has met the above progression requirements then they will continue on

to do the project from May to August, and the Board will meet again in

September/October to ratify the project results and award the degrees of either

Diploma or MSc.

Semester One

60 credits

Semester Two

60 credits

Taught Component complete with 120 credits

PROGRESSION DECISION

Student now

continues onto MSc stage or

exits early


Failure to Progress

If the student has NOT met the above progression requirements then the Exam

Board may review their spread of marks and decide if they meet the requirements for

an alternative award - see the table of awards below.

Borderlines

Boards of Examiners will consider students whose marks are borderline for passing a

course, progression, award or classification purposes. Borderline students are

considered within the range of 2% of a boundary, i.e. 68.00 - 69.99% for the award of

Distinction.

All MSc Boards of Examiners in the School of Biological Sciences will take the

following factors into account when considering borderline cases:

(a) Individual student profiles of performance;

(b) For borderline classification decisions, whether the overall performance in the

taught element has sufficiently compensated for the performance in the

dissertation, or vice versa, for the Board to be satisfied that the performance

of the student overall is sufficient for the higher classification to be awarded.

Students will not be eligible for the award of MSc with Merit or Distinction if

both taught element and dissertation marks are in the borderline range: at

least one must be in the higher band in order to be eligible for the higher

award, unless Special Circumstances apply.

(c) Any additional criteria as specified by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Resubmission of postgraduate dissertations or research projects

Students are entitled to one resubmission of the dissertation or research project for


postgraduate Masters programmes where the student has achieved a mark of 45 to

49% at the first attempt (see Taught Assessment Regulation 58).

The relevant Board of Examiners will provide a student permitted to submit a revised

dissertation or research project with a statement which outlines the deficiencies in

their original submission. The student is also entitled to receive further written advice

from their dissertation or research project supervisor on one occasion before

resubmission. If the Board of Examiners agrees that the revised dissertation meets

the requirements for a pass at Masters level, the student will be awarded the

Masters degree. The recorded mark for the revised dissertation will be capped at

50%.


General Postgradute Certificate

• In order to be awarded the CERTIFICATE students must:

•Pass at least 40 credits with at least 40% in each

•Attain an average of at least 40% in the 60 credits of courses studied

•The Certificate may be awarded after the Semester One Exam Board, for example if a student couldn't continue their studies and had to withdraw from the programme early.

• the award of Certificate would be at the discretion of the Exam Board.

Postgraduate Diploma

• In order to be awarded the DIPLOMA students must:

•Pass at least 80 credits with at least 40% in each

•Attain an average of at least 40% in the 120 credits of courses studied.

•The Diploma would usually be awarded at the summer/progression Exam Board as an early exit award because the student has not met the progression requirements. However, it can also be awarded at the final Exam Board because the student has failed to achieve the MSc.

MSc

• In order to be awarded the MSc students must;

•Have met the previous progression requirements

•Achieved a mark of at least 50% in the research project

•The only reason a student would not be awarded the MSc at this stage is if they failed the research project - and at this stage a fail is considered to be less than 50%, not less than 40%.

MSc with Merit

•*There may be the possibility of a degree being awarded with merit but this is at the discretion of the appropriate programme Exam Board*

• In order to be awarded an MSc with Merit students must:

•Have achieved an average of at least 60% for the 120 credits studied as part of the taught component

•Achieve a mark of at least 60% in the research project

MSc with Distinction

• In order to be awarded an MSc with Distinction students must:

•Have achieved an average of at least 70% for the 120 credits studied as part of the taught component

•Achieve a mark of at least 70% in the research project

•Must NOT have failed ANY course with a mark of less than 40%

•The award of MSc with Distinction is at the discretion of the appropriate programme Exam Board.

Summary of Possible Awards Available


12. Study Tours and Visits:

During the programme students will be taken on a variety of trips and visits depending

on the restrictions caused by Covid-19. This includes a fungus foray as well as local

excursions to study the Scottish and British Flora around Edinburgh.

13. List of Recommended Reading

The list is not exhaustive and will be supplemented with references given at the

lecturers’ discretion. The purpose is to provide you with information to help you

with learning; you are not supposed to read everything in this list!

13.1. Evolution of Plants

• Niklas, K.J. (2016) Plant Evolution, and introduction to the history of life.

University of Chicago Press.

• Bell, P.R. and Hemsley, A.R. (2000) Green plants, their origin and diversity.

Cambridge University Press.

• Raven, P.H., Evert, R.F. & Eichhorn, S.E. (2012) Biology of Plants 8th Ed. W.H.

Freeman.

• W.N. Stewart & Rothwell, G.A.R. (2010) Paleobotany and the Evolution of

Plants. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press.

13.2. Biodiversity of Angiosperms

• Cullen J. (2006) Practical plant identification. Cambridge University Press.

• Beentje H. (2010) The Kew Plant Glossary. Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens.

• Byng, J.W. (2014) The Flowering Plants Handbook. A practical guide to

families and genera of the world. Plant Gateway Ltd, Hertford, UK.

• Simpson M.G. (2010) Plant systematics. 2nd Ed. Elsevier.


• Ronse De Craene, L.P. (2010) Floral diagrams. An aid to understanding flower

morphology and evolution. Cambridge University Press.

USEFUL WEBSITES

http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/newgate/cronang.htm

A good website with concise family descriptions and a comparison of major phylogenetic

systems of angiosperms (although not always accurate) and links to other sites with

illustrations

http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/welcome.html

A most useful website based on the angiosperm phylogeny group containing abundant

information on families, orders and characters with good links to existing literature

13.3 Plant Genome Diversity

• Kersey PJ. (2019) Plant genome sequences: past, present, future. Curr. Opin.

Plant Biol. 2019 48: 1–8. doi: 10.1016/j.pbi.2018.11.001.

• Wendel, J.F. et al. (2015) Evolution of plant genome architecture. Genome

Biology 17: 37 doi: 10.1186/s13059-016-0908-1

13.4 Biodiversity of Cryptogams and Fungi

• Atherton, D.M., Bosanquet, S.D.S. & Llawley, M. (2010) Mosses and

Liverworts of Britain and Ireland: A Field Guide. British Bryological Society.

• Graham, L.E., Graham, J.M., & Wilcox, L.W. (2009) Algae. Second edition.

Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco.

• Mehltreter, K., Walker, L.R. & Sharpe, J.M. (eds) (2010) Fern Ecology.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

• Nash T. (2010) Lichen Biology. Cambridge University Press, 2nd Edn.

• Page, C.N. (1997) 2nd Edn. The Ferns of Britain and Ireland. Cambridge

University Press, Cambridge.

• Phillips, R (2006) Mushrooms. Macmillan, London.

http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/newgate/cronang.htm

http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/welcome.html


13.5. Conservation and Sustainability

• Sodhi and Ehrlich (2010). Conservation Biology for All. OUP Oxford.

• Primack and Sher. An Introduction to Conservation Biology (2016 or the newest edition

available from Sep 2019). Sinauer Associates.

• Jeffries (2005). Biodiversity and Conservation. Second Edition. Routledge..

13.6. Phylogenetics and Populations Genetics

• Bromham, L. (2016) An Introduction to Molecular Phylogenetics. Oxford

University Press. Sinauer Associates.

• Allendorf F.W., Luikart G. & Aitken, S.N. (2012) Conservation and the

Genetics of Populations. Wiley.

• Judd, W.S., et al. (2007) Plant Systematics: a Phylogenetic Approach (4th

edition).

• Freeland J.R. (2005). Molecular Ecology.

• Hartl, D.L. and Clarke A.G. (2007) Principles of Population Genetics.

13.7. Field Course

Gentry, A .1993. A field guide to the families and genera of woody plants of

Northwest South America.

Although this book is based on NW South America, it is still by far the best guide to putting

names on neotropical plant families and genera using sterile characters. It is the main

course text. Copies will be made available in the field.

Keller, R. 2004. Identification of tropical woody plants in the absence of flowers. A

field guide. 2nd ed. Birkhauser, Basel.

Maas, P.J.M. & L.Y.T. Westra. 2005. Neotropical plant families. 3rd ed. A.R.G.

Gantner Verlag, Ruggell.

Smith, N., Mori, S., Henderson, D, Stevenson, W. M. & Heald, S. V. (eds.). 2004.

