15_1 How to read a paper.pptVIP

How to read a scientific paper Why bother? Journal papers are current Textbooks are often years out of date You can get enough details to replicate what you read about Adapt cutting edge ideas and techniques to your own research Why bother? Training of critical faculties You can see whether you agree with conclusions Because one day soon you could be writing papers too! Do I need to read the paper For general interest or background information To find out exactly what the latest developments are in a field To seek evidence to support or refute your ideas To broaden your avenues of research To find out how a certain piece of research was done What kind of paper? Original research? Review, opinion, hypothesis? Peer-reviewed? or invitation only High-impact journal? author’s reputation? What kind of paper? Papers and journals are judged by their citation rates and impact factors. See /wiki/Impact_factor Also, need to ask is this a specialist journal or general journal? Specialist journals in bioinformatics include: Bioinformatics, BMC Bioinformatics, BMC Genomics, Nucleic Acids Research etc See http://www.brc.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~actan/bioinformatics/journals.html Organization of a paper IMRAD Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion Plus Title, abstract, authors, acknowledgements, declarations, references Tables and figures; legends Organization of a paper Variations Pressures on length versus accessibility to non-expert Combined Results and Discussion Methods at end Science and Nature On-line supplements Reading a scientific paper This is not a novel No need for a linear approach Look at Title Abstract Figures, tables Introduction, results, discussion Then methods Reading a scientific paper Struggle with the paper active not passive reading use highlighter, underline text, scribble comments or questions on it, make notes if at first you don’t understand, read and re-read, spiraling in on central points Reading a scientific paper Get into question-asking mode doubt