General Rules and Guidelines

SSEF

Eligibility

• SSEF is open only to secondary and pre-university students studying in MOE schools. Submissions from students who are not from MOE schools, or students in institutes of higher learning, will not be considered.

• Students participating in the SSEF are typically in Sec 3 and above (or equivalent grades) in the year SSEF is held. There is no age restriction for participation in SSEF, provided students are in an MOE school at the point of participation.

• Projects can be submitted as an individual or a team project. Each team should comprise not more than three members. Teams can comprise members from different schools. For team projects, one submission by the team leader on behalf of all team members is sufficient.

• Only one project (individual or team) can be submitted per student. Students who are involved in more than one project should decide on one project to submit for SSEF; any student who submits more than one project may have his/her projects disqualified from the competition.

• Projects submitted for SSEF should only involve research conducted in the time period starting  from 1 Jan of the preceding year and ending on the SSEF registration closing date. The total duration of research should not exceed 12 months. 

School Registration

• Schools with students intending to participate in SSEF must register a teacher-coordinator. 

• All important correspondence will only be directed to the teacher-coordinators.

SSEF Entry Form and Project Report

• Students intending to participate in SSEF should complete the following paperwork:

  1. Submit SSEF Entry Form (via FormSG); and

  2. Submit relevant ISEF Forms (through the Teacher Coordinators)

• After completing the SSEF Entry Form, students should submit their Project Report. Submission of the Project Report is subject to a strict deadline. Late submissions of the Project Report will not be accepted. 

Preliminary Judging and Shortlisting for SSEF Final Judging

• The Project Report will be subjected to preliminary judging. Only shortlisted applicants will participate in SSEF Final Judging. 

• Shortlisted applicants will be notified after the Preliminary Judging through their Teacher Coordinators.

Other Rules and Guidelines

• As SSEF is an Affiliated Fair of ISEF, the ISEF International Rules and Guidelines are applicable to SSEF, unless otherwise stated. 

Citations

• Ensure that sources are appropriately cited and written in the appropriate format.

• Should there be direct copying of phrases, quotation marks should enclose the phrase, with the source clearly cited.

• Images and other media from other sources have to be cited.

• Review manuscript guidelines of journals representative of the discipline or seek external mentor’s guidance, if any, to understand the referencing guidelines.

Advisory on Integrity and the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be used as a resource but must be cited and given proper acknowledgment. A student is expected to do independent work and all materials presented must be in the researcher's own words. A student may not use generative AI to write the research plan, abstract, poster or to create citations (it is known to hallucinate and falsify references).

• Students should be responsible in their use of Generative AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini). This includes taking all care to ensure that classified, sensitive and/or personal data (e.g. data containing identifiable personal information of individuals) is not uploaded, as such data may be retained as "training data".

• Students are expected to include a statement (e.g. in the “References” section of their Project Report) to state whether Generative AI was used, and if so, how it was used in their project. If Generative AI is used more extensively as part of the project, this may also be mentioned in the main text of the Project Report. This is similar to how students are expected to cite sources used, and not pass off work by others as their own.

• Teachers should exercise professional oversight of the projects under their charge, to ensure that students exercise integrity in the course of their research.

• Projects found to have committed fraud or to have been dishonest, in any stage of the project, will be investigated. Such projects may be disqualified from the competition. The school(s) of student(s) involved will also be notified and disciplinary consequences may need to be meted out.

• Random checks on project documents for plagiarism will be performed by the SSEF Secretariat.