Term Paper Instructions
Pick a subject related to Information Security.
The subject should not be just a history lesson. You can analyze the offerings of a current technology, or review best practices in a certain industry segment or application. The material covered should not be a general subject that is taught in another undergraduate class at ECU, but you can delve deeper into a subject. For instance, a general history or overview of virtualization would not be appropriate, but something like Best Practices for Securing Virtual Servers in a Healthcare Environment would be appropriate. The current status and future of any new or developing technology is appropriate. An analysis of a current event or current events relating to information security is appropriate. Your term paper topic should NOT be something that you would expect your classmates to already know.
Research what information you can find and write a 5-15 page (12-point font, double spaced) paper on the subject. There should be five to fifteen pages of written text not including references. You can add a title page, figures, tables, etc. to make it longer if you want.
Your paper must include at least 5 external references not including the textbook.
You must have at least 2 references from a journal or technical proceeding, not just a web page.
For the purposes of this requirement, I will accept references that have the term journal or proceedings in the title, or any paper that has at least 5 references listed at the end of the article. To get credit for having these two references, they must be marked with an asterisk in the citations or references section of the paper that you submit to me. An example of marking the references with an asterisk can be found at http://www.infosecwriters.com/text_resources/pdf/Forensics_HStacy.pdf
Wikipedia does not count as a journal or technical proceeding.
You are encouraged to use the university library resource (https://library.ecu.edu ). The ACM Digital Library database and the IEEE Xplore database are recommended as good starting points for finding related references. If you get to a database that asks for a subscription you should start over by going to the ECU Joyner website https://library.ecu.edu and find the database through this website by clicking on the Database List link below the OneSearch box. Then navigate to A for ACM or I for IEEE XPlore. The OneSearch may also be used to search for useful articles as it includes an array of scholarly and trade journal articles, including many by IEEE. If you are off-campus, you may be required to authenticate using your ECU credentials (email userid and password). You should not need to buy any subscription for access to research material. Use the library.
The expected length of the paper is 5-15 pages of text plus any additional figures, tables, references, etc. If you have more than fifteen pages of material you may submit the paper, but do not expect any extra credit for the extra words. A good 8-page paper will be worth just as much as a good 20 page paper for the grade that I assign.
Note that using ones own previous work without citation is a form of plagiarism (self-plagiarism). This is also referred to as Multiple submission in the student code of conduct.+
*****Avoid plagiarism
