Title: Selecting a Primary Paper
Course: BTEC-2000-301-302-303-F21 > Section: InnovaBio® Research Project

Primary literature refers to the scientific papers that document original data and are published in peer-reviewed journals.  Primary literature will be your best source of information relating to your InnovaBio project.

Please use PubMed Central (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/) to search for a recently published (within 10 years) primary literature article or “paper” related to your project. There you will find the background information that led to the hypothesis.  You can also find technical information on how to better complete experiments.  Reading primary literature can be very challenging, but the more you read and comprehend the easier it will become.

Once you have found a recent and relevant paper, read it and select the two or more figures that are most directly related to your project.

In order to assist you in understanding how we would like you to gather information from primary papers, please do the following:

1. Using Pubmed, choose a paper that directly relates to your InnovaBio project.  The paper may be background information on the overall project goal and/or relate to more technical aspects of how experiments may be conducted.
2. Read the papers and look up words and concepts that you don’t know or don’t understand. You can also ask any of the InnovaBio staff or interns for things you are unable to find.
3. Using Power Point, prepare a brief (15-20 min.) presentation including the two or three figures that best lead to the conclusion in the paper. Please use the following guidelines to explain:
  - The flow chart for your assigned project;
  - How the hypothesis of the paper relates to your InnovaBio project;
    - Include the title and reference for the paper
  - For each chosen figure explain;
    - the experimental design for the data collected (mini flow chart),
    - the data on each figure, (be sure to explain the axes on graphs and label figures)
    - the experimental controls (if no controls are used, what would you recommend),
    - the results and/or conclusion,
  - How the conclusion gives you greater insight into your project.