1. Paper Reading and Writing

2. Paper Reading

3.  WHY?  HOW?

4. Does your professor just want to ruin your life? Or is there a good reason to read the literature?

5. Why read?  It is current! --Textbook can be years out of date by the time they are published. Journals tell you what is happening right now!

6.  It can be replicated! --Popular articles and books give you general information. Scholarl journals give you detailed information that you could do the experiment yourself. --You can verify the research results by doing it yourself.

7.  It has actual data! --If you need to know exact results or properties for your own research, articles include actual data, uncertainties, conditions of the experiment, and much more.

8.  You can evaluate the conclusions --Do you believe it… or not? --Articles provide the author’s explanation of their results and conclusions. You can see their assumptions and determine whether you believe them or not.

9. Why read? So, there you have it… Current—It is most up to date stuff Replicable—you can redo the experiment yourself Has raw data—Save time, use their results Show logic—Do you believe it…or not All the reasons to read scientific papers

10. How?  How to make scientific papers reading as painless as possible?

11. First thing first  Don’t read strainght through

12. Before you read, you need the right equipment…  A scientific dictionary --look up terms you don’t know --try an online dictionary  Handy notebook: --make notes so you’ll remember your insights  Your friends and colleagues: --explaining to others will help you understand the paper yourself

13. All packed? Then, let’s go!

14. Ok, Let’s start our trip to understanding scientific papers! In this section, we will read the sections of a paper in the order that makes for faster, more efficient comprehension than reading the paper straight through.

15. First stop!  The Abstract:  Tells you briefly what experiment was done and what was found. Question:  What specific results are mentioned?  Are the relevant?

16. Discussion:  Summarizes important results  Give reasons for conclusions based on results Question:  Do you agree with the logic of the conclusion?  Are these results useful to you?

17. Introduction  Explains motivation and importance of resarch  Provides background information Question:  Do you understand background information?  Do you need to look up reference for more information?

18. Results:  Provides the raw data you might need for your own research. Figures and tables provide the data in a compact format for easy viewing Question:  For figures and tables, do you understand what they mean? What units are used?  Does the curve make sense?

19. Congratulations! You’ve reached an understanding of the paper. You can see whether the paper is relevant to your work, and know where the data and conclusions are hidden.

20. Anatomy Are all apples red? Abstract: We examined several apples’ color. Although most are red, some are not. Introduction: An age-old question is: are all apples red? Maclntosh (1993) thought so. G. Smith (1999) begs to differ. We hope to resolve this issue once and for all. Methods: We went to the local grocery store and bought one of every appley they had. We took them home and looked at them.  Results: We found four red apples, one green apple, and two yellow apples.  Discussion: Since we found one yellow apple and two green apples, it must be true that all apples are not red. We concur with G.Smith’s fingding.  References: Maclntosh. Journal of fruit science. 1993, 4(3):121-135 Simith G. Apple technology tody. 1999,7(3):4-8

21. Title information  Are all apples red?  Authors  Title: gives you a brief synopsis of what the paper is about.  Author: who wrote the paper? from an institution you trust?  Institution: who the author works for. It can help determine the qualifications the author.  Contact information: usually included, so one can provide feedback or correspond with the author.

22. The abstract  Gives you a brief overview of what the paper is all about.  Explains why the authors did the experiment, how they did it, and what they found out.  Ask yourself, are these findings relevant to the questions you have?  It is very important to read abstracts to help you decide whether to read the whole paper or not.  Abstracts are available in many indexes to the journal literature, so you don’t even need to find the actual article to determine whether it minght be interesting toread.

23. Introduction  Provides the motivation for doing the experiment, explaining “why did they bother?”  Explains prior research, and what the accepted understanding of the field is.  In this case, there is a dispute between maclntosh and Smith, and this paper seeks to settle the dispute.

24. Mehtod  Gives details on how the experiment was set up and carried out.  Should explain well enough that you could replicate the experiment yourself, if you wanted to.  Often the hardest section to understand, since it contains specialized techinques. Skip this section until last.  When reading, skim and try to pick out basic methods used. Don’t worry that much about the details—that’s for grad school  Ask your instructor or consult a scientific encyclopedia or textbook if you don’t understand the concepts of the technique.

25. Results  This section provides the data the authors use to reach their conclusions.  Figures are often included to make the data more compact and intuitive, and tables organize data in one place for easier reading.  Understanding figures and tables is extremely important in understanding a paper.  For figures, make sure you understand what quantities are on the axes, are they linear or lgarithmic, what units are plotted?

26. Discussion  This is where the author connects the dots—explaining what the data mean, and why they support the conclusion.  Compare your own conclusions about the data with the author’s analysis.  When skimming the paper for the first time, after reading the abstract, read the concluding section. It gives more detail on the specific results that were found, and helps you determine whether the paper is relevant to your research question.

27. Acknowledgments Anyone or institution, association, who helped you: in  Technically (Including materials, supplies)  Intellectually (Assistance, advice)  Financially (Funding grants, departmental support, travel grants)

28. References  Provides a list of resources quoted or referenced by the authors  Allow you to go back to those resources to see why the authors referenced that work, and whether those sources seem reliable and accurate.  Format orf bibliography differs between journals. Here, it goes: author….