Flowering plants of the Neotropics. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford.


A good reference book that can both be used in the field as in the lab for the drawing

practicals.

13.8. Plant Geography

• Lomolino et al. (2010) Biogeography, 4th Edition. Sinauer.

• Cox et al. (2016) Biogeography, an ecological and evolutionary approach, 9th

Edition. Wiley Blackwell.

• Ladle & Whittaker (2011) Conservation Biology. Wiley Blackwell.


14. Student Services and Support

All MSc students are registered matriculated students of Edinburgh University and are

entitled to receive information and support from the UoE education services. As the

name suggests, "Student Services" describes a wide range of support facilities which

are available to students of The University of Edinburgh. For information, go to

http://www.ed.ac.uk/staff-students/students/student-services/

Enquiries can also be directed to the Education Department at RBGE (email:

[email protected] Tel: 0131 248 2813).

14.1 Accommodation: www.accom.ed.ac.uk

All MSc students can use the facilities of Edinburgh University Residential and

Conference Services to obtain help in finding private accommodation. In addition,

there are a limited number of places available in the University of Edinburgh Pollock

Halls for UoE students.

A more detailed leaflet on Accommodation Services has been prepared and is

obtainable from the Education Office. A list of possible accommodation places can

also be obtained from Michelle Maclaren at RBGE. The City of Edinburgh is very much

a ‘student friendly environment’ and a variety of flats are available to students on an

annual basis.

14.2 Medical and Health Care: www.health-service.ed.ac.uk

As RBGE is a non-residential centre, a residential doctor is not available. Students

may, however, register with the University Health Service, Richard Verney Health

Centre, 6 Bristo Square, EH8 9AL. However, if students live more than a 3 mile radius

away from the University Health Centre then they are advised to register with an

appropriate Practice close to where they stay while at college for both medical and

dental services.

http://www.ed.ac.uk/staff-students/students/student-services/


http://www.accom.ed.ac.uk/

http://www.health-service.ed.ac.uk/


14.3 Counselling: www.ed.ac.uk/student-counselling

Life at RBGE should be stimulating, rewarding, enjoyable and trouble-free. However,

there may be a time when students experience emotional, financial or personal

stresses which affect their health or studies. The BTP programme directors are there

to offer help and constructive advice in such circumstances. In addition all students

are allocated a tutor at RBGE at the start of term who is there to help the student to

accommodate to his/her new environment. The MSc director acts as the primary

contact and will put the student in touch with appropriate specialist counsellors or

advisers if requested. The University provides professional help to students at no cost.

14.4 Child-Care: www.arcadianursery.co.uk/

University of Edinburgh students with young children from 6 weeks to 5 years may use

the facilities of the University Nursery, subject to availability of a place. Edinburgh

University Settlement also runs a nursery for toddlers from 2-5 years. Further details

can be obtained from the Education Office.

14.5 Academic Matters

Taught Postgraduate Manager, Sarah Harvey ([email protected])

Tel. 0131 651 7052) will provide information on:

Enrolment and Matriculation

Student Funding

University Facilities

General Programme information

Any other enquiries on the Programme can be directed to the education department

at RBGE (email: [email protected]. Tel: 0131 2482937).

14.6 Leisure and Recreation

All students can benefit from a large range of sporting and leisure facilities provided in

and around Edinburgh.



At registration they are given the opportunity to become an Associate Member of the

Edinburgh University Sports Union. This membership will allow you to use all

Edinburgh University Sports and Leisure facilities. The main facilities are at Pollock

Sports Centre, 48 Pleasance, EH18 9TL.

Facilities include: Squash, badminton, circuit-training, weights, Judo. Facilities at the

Peffermill site include: football, rugby, cricket, hockey, lacrosse, shinty pitches and a

floodlit synthetic grass pitch for training, 5-a-side, hockey etc. Ski fanatics can use the

artificial ski-slope at the Midlothian ski centre in Hillend.

You will find much information about the University and its services to students

(medical for instance) on the Taught Postgraduate wiki

https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/BioSciPGT/Home and in various University

publications you will be given, or have already received on registration as a

postgraduate student.

https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/BioSciPGT/Home


Appendix 1: Advice to Project Report Writers in Postgraduate

Courses

A. INTRODUCTION

Your report is as much an exercise in technical writing as it is a medium for setting out the

results of your project. Good technical writing is difficult and much more the product of hard

work than of inspiration. A well-written report or paper doesn't just happen: it is constructed.

These notes are designed to help you to construct your report. They are based on F.P.

Woodward's excellent book Scientific Writing for Graduate Students (1968). You will also find

Robert Barrass' book Scientists Must Write (1978) very helpful. There follows 10 rules for the

writing of reports. To study and apply them systematically may seem laborious but to do so

will save you time and effort in the longer run. Please take them seriously.

Remember that a substantial amount of preparation for the report (including thinking!) can be

done going along, as the project progresses. By the time that the practical work on the project

is finished you should have a very clear indication of the form and content of the report.

B. TEN RULES

1. Ask yourself : What was the project about, what questions have

been asked, with what answers?

Summarise in a few sentences on one piece of paper.

2. Write the title and a summary of your report.

This helps to concentrate the attention on essentials.

3. Decide on the basic form of the report.

Write section headings (e.g. Introduction, Literature Review, Methods,

Results, Discussion and Conclusions; Appendices) and ask yourself

whether they are precisely what you want.

4. Decide on the essential contents of the sections.

Take one piece of paper for each of the chosen sections, head it and

write down the items that must be treated there. Work at this until you

are confident that the lists are complete, even if they are not well

ordered. Consider carefully what material must be put in but is not

essential for clear exposition; put it in appendices.


5. Construct tables and figures.

These must be complete, orderly, logical and of guaranteed numerical

accuracy.

6. Construct the topic outline.

Within each section (3), using the lists (4) and tables and figures (5),

construct an ordered skeleton of each section, identifying major points

to be made and the placement of tables and figures.

7. Construct the sentence outline.

An expansion of 6 in which the logical structure takes shape. Roughly,

one sentence here might imply one paragraph in the report.

8. Draft whole sections.

Now, and not before, is the time for continuous, connected writing.

Choose a convenient order for writing the sections, generally from

simplest to most complex.

The order: Methods, Literature, Results, Discussion, Introduction is

often sensible.

9. Construct the bibliography as you go along.

Always keep an orderly index of full and accurate references in sortable

form so that the usual mad scramble in the library at the end is avoided.

10. Revise relentlessly.

(a) As to accuracy of numbers, references, dates and spellings.

(b) As to literary presentation. Under (b) no short instructions will

avail but the following should help :

write short rather than long sentences and short rather than long

words; observe the instructions in Bad Words (Section 3 below);

prune adjectives and adverbs; try out your drafts on a helpful

critic.


C. BAD WORDS

Here is a short list of some of the nastier current corruptions of the English language. The

contents are regrettably common in the utterances of many politicians, civil servants,

journalists, and even scientists and students. Please take this list seriously; you should always

be aiming to improve your literary style by using the right word and writing economically, with

precision.

1. Vogue words and phrases.

hopefully : a perfectly good adverb ("It is better to travel hopefully than to

arrive"), much misused to mean "I hope that ..." ("hopefully, it

will rain tomorrow"). A Teuto-Americanism.

ongoing : isn't English (though "goings-on" is); usually unnecessary and

always avoidable ("we have an ongoing traffic light situation").

at this point

in time : means "now".

prior to : means "before".

escalate : "escalator" is a good English noun; there is no verb "to

escalate", a nasty neologism for "increase".

liaise : "liaison" is a good French noun, well assimilated into English;

there is no verb "to liaise", as nasty a neologism as the

preceding.

2. Pomposities.

envisage : means to "contemplate", or "look at", not to "imagine" or

"suppose".

anticipate : means to "forestall" or "get in first", if you mean "expect", say so.

commence : is gobbledegook for "start" or "begin".

perceive,

observe : no doubt have their uses but both generally mean "see".


majority : a good word cheapened by overuse: "The majority of people"

means "most people". The word is singular so "the majority is"

not "the majority are ...".

environmental

conditions : means "environment" and can nearly always be substituted by

that one word.

