How to read a scientific paper

The scientific research paper is the basic mechanism of scientific communication.  Essentially all new scientific findings are presented in this format.  This semester we will read 8-12 papers from the scientific literature.  Therefore it is important that you read them all at the appropriate time, and that you read them well with understanding.

A typical scientific paper consists of several parts.  The abstract is basically a short summary of the whole paper.  Read this first to get an idea of what is to come.  The introduction presents the general scientific issues or hypotheses in question, and what the objectives of this specific study are in relation to the larger issues.  The methods describe what specifically was done (organisms used, manipulations made, type of data recorded, etc.).  Somebody else should be able to replicate the experiment - an important part of the scientific method.  The results report the data obtained from the various experiments, treatments or observations made.  Data are typically presented in graphs and/or tables.  It is very important to clearly understand this part.  Statistical tests of the data are presented here.  The final part of the text is the discussion where the results are discussed in the context of the more general scientific question.  How do the results compare to those of other studies?  Do they support the original hypothesis?  Were there unexpected findings?  Are there specific directions for future research revealed?  Finally, there is a bibliography of other published papers cited in the text.  You can go to the library and find all of these publications to read.

When you do your presentation of the paper to the class, it may be helpful to follow this general outline:

I. Authors, title, journal

II.  What was the major question addressed?  How does it relate to general ecological concepts that we have learned in class?  What specific hypothesis is being tested?

III.  What specifically did they do?  What was the research system, where was it located, what manipulations were made, how long was the study, what was measured and how did they make their observations and analyze their data?

IV.  What results were obtained in relation to specific questions addressed.  For ex. did a treatment have a significant effect on survival?  An overhead of a key table or graph might be helpful.

V.  How did the results relate to the larger issue being addressed?  What did we learn from the study?  Were there major problems with the experimental design or results?  What are profitable research directions to pursue in the future?  What was unclear or confusing to you?  If you were to write a short essay question for an exam based on this paper, what would it be?  Are there other important questions for general class discussion?

While this may seem like the outline for an hour talk, these presentations should be in the range of 10 minutes.  An important goal of the student presenters will be to facilitate a discussion of the paper following their presentation.