Checklist to Send Major Papers (MPs) compliant with EUCLID Guidelines
What is major paper?
A major paper is application of the course material and knowledge to a specific problem. For instance:
- HIV in Brazil
- Nuclear Energy in China
- US Fiscal Policy under Janet Yellen
An MP title must have two parts, the short/general part and the subtitle, as in (from above):
- HIV in Brazil: Why current policies have failed
- Nuclear Energy in China: Toward technology independence in the 21st Century
- US Fiscal Policy under Janet Yellen: Consequences of delayed rate hikes on long-term inflation
- COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United States prior to the Delta and Omicron-associated surges: A retrospective cohort study of repeat blood donors
- Attitudes of Patients With Chronic Heart Failure Toward Digital Device Data for Self-documentation and Research in Germany: A cross-sectional Survey Study
- Older people’s experience of COVID-19 restrictions on vaccine hesitancy: A longitudinal phenomenological study to support nurse-patient vaccination conversations
It is also possible (but not preferred and requires special faculty authorization) to have a single title (longer) as in:
- Assessment of the Optic Disc and Retinal Microvasculature by Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Patients With Pediatric Migraine
- Understanding hesitancy with revealed preferences across COVID-19 vaccine types
The student must suggest one or more possible titles and contact the instructor/faculty via email to confirm approval.
In a major paper (MP template, ~14 pages, footnotes with Zotero, about 25 bibliography entries), the student will demonstrate his or her ability to apply (and cite) the course material to a specific and related situation. The student should make a few directed quotations of the course material as well as many quotations and references to other sources including news articles and peer-reviewed academic papers.
Important Notice: The student is encouraged to fill out this checklist and tick all areas before sending their papers to the instructor for review. The checklist should be filled out for every major paper.
Make sure that your topic (actually, title) has been approved by the course instructor. A title should be specific and often include a subtitle like:
Dengue Control in Southern France: Hard Lessons from 5 Years of Mosquito Abatement Policies
(note: never end a heading/title with a period).
PLAGIARISM AND AI USE / DISCLOSURE
All major papers must be checked using Grammarly EDU (provided free of charge by EUCLID University) prior to submission; students are required to include a screenshot or PDF export of the final Grammarly report showing the overall performance score.
In addition, students must disclose both the plagiarism detection percentage and the AI-generated content detection percentage as reported by Grammarly.
Any use of AI tools (including but not limited to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Copilot, or similar large language models) during the research, drafting, or editing process must be transparently declared.
Students who used AI assistance are required to submit a separate file titled “FirstName LastName ProgramCode CourseCode MP-AI-Prompts.docx” containing the full text of all prompts submitted to any AI system, together with the main major paper file.
Failure to provide complete disclosure of AI usage, prompt logs, and detection rates will be considered a violation of academic integrity policy.
COMMON ERRORS:
- Plagiarism: make sure to read (actually study) the “Note on Plagiarism and AI use” document carefully.
- Do not ever end a heading or main title with a period/full stop; the only permitted punctuation mark is ? or ! if warranted (rare). Remember that only full sentences with a verb end with a period; everything else does not…
- Do not use “I” or “my” or any personal form); keep the MP academic in tone.
- Do not use the form “ in this book [] explains…” Instead, use the form: “In this book [], explains that…”
- Do not end a section with a quote; always have an introductory and wrap-up sentence.
- Do not end a section with a list of bullets; always have an introductory and wrap-up sentence.
- Do not use straight-down single or double quote symbols; these come from cut/past from e-text or the internet. Only use curly single and double quote signs.
- Strictly follow international capitalization rules; do not create erratic or unusual capitalization.
- EUCLID prefers “Scully and colleagues contend that…” as opposed to the more formal “Scully et al. contend that…”
- Remember that the US style for footnotes is:
- Make sure to review/edit all your bibliography entries (in Zotero) and refresh in Word as needed. Make sure that capitalization is consistent and that all required fields are informed (author, year are essential). Remove all traces of search engine links in URLs.
