Microbiology 20 Article Review Assignment – Fall 2008

(due Dec 11th)

For this assignment you are to find a primary research article on a microbiological
topic of interest, and evaluate it in 2 pages or less (~700 words), using your own words,
by addressing the following:

What did the authors investigate, and in general how did they do so?
-identify the hypothesis or question being tested
-summarize the overall experimental design

What experiments were done, how were they done, and what results did each yield?
-address each experiment in terms of:
-the techniques used
-the controls
-the number of subjects used
-the results or data from the experiment

What do you think of the study and the authors’ conclusions?

-identify the conclusions of the authors
-indicate whether or not you think the data support their conclusions/hypothesis
-consider alternative explanations for the results
-provide any additional comments pertaining to:
-the relevance or importance of the study
-the appropriateness of the experimental design
-other approaches to testing their hypothesis
-logical follow-up studies to build on, confirm or refute the conclusions

The article you use must be at least 3 pages long and be a primary or original
research article, i.e., it must be the first report of original experimental data generated by
the authors. Secondary sources of information such as review articles, editorials and case
studies do not qualify. Below are some journals that will contain some primary research
articles in the field of microbiology:

Science
Nature
New England Journal of Medicine
JAMA
Lancet
Ecology
Journal of Bacteriology
Journal of Virology

Scientific American, the LA Times, Newsweek and the like are not sources of primary
research articles.
 Where can you find such journals? You can start with the LA Mission College
library which provides student access to an on-line database EBSCOhost Academic
Search. This database has abstracts and indexing for over 3,100 scholarly journals, and
full text for over 1,000 journals. You can search for any topic that interests you by using
keywords or other search options. You can access the database on campus computers or
from your computers at home (http://www.ebscohost.com/). If you access the database
from your home you will need a User ID (mission) and a password (la). The database
will indicate which journals are found in the Mission College Library.
The Microbiology 20 website at Mission College contains links to different
journal websites, including Science, Nature, Cell, and a site published by the American
Society of Microbiology with links to 10 journals:

http://www.lamission.edu/lifesciences/coursedesc/micro20.htm#Links

Most of these sites will have an abstract or summary of the article that can help your
selection process. The Life Science Department also has recent issues of the New
England Journal of Medicine and JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association),
and you can find many such journals at university, college and city libraries.

When you write your evaluation be brief and concise, this is not meant to be
an essay but an objective evaluation that one can read very easily and quickly. Also,
you should include a complete reference (title, authors, journal, issue, pages) and a
photocopy of the article when you turn in your evaluation.