3. Illiteracies.

different : A is different from B, not different than B or different to B (all too

many American examples notwithstanding).

imply / infer : much misused, even by those who should know better; "I infer

from the fact that ..." but "the facts imply that ...".

practice,

practise : despite American usage, the first is a noun, the second a verb

("the practice of practising the trombone is a good one"). Think

of "advice" "advise" as a helpful mnemonic for correct usage.

effect, affect : tricky and often muddled; "to effect" is "to accomplish" but "to

affect" is "to influence" or "have an effect on"; the former is both

verb and noun, the latter is a verb only.

minimal : means "least" or "smallest possible", not merely "very small."

criterion,

datum : are singular of which the plurals are respectively criteria,

data. "By this criterion the data show that ..."; "by these criteria

the datum shows that...".

supersede,

intercede : are spelled thus.

4. Unclassified.


etcetera : has legitimate uses but all too often means: "I don't know what

I'm talking about but hope the reader will think I do and fill it in

for me".


APPENDIX 2. HOW to RESEARCH, PLAN and WRITE a

SCIENTIFIC ESSAY

1. Since the essay title is imposed by the examination, department, or employer,

recognise its power to determine relevance, and obey.

2. If there is an element of content choice within the essay title, recognise that you will be

free to develop your own ideas of relevance and proportion, but also that you will be

judged more on originality, powers of persuasion and of synthesis than where the topic

is tightly defined.

3. The three phases in essay production are Researching, Planning, Writing. All three

are equally important.

4. Researching

If you are writing an essay in an examination, much of the researching (acquisition of

relevant facts and ideas, evaluation of these) will necessarily have been done for you

by your lecturers or tutors. Nevertheless, they will always have a means of regarding

your own personal 'researching' endeavour (extra examples, connected facts or

parallel situations) based on your enquiries and reading beyond their lecture notes,

handouts or effusions in tutorials.

'Regurgitated' facts, examples or ideas will always be markworthy, but at postgraduate

level, simple regurgitations attract less interest and fewer marks. Increasingly, your

own integrations of facts and ideas will be sought by examiners, and rewarded

accordingly. The austere form of the examination question or essay title set should

suggest to you that (i) regurgitated facts are needed, (ii) regurgitated facts alone will

not attract high marks, (iii) extra relevant facts and examples are looked for, (iv) good

organisation, integration, balance, perspective and insight - concerning the meaning

and significance of these facts and examples, are looked for by examiners, (v) a theme

or argument based on the researched material is appropriate.

'Term Essay' Research involves extensive library work and note taking. Imagine you

are to give the lecture, not just to attend it. Library skills are important here. Use one

reference to lead to others. Identify all the libraries and other book collections which

are relevant - they may include the Central Public Library, the National Library of

Scotland, the University Libraries, as well as the Royal Botanic Garden Library.

Remember that browsing round the shelves and talking to librarians is part of library

use. Discuss what you are researching with others who may be willing to contribute


ideas. Don't forget the current issues of journals. Don't forget company reports and

publicity, or the annual reports of research stations. Don't forget serious newspapers,

especially weekly ones. Don't forget encyclopaedias - they are often a source of

aspects you have overlooked. Don't forget textbooks, but never rely on just one. Don't

forget that current broadcast material may give you a relevant idea, which you can

refine by reading and objective evaluation.

Try to think "laterally" sometimes:- "this is a plant system, what does an animal do"; "if

I was designing this, what would I seek to do?"; "What would we do if this system did

not work, was too expensive or too slow" etc. Always remember that Jenkins, who has

written 246 papers on your topic, and invented the "state of the art" method and theory,

may be crazy. Perhaps he is obsessed with peas and has never thought about palm

trees. If Jenkins attacks the work of Tomkins, spend an hour or two assuming Tomkins

is right - perhaps you will agree with Tomkins. The scientific arena is littered with prone

academic Goliaths.

Examination Essay Research involves everything you have accumulated in your mind

during your course. The research phase is one of selection of materials from your

personal botanical information storage and retrieval system (i.e. brain).

5 Planning

Decide what the 'headlines' in the subject are. Decide in what order the facts and ideas

should be presented, for easiest, clearest communication. A scientific essay is not just

descriptive, it must tell a story. But a story, if not fictional (non-scientific) must be

supported by examples. Choose the examples which best illustrate the story

(argument) you wish to present. Engineer your essay so that the wider relevance of

the topic (and your awareness of that!) is obvious. Finally check that your plan

matches the topic set!

6. Writing

(i) Make a brief introduction in which you declare and argue for what you believe

to be the relevant facts, ideas and significance in the topic, with a short outline

of the argument you are to advance.

(ii) Tell your story, with specific facts, precise examples and named ideas. In this

way, avoid WAFFLE.


(iii) Use subheadings, underlinings, diagrams, tables wherever this clarifies your

message, fits your plan. Do not duplicate illustrated or tabulated information in

the text, but never forget to refer to it. It is true that a picture can save a

thousand words.

(iv) There is a place (a small one only) for attributed quotations. Always

acknowledge the source (see 6(v)).

(v) If you express an opinion (it would be foolish not to do so in a final year essay!)

make sure that your facts, examples, ideas (see 6(ii) above) underpin it.

"The credit that you may justly earn for independence of mind will be

squandered if, for example, your assertion that the earth is flat is not supported

by telling arguments". (D.R. Newth, "Advice to students on examinations".

University of Glasgow.)

(vi) Remember that examiners can give you credit only for what they can

understand, of what they can read, of what you write down, of what you think

relevant, of what you know and understand. As you hope for mercy from them,

offer it up in full measure.

(vii) Write effectively. What is "effective writing"? It is writing which achieves your

purpose. In this context it is comprehensive, balanced, accurate, lucid, concise,

convincing and interesting. All these are good 'journalistic' qualities. If you are

limited to 800 words, aim for 799. If you have 3 days to write, aim to use 2. If

the examination offers a 3 hour period, plan to use less, and use the remainder

for reading, correcting and editing what you wrote. It is effective to write as

briefly as you can, consistent with comprehensiveness and lucidity. A long

piece of writing, however worthy in content, tires the reader and so is less

effective.

Some other sources of guidance :

The Teaching, Learning and Assessment Library, 57 George Square.

Edinburgh University Library Leaflet No. 12: Study Skills (1983).

Edinburgh University Library Study Skills Resources Collection (Main Library).

Clanchy, J. and Ballard, B. (1983). How to write essays. Longman (starts by asking what your

teachers really want).


Ellis, R. and Hopkins, K. (1985). How to Succeed in Written Work and Study. Collins, London

and Glasgow. (Chapters 8, 9 and 11 especially useful).

Appendix 3. Preparing and Delivering an effective talk

A DOCUMENT FROM THE HONOURS SCHOOL OF PLANT SCIENCE UNIVERSITY Of EDINBURGH

These notes cover many points relevant to any kind of talk, but are presented in the context

of the special case of the short, scientific talk, to a reasonably intelligent and interested

audience, who mostly have a helpful background of knowledge. Even so, a successful

scientific speaker will share the characteristics of great orators - (s)he will be well-prepared,

practised, clear, concise, enthusiastic, interesting and persuasive.

A. Preparation

1. Recognise that you are to speak for say, 15 minutes, and then answer questions on

what you have said. Accept that considerable preparative work will be needed.

2. See the lecture theatre, think about the purpose of the talk and the size and nature of

the audience. What does the audience want?

3. Give yourself plenty of preparation time. In their notes for presenting radio talks, the

B.B.C. suggest an hour of preparation per minute of speaking time.

4. Decide what balance you will aim for between (1) oration and (2) spoken comment on

visual aids - this will depend on what you need to communicate. Will you use a

handout?

5. Write down the aims of your talk. What do you want to tell them? Why must they know

about this, or that item? Concentrate on the essentials. What are the cardinal points in

the story you are to tell? Make sure they are included. Omit other material - it may be

interesting, even delightful to you personally - but if it is not necessary, it must go.

6. Get your basic material (references, lab. reports, results, illustrations, examples) around

you. Have a quiet `brainstorm' session, thinking about what would be vital; what would

be illuminating; what would be the `message' or `punch-line' or `take-home'.

Concentrate on the meat, the middle substance of the talk. The end will then follow

automatically, and the beginning too. You will begin with a general orientation, followed


by a specific introduction to the substance, then conclusions, and finally a `looking-

forward' section, perhaps with some counter-propositions.