29. Article information  Nutrition, volume 2, issue 4, 2001 p8  Combined with the author/title infromation, it enables you to create a citation for the article—so you can tell other people where to find it.  Remember, if you use the data or concepts from this paper, you must cite it in your reports or publications. Failure to do that is:  Plagiarism  Which could lead to failure of a course, expulsion from purdue, and after you leave school, legal consequences.  It’s always better to be safe, and cite all your sources.

30. Paper Reading Dietary fiber and associations with adiposity and fasting insulin among college students with plausible dietary reports

31. Courtney E. Byrd-Williams, B.A., Myra L. Strother, M.D., Louise A. Kelly, Ph.D., and Terry T.K. Huang, Ph.D. Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (CBW); University of Kansas Student Health Services, Lawrence, KS (MLS); Department of Exercise Science, California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA (LAK); National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD (TTKH)

32. Abstract Objective—We examined the dietary fiber intake, food sources of dietary fiber, and relationship of dietary fiber with body composition and metabolic parameters in college students with plausible dietary reports. Research Methods & Procedures—Students (18–24 yrs) provided data on anthropometry, fasting blood chemistries, and body composition (bioelectric impedance). Diet and physical activity were assessed with the Diet History Questionnaire and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Plausible dietary reporters were identified (± 1 SD cutoffs for reported energy intake as a percentage of predicted energy requirement). Multiple regression analyses were conducted with the total (n=298) and plausible (n=123) samples, adjusting for age, race, sex, smoking status, physical activity, energy intake, and fat free mass (where applicable).

33. Abstract Results—Food sources of dietary fiber were similar in males and females. In the plausible sample compared to the total sample, dietary fiber was more strongly associated with fat mass (β=-0.24, p<0.001), percent body fat (β= - 0.23, p<0.001), BMI (β= -0.11, p<0.01), waist circumference (β=-0.67, p<0.05), and fasting insulin (β= -0.15, p<0.001). When the effect of sex was investigated, dietary fiber was inversely related to fasting insulin and fat mass in men and women and inversely related to percent body fat, BMI, and waist circumference in men only (p<0.05). Conclusions—Inclusion of implausible dietary reports may result in spurious or weakened diet-health associations. Dietary fiber is negatively associated fasting insulin levels in males and females and consistently associated with adiposity measures in males.

34. Keywords Diet; glucose; body composition; adults; health; food habits

40. Paper Reading Polychlorinated Biphenyl-77 Induces Adipocyte Differentiation and Proinflammatory Adipokines and Promotes Obesity and Atherosclerosis

52. Paper Writing

53. 1. Choose A topic 2. Put your results together 3. Make an outline 4. Organize your note 5. Write your first draft 6. Revise your outline and draft 7. Check list

54. 1.Choose a topic Select a subject you can manage. Avoid subjects that are too technical, learned, or specialized.

55. 2.Put your results together Write down all the results you have. Do some critical thinking and write your thesis statement down in one sentence. Your thesis statement is like a declaration of your belief. The main portion of your essay will consist of arguments to support and defend this belief All points must relate to the same major topic that you first mentioned in your capital topic.

56. 3. Make an outline  The purpose is to help you think through your topic carefully and organize it logically before you start writing.  A good outline is the most important step in writing a good paper.  Check your outline to make sure that the points covered flow logically from one to the other. Generally your outline will include an Introduction, Method and Materials, Results, Discussion, Conclusion.  In “Results”and ”Discussion”, you could have different sub-title to put your materials into it logically.  Organize all the information you have gathered according to your outline.  Critically analyze your research data.  Using the best available sources, check for accuracy and verify that the information is factual, up-to-date, and correct.  Opposing views should also be noted if they help to support your thesis.

57. 4. Organize your note Analyze, synthesize, sort, and digest the information you have gathered and hopefully learn something about your topic which is the real purpose of doing a research paper in the first place. You must be able to effectively communicate your thoughts, ideas, insights, and research findings to others through written words as in a report, an essay, a research or term paper.

58. 5. Write your first draft Start with the first topic in your outline. Read all the relevant notes you have gathered that have been marked. Summarize, paraphrase or quote directly for each idea you plan to use in your essay. Use a technique that suits you, e.g. write summaries, paraphrases or quotations on note cards, or separate sheets of lined paper. Mark each card or sheet of paper clearly with your outline code or reference.

59. 6. Revise your outline and draft  Read your paper for any content errors.  Double check the facts and figures.  Arrange and rearrange ideas to follow your outline.  Reorganize your outline if necessary, but always keep the purpose of your paper and your readers in mind.

60. 7. Check list 1. Is my thesis statement concise and clear? 2. Did I follow my outline? Did I miss anything? 3. Are my arguments presented in a logical sequence? 4. Are all sources properly cited to ensure that I am not plagiarizing? 5. Have I proved my thesis with strong supporting arguments? 6. Have I made my intentions and points clear in the essay?