Understanding Scientific Journals and Articles

Which of the following pieces of writing would be considered primary literature?

• a.a textbook written by physicist
• b.a newspaper article written by a biologist
• c.laboratory notes written by a physicist
• d.A scientific journal article written by a biologist

How do scientists indicate that they are building on past work in their scientific journal articles?

• a.by citing as many references as possible
• b.by describing past work and how their results fit in
• c.by using established methods to conduct their research
• d.by separating the raw data from their interpretation

Why do scientific journal articles include abstracts at the beginning?

• a.to provide a concise summary of the work
• b.so the abstract can be included in search databases
• c.so the importance of the work can be quickly assessed
• d.All of these answers are correct.

In which section of a scientific article are you MOST LIKELY to find a graph?

• a.Abstract
• b.Introduction
• c.Materials and Methods
• d.Results

What is the purpose of publishing research in a scientific journal and not a popular magazine?

• a.Scientific journals have many more readers than magazines.
• b.Only other scientists are interested in reading about research.
• c.Journals review articles more rigorously and tend to be focused on one specialty.
• d.Research must be shown to be correct before the wider population can read it.

Scientific articles follow a specific structure because

• a.it creates an archive that we reference.
• b.it makes finding information easier.
• c.it helps other scientists reproduce the research.
• d.All of the above.

Scientists often begin their research by reading articles published by others on the same or a similar topic. This is because the articles

• a.give us a research project to retry.
• b.provide information that we can use in our own project.
• c.tell us the proven facts about our subject.
• d.show us what has been done and what to avoid researching.