Have a rest after your initial organising brainstorm. Sleep on it, and next day you will be

clear about what you are going to do.

7. Choose a pithy title. Make sure the talk fits it exactly. Write a quick, flowing, rough draft

of the sections in turn. Flesh out the middle, meaty part first. Include examples (simple,

clear, good and few). Make rough diagrams or tables for overheads or slides. Begin

with simple cases, leading into more complex or special ones.

Rough out your conclusions and your final interpretation/questions, then your

introductory material. Keep a clear thread going through the talk, link the sections so

that the audience know where they are. Your conclusions should draw together any

parallel lines of thought that you have been discussing. Sleep on it again.

8. Write out, in simple language, a first draft of what you will say - include the basics, the

obvious things (obvious to you) to orientate the audience, but do not labour these points.

Bring up your overheads to final quality. If using slides, it can take weeks to be sure of

their merit, and availability. You may write your notes on paper sheets or cards (your

choice) and make them short, largely key words and reminders of sequence, or you may

be a verbatim speaker and write down every word in full. An intermediate type of note

is best for most people.

9. Remember audience heterogeneity. Some know a lot, some a little. Make sure you

know your topic as well as anyone present. With a special scientific topic it is not difficult!

But always begin with the basics.

10. Practice giving the talk and adjust it to fit the time available. Rewrite any tongue twisters.

Usually you will need to edit it down and simplify it at this stage. (See B. Practice).

11. Ask yourself whether you have been interesting and persuasive. Have you sown suitable

seeds in the available soil (that particular audience)?

12. Special Points about Scientific Talks

a. Describe as needed, but mainly pose and solve questions to be answered by

scientific investigation, analysis and synthesis.


b. Make your procedures/methods/philosophies appear a logical way to answer the

questions/solve the problems.

c. If you can start with a hypothesis, do so. In some cases, this is not possible, but

`problems to solve' are always to be posed.

d. Be clear about the thread that binds together your Aims, Questions, Philosophy of

approach, Methods - so that your results can be seen as relevant and meaningful.

Your talk should be as logical and clear as your written-up Report.

e. Let there be a `Materials and Methods' part of your talk, but keep it small unless a

Method is the chief matter being evaluated.

f. Make your conclusions crisp and relate them to the initial questions posed and/or the

hypothesis. Be emphatic about the findings. Trumpet forth that the hypothesis is

supported, or is clearly to be discounted. Stress the answers you have found to the

questions you asked earlier.

g. Preserve a rigorous scientific ethos in what you say as well as in what was done in

the work you are reporting. Think, work and write scientifically - be more analytical

than descriptive. Description is a necessary stage on the road to analysis and then

the synthesis that brings understanding.

h. Make sure any units of measurement are clearly stated at the outset. It may be

helpful to repeat them now and then.

B. Practice

1. Practice giving the talk (as in A.10) but also practice speaking and listening in general

to acquaint yourself with what is the `best practice' and with your own strengths and

weaknesses. Read aloud and listen to yourself. A tape-recorder is useful. Are you too

loud or too soft? Do you gabble occasionally? Do you vary your pace and tone? Are

word-endings lost? Listen to others speaking (on radio for instance) and be critical. Do

not worry about accent - it can be a charming bonus for a public speaker, lending

interest, as long as the words are still clear. (See C. Delivery).

2. The Colour of Saying

(a) Your voice is like a paint-brush when you speak. Changes of tempo, tone, volume,

inflection lend colour and texture to what you say. Hence interest is created and


sustained. No one likes a boring monotone. Like a paint-brush your voice must be

controlled to achieve good results. Understand the connection between voice, voice-

control, volume and breathing.

(b) Breathing. Practice breathing in and out completely. Try reciting the same short

sentence when full of breath, when half-full, when emptied:

`I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky'.

Choose a 100 word prose passage. how much can you recite, loudly, on a lungful?

Practice to extend your range.

Breath is the power behind your voice, most obviously in singing. Keep plenty of

breath and, when speaking, give yourself breathing time. Song-writers build in

breathing time when they compose. You need to do the same.

(c) Tempo, tone and emphasis. Go back to `the lonely sea and the sky'. Listen to yourself

saying it loudly; softly; loudly then becoming soft; softly then becoming loud at the end;

fast; slowly; fast becoming slower; slow becoming faster; on a high note becoming lower;

on a low note becoming higher. Recite it putting the emphasis on different words -

communication is aided by intelligent emphasis. Note all the differences in sound and

effect made by these changes of volume, inflection, tone, emphasis and tempo. You

are varying the colour of your saying.

(d) Voice Projection. Open your mouth to let your voice out. Sound is best imagined as

coming from the stomach. You must project it to the back of the lecture room. Speak

OUT!

Practice some voice projections. Try roaring some vowels. Vowels carry your noise.

Also notice the carrying power of `ngs' and `ms' and `ns'. These sounds resonate.

Cultivate, and plan to exploit resonance.

(e) Precision. Clear, interesting speech needs precision as well as volume and colour. We

need to show finesse with both vowels and consonants. Here are some practice lines

to recite aloud and a passage in which to inject as much vocal colour, of all sorts, as you

can.

She sells seashells, by the sea shore.

The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure.


Red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow

leather.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of

pickled peppers, where are the pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly happen.

The old triangle went jingle-jangle, along the banks of the Royal Canal.

I am pretty Princess Pep-pew-pew-pop-woski, and am extremely nervous.

I am gallant Marshal Mimi-mew-mew-koski, and greatly at your service.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck

wood?

It was wrong in the song, for along the Mekong the gong went Ding Dong, not

Dong Ding or Dong Dong.

I saw this morning morning's minion, daughter of the dapple-drawn dawn

falcon.

A prose-speaking exercise:

To begin at the beginning:

It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobble

streets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to

the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishing boat-bobbing sea. The houses are blind

as moles (though moles see fine tonight in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as

Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock, the shops in

mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows' weeds. And all the people of the lulled and

dumbfound town are sleeping now.

Opening passage of Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices, by Dylan Thomas

C. Delivery

1. The audience is a blank sheet of paper to write on. Begin with the big issues, the

questions, the hypothesis. Tell them what you are going to tell them. Then tell it to them.


Then, briefly at the end, remind them what they have been told - with your logical

conclusion and `Looking Ahead' remark.

2. Remember audience heterogeneity when you speak, as you did when you prepared.

Some will not be very interested (interest them), some are deaf (make them hear), some

are nodding off (wake them up). Be enthusiastic and most of them will be also.

3. Speak in a professionally detached manner: do not be colloquial, informal or chatty.

Avoid muttered asides. Never swear.

4. Speak reasonably loudly, and vary `the colour of your saying' (B.2). Vary the length of

your sentences. Make some into questions. Make some exclamatory: ̀ So here perhaps

was an answer!' Try a pregnant pause now and then - it can focus attention, give

thought-time. Remember to breathe occasionally.

5. Announce the successive, connected parts of your talk (1,2,3 etc.) as you come to them,

e.g. `Now to the Results'. Audience members like to know where they are, and they

always have one eye on the clock. Make sure you do the same.

6. Speak to the audience, not your notes, not to the blackboard or your overhead/slide.

Contemplate the audience, not your navel - this is not an occasion for introspection.

Face them and project yourself, along with your voice. Look at the audience as much

as you can - you don't need to focus on the ugly brutes, but they will not know that. If

you do not address the audience, you will appear to mumble.

7. Remember that you seek to control the minds of your audience. Make them

hear/feel/think what you want them to hear/feel/think, i.e. act, but without seeming to,

i.e. act well.

8. Do not be apologetic in any way for your material or your manner. Be masterful. Sock it

to them. Don't appeal for any mercy, don't ask to be stopped if you ramble. Don't ramble!

9. Keep your notes and overheads in good order, don't get them mixed up. Audiences are

more forgiving of stupidity than they are of inefficiency.

10. After an earnest, solid passage, a little humour helps. Make sure it is only a little and not

self-deprecatory. Too much light relief is a distraction - you may lose control of their

minds. But it is true that a small spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.


