Assignment 1: Reading and Understanding Scientific PapersObjectives1. Be able to understand and interpret the research presented in the primary literature publishedin a scientific journal.2. Understand the major sections found in most scientific papers and the type of informationfound in each.3. After reading the article and discussing it you should be able to describe the following:a. What the hypotheses were.b. How the study was conducted, i.e., major elements of the experimental design
d. How the results were interpreted with respect the original hypotheses, potential sourcesof error, and possible directions for future study.Different types of scholarly literature in science. Scholarly literature is often classifiedaccording to the type of information it presents.Primary literature is the initial presentation of information, such as the results of originalresearch. For instance, a scientist writes an article about the findings and conclusions derivedfrom a set of experiments performed. Primary research papers will
contain methods & haveoriginal experiments.Secondary literature summarizes primary literature. For example, a scientist might writean account of the scientific work done up to that moment by other investigators on a specific areaof research. These are often called “review articles” and they are useful to scientists fordetermining what has already been done in a particular field of study.Tertiary literature is based on both primary and secondary literature. An example of this is anencyclopedia.Use bibliographies to expand your information base. A bibliography is a list of sources cited —sources that were consulted for the preparation of a work or suggested for further reading.Bibliographies are generally found at the end of the work and may be called “Bibliography” or“References” or “Sources consulted” or “Further reading” or “Literature cited.” The bibliographyof any article or book you consult can serve to expand the information on a topic. Activity twowill focus on this research technique.