The University of New South Wales
BABS1201
Comprehensive Study Notes
,BABS1201
Bold (green) – Lecture number and title
Italic and underlined (black) – Subheading
Lecture 1: Scientific Literature
How do scientists communicate?
- The Royal Society is the oldest continually publishing society.
§ This society established key communication practices: scientific meetings, scientific publications, and
verification through peer review.
What is a scientific meeting?
- Scientific meetings or conferences are the initial places were scientists present their research.
§ They may deliver a talk or present a poster and receive feedback that can inform their subsequent
experiments.
- Those attending the conference learn more about current advances in their field and may establish
collaborations.
Scientific publications
- How do scientists know they are solving an unanswered question? How do they let others know of their discoveries?
How can they show they’ve been productive?
- Scientists need to be avid readers and authors in their field.
- A scientist needs to be proficient at writing many types of documents.
Scientific journals
- A scientist will write up a description of their research for publication, with original findings published as
journal articles.
§ These articles are referred to as primary sources of scientific literature.
- Scientific articles are published in scientific journals, while journals may cover a broad or a narrow area.
Scientific articles
- When deciding the scientific journal to publish in, a scientist must consider how original their work is and
how broadly it is of interest to others.
- For example, the findings may only be interesting to those studying Australian reptiles, or it may be of
interest to all scientists studying animal behaviours.
- Primary scientific articles can differ a little in their formats, but the overall structure of a scientific paper is
the same:
§ Introduction: A brief review of the literature to describe what is already known, providing a
context for the new work. It also describes why the experiments were performed and what
the scientists want to discover.
§ Method: An explanation of how the experiments were performed. This is written similar to
a recipe, so that others may replicate the work.
§ Results: The outcomes of each experiment – what was discovered?
§ Discussion: An explanation of how the new knowledge (the results) fit into the context of
the research area.
- An example of a scientific article is included on the following page.
,- Notice the following features of the
article:
§ Title
§ Authors and their details
§ Abstract (unconventional
formatting)
§ Introduction
§ Methods and Results (not also
combined)
§ Discussion
§ Citations
§ Figure
§ References
§ Competing interests and any ethics
approvals
§ Peer review process clarified
, An example of a primary article
- Figures and tables may be included within a primary article.
§ These must be referred to in the article, and have a title and legend.
Popular science magazines
- Popular science magazines are NOT scientific journals.
- The articles they contain are not primary literature and they are not peer-reviewed.
Review articles
- Review articles summarize the existing research in a field gained from a larger number of primary
articles in order for scientists to become familiar with a new area of knowledge.
§ A review provides good coverage of the field in a novel way, and it may draw a new conclusion about
the area.
- Review articles are generally easy to read; not encompassing the same structure as a primary article.
How do I write a scientific article?
- You have finished a set of experiments and wish to submit your findings to a scientific journal. Where do
you start?
- Before beginning to write, you may visit different journal websites and read the descriptions on the types of
articles they publish to determine which journal is the best fit for your work.
- Writing your first scientific paper or your thesis – how to begin?
https://crossleylab.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/writing-your-first-scientific-paper-or-your-thesis-how-to-
begin/
- The website for scientific journals contain the description (often called the ‘aims and scope’) on the types of
articles they accept.
- They also have an “instructions for authors” section that tells you how to format your article for submission.
What is peer review?
- The submission, where a submitted paper is first seen by an editor for the journal, here it may be rejected,
or forwarded to a number of reviewers for Peer Review.
- The peer review, where reviewers may recommend to accept the paper, reject the paper, or request the
paper is revised. The editor will then collate the feedback provided by the reviewers and decide on the
outcome. They will write to the author advising them of the outcome, forward the reviewer comments and
possibly add their own.
§ A “double blind” review is where the reviewer and author are unaware of one another’s identities.
Lecture 2: Science Communication was assessment task preparation; with little notes available.
BABS1201
Comprehensive Study Notes
,BABS1201
Bold (green) – Lecture number and title
Italic and underlined (black) – Subheading
Lecture 1: Scientific Literature
How do scientists communicate?
- The Royal Society is the oldest continually publishing society.
§ This society established key communication practices: scientific meetings, scientific publications, and
verification through peer review.
What is a scientific meeting?
- Scientific meetings or conferences are the initial places were scientists present their research.
§ They may deliver a talk or present a poster and receive feedback that can inform their subsequent
experiments.
- Those attending the conference learn more about current advances in their field and may establish
collaborations.
Scientific publications
- How do scientists know they are solving an unanswered question? How do they let others know of their discoveries?
How can they show they’ve been productive?
- Scientists need to be avid readers and authors in their field.
- A scientist needs to be proficient at writing many types of documents.
Scientific journals
- A scientist will write up a description of their research for publication, with original findings published as
journal articles.
§ These articles are referred to as primary sources of scientific literature.
- Scientific articles are published in scientific journals, while journals may cover a broad or a narrow area.
Scientific articles
- When deciding the scientific journal to publish in, a scientist must consider how original their work is and
how broadly it is of interest to others.
- For example, the findings may only be interesting to those studying Australian reptiles, or it may be of
interest to all scientists studying animal behaviours.
- Primary scientific articles can differ a little in their formats, but the overall structure of a scientific paper is
the same:
§ Introduction: A brief review of the literature to describe what is already known, providing a
context for the new work. It also describes why the experiments were performed and what
the scientists want to discover.
§ Method: An explanation of how the experiments were performed. This is written similar to
a recipe, so that others may replicate the work.
§ Results: The outcomes of each experiment – what was discovered?
§ Discussion: An explanation of how the new knowledge (the results) fit into the context of
the research area.
- An example of a scientific article is included on the following page.
,- Notice the following features of the
article:
§ Title
§ Authors and their details
§ Abstract (unconventional
formatting)
§ Introduction
§ Methods and Results (not also
combined)
§ Discussion
§ Citations
§ Figure
§ References
§ Competing interests and any ethics
approvals
§ Peer review process clarified
, An example of a primary article
- Figures and tables may be included within a primary article.
§ These must be referred to in the article, and have a title and legend.
Popular science magazines
- Popular science magazines are NOT scientific journals.
- The articles they contain are not primary literature and they are not peer-reviewed.
Review articles
- Review articles summarize the existing research in a field gained from a larger number of primary
articles in order for scientists to become familiar with a new area of knowledge.
§ A review provides good coverage of the field in a novel way, and it may draw a new conclusion about
the area.
- Review articles are generally easy to read; not encompassing the same structure as a primary article.
How do I write a scientific article?
- You have finished a set of experiments and wish to submit your findings to a scientific journal. Where do
you start?
- Before beginning to write, you may visit different journal websites and read the descriptions on the types of
articles they publish to determine which journal is the best fit for your work.
- Writing your first scientific paper or your thesis – how to begin?
https://crossleylab.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/writing-your-first-scientific-paper-or-your-thesis-how-to-
begin/
- The website for scientific journals contain the description (often called the ‘aims and scope’) on the types of
articles they accept.
- They also have an “instructions for authors” section that tells you how to format your article for submission.
What is peer review?
- The submission, where a submitted paper is first seen by an editor for the journal, here it may be rejected,
or forwarded to a number of reviewers for Peer Review.
- The peer review, where reviewers may recommend to accept the paper, reject the paper, or request the
paper is revised. The editor will then collate the feedback provided by the reviewers and decide on the
outcome. They will write to the author advising them of the outcome, forward the reviewer comments and
possibly add their own.
§ A “double blind” review is where the reviewer and author are unaware of one another’s identities.
Lecture 2: Science Communication was assessment task preparation; with little notes available.