11. Mannerisms: avoid them or you distract the audience from your words. Scratch your

nose after your talk. Roll your pencil about in private. Wave your spectacles in the air

only if you are drying them. Hike at week-ends. Smile sparingly, if at all. Too often a

smile freezes into a dreadful, toothy rictus.

12. Do not be `nervous'. There is no cause. Stand in a relaxed manner and tell your tale.

You know far more than the audience about the interest and logic of what you are to

say. Dominate the room.

13. Make your conclusion, and pick and patch up any holes in your argument before a

questioner does. Pose new questions, revised hypotheses; point to the next necessary

work.

14. When you have finished, stop. Not all speakers are good at this. "Stand up, speak up,

then shut up" is not bad advice.

D. Supporting Materials

1. Make overheads and slides simple, and make certain they are necessary. They can

sometimes be no more than a distraction - make sure they work for their living. Point to

any very critical material on the overhead/slide - don't just flap your arms about vaguely.

Do not put big chunks of text on overheads or slides. Your audience came to watch and

listen to YOU, not to read. Give them time to absorb information from an overhead -

they cannot read, look, and listen effectively, all at the same time, if you force the pace.

Though visual aids can be a distraction, they can also offer variety, simplification, an

efficient presentation of examples. Get the balance right.

2. Make sure you know how to work the projection equipment. Familiarise yourself with it

beforehand. Ensure you know where to get help. Never be dependent on one

technology alone. Preserve a `chalk and talk' capacity.

3. Blackboards and flip-charts can be helpful. Use them for clear, large simple diagrams

and key words, phrases or equations.

4. Handouts. if you use one be sure it is simple and good. Aim for a use by children, not

adults - you will not be far wrong because you know so much of what you are to say,

the audience little or nothing. Give out the handout at the end of the talk to avoid

distraction. A handout at the beginning should not be necessary if you have planned

the talk properly.


E. After the Talk.

1. Acknowledge any applause discreetly.

2. Agree to do your best to respond to questions.

3. Answer questions honestly and accurately to the best of your knowledge and

understanding. Do so with a boldness you may not always feel. Rephrase the question

slightly if it helps you answer, asking afterwards if the point has been covered. Stay at

the front to answer and look your questioner full in the face. Most of them will quail. If

you cannot answer the question, it is beguiling as well as honest to say so, perhaps

appealing to anyone else present to offer a response. Be patient and polite with

questioners who have clearly missed the point, and gently explain away their problem.

Assume it is your fault if they are confused or in error - it may well be!

4. Do your best to answer the question posed: do not slip into an answer to a related,

easier or more interesting question without first dealing with what you were actually

asked.

5. Do not answer while packing up your notes/overheads or while running for your seat or

the exit. The audience will not hear what you are saying.


APPENDIX 4: RBGE Referencing policy and guidance

Greg Kenicer

Learning outcomes

Understand why referencing is important.

Know how to avoid plagiarism.

Know how to cite references.

Know how to format reference lists using the author–date (Harvard) system.

Why is referencing important?

The purpose of written work

Written work is an essential part of your study at RBGE and your later career. Producing an

essay, report, scientific paper or other piece of writing involves much more than simply

gathering information to present to your readers.

Written work is assigned to help you develop the following skills:

to study independently

to access, choose, evaluate, and organize information

to formulate your own ideas based on that information

to effectively communicate those ideas to other people.

By citing references, you enable the reader to:

differentiate your work and ideas from those of other people (thus avoiding

plagiarism)

see that you have done your research

find and check your sources of information.

Good referencing

Good referencing will be rewarded with higher grades when you are studying and greater

recognition by your scientific peers in your later career.

Good referencing is each of the following.


Appropriate: be selective and cite only the most recent and relevant references while

including all references necessary to reflect current knowledge – you need to strike a

balance.

Accurate: cite references at the correct point in the text; all cited references should

appear in the reference list; and all references listed should be cited in the text. As

the author, you are responsible for the accuracy of all citations and references.

Consistent: use the author–date (Harvard) system and keep the formatting of

reference lists consistent (see below).

Plagiarism

Plagiarism – the use of other people's ideas without acknowledgement – may be judged as

an attempt to mislead assessors; this is a serious academic offence and will be penalized.

Also, reproducing another people's work without acknowledging them may contravene

copyright law.

The availability of electronic information and the ease with which text can be cut and paste

from such material have facilitated plagiarism. However, assessors can easily identify

plagiarized text, for example by recognizing changes in the style of writing.

How to use references

You will need to refer to the work and ideas of other people in your coursework at RBGE. In

a report, for example, references are used in:

the introduction, to establish the background to the study and the research question

addressed

the methods, to justify the methods you used

the discussion, to place your study's findings in the context of previous work.

Always read the original papers; do not be tempted to cite them 'second-hand'.

How many references?

For a scientific paper reporting original research, 20–35 references are standard. More

references are necessary for a review or thesis. Generally, three citations from different

research groups suffice for a 'well-known' fact.

Kinds of reference


The reliability of different kinds of reference can be depicted as a triangle with primary

references at its base, secondary references above them, and tertiary references at the

apex.

Primary sources, which report the original research, are preferred to secondary and tertiary

ones because they are more reliable and up to date.

Avoid using abstracts as references if full articles are available.

Unpublished studies should be cited in the text as 'unpublished data' if awaiting an

editorial decision or 'in press' in the reference list if accepted.

Check for ongoing studies.

For unpublished data and personal communications, give the sources' names and

institutions.

Reference systems

Harvard: references are cited by name of author(s) and date of publication.

Vancouver: references are numbered consecutively as they appear in the text.

For your coursework at RBGE, use the Harvard format.

Citations

References can be cited as a paraphrase, for example:

Most New World temperate disjunctions are thought to have originated in the Northern

Hemisphere (Raven, 1963).

This is the preferred form, unless there is a reason to mention researchers' names at start,

as follows:

Low Reliability Tertiary

Textbooks

Secondary

Reviews

Primary

Original research articles

High Reliability


Raven (1963) noted that most temperate disjunct taxa originate in the Northern

Hemisphere.

Alternatively, a quote can be provided (rarely necessary in scientific writing):

Raven (1963) states that, ' The continent of origin can more-or-less-reasonably be

suggested for about 100 of the 130 temperate disjuncts.'.

Do not forget to use quote marks if you reproduce an extract word for word. Long quotes

(e.g. more than 30 words) can be indented without quote marks:

Raven (1963) states the following:

The continent of origin can more-or-less-reasonably be suggested for about 100 of

the 130 temperate disjuncts. Of these, approximately 85 have come from the north.

The Polemoniaceae can be cited as a specific example in support of this general

relationship.

The same author(s) with more than one publication in a year:

Localities of bryophytes in Lauderdale are well characterised (Long, 2003a) as are

several sites for anthocerophytes (Long, 2003b).

OR

Localities of mosses and hornworts in the Scottish Borders are well understood (Long,

2003a,b).

Several citations should be arranged in chronological order and separated by semicolons:

The genus Begonia has been the subject of extensive research at RBGE in recent years

(e.g. Plana, 2003; Forrest et al., 2005; Hughes, 2006, 2007).

Cite different authors with the same surname as follows:

Towards the tail end of the Renaissance, grotesquery began to gain popularity in Italian

garden statuary (G.F. Secretaine, 1997) throughout the following century it continued to

rear its ugly head (P.S. Secretaine, 1997).


Personal communications and unpublished data

Not included in the reference list.

The taxonomy of the genus Rodgersia (Saxifragaceae) remains unclear (M. Watson,

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2007, personal communication).

Evidence from matK gene sequence analysis suggests the taxonomy of tribe Fabeae

needs to be reassessed (G.J. Kenicer, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, unpublished

data).

Reference lists

Include each citation in your reference list. When reading through your final draft, check by

ticking each citation off against the reference list.

Arrange your reference list alphabetically by author surname. You can use the 'Sort' option

in the 'Table' menu on Word for this.

If two references have the same first author, but different second authors, you should list by

the second author’s name.

Further reading

Uncited references that you think the reader would find useful can be listed under the title

Further reading.

Key points

Good referencing increases the quality of written work and therefore the grade

awarded.

Plagiarism – the use of other people's ideas without acknowledging them – is

unacceptable and will be penalized.

Avoid plagiarism by using references.

For your coursework at RBGE, use the author–date (Harvard) system to format

reference lists.

