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Reading Primary Literature

Our last assignment showed us how to find source information and primary literature by searching for published manuscripts from peer-reviewed journals. Once you find your journal article, you will arrive at your next challenge: reading the paper!

Scientific journal articles are written in a specific way, and their structure is important for many reasons. Imagine you are in graduate school and you are reading several papers about a subject: wouldn’t it be helpful if all of the papers had their information laid out in a similar way? That is one reason scientific papers are organized: it keeps important information separated and easy to find when you referencing key elements of a manuscript. For example, if you would like to find the statistics of a study, you can look in the “analysis” or "methods" section. If you would like a general idea of the conclusions, you can look in the “discussion” or “conclusion” section. For a general idea of the "anatomy" of a scientific paper, see figure 1.

Picture
Figure 1. The basic structure of a scientific manuscript

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For the following assignment, pick a journal article (your instructor may assign one or allow you to choose among several) and complete the following steps. Answers must be handwritten. Return the printed copy of the labeled manuscript stapled to your handwritten answers.
Part 1. Circle and label (2 points each)

  1. Journal name
  2. Manuscript title
  3. Authors
  4. Abstract
  5. Statistics 
  6. Results
  7. A figure, graph or table
  8. Conclusion
  9. Discussion
  10. References
Part 2. Answer the following questions. You can use google/other resources to gain insight into your answers. 5 points each.
  1. Pick a word from the manuscript that you are not familiar with, and define it.
  2. What is the purpose of having the abstract? Are there results or conclusions reported in the abstract of your manuscript?
  3. What is the purpose of the methods section?
  4. What is the purpose of the discussion section? Are there any directions of future studies mentioned in the discussion of your manuscript? What are they?
  5. What is the purpose of the reference section?
  6. What is the name of one paper in the reference section that you thought was interesting? How could you find this paper?
Below are some alternative PDF's of peer-reviewed manuscripts that you may use for your assignment
Experimental Evidence of Alarm Eavesdropping on Amazonian Mixed-flock Followers by Two Social Sentinel Species
Hunts el al 2020
hunts_et_al_2020.pdf
File Size: 695 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

The Epidemiological Characteristics of an Outbreak of 2019 Novel Coronavirus Diseases (COVID-19) — China, 2020
COVID  Response Epidemiology Team 2020

covid-19.pdf
File Size: 3549 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

 Logo art by M. Riegner, design E. Parra © COPYRIGHT 2018. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • RESEARCH
    • Fear Based Niche Shift
    • Antbirds Mimic Antshrikes
    • Deconstructing Fear
    • Neomorphus and mixed flocks
    • Hawk-eagle Hunting a Primate
    • Primate and Bird Communication
    • Alarm Eavesdropping by Sentinel Species
    • Population Genetics of U. stansburiana
  • Student Materials
    • Biology 102 >
      • Biology 102 Lecture >
        • Lecture Block 1
        • Lecture Block 2
        • Pop VS Primary
        • Reading Primary Lit
        • Lecture quizzes
        • Student Made Study Guides
      • Biology 102 Lab
    • Internships and Resources
  • Assistant Information
    • Field Site
    • Equipment
    • Vocalizations
    • Travel and Logistics
    • Protocols
  • Outreach
  • People
    • Seo >
      • CV and Publications
      • CONTACT
    • Micah
    • Kurt
    • Ari