Journal Review Requirements & Format



Journal Review Requirements & Format

You must review one journal article for the first three quarters. The article reviewed must be from a "real" scientific journal such as Science, Nature, Scientific American, Plant Pathology, etc. The journal must be recent, i.e. published within the last eight years. Do not use Popular Science, Science News, Discover, National Geographic, any type of newspaper, etc. The topic of your journal entry should be your chosen biology topic for the year—the one you will make your final presentation on at the end of the year. Please do not pick a new topic each quarter, because the impact on your final presentation will be significant. The review should adhere to the following format exactly.

Citation – Give a complete, correct bibliographic citation at the top of page one. There are numerous ways of citing journal articles, but we will use the format presented here. Include these pieces of information in this order: author's name, year, title of the article, name of the journal, volume number and pages. Use punctuation, italics, and capitalization as shown in the example below: (Note: if there are several authors, you may list the first one and then write 'et. al.' after her name to indicate that it was a group effort.)

Jackicic, John M. PhD., et. al., 2005. Effect of Exercise Duration and Intensity on Advanced Placement Biology Exam Scores and Cholesterol Index. Journal of the American Medical Association. 290: 1323-1330.

Summary – Summarize the major content of the article in terms of author's purpose, methods, results, and conclusions. This should take up most of the remainder of page one following the citation when your reviews are typed. Do not copy the author's abstract in place of writing your own summary; copying form another is called plagiarism. Do not include your own thoughts, judgments or reactions to the article in this section of the review because those items more properly belong in the analysis section.

Analysis – Critically consider the article's content and evaluate its importance. Among the things which you might consider are the following: What is your reaction to the paper's findings? Why is your reaction favorable or unfavorable? How has the paper changed your previous thinking about this topic? How has the article helped you understand how scientific knowledge is acquired? Does this paper have major application for society or is it primarily of importance to students of science? Is the information in your article new? Is the author's view widely accepted or do others have different views? How well did the author use the scientific method? How well does the author express himself? Can you follow the logic of the author? Has the article clarified any details of the topic for you? What questions does the article bring to your mind? Are there alternate ways of solving the problem or dealing with the issue? Does this article suggest possible new research for you or other scientists? Especially in your second and third analyses, be sure to compare the information with your previous knowledge due to your earlier articles.

You must provide evidence that you have critically examined the author's work. Simply saying that you agree with the author, learned a lot, found it interesting, etc. is not good enough. The analysis should take up about ¾ of a page.

Your journal review will be graded as follows: 20% for correct citation, 20% for adequate summary, 20% for adequate analysis, 20% for writing mechanics (including punctuation and spelling), and 20% for evidence of critical thinking. Type your review. Handwritten pages will not be accepted. You may make an appointment to use my computer if necessary. The citation should be single-spaced and the remainder of the page should be double-spaced. The paper must not exceed two pages in length.

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