PB2A: Deconstructing Biological Research Publications

   I decided to analyze biological research papers.

              Though academic biological research papers share features in common with other hard sciences, the subject pertains specifically to some aspect of biology: it can range from a physiological perspective such as the effects of multiple sclerosis on the central nervous system to an evolutionary look at the phylogenic relationship between the genomes of two organisms. The general organization of every paper, however, is the same. The language is scientific and may be difficult for the general public to comprehend, but that is because these works are written to provide research for other researchers. The paper serves to reveal findings from a study or experiment and provide evidence to support or reject a hypothesis. The title is very specific and indicates these findings. The title of the example I found was “Sex Differences in the Cerebellum and Frontal Cortex: Roles of Estrogen Receptor Alpha and Sex Chromosome Genes”, which discusses the association between chromosomal sex differences and neurobehavioral diseases. It informs the reader of what the paper will be focusing on. It is to the point and does not contain any unnecessary information. Unlike titles in academic writing, empirical research papers do not emphasize creativity. After the title comes the abstract. An abstract is a short paragraph that briefly summarized the key points of the study: why the researchers conducted the experiment, their hypothesis, what they found, and what that means for science. Not every biological research paper has an abstract, but it lets a person know if the paper will be of good use to him/her. The introduction comes next. It usually poses some kind of problem that needs to be addressed; it provides general information about a subject and then introduces an area of that topic that should be further explored. It also explains how this scientific exploration could lead to valuable knowledge or offer solutions to a current biological issue.. The introduction also states the main hypothesis at the end.

              The next main segment of the paper contains the methodology and results sections. These sections could be combined, but they are usually separated if there is a large amount of information. The methods section describes the equipment and approaches used to perform the experiment; it explains the procedure, what was used to do it, for how long, at what temperatures, and why. The purpose of the methods section is to provide the reader with the information needed to be able to repeat the experiment exactly. It is essential to conduct a repeatable, reliable experiment so people can make more evidence to support or refute a scientific claim. The results section states quantitative and qualitative findings. It does not analyze the results. It simply states facts of what happened and includes visual evidence, including graphs and tables, to get the information across.

              The discussion section is where the researcher implements statistical analysis to interpret his results. He explains why or why not he expected these results, what they mean, and whether he must reject or can accept the null hypothesis. This section again ties the experiment to the “big picture”, how it is provides a new finding and contributes to valuable biological knowledge. The researcher also includes potential experimental errors, how his experiment could be improved, and what other areas of the topic could be explored. The conclusion is somewhat like the abstract in that it briefly explains the results and the significance behind them. Acknowledgements compose a small but important section of the paper that gives credit and thanks to those that helped the research with the experiment in some way, whether via funding, providing resources, or assisting with the project. The references section comes last and provides citations of all the online or textual resources the researcher used to find outside information on the topic, including other scholarly articles.

              The specific article I chose aimed to answer the question of whether the Calb calcium-binding protein is dimorphic outside the hypothalamus, meaning it is expressed at different concentrations in men and women. They also conducted a study to see if deletion of a specific estrogen receptor would reduce the functionality of the Calb gene in females. The broader purpose of the study was to develop a deeper understanding of the links between physiological sex differences and the different prevalence of neurobehavioral diseases among each sex. For me personally, I believe the abstract and introduction are the most important components of the piece as well as for all other biological research essays. It allows someone who is not necessarily an expert in the field to understand the key points and findings of the study. This way, scientific knowledge can be spread across all audiences and not just people in the field.