FILENAME AND FORMAT OF FILE:
- File format should for Microsoft Word (DOCX extension)
- Naming convention is: FirstName LastName CourseCode PaperCode MP. For example,
LAWRENCE TABARA DDIA DIP-401 MP.docx
LAWRENCE TABARA DDIA DIP-401 MP REV3.docx (for revision 3)
Please see the RP checklist for samples of incorrect formats.
| 1 | The Word document has a “.docx” extension | ☐ |
| 2 | The filename of the paper complies with the above convention | ☐ |
- CONTENTS:
| 3 | The paper has a clear outline, similar to:
a. Introduction b. Situation/Problem c. History/Context Information/Academic knowledge d. Proposition/Recommendations e. Conclusion |
☐ |
| 4 | The paper discusses a specific problem (or situation) | ☐ |
| 5 | The paper explains the problem and its importance | ☐ |
| 6 | The paper discusses the context (history, circumstances, and academic knowledge) | ☐ |
| 7 | The paper does not engage in plagiarism (Grammarly rate <18%). Please remember that plagiarism can be citing sources for no good reason (even if sources is acknowledged). The idea is to indeed use sources, but wisely so and for a reason (as authority, primary course, illustrative news, etc). A plagiarism rate of 0% is actually a bad thing… | ☐ |
| 8 | Ideally, the paper includes specific recommendations for action or policy. | ☐ |
| 9 | The paper includes a conclusion with a summary but nothing in the conclusion should be new information. It could be suggestions or directions for further research. | ☐ |
| 10 | The paper has at least 25 well-placed footnotes that are relevant to the topic of the major paper | ☐ |
| 11 | The paper includes a bibliography section. For major papers, there should be about 20 entries (or more) from diverse sources, including:
– The textbooks from the course – Other books – Academic papers – News articles / URLs |
☐ |
| 12 | The paper is about 12 – 22 pages in length (14 is ideal) | ☐ |
Optional and only recommended for special and very long papers (45 pages or more):
| 13 | The paper includes a table of contents | ☐ |
| 14 | The paper includes an index | ☐ |
- FORM AND STYLE:
| 15 | The paper is a Word document based on the current year EUCLID template (latest revision can be obtained from instructor), which is double‐spaced | ☐ |
| 16 | The paper must use Zotero (to insert footnotes and generate references). The student has cleaned up, when necessary, the Zotero entries to generate a clean bibliography | ☐ |
| 17 | The paper uses an appropriate rule of style, which is Turabian with footnotes. Other possible styles (ask instructor for a green light) are WHO for International Public Health students or Oxford for some Commonwealth‐based students | ☐ |
| 18 | The paper mentions in the opening page if it is using the UK or US English (and may indicate the use of a particular rule of style) | ☐ |
| 19 | If using US English, spelling and punctuation are consistent (punctuation is placed inside the quotation marks in the US system). The footnote reference must be inserted (with Zotero) right after the punctuation mark (not before) | ☐ |
| 20 | The paper applies the right Word “Styles” to the paragraphs, especially MP Head1, MP Head2, MP Normal, MP Quote, etc. | ☐ |
| 21 | The use of the comma is mastered | ☐ |
| 22 | There are no blank lines (extra “Enter / Line Break”) in the document | ☐ |
| 23 | A spell check (along with Grammarly Premium check) has been run several times (with the right type of English, US or UK) | ☐ |
| 24 | The paper makes references to sources (at least three citations from the course textbooks) using the footnote method (in‐text/parenthetical citations are not allowed) | ☐ |
| 25 | The formatting of the sources in the footnote area is consistent, and the title should always be italicized (Zotero may not generate the right format, in which case we accept the Zotero-generated format) | ☐ |
| 26 | Sentences are not too long, clear in intent, and have a logical flow (use “However,” “Moreover,” “On the other hand,” “Accordingly,” “Yet,”) | ☐ |
| 27 | For MPs, the paper is academic rather than personal and interactive. Ideally, the MP should be easy to adapt for publication in the IRP Journal. Do not write the MP with reference to EUCLID students, the course material, etc. It should be read as a piece of scholarship unrelated to a student’s assignment. The use of “I” (and similar personal expressions) is allowed in the Introduction and Conclusion but not encouraged | ☐ |