Reporting
Applied research and demonstration projects require formal reporting either at project completion or at intervals during the project. Report timing and format are usually specified by the agency funding the project. Most report formats include the following information:
- Heading- Include title of project (note peer review rating), cooperators name, year, authors of report, and county.
- Summary- Briefly summarize the project. Highlight results or progress to date, including any significant deviations from the original objectives. State whether or not the project's objectives were met. State any factors that contributed to the project outcome. Describe any formal or informal evaluations of the awareness phase of the project, assess this phase and summarize ideas for improving future projects.
- Objective - Explain the need for the project and state its purpose.
- Material and Methods - Outline the project design and any significant details of the procedures used. Provide enough detail so others could repeat your experiment if desired.
- Results and Discussion - For final reports, describe the project results. For interim reports, summarize the work completed to date. Be objective when reporting your results; don't try to make them fit a preconceived conclusion. Measurements (example: yields, weight gains, weed populations, etc.) should be included. Results may be presented in tables or graphs. An example of a table is shown below.
- Conclusions - State whether or not the project's objectives were met. State any factors that contributed to the project outcome. Describe any formal or informal evaluations of the awareness phase of the project, assess this phase and summarize ideas for improving future projects.
- Acknowledgments- Take time to thank all that contributed to the success of this project.
- Disclaimer Clause- Trade names of commercial products used in this report are included only for better understanding and clarity. Reference to commercial products or trade names is made with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by the Texas A&M University System is implied. Readers should realize that results from one experiment do not represent conclusive evidence that the same response would occur where conditions vary.
Example of a table presenting project results:
Table 1. Crop yields by rotation and tillage type, (Any County, 2001)
| |
Crop Yield |
|
| Rotation |
Tillage Type |
(bu/ac) |
Statistical
Significance* |
| Continuously Cropped |
Conventional Tillage |
14 |
a |
| Continuously Cropped |
Minimum Tillage |
16 |
a |
| Continuously Cropped |
Zero Tillage |
23 |
b |
| Crop-Fallow |
Conventional Tillage |
41 |
c |
| Crop-Fallow |
Minimum Tillage |
38 |
c |
| Crop-Fallow |
Zero Tillage |
41 |
c |
* yields followed by the same letter do not differ significantly, based on unpaired-test (P<0.05).