MIC401 Adobe Sign | School of Life Sciences

MIC 401: Microbiology Research Paper Overview and Agreement

Form purpose:

This form is used to obtain credit for writing a research paper. Please note, to receive a literacy (L) credit, this class must be taken with MIC 302.

Filling out this form is a process. Please be prepared to complete multiple steps that may take several days to complete to enable you to accurately fill out this form.

Below are step-by-step instructions to complete enrollment and helpful information in the dropdown menus including faculty listed by their expertise band helpful hints to successfully obtain a mentor.

What you need before you fill out the form

Pick the general area of microbiology that will be the topic of your paper.
Carefully review the information in the "Helpful hints to find a Faculty Advisor/Reader" drop down menu to answer common questions and read through suggestions to effectively approach a faculty mentor.
Email a faculty member and make arrangements to have them oversee the research writing process.
1. For a list of faculty mentors by speciality, see the "Faculty by field emphasis" dropdown menu below.
You will need the ASURite assigned email address to fill out the Adobe Sign form. You may need to ask the faculty member to provide this address. Alias addresses, such as the faculty member's name (ex: pat.doe@asu.edu) will not authenticate and the faculty member will not be able to complete their part of the form.

What to do once you have completed the steps above

Activate the Adobe Sign agreement below, complete and sign.
Make sure to use the faculty members ASURite assigned email. Alias emails (ex: pat.doe@asu.edu) will not be able to authenticate and you will be forced to start over.
Make sure to verify the email address you used in the form. Before your form can be sent on, Adobe Sign needs confirmation of who you are.
A copy of the form will be sent to the listed faculty member for their signature and a finalized copy will be sent to SOLS advising for approval.
If you do not receive confirmation from Adobe Sign that your form is complete within 7 business days, follow up with your professor to make sure they filled out and submitted their part of the form. If they have, then you may want to reach out to advising at sols.advising@asu.edu.

Helpful hints to find a Faculty Advisor/Reader

Faculty members will likely be more responsive if you are interested in writing on a subject matter that is familiar to them.
In the email body, indicate specifically what you would like to write about. You should already have a research question. This question doesn't have to be in finalized, but it should give the faculty member a clear idea of what you are interested in researching and be stated in one sentence.
- Stating that you are interested in writing about “microbial pathogenesis”, “bacterial physiology”, “viruses”, or “a subject that you specialize in” is very vague and leaves the impression you haven't given much thought to your research.
- Faculty are more inclined to select students who have taken the initial steps in their research and show a clear interest in a specific question.
Include why you think it is important to answer this research question and/or possible advantages to society in having this question answered.
- Will answering your question fill a void in the current research, or could it make health care more accessible, etc.
It is acceptable and even recommended you reach out to multiple faculty members with customized emails that have include specific research questions related to that faculty member's specialized field.
- Faculty members may be interested in your topic, but may decline for other reasons such as their teaching schedule or other obligations. For this reason it is important to not be discouraged and to be prudent and have back-up options.
The dropdown menu below includes faculty you may consider contacting listed according to their field of expertise. This is not a comprehensive list. You can ask a faculty member outside of SOLS, research faculty members or postdoctoral research fellow in research laboratories. You can also ask a faculty member if someone in their lab is available to serve as an advisor.
- You will need to obtain this persons ASURite email address. Alias's cannot be used as Adobe Sign cannot validate the signature.
A complete list of SOLS faculty can be found on the faculty page.
A list of faculty who serve in faculty groups can be found on our faculty group page.

Faculty by field emphasis

How to use this list:

Please review the list of possible readers. These are only suggestions. You can ask any faculty member within or outside of SOLS to serve as your faculty advisor. Research faculty members or postdoctoral research fellows in research laboratories or in the labs of other faculty members can also serve as your advisor/reader, so you can ask the faculty member if someone in their lab is available to serve as an advisor.

Microbial Pathogenesis faculty:

Bacterial Genetics / Physiology faculty:

Microbiomics faculty:

Virology / Vaccinology faculty:

Immunology:

Microbial Ecology faculty:

Microbial Evolution:

Biomarkers / Metabolomics:

Eukaryotic Microbiology / Parasitology:

Molecular Biology:

Paper requirements for credit

Class overview and purpose:

The goal MIC 401 is to identify a problem or question in the field of microbiology, develop a hypothesis (or hypotheses), and propose a series of experiments to determine a solution to that problem. Part of the research process is presenting the findings or propose a research experiment for future testing. This includes a research paper and oral presentation of the work, which are both required for credit in this class.

Please note: If you want to receive a literacy credit (L), you must take MIC 302 in conjunction with this class.

General paper layout (your's may very slightly and can be discussed with your faculty mentor as you proceed)

Abstract: 1 page
- Overview of topic and research
Introduction: 5-8 pages
- statement of problem and question
- proposed solution
Experimental design: 4-6 pages
- description of methods to address the problem
- Possible outcomes and limitations of experiment
- Possible difficulties and bias and alternative strategies
Interpretations/conclusions: 2 pages
- Your proposed experiment based on possible outcomes

External link to Adobe Sign form