Many students choose a topic that they already know something about and explore new research in that area. Whatever you choose, make sure you are interested in the topic!
If you don't have an idea yet, browsing through the library's book collection in animal science will present you with a broad variety of subjects. You might also want to scan issues of the Journal of Animal Science or the Journal of Dairy Science to see what scientists are studying.
A quick way to get a feel for how well your area has been researched is to run a search in Google Scholar. If only 10 hits are returned you'll know you have to expand your topic or change your topic. On the other hand, if you get 10,000 hits you'll know you have to narrow down your topic.
When you search Google Scholar, the scientific articles in the databases listed below will be included in your results. Scholar acts as an umbrella search engine for all of them and displays information when the library has access to the journal.
However, searching each database individually will give you a better hit rate because of the specialized search "bells and whistles" of the individual database.
If you have answered "yes" to these five questions you have probably located a scientific article.
Your abstract should summarize the key points of your research paper by touching briefly on the following elements:
Reread your finished paper and look specifically for the elements included in this list. Then sit on your paper (or put it away) and write a rough draft of your abstract. Do not simply copy and paste key sentences from your paper, and do not mention any information that you didn't include in your paper! When you're ready to revise your rough draft, check for organization, coherence, and content.
Most informative abstracts are generally 200-300 words and one paragraph in length.
A good abstract...
When the author's name appears in the sentence, it does not need to be repeated in the citation.
(Smith and Jones, 1982; Jones, 1988a,b; Jones et al., 1992, 1993).
Smith and Jones (1992) or Smith and Jones (1990, 1992).
More than two authors
(Jones et al., 1992)
Journal names shall be abbreviated according to the conventional ISO abbreviations used by PubMed.
Last name, Initials, Initials Last name, Initials Last name. Year. Article title, sentence style capitalization. Abbreviated journal title volume(issue, if available):pages. DOI for article published after 2005.
Perez, V. G., A. M. Waguespark, T. D. Bidner, L. L. Southern, T. M. Fakler, T. L. Ward, M. Steidinger, and J. E. Pettigrew. 2011. Additivity of effects from dietary copper and zinc on growth performance and fecal microbiotia of pigs after weaning. J. Anim. Sci. 89:414–425. doi:10.2527/ jas.2010-2839
Books and articles within edited books
Author. Year. Title, sentence level capitalization. Edition, if available. Publisher's name, publisher's location.
AOAC. 1990. Official methods of analysis. 15th ed. Assoc. Off. Anal. Chem., Arlington, VA.
Chapter in edited book
Last name, Initials, Initials Last name, and Initials Last name. Year. Chapter title, sentence style capitalization. In: editor. Book title, sentence style capitalization. Publisher's name, Publisher's location. pages.
Robinson, P. H., E. K. Okine, and J. J. Kennelly. 1992. Measurement of protein digestion in ruminants. In: S. Nissen, editor, Modern methods in protein nutrition and metabolism. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. p. 121–127.
Last name, Initials. Year. Title, sentence style capitalization. Thesis type. Academic institution, Location.
Ward, J.D. 1995. Effects of copper deficiency on performance and immune function of cattle. PhD Diss. North Caroline State Univ., Raleigh.