BIMS2200: Professional Skills:Your Assignment

Library guide for professional skills courses in the Biomedical Sciences.

BIMS 2200 Assignment

You will need to find original research articles and review articles.

Original Research Articles vs. Review Articles

Original research articles

Authors of original research articles propose a hypothesis and then prove or disprove it with their chosen method.

The article reports the results of this experiment or study. Original research articles will usually feature the following:

  • Introduction - this usually features a statement of the problem and a review of earlier research
  • Method - a description of the experiment and how data was interpreted
  • Results - what actually happened when they did the experiment
  • Discussion - Was the hypothesis proven or disproved?  What are some avenues for further research?

What is IMRaD

Review articles

In review articles the authors discuss the findings of many original research articles written on the same topic. Review articles do not usually have methods or results sections as there is no new study being done. The review is a means to report on the current state of research in an area based on analyzing the existing original research articles regarding that area.

 

The Basics - Writing: Article Review - AZHIN at Arizona Health ...

Examples

To help you distinguish between these two types of peer reviewed science articles, I have found an example of each.

Example of primary research article:

Nelms, S. E., Galloway, T. S., Godley, B. J., Jarvis, D. S., & Lindeque, P. K. (2018). Investigating microplastic trophic transfer in marine top predators. Environmental Pollution, 238, 999–1007. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.02.016

Example of review article:

Zhang, H. (2017). Transport of microplastics in coastal seas. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 199, 74–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2017.09.032

Practice your research skills! Can you tell if these articles are primary original research articles or reviews?

  1. Barboza, L. G. A., Dick Vethaak, A., Lavorante, B. R. B. O., Lundebye, A.-K., & Guilhermino, L. (2018). Marine microplastic debris: An emerging issue for food security, food safety and human health. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 133, 336–348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.05.047
     
  2. Digka, N., Tsangaris, C., Torre, M., Anastasopoulou, A., & Zeri, C. (2018). Microplastics in mussels and fish from the Northern Ionian Sea. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 135, 30–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.06.063
     
  3. Gasperi, J., Wright, S. L., Dris, R., Collard, F., Mandin, C., Guerrouache, M., … Tassin, B. (2018). Microplastics in air: Are we breathing it in? Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health, 1, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coesh.2017.10.002
     
  4. Li, J., Green, C., Reynolds, A., Shi, H., & Rotchell, J. M. (2018). Microplastics in mussels sampled from coastal waters and supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Environmental Pollution, 241, 35–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.05.038
     
  5. Li, L., Li, M., Deng, H., Cai, L., Cai, H., Yan, B., … Shi, H. (2018). A straightforward method for measuring the range of apparent density of microplastics. Science of The Total Environment, 639, 367–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.166
     
  6. Nelms, S. E., Galloway, T. S., Godley, B. J., Jarvis, D. S., & Lindeque, P. K. (2018). Investigating microplastic trophic transfer in marine top predators. Environmental Pollution, 238, 999–1007. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.02.016
     
  7. Obbard, R. W. (2018). Microplastics in Polar Regions: The role of long range transport. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health, 1, 24–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coesh.2017.10.004
     
  8. Oßmann, B. E., Sarau, G., Holtmannspötter, H., Pischetsrieder, M., Christiansen, S. H., & Dicke, W. (2018). Small-sized microplastics and pigmented particles in bottled mineral water. Water Research, 141, 307–316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2018.05.027
     
  9. Pivokonsky, M., Cermakova, L., Novotna, K., Peer, P., Cajthaml, T., & Janda, V. (2018). Occurrence of microplastics in raw and treated drinking water. Science of The Total Environment, 643, 1644–1651. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.08.102
     
  10. Shamseer, L., Moher, D., Maduekwe, O., Turner, L., Barbour, V., Burch, R., … Shea, B. J. (2017). Potential predatory and legitimate biomedical journals: can you tell the difference? A cross-sectional comparison. BMC Medicine, 15(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-017-0785-9
    ​
  11. Wang, W., & Wang, J. (2018). Investigation of microplastics in aquatic environments: An overview of the methods used, from field sampling to laboratory analysis. TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2018.08.026
     
  12. Zhang, H. (2017). Transport of microplastics in coastal seas. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 199, 74–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2017.09.032

Questions

  1. What is the difference between a Google search and a library search?
     
  2. What are the characteristics of primary or original research articles? How can you tell if an article is a primary original research article vs another type?
     
  3. What are the characteristics of review articles? How can you tell if an article is a review article?
     
  4. What are peer-reviewed articles?
     
  5. What databases are available at Bell Library for doing literature searches in Biology and Biomedical Science? Which seem like the best bets for your colleagues in this class?