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Outline

Overview: biological sciences

Research data documentationTypes of scientific documentationTypes of journalsClassification of research articles

Structure of scientific publications

How do get information access (searching tools, databases, e-journals)

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The Bologna summit of 19 June 1999

Objectives:

- Adopt a system of easily readable and comparable degrees- Adopt a system with two main cycles (undergraduate and graduate):

1st Degree (min. 3 years): European labour market qualification2nd Degree: Master and/or doctorate degree

- Establish an unified system of credits (e.g. ECTS, European Credit TransferSystem) to facilitate student mobility within Europe- Promote quality assurance (development of comparable criteria and methodologies)

Summit:meeting of headsof governmentsJoint declaration of the European Ministers of Education

Bachelor -> Master (Major) -> doctorate (PhD)

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Biological Sciences (Lebenswissenschaft)

Definitions (Wikipedia)

“Wissenschaft is the German language term for any study or science thatinvolves systematic research and teaching”

Science(Latin scientia)

meaningKnowledge(Wissen)

Research(From French

recherche, fromrechercher - to

search):search for knowledge

or any systematicinvestigation toestablish facts

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Scientific research:

application of a scientificmethod motivated by curiosity

toprovide scientific informationand theories to explain the

nature and propertiesof the world around us

Biological Science: Research + Teaching

Teaching

Pass on the information in a professional way

instruct, educate

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Biological Science - is an empirical science(question it, test it, communicate it!)

From: http://thinkreason.net/193/difference-science-creation-science/

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Scientific researchHow is scientific research driven?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method#Introduction_to_scientific_method

The hypothetico-deductive model or method:

Worth looking at:

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Timely development of scientific discoveries ?

Development of new theories and discovery of new conceptsis time consuming and laborious

From bench to book: how long does it take ?

A theory well accepted today might be any longer valid in a couple of years

Scientific methods are limited to actual technology

Be critical and flexible !

Re-assess, re-think constantly !

Innovate !

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Science relays on EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION

DOCUMENTATION !

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Types of scientific data documentation

- Scientific journal articles

- Books

- Scientific conferences (presentations, abstracts published in Proceedings)

- Reports (institutional, technical, etc)

- Scientific monographies (Master thesis, PhD thesis)

- Patents (e.g. biological, chemical)

- Podcasts (video documentation - interviews, lectures)

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Scientific journal articles

Letters, short communications, research notes:Original research, short description of work, fast-tracked for immediate publication

Articles:Original research, detailed description of work, larger (5-15 pages)

Review articles:No original research, summary of several people’s research on a topic,Describion about state-of-the-art in a particular field

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Are all journals the same?

Audience specialised readers (e.g. Yeast, Diabetes)broader audience (e.g. Nature, Science, Cell)non-specialised reader (e.g Scientific American)

Topics cover several topics (e.g. PNAS)narrow area of research (e.g. Biochemistry, Genetics)

Type of article primary data (peer-reviewed)review articles only (invited / peer-reviewed)

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How to classify journals (quality control)

Impact factor (citation index):

JCR - Journal Citation Report

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Impact factor - How to find it?

ask your librarian about itLogin in via institutional subscription

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Impact factor 2008 - Biology

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Impact factor 2008 - Cell Biology

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Be aware !

Not all low impact factor papers are irrelevant !

Be critical !

Not all high impact factor papers are good !

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Where to look if you know nothing about a topic?

Books

Molecular Biology of the Cell (ed. Bruce Alberts et al.)Molecular Cell Biology (ed. Lodish et al.)

Examples for Cell and Molecular Biology:

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Where to look if you know nothing about a topic?

Review articles

Annual Reviews of .... (Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology)

Trends in .... (Biochemistry, Genetics, Cell Biology, etc)

Current Opinion in .... (Cell Biology, Plant Biology, etc)

Nature Reviews on .... (Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, etc)

Other journals (Cell, Nature, Science, etc)

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Review articles

Title

Authors/affiliation

Summary

Main text

Citations

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Relevant articlesabout the topic

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How to get more specialised information?

Articles / Primary papers (shows primary empirical data)

Short communications (ca. 4 pages)

Full articles (ca. 5 - 12 pages)

Be aware - size is not everything

A 12-page article (with more background information) may be easierto read than a 4-page concisely written article

!

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Structure of primary articles

Title / Affiliation

Abstract

Introduction

Results

Discussion

Material and Methods

References

Acknowledgments

Supplemental data (not always)

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Authors: first author last author

Summary of main findingsof the paper

Background knowledge relevantto article

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Peer-review process

1. Submit article to journal2. Journal submit the article to 3 referees (peer-review) (6-8 weeks)3. Authors get referees’ comments4. Collect more results accordingly to referees’ comments (3 months)5. Re-write the article, resubmit to journal (1-2 weeks)6. Referees re-assess the work7. If accepted, publish! (2-4 months from acceptance date)

Quality control of the work

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How to find out the relevant literature about aspecific topic

Examples of searching tools:

Pubmed (biomedical research)

HighWire

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PubMed

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Where to get articles / booksfrom?

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University library

DKFZ library (limited access)

Books (printed copy and online)

Journals (printed copy and online)

Other services:Ordering of articlesAccess to databases

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Online access to full text books and articles

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How to get online access to full text articles?

Open access to the public:

- older or selected articles (free from Journal Webpage)

- free open online access only (PLoS journals)

Paper and electronic subscriptions:

- individual

- institutional (University of Heidelberg, DKFZ)

register for ejournal access via the library ! !

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Opening papers as HTML or PDF formats

Directly from Journal webpage

Via PubMed (re-direction to publisher)

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Journal Webpage

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Journal Webpage

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Via PubMed

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Play aroundcheck what scientific journals have to offer

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Play aroundcheck what Heidelberg has to offer

Institute webpages:ZMBHDKFZBZHetc

EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratories)

Max-Planck Institute