Check that the reference list contains all references cited.


Examples

Book

Book references should include the publisher and place of publication.

Single author:

Phillips, M. (1983) Wild Foods. Pan, London.

Mabberley, D.J. (2000) The Plant-Book, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge.

Two or three authors:

Jørgensen, P.M. & Léon-Yámez, S. (1999) Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of

Ecuador. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St Louis.

Single editor:

Davis, P.H. (ed.) (1970) Flora of Turkey, vol. 3. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

Two or three editors:

Maxted, N. & Bennett, S. (eds) (2001) Plant Genetic Resources of Legumes in the

Mediterranean. Kluwer, Dordrecht.

Four or more editors:

Bott, M.H.P., Saxov, S., Talwani, M. & Thiede, J. (eds) (1983) Structure and

Development of the Greenland–Scotland Ridge: New Concepts and Methods. Plenum,

New York.

Book that is not a first edition:

Bigelow, J. (1824) A Collection of Plants of Boston and its Vicinity, 2nd edn. Charles C.

Little & James Brown, Boston.

Chapter in book

Davis P.H., (1970) Lathyrus. In: Davis P.H. (ed.) Flora of Turkey, vol. 3. Edinburgh

University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 328–369.

Mayr, E. (1982) The growth of biological thought: systematics and evolution. In: Otte D.

& Endler J.A. (eds) Speciation and its Consequences, Sinauer Associates,

Sunderland, pp. 60–81.


Thesis or dissertation

Kupicha, F.K. (1974) Taxonomic studies in the tribe Vicieae (Leguminosae). PhD thesis,

University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh.

Journal article

Organization as author:

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2003) An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group

classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II. Botanical Journal

of the Linnean Society 141: 399–436.

Single author:

Raven, P. (1972) Plant species disjunctions – a summary. Annals of the Missouri

Botanical Garden 59: 234–246.

Two or three authors:

Hughes, C. & Eastwood, R. (2006) Island radiation on a continental scale:

exceptional rates of plant diversification after uplift of the Andes. Proceedings of

the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 103: 10334–10339.

Four or more authors:

Bridgewater, S., Pennington, R.T., Reynel, C., Daza, A. & Pennington, T.D. (2003). A

preliminary floristic and phytogeographic analysis of the woody flora of seasonally dry

forests in northern Peru. Candollea 58: 129-148.

Volume or issue with supplement

Tiffney, B.H. & Manchester, S.R. (2001). The use of geological and paleontological

evidence in evaluating phylogeographical hypotheses in the northern hemisphere

Tertiary. International Journal of Plant Sciences 162 (suppl.): S3–S17.

Papers published online ahead of print

Forster, M.A., Ladd, B. & Bonser, S.P. (2011). Optimal allocation of resources in

response to shading and neighbours in the heteroblastic species, Acacia implexa.

Annals of Botany: in press. doi:10.1093/aob/mcq228.


NB include the doi number: a search for the doi will always be directed to the most

recent version, so the reader will be able to find the final published paper as soon as it

appears.

Online-only journals

Aizen, M.A., Morales, C. & Morales J.M. (2008). Invasive mutualists erode native

pollination webs. PloS Biology 6: e31. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060031.

NB include the doi number after the volume and article number.

Newspaper or magazine article

You can name the author, or if there is no author listed, use the title of the publication as

author:

Mansfield, S. (2007) A shore thing. The Scotsman, 16th May: 22.

Reference not in English

Providing an English translation, as shown below, is optional

Hara, H. (1943) Notes on Japanese Lathryus. Journal of Japanese Botany 19: 296–

299. [In Japanese]

Fu, Y.C. (1977) Lathyrus. In: Ma Y.C., Fu H.C. & Chen S. (eds) Flora Intramongolica,

vol. 3. Inner Mongolia People's Press, Hohhot, pp. 274–276. [In standard Chinese]

Raji, A.D. (1971) Evolution of the genera of the tribe Vicieae Adans. Botanical Journal

(Moscow) 56: 978–981. [In Russian]

Web sites

Try to find the author (often an organisation), and otherwise treat much the same as a

hardcopy journal or book reference. Given the dynamic name of the web and web articles, it

is important that you state when you accessed the web page.

AVOID copying and pasting exact URLs of searches – that may be 5 lines long and contain

many meaningless bits of code. In general, it is easiest to just cite the top page.

Nature Conservancy (1996) Natural Heritage Central Database. [www document]

<http://www.natureserve.org/> (Accessed 29th June 2007)


Stevens, P.F. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. [www document]

<http://www.mobot.org/MoBoT/research/Apweb> (accessed 1st July 2007)

DVDs and Videos

Use the name of the writer, director or producer as author.

Attenborough, D. (1995) The Private Life of Plants. DVD Video. BBC, London.

Key points

Note the use of punctuation.

Book or journal titles are in italics.

Volume numbers are in bold.

Acknowledgements

Guidance written by Kim Howell, Greg Kenicer, and Louis Ronse de Craene.

Language difficulties

RBGE supports students who have difficulties with language (e.g. those with

dyslexia or for whom English is a foreign language).

It is important to bring any difficulties to the attention of your tutors early on so

that we can provide appropriate support.


APPENDIX 5: General guidelines for Thesis writing at RBGE

Louis Ronse De Craene

General notes

Font: Times New Roman or Courier– size 12

Margins: approx. 25 mm

Line spacing: 1.5

The thesis may be printed recto verso, but allow blank pages between different sections.

All pages should be numbered sequentially in top right margin.

Layout:

-title page: Title - Name of student and date - sentence at bottom of page: thesis submitted

in partial fulfillment for the MSc in the Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants – logos of the

University of Edinburgh and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – any image you find

appropriate

- abstract: max 200 words conveying background and aims for the research, methods,

results and major findings, discussion and conclusion

-acknowledgements

- table of contents and list of figures in text

- main section can be written either as chapters 1,2,3… or as Introduction, results,

discussion, conclusion

- references

- appendix if any

Specific requirements:

Names of plants must be written out in full (genus, species) in the abstract and

again in the main text for every organism at first mention (but the genus is only needed for

the first species in a list within the same genus, e.g. Lolium annuum, L. arenarium). Authority

for plant names to be given when species are first mentioned.


Numbers up to and including ten should be written out unless they are

measurments. All numbers above ten should be in numericals except at the start of

sentences.

Footnotes should be used to explain terms or to refer to a specific point that cannot

be inserted in the text.

Citations in the text. These should take the form of Morris (2005) or Morris and

Beadle (2009) or (Tokuoka and Beadle, 2003; Beadle, 2008a, b). If more than two authors,

write ‘et al.’ after the first name (Tokuoka et al., 2010). If two different authors have the same

last name, give their initials to avoid confusion. Only refer to papers as ‘in press’ if they have

been accepted for publication in a named journal, otherwise use the terms ‘unpubl. data’ or

‘pers. comm..’ giving the initials and location of the person concerned (e.g. G Kenicer,

RBGE, pers.comm.).

References see appendix 4.

Appendix. If elaborate use is made of units, symbols and abbreviations, or a detailed

explanation of one facet of the thesis seems necessary, further details may be included in a

separate APPENDIX placed after the References.

Tables. Insert tables within the text and order consecutively. When preparing tables

use the ‘tables’ set-up in MS word, using one cell for each datum.

Figures should ideally be grouped as plates but can also be inserted individually in

the text. Each figure or plate should be numbered consecutively as Fig. 1,2 etc. and

individual figures on a plate should be labeled A,B,C, etc. and referred to in the text as Fig.

2C, etc.

Electron and light photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Colour images

can be used where they enhance significantly the clarity of the scientific information but are

at the students expense. Line diagrams will normally be black on white and boxed with

scale markings. Use of colour in line diagrams may be used where this enhances clarity

significantly. Use open and/or closed circles, squares and triangles for symbols in line

graphs.

Submission of dissertations

THREE copies of the dissertation and ONE pdf-file need to be submitted by the end of

August. Two copies will be returned after marking and one will be kept for the library.


APPENDIX 6: PLAGIARISM AND COPYING

Plagiarism can be defined as the deliberate use of another person's work in your own

work, as if it were your own, without adequate acknowledgement of the original source.

If this is done in work that you submit for assessment, then you are attempting to deceive the

examiners. In other words, plagiarism is cheating - trying to claim the credit for something that

is not your work.

