Critical Analysis of Scientific PapersBLG143 Fall 2015

Use the online Ryerson University library to locate the following paper yourself.

Danyagri G, Dang Q. 2014. Effects of elevated [CO2] and soil temperature on photosynthetic responses of mountain maple (Acer spicatum L.) seedlings to light. Environmental and Experimental Botany 107:64-70.

Download a pdf copy of this paper and read thoroughly. This assignment asks that you critically examine the paper for structure and content, as a guide to writing scientific papers, and to answer the following questions regarding this paper. Your answers should be numbered corresponding to each of the following headings and should be in your own words using properly structured sentences (i.e. do not just repeat the question in your answer!!). Appendix I may be of help when doing this assignment.

The following is an excerpt from a paper to illustrate an example of how to write an answer in your own words for the question: What makes these two species a good choice to use as subjects in this study?

Since the two species share recent evolutionary history (both are Lythraceae), rely on a similar pollinator community, and co-flower for approximately 3 weeks in late summer, they provide a highly suitable study system.

Acceptable Answer:These two species are a good choice to use as test subjects for this study because they both share a recent evolutionary history, both use the comparable pollinators and they flower at the similar time during late summer.

Before getting started, please answer the following questions:

Background (3 points + potential 1 bonus mark)1. You may have noticed that you were given the paper’s citation and asked to find the

paper rather than posting a copy of this paper on D2L. Why do you think I did this?2. Bonus question : There is also a legal reason why the paper was not posted to Brightspace,

but instead you were asked to go through the Ryerson Library site. What is this reason?3. What is plagiarism? 4. What are the possible penalties for plagiarism?

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Abstract (1 point each unless otherwise indicated = 7 Points)Read the abstract of the paper assigned, and answer the following questions:

1. What is the purpose of the abstract? 2. What types of information does the abstract convey?3. What were the basic experimental methods used in this paper (what did the authors

actually do?)?4. What were the most important results from this experiment?5. Do the authors cite any other studies in their abstract?6. Is it normal practice to cite other works in abstract?7. What is the approximate length of an abstract?

Introduction (1 point each unless otherwise indicated = 11 Points)Read the Introduction section of this paper. You may not fully understand the terminology used in the Introduction, but you should understand enough to get a general sense of what information is conveyed in the Introduction. Answer the following questions.

1. What is the purpose of the literature review in the Introduction?2. What is different about the research in this study than that of other researchers on the

same topic? I.e., what are the gaps in the present research that these researchers wish to fill?

3. What is the general research question of these researchers?4. What is their specific hypothesis? I.e. what experiments did they set out to do?5. In the literature review, what types of statements have citations following them, and

which do not seem to require citations?6. As a practice with citations, below is a paragraph from a different paper. Based on the

answers you gave in questions 5 above, place a #1 at the end of the first statement that requires a citation. Place a #2 at the end of the second statement that requires citation. Place a #3 at the end of the third statement that requires citation, etc. Do this for each instance. (1 mark for each correct citation)

Regeneration is a term used to describe the process by which a living organism returns to its original form following damage or loss. The ability of an organism to regenerate may be limited by the organism’s complexity. Freshwater planarians exhibit exceptional developmental plasticity that permits these simple triploblastic metazoans to regenerate completely from tiny fragments. The process of regeneration is based upon the proliferation and differentiation of undifferentiated, totipotent stem-cells called neoblasts. Neoblasts migrate to the site of injury where they differentiate into missing cell types.

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7. Now, imagine that where you have placed #1 in the above paragraph, you wish to cite the following paper:

Alvarado, AS 2003. The freshwater planarian Schmidtea mediterranea: Embryogenesis, stem cells, and regeneration. Current Opinions in Genetics and Development. 13:438-444.

Using the guidelines that are provided in the appendix on the CSE style, write the citation as it should appear in your text.

8. Now, imagine that where you have placed #2, you wish to cite the following paper: (1.5 marks)

Baguna, J., Salo, E. 2002. Regeneration in planarians and other worms: New findings, new tools, and new perspectives. Journal of Experimental Zoology. 292:528-539.

Write the citation as it should appear in your text. To help with this, remember to review the information in the appendix on citations.

9. Now, imagine that where you have placed #3, you wish to cite the following paper:Jensen M.M., Wright D.N., Robison. 1992. Microbiological examination of planarian regeneration. Journal of Regenerative Ecology. 6:216-224.

Write the citation as it should appear in your text. To help with this, remember to review the information in the appendix on citations.

Materials and Methods (1 point each = 8 Points)Read the Materials and Methods section of the paper assigned, and answer the following questions:

1. Explain the purpose of the Materials and Methods section2. If you are familiar with this area of research, should you be able to pick up this paper and

replicate the experiment?3. Are the materials presented separately as a list of items and chemicals to be used?4. Are the methods presented as a list of steps? 5. Given your answers to questions 3 and 4, how would you describe the presentation of the

materials and methods section?6. Are there any experimental results given in the Materials and Methods section?7. Is there any literature review given in the Materials and Methods section?

