Written Summary
For each journal article, a 1-2 page summary (single spaced) will be due at the beginning of the class period that we will discuss the article. These journal article summaries account for 10% of your total grade. Please follow the generic format outlined below for your journal article summaries – make sure to write in paragraph form:
Section 1: Article summary
Introduction: provide a brief introduction that presents the necessary background information if the study – write in your own words!
Purpose: Identify the reason that the researchers performed this study – i.e. what was known before the study was performed, what information was missing from the field, and how did this study aim to address this lack of information?
Materials/methods: How was the study performed and what experiments were performed to address the studyâ€s aim? I expect that you will not be familiar with many of the techniques and scientific methods used in these articles. You are expected to become familiar enough with the methods in the paper to understand the paper (Google is your friend!). In this section of the summary, you do not need to go into extreme detail – i.e. you do not need to list the ingredients of a chemical solution used to culture cells in an experiment. Iâ€d rather you focus on experimental design used in the study to illustrate that you understand why certain experiments were conducted. Here is an example from the first journal article to illustrate what Iâ€d like to see in this section:
Summarizing the methods section for the detection of oxidized proteins:
Avoid: Cells were lysed in caspase buffer from BioSource and proteins were separated on 4-20% acrylamide gels. Oxidized proteins were identified with the Western blot technique with an anti-DNP antibody diluted 1:150.
Aim for: Following exposure to metallic ions, cells were lysed and protein oxidation, a marker for cellular damage, was investigated using Western blot.
Results: What did the study find?
Discussion: How do the authors discuss their findings? Were the results as expected or surprising? Major outcomes?
Section 2: Article evaluation/critique
This portion of the article summary is for you to express your opinions of the study. If this is your first experience reading primary literature articles, I expect this section will be challenging at first. Things to think about when writing this portion:
Data interpretation – do you agree with how the authors have interpreted their data?
Data presentation – have the authors presented the data in a clear and concise way?
Experimental design – did the authors choose the best experiments to address their question, why or why not?
Are the authors†claims supported by their data (findings are often overstated!)
Missing or suggested follow-up experiments? What other experiments are necessary to convince you of their findings?
Section 3: Article reflection
Comment on how this paper builds off of what we have seen in class. What parallels do you see between class material and the content in the article?
Section 4: New term definitions
Identify and define 10-15 new terms you encountered in the paper that you had to look up. Make sure your definition matches the context in which the term is used. This can be a bulleted list.
The post Journal Article Summary and Critique appeared first on academic aid express.