This is a serious offence, because it threatens to undermine the value of University degrees.

We therefore take it very seriously, and can impose severe penalties on students who are

found guilty of plagiarism.

In the School of Biology, we use a wide range of methods to detect possible plagiarism,

including electronic methods that detect similarities and frequencies of words or phrases. We

also keep copies of the work of students in previous years, to ensure that work is not copied

from earlier years.

For every piece of work that you submit for assessment, you will be required to sign a

statement that the work is your own, and that any contribution from other sources

(published works or fellow students' work, etc.) has been properly acknowledged.

The penalties imposed:

1. All cases of suspected plagiarism will be investigated, and, where the work of one student

clearly has been used by another in an attempt to deceive the examiners, both the student

who does the copying and the person whose work is copied will receive ZERO MARKS

for that item of assessment.

2. Similarly, any submitted work that contains unacknowledged blocks of text from published

works (including web-based sources) in an attempt to deceive will receive ZERO MARKS.

3. In all cases above, we will consider invoking the University's disciplinary procedures, which

can lead to the plagiarism being recorded permanently on a student's academic record,

and, in extreme cases, to expulsion from the University.

Guidelines on good practice

As a student, you are part of a community of fellow students, academics and other people.

So, we DO want you to talk to one another, to share experiences, and to discuss problems -


including the assignments you have been set. If you find a useful source of information in the

library or on the World Wide Web, etc., then you SHOULD let other people know about it.

That's what being in a community is all about - co-operating and learning together, helping

one another to gain the most from your time at university.

BUT the crucial point is that, when you come to producing the piece of work that will be

assessed, it must be entirely your own work, written by you in your own words, and containing

your own interpretations, ideas, approaches etc. If you use other people's words or major

ideas, then you should state clearly where they come from. If you use diagrams or photos from

published works (as you should do, when appropriate) then you should state where the

diagram or photograph came from, and also add your own caption or footnotes to it, not those

of the original source.

In other words, it is quite easy to avoid plagiarism, while also being a good friend and

neighbour! All you need to do is make sure that you put your own effort into the material you

submit for assessment.

To take this point further, it is also permissible to use - with acknowledgements - another

student's lab results if, for example, an experiment has wholly failed to work (although you

should then try to suggest reasons for the failure).

A guide on using information from literature sources

1. The following is a direct quote from an original source: S. van Heyningen (1982)

“Similarities in the action of different toxins”, in “Molecular Action of Toxins and Viruses”,

(P. Cohen and S. van Heyningen, eds.) Elsevier, Amsterdam.

Cholera toxin is a simple protein easily purified from culture filtrates of Vibrio cholerae.

Its main biological property, as discussed in Chapter 2, is to activate adenylate cyclase

in all types of eukaryotic cell. It has a complicated subunit structure (reviewed in detail

in [1,2]). There are five B-subunits of molecular weight 11,600; they have been

sequenced and have one intrachain disulphide bond. There is also one A-subunit

(molecular weight 27,000). Subunit A is secreted by the V. cholerae as a single

polypeptide chain, and can be isolated as such if care is taken to minimize proteolysis

during the purification. It is however rapidly cleaved into two peptides A1 and A2, which

are linked by a disulphide bond. Peptide A1 has a molecular weight of about 22,000

and has been partially sequenced, while the molecular weight of peptide A2 is about

5,000.


2. The next example is a use of that quote in an essay, and is an example of pure plagiarism

– cheating. A few trivial changes have been made, but the text is almost unaltered and no

acknowledgement has been made of this fact.

Cholera toxin is a protein easily purified from culture filtrates of Vibrio cholerae. Its main

biological property is to activate adenylate cyclase in all types of eukaryotic cell. It has

a complicated subunit structure with five B-subunits of Mr 11,600. There is also one A-

subunit (Mr 27,000). Subunit A is secreted by the V. cholerae as a single polypeptide

chain, which can be isolated as such if proteolysis during the purification is kept to a

minimum. It is however rapidly cleaved into two peptides A1 and A2, which are linked

by a disulphide bond. Peptide A1 has Mr about 22,000 and has been partially

sequenced, while peptide A2 has Mr about 5,000.

3. This is another example that is also plagiarism. Reference has been made to the original

source, but it is not explained that it has been copied almost directly from the original.

Cholera toxin is a protein easily purified from culture filtrates of Vibrio cholerae1. Its main

biological property is to activate adenylate cyclase in all types of eukaryotic cell. It has

a complicated subunit structure with five B-subunits of Mr 11,600. There is also one A-

subunit (Mr 27,000). Subunit A is secreted by the V. cholerae as a single polypeptide

chain, which can be isolated as such if proteolysis during the purification is kept to a

minimum. It is however rapidly cleaved into two peptides A1 and A2, which are linked

by a disulphide bond. Peptide A1 has Mr about 22,000 and has been partially

sequenced, while peptide A2 has Mr about 5,000.

1van Heyningen, S. (1982) “Similarities in the action of different toxins”, in “Molecular

Action of Toxins and Viruses”, (Cohen, P. & van Heyningen, S, eds.) Elsevier,

Amsterdam.

4. Nobody could accuse the following of plagiarism, since the writer makes it quite clear that

the material has been copied; however the writer couldn’t expect to get much credit for this

“copy and paste” job, which shows no evidence of any thought or understanding.


Cholera toxin is an interesting protein with a complex structure. Van Heyningen1 has

explained that it is “a simple protein easily purified from culture filtrates of Vibrio

cholerae. Its main biological property is to activate adenylate cyclase in all types of

eukaryotic cell. It has a complicated subunit structure. There are five B-subunits of

molecular weight 11,600; they have been sequenced and have one intrachain disulphide

bond. There is also one A-subunit (molecular weight 27,000). Subunit A is secreted by

the V. cholerae as a single polypeptide chain, and can be isolated as such if care is

taken to minimize proteolysis during the purification. It is however rapidly cleaved into

two peptides A1 and A2, which are linked by a disulphide bond. Peptide A1 has a

molecular weight of about 22,000 and has been partially sequenced, while the molecular

weight of peptide A2 is about 5,000”.

1van Heyningen, S. (1982) “Similarities in the action of different toxins”, in “Molecular

Action of Toxins and Viruses”, (Cohen, P. & van Heyningen, S, eds.) Elsevier,

Amsterdam.

5. The following is not wonderful, because careful examination could show that the writer had

used only one source (guess which?), but it is not plagiarism, and it is not cheating.

Cholera toxin is an interesting protein that can be purified quite easily from the medium

in which Vibrio cholerae is grown; it is an activator of the enzyme adenylate cyclase in

eukaryotic cells, and has a complex structure1. The protein is made up of five single-

chain B-subunits (molecular weight 11,600), whose sequence shows them to have one

disulphide bond, and an A-subunit (molecular weight 27,000), which can be isolated

from the V. cholerae medium as a single chain if proteolysis is avoided, but is easily

cleaved into two peptides A1 (molecular weight about 22,000) and A2 (about 5,000).

(To show that we practise what we preach, we should acknowledge that the idea for this

illustration of plagiarism comes from Dr David French, Department of History, University

College London, whose own text used an example more relevant to History.)


APPENDIX 7: UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH MARKING SCHEME

Mark

(%)

Grade Description

90-100 A1 An excellent performance, satisfactory for a distinction.

80-89 A2 An excellent performance, satisfactory for a distinction.

70 – 79 A3 An excellent performance, satisfactory for a distinction.

60 – 69 B A very good performance, satisfactory for merit.

50 – 59 C A good performance, satisfactory for a masters degree.

40 -49* D A satisfactory performance for the diploma, but inadequate

for a masters degree.

30-39** E Marginal Fail.

***20-29 F Clear Fail.

***10-19 G Bad Fail.

***0-9 H Bad Fail.

A fuller interpretation of this scheme as it is applied to the Project Dissertation is

given below.

Class Mark Description

Distinction 90-100

Faultless, brilliant in every respect. The project report could be

suitable for publication in a good journal – Very unusual

indeed!