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8. In the Materials and Method section of this paper where the authors are describing how they regulated soil temperatures they state “see Cheng et al., 2000 for detailed description”. Why do you think that is so?

Results Section (1 point each unless otherwise indicated = 11 Points)Some papers have separate Results and Discussion sections and some have combined Results and Discussion sections. It usually depends on the requirements of the journal that publishes the article. Here, the journal “Environmental and Experimental Botany” has separate sections. Therefore, you are asked to assess the contents of these sections separately.

Read the Results section of the paper assigned, and answer the following questions:

1. Explain the purpose of the Results section and what should be included here.2. In this section, how are data presented?3. Do you see the same data presented in both Tables and Figures?4. Is it sufficient to present all results in either Tables or Figures, or do you need descriptive

text as well? 5. What is the purpose of the descriptive text in the Results section?6. Are there any methodological statements (i.e. statements that explain how the experiment

was done) in the Results section?7. When looking at Table 1 of this paper, how did the authors indicate p values ≤ 0.05? (a

statistical term used to denote statistically-significant results). Is this useful to the reader?

NOTE: For this next question, you only need to provide the letter beside each statement it is referring to. (Each is worth ½ mark).8. Using Figure 1A and the letters ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘ab’ as provided on the graph, indicate which

bar of the graph the authors are referring to in the first paragraph of the Results section when they state:i) The high-light treatment increased A by 41% at the current Tsoil ii) but had no significant effect on A at the elevated Tsoil

iii) In the low-light treatment, elevated Tsoil increased A by 18%iv) No significant effect of elevated Tsoil on A was found in the high-light treatment v) although A appears to have decreased

9. In question 8, what does A represent? (½ mark)10. In the second paragraph of the Results section, the authors state “No interactions among

light, Tsoil, and [CO2] or between Tsoil …… were significant. (Table1)” As a reader looking at Table 1, how do you know this is true?

Discussion Section (1 point each unless otherwise indicated = 10 Points)Read the Discussion Section of the paper assigned, and answer the following questions:

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1. Explain the purpose of the Discussion section and what should be included here.2. Are there any methodological statements (i.e. statements that explain how the experiment

was done) in the Discussion section?3. What is the purpose of discussing other studies (and citing these other studies) in the

Discussion section?4. In this paper, what do the authors conclude from their finding?5. In the Introduction the authors had two hypotheses that they were testing. Were their

predictions correct for both? (2 marks)6. As the authors state them, what were the limitations of their study?7. What are the remaining unanswered questions indicated in this section?8. What further work do the authors suggest needs to be carried out?9. What is the overall conclusion of this paper?

References Section (1 point each unless otherwise indicated = 7 Points)Refer to the Reference Section of the paper assigned, and answer the following questions:

1. What is the purpose of this section?2. Within a single reference there are several pieces of information that are provided. What

is the correct order for this information? (Please re-arrange the classes of information given here to put them in the correct order: A) journal title, B) authors, C) article title, D) volume number, E) date, F) page numbers). (3 points)

3. When you look at the authors listed within a single reference, are they arranged alphabetically? If not, what do you think determines the sequence of authors’ names? (2 points)

4. If you look at the complete list of references, how are they arranged? In other words, what determines which paper comes first in the list, which is second, and so on?

Overall (1 point each = 2 Points)1. What did you learn from this article?2. Do you feel more confident picking up a scientific paper and being able to look at it as a

scientist now that you have done this assignment? I.e. did this assignment help you understand the differences in the sections and what should/should not be included in each?

When handing in your assignment be sure that your title page has all the required information by completing the template cover sheet (next page) and stapling it to the front of your assignment. (1 Point)

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Title Page Student Name

Student Number

Lab Section Number

Teaching Assistant

SCORE (out of 60; for TA to complete)

BLG143: Laboratory Writing Assignment

Fall, 2015

HONESTY DECLARATION STATEMENT

By identifying yourself on this document that you submit for grading in the laboratory portion of BLG143, you declare that these documents are entirely your own work, and that no part of them is:

· Copied by manual or electronic means from any work produced by any other person(s), present or past, including tutors or tutoring services;·· Based on work that you did not complete.·· Produced by several students working as a team (this includes one person who provided any portion of an assignment to another student or students) ·· Copied from any other source including textbooks and websites unless citations are properly acknowledged and referenced. ·· Modified to contain falsified data or results.

You understand that submitting work that is not entirely your own work, or distributing work to other students, is considered to be an act of Academic Misconduct, and is subject to penalty as described by Senate Policy 60, Academic Misconduct.

NAME _________________________________________

SIGNATURE _________________________________________ DATE

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