Reading and Understanding a Research Paper
Welcome back Scholar Buffs!
As you move past syllabus quizzes and class introductions and get to the meat of the content, you might notice that your class requires the reading of a primary research article (and interpretation of said article). If you are lost, don’t worry, everyone (yes! including your post-doc professor) had to learn how to read one before it became second nature. In this blog, we will navigate one research paper together!
Finding a Research Paper
If you weren’t assigned a paper to read, then you will have to find one yourself. Luckily, your tuition pays for an all-inclusive, all-encompassing library, which includes Web of Science! This is a site which allows you to look up articles (primary or secondary) based on the author’s name or subject. It also allows for other filters, such as ‘date range’. The Web of Science can be accessed through the CU Boulder library through here. (I must pay homage to Stephanie Renfrow for teaching me this in EBIO 1940!)
Two categories of research articles are primary and secondary (the list goes on, but to keep this short, we’ll only discuss those two). To differentiate between them, one must have to read the abstract and determine whether an experiment was run, data was collected, and the findings were discussed. If the following categories were met, then you are dealing with a primary research article!
Deconstructing the Paper
The Hoeffer lab here on CU has published a paper in December of 2022. The lab’s goals are to identify a biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease, and I’ve been fortunate enough to join their lab! Here is the paper that we will break down into pieces in order to understand.
- The title.
Some of you had lessons in elementary schools about good titles. Research papers need to be built around a captivating title that provides a glimpse into the content of the paper. I’ve highlighted words I know in pink and words I don’t know in blue. The protagonist of the paper is the first word, and it holds a squiggly line under it!
I learned about knockout and overexpression in relation to genes in MCDB 2150 (see the things you’re learning in class are applicable outside of it!). So, I can safely assume that RCAN1 is a type of gene that has been manipulated to be knocked out (removed from the genome) or overexpressed (amplified in the genome). Circadian disruption, in simple terms, is our sleeping patterns. Down syndrome is a condition in which individuals are born with an extra copy of chromosome 21. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease where cognitive function and functioning memory is lost. And normative aging is normal aging!
Next, I will look up the words highlighted in blue. Recapitulate means to sum up, ensemble translates to group, and rest-activity is synonymous to what it reads! With that being said, I can safely state that this paper is going to discuss: how fluctuations (elimination and amplification and) in a gene (RCAN1) present a set of data about sleeping and resting patterns that is similar to that seen in a condition with an extra chromosome, a neurodegenerative condition and in ‘normal’ people!
2. The abstract.
The abstract is the mini version of the complete paper. Reading it at the beginning can be beneficial especially if you’re short on time. The abstract in our article is subdivided into the categories of the paper: Background, Methods, Results and Conclusion. Let’s start with the background.
The very first words imply that name of the gene that this paper revolves around: Regulator of Calcineurin 1 (RCAN1). Again, the same method of categorizing vocabulary can be used to break down what the article is saying. As you can see, I already understand the majority of the words and I can attribute that to the breaking-down of the title!
Another tool for understanding the text is to phrase it in your own words. Or create bullet point notes for what you understand.
If I am being completely honest with you, reading the methods can turn you off from reading scientific papers ever again (it certainly did for me until…) So, skip them! Material and methods are important if you’re trying to recreate the experiments that were done.
The results describe the raw data of the experiments done, without any interpretation or explanations! Read them if you’d like to reach your own conclusions about the data. (Note: it would be a good idea to read the results after reading the conclusion so that you can understand how the experiment was run. For examples how did they infer that there was cognitive decline? What mice model was used for DS?) The conclusion, on the other hand, wraps up the story for you. In my own words, the conclusion says that abnormal expression of RCAN1 causes sleep disruptions which are linked to neurodegneration.
3. The rest of the paper.
For a deeper dive into the paper start by reading the background, then conclusion (also known as discussion), and save the results and material and methods for last, or if you’d like to recreate the experiments.
Most importantly, don’t be discouraged if you can’t figure out your way around a paper. Recall when you first started learning a sport, you had to practice and with each practice you got better! It’s the same for research articles!
With that said, be on the lookout for Friday’s blog post at 7PM MST discussing Boulder and All-Things-Valentine!
You must be logged in to post a comment.