1. 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)

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

3. The Scientific Journal Article Searching Machine

4. 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

5. 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?

6. 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

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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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”

11. 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

12. 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

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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