Distinction 80-89

Excellent in every respect. Clear evidence of critical

judgement in selection and discussion of relevant material. In-

depth knowledge and understanding of topic, clear

presentation and analysis of results, logical structure and

argument with evidence of original thought. Only the very best

papers fall into this category


Distinction 70-79

Generally as above and clearly Excellent but with less

elevated discussion. Minor defects are allowable if

compensated by other factors. Numerical data must be

analysed using the appropriate statistics.

Pass 66-69 Very good. Material is relevant and well presented. With very

good critical grasp and discussion of subject.

Pass 60-64 Very good, with less critical grasp than above but complete,

clear and well structured.

Pass 55-59 Good in most areas, with only minor gaps, errors and/or

misunderstandings.

Pass 50-54

Some good material but with shortcomings in relevance,

understanding, structure and completeness or clarity. The

minimum for an MSc.

Diploma 40-49

Fair in relevance, understanding, structure and completeness

or clarity. Not acceptable at MSc level, but acceptable at

Diploma level.

Fail 0-39 Poor. Serious shortcomings in all areas and little evidence of

effort - Very unusual!

APPENDIX 8: UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH ASSESMENTS AND

REGULATIONS

The following websites are sources of detailed information regarding the University’s

requirements and regulations that you are expected to abide by during your study.

Please read these carefully:

Degree Regulations and Programmes of Study: http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/

Taught Assessment Regulations:

http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/


http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/academic-services/policies-

regulations/regulations/assessment

School Taught Postgraduate Student Intranet (‘Wiki’)


APPENDIX 9: COMPLAINTS AND APPEAL PROCEDURE

(OTHER THAN EXAMINATION APPEALS)

The University is committed to maintaining an effective procedure to allow all members of its

community to make legitimate complaints. Full details of this procedure as it applies

specifically to students can be found at https://www.ed.ac.uk/students/academic-

life/complaints.

The most important point to recognise is that complaints often are best tackled “at source”,

by an initial informal approach to the person responsible for any particular situation. For

example, if you are dissatisfied about something on a course then you can approach the

lecturer or the course organiser, who may be able to act immediately to resolve the problem.

If you are still dissatisfied, then you should contact your Personal Tutor or the Director of

Teaching. Your Personal Tutor is obliged to act on your behalf – even in a complaint

against the University authorities – and also is obliged to maintain confidentiality in terms of

any personal details that you do not wish to be made known.

In any case, you are always welcome to come to the Director of Teaching, who has

overall responsibility for the Biology teaching. We assure you that we take all

complaints seriously, and that we will give you unbiased and independent advice should you

wish to take any unresolved complaint to the higher authorities.

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/academic-services/policies-regulations/regulations/assessment

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/academic-services/policies-regulations/regulations/assessment


https://www.ed.ac.uk/students/academic-life/complaints

https://www.ed.ac.uk/students/academic-life/complaints


APPENDIX 10: STUDENT DISABILITY SERVICES AT THE

UNIVERSITY

The School of Biological Sciences welcomes disabled students (including those with specific

learning difficulties such as dyslexia, autism, sensory and mobility impairments, mental

health problems and medical conditions such as diabetes and asthma) and we are working

to make all our courses accessible. If you wish to talk to a member of staff about the course

requirements and your particular needs please contact the Student Disability Service at

https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-disability-service.

Appendix 11: A Guide to Filling in Special Circumstances

Forms for Students

This guide aims to help students fill in Special Circumstance Forms. Use the

instructions to complete this form to the best of your ability; additionally you can

contact BTO Student Support ([email protected]) if you are still unsure of

anything covered in this guide.

Part 1. Personal Details

Fill in the table on the form with your name, matriculation number and exam number

(both of these numbers can be found on your student card)

Fill in the second row, if you are unsure of anything, leave this blank and student

support will complete this for you

Once you have completed this section read through rest of page 1 and ensure you

understand everything.

Part 2. Courses Affected by Special Circumstances

https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-disability-service



Read the information and fill in the parts of the table on the form. Match the

numbered instructions below with the numbers on the arrows in the form, it is easiest

to proceed in this order.

1) What assessed pieces of work are affected and include dates in this section

of the table, list for example; any practicals you missed, any pieces of course

work you handed in late, any exams affected. Do not say ‘all’ here, each

assessment must be itemised and listed. The committee can then consider

each piece of work in turn with the supporting evidence and make a decision.

2) Fill in the name of the course(s) which these assessments belong to

3) Please fill in the dates in which this circumstance affected this assessment, if

this circumstance is still ongoing you should indicate this here.

4) In the column “School which owns the course” add this information for the

particular course you are referring to in (2), if in any doubt leave this blank and

the student support team will complete this on your behalf.

Leave the columns “Info sent to owning school” and “Sch. Use Docs cover dates

Y/N” (not highlighted by the arrows) blank. These will be filled in by the special

circumstances committee.

Part 3. Nature of Special Circumstances

Tick all of the boxes that apply.

1 2 1 3 4


Part 4. Documentary Evidence

Tick all of the boxes that apply and state yes or no as to when the documentary

evidence was obtained. For example, if you were ill and did not attend the doctor

whilst ill but later then state “No”, however, if you saw the doctor whilst ill then

indicate “Yes” here.

In order for a special circumstances form to support your case, the committee must

be satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to support the circumstances and that

they have had a significant impact on your performance in the assessment.

Any supporting documentation submitted should be in English or a

certified translation provided.

Please see the special circumstances policy section 6 for more advice

on supporting evidence

If you are unsure what documentation to provide, Student Support

Tutors can give you guidance; contact [email protected]

Part 5

The sections on this page allow you to explain to the committee how this

circumstance has affected your academic performance. This should be brief and

concise but provide enough detail for the committee to understand the affect the

circumstances has had on the work listed in part 1 and make a decision.


Briefly state the nature of your circumstance

When it happened

How long this affected you for

If it is ongoing you should state this here

If there are multiple circumstances, clearly put the details of all of

these, bullet points can be used useful for clarity

State concisely how the circumstance has affected your academic work, for

example, if it has caused you to miss deadlines/exams

List all of pieces of work affected, which course they relate to and the

dates of the hand-in/exam

If you handed in a piece of assessed work late, you should note what

date it was due and what date you managed to hand this in.

If multiple courses and multiple pieces of work are affected, bullet

points can be used for clarity

You do not need to fill in this section, this section may be filled in by your PT or a

student support tutor if necessary.


Appendix 12: Out-of-Hours Student Support

University offices are closed:

5pm to 9am (GMT) (Monday to Friday)

at weekends (Saturday and Sunday)

during University-recognised holidays.

Out-of-hours welfare crisis

You can contact University Security by calling 0131 650 2257

(from another University phone call 502257)

You will first speak to a member of our Security team who will take further details of your situation.

Security team members may be able to provide the support or answers that you need.

Where this is not possible and the situation is urgent, you may be transferred to a duty member of

the student services team at the University.

This service is not designed or intended in any way to replace the role of the emergency services or

other relevant agencies such as GP's or other local NHS provision.

Other support available out of hours:

Medical emergencies

If someone is seriously ill or injured, and their life is at risk, call 999.

If you are worried about someone who is ill, call 111.

Mental health crisis support

If someone is in immediate danger call 999.

If the crisis is not life threatening, call NHS 24 on 111.

NHS Mental Health Assessment Service

24 hour service available at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

Tel: 0131 537 6000

Other sources of mental health support:

Nightline

Tel: 0131 557 4444 (8pm –8am)

Samaritans

Confidential emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress, despair or

suicidal thoughts. Available 24 hours a day.

Freecall: 116 123


Text: 07725 90 90 90

Email: [email protected]

The Edinburgh Crisis Centre

Open to any Edinburgh resident who is 16+ and experiencing a mental health crisis or a carer for

someone who is. Find out more via the link below:

www.edinburghcrisiscentre.org.uk

Freephone: 0808 801 0414

Text: 07974429075

Urgent social care or someone at risk of harm

In the evening and at weekends / public holidays, call Emergency Social Work on 0800 731 6969

Other useful numbers:

Police Scotland –non emergency phone contact: 101

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh: 0131 536 1000

Royal Edinburgh Hospital: 0131 537 6000

Fire and Rescue Service: 999

Coastguard: 999

Students who experience a crisis outside normal working hours can contact

the University Security 24/7 contact number 0131 650 2257.

Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm, contact BTO Student Support on 0131 650 8649 or

email [email protected]

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