Outline Goals: Searching scientific journal articles Taking home messages from a scientific article Components of a scientific article and review process Scientific research presentation Choose your article – consult mentor 10 min presentation, 5 min for questions Post (at least 2 days ahead of) and read articles in advance – rest of the class Sign up your presentation date (CD or thumb drive, ppt file)

The Scientific Journal Article Searching Machine keyword1 AND keyword2 Title & ref Abstract Full text

The Scientific Journal Article Searching Machine

Reading a Scientific Journal Article 1. Types of scientific journal articles: Original research/report – new findings/data Reviews – summarize and suggest new directions Meta-analysis – analyzes existing data from different articles to address a set of related research hypotheses Fast communications – breaking news, short

Reading a Scientific Journal Article 2. How to read a scientific journal article? Start from updated peer-reviewed review articles if you are new in the field Original contributions – critical and objective New findings, exciting points? Appropriate methods & Ctrls? Solid results? Conclusion drawn appropriate – follow the results? Comments and additional conclusions according to the results?

The Scientific Journal Article Components of original contributions: Title – key point Abstract – summary of the new findings Introduction – why you did it Materials and Methods – how you did it Results – what you found Discussion – why we care Acknowledgement, references Figures and tables

The Scientific Journal Article 1. Title Express most important concept Brief and catchy Be objective 3rd person, active tense

The Scientific Journal Article 2. Abstract Miniature version of intro, methods, results, and significance Self-contained without reference to text Brief and catching – novelty I prefer 3rd person exclusively in abstract No footnotes or abbreviations Literature references must be complete citations

The Scientific Journal Article 3. Introduction States the purpose of the current study States the current deficiencies in knowledge Directly relevant background only (not a review) Remember to acknowledge potential reviewers

The Scientific Journal Article 4. Materials and Methods Theoretically sufficient for others to repeat work Reality is that you won’t find that much info Do not detail previously published procedures - reference previous papers (the original!) Break into subheadings, e.g. “Chemicals”, “Site-Directed Mutagenesis”, “Protein Expression”

The Scientific Journal Article 5. Results Think long and hard about figure content Third person, stick to the facts, point out the new findings Tables and figures – make your findings more visible – should not overlap in content Use symbols (e.g., arrows) in figures Supplementary data can be appended

The Scientific Journal Article 6. Discussion Draw together results and show interrelationships, point out the novelty You are allowed to speculate a bit, but not too much Avoid literature reviews but you can pat a few backs, or points to discrepancies What did you learn and how does it fit into the existing picture

The Scientific Journal Article 7. Acknowledgements Material gifts, advice, technical assistance, secretarial assistance Funding agencies Avoid thanking the academy and your first grade teacher

The Scientific Journal Article 8. References Must format to journal style Only articles accepted can be cited in references Others - go as unpublished results or personal communication

The Scientific Journal Article 9. Figures and Tables Figure legends must have symbols, and state result succinctly Figures need to be perfect Tables formatted to journal specifications

The Scientific Journal Article Review Process Generally 2-3 reviewers Options are accept w/o revisions, accept w/ minor revisions, accept only after major revision (usually reviewed again), or reject Authors can suggest suitable reviewers and disqualify others don’t review