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How to read a scientific paper 

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Purpose of Scientific MS

• Convey novel scientific data to a specified

audience

 – Specified audience: highly educated,

extensive scientific training

 – Little training in composition

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Sections of a MS

• Abstract: brief (less than 200 words)summary of major background information,methods, novel findings and how this data

relates to science• Introduction: less than two page

summary of salient background information –

The introduction should be concise, but shouldalso review all relevant literature

 – Cover in about two sentences major finds inthe research being reported

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Sections of MS cont…

• Materials and Methods: Should be in depthenough so that a person with reasonableknowledge of the field could replicate (requires useof citations)

• Results: States the data derived from the M&M inwritten and figure form.

• Discussion/Conclusion/Summary: Should brieflystate the major conclusions of the new data

 – More importantly the discussion should discuss how thenew data relates to the current scientific knowledge in thefield

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Sections of MS cont…

• References/Literature Cited/Bibliography:

List any work citied in the text

Several different styles are used, the styledepends on the journal

Improper formatting of references can result

in a MS being rejected or recalled

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Paper for discussion

• Inhibitors of mTOR Reverse Doxorubicin

Conferred by PTEN Status in Prostate

Cancer Cells

 – Grunwald, V., et. al.

 – Cancer Research, vol. 62

 – 2002

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Reading a scientific MS

• Inhibitors of mTOR Reverse Doxorubicin Resistance Conferred byPTEN Status in Prostate Cancer Cells

 – CANCER RESEARCH 62, 6141–6145, November 1, 2002 

 – Viktor Gru¨nwald, Linda DeGraffenried, Douglas Russel, William E.Friedrichs, Ratna B. Ray, and Manuel Hidalgo

 – The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore,Maryland 21231 [V. G., M. H.]; The University of Texas Health Science Center,San Antonio,Texas 78229 [L. D., D. R., W. E. F.]; and Department of Pathology,

Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri 63104 [R. B. R.] 

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Goals

• Understand novel findings

• Relate these novel findings to the field

• Learn a new method

• Increase knowledge in a particular subjectarea

• Determine what others are doing

• Lend credence to your work

• Create ideas

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Define major points in title

• Question being answered- What scientific question are the authors proposing to answer 

 – Does inhibition of mTOR reverse drug resistance in prostate cancer cells with a defined PTEN status?

• Model- system that experiments are being conducted in

 – human prostate cancer cells

• Unfamiliar terms- mTOR (inhibitors), doxorubicin (resistance), PTEN, prostate cancer 

 – mTOR- mammalian target of rapamycin

 – PTEN-phosphatase and tensin homolouge delected from chromosome 10 – Doxorubicin- chemotherapeutic agent used to treat prostate cancer 

• Sometimes it is good to find a review article to help explain the background information in less detail.

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Example of Review Article

• mTOR-targeted therapy of cancer with

rapamycin derivatives

 – S. Vignot1†, S. Faivre2†, D. Aguirre2 & E.

Raymond1,2*

 – Annals of Oncology 16: 525–537, 2005

• http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint

/16/4/525

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PTEN/PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling

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GFR and PI3K signaling

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PI3K/mTOR signaling and cell

function

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Abstract

• Brief summary of entire article

• From the abstract you should be able to

find out:

 – the major question being addressed

 – model system used

 – definitions of unfamiliar terms (varies)

• What are these in the assigned MS?

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Introduction

• Will provide background information to supportthe main question

• Typically describes past pertinent literature• Explains major proteins (nucleic acid,

carbohydrate, enzyme, method etc.) involved instudy

• At times may state why a certain method wasused

• Briefly states general conclusions as they relateto background – How are these topics addressed in the assigned MS

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Grunwald, et al. 2002

• Background detailing mTOR and PI3K are discussed – mTOR and PI3K as it relates to prostate cancer, chemo-resistant

growth

• Cites literature to strengthen claims – Cites articles so that initial identification of PTEN as tumor suppressor (1), how PTEN regulates tumor growth in mousemodel (9)

•Last paragraph of intro, summarized major conclusions – Found a correlation between PTEN-/- and resistance to

chemotherapy

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Results

• Will show data to support or falsify

hypothesis (hypotheses)

• Data: Qualitative or Quantitative

• Data: Graphs, Tables, Charts, Pathology

Slides, movies (now), fluorescent pictures

• What type of data is used in this paper? – Should there be more/less data?

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Fig. 1. PTEN status confers

chemoresistance in prostate cancer cells

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Fig. 2. Transfection of PTEN leads to

loss of hyperactivated Akt

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Fig. 3. Stable PTEN expression leads to

doxorubicin susceptibility but not to increased

response to rapamycin

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Fig. 4. Rapamycin reverses drug

resistance conferred by loss of PTEN 

Fi 5 CCI 779 h

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Fig. 5. CCI-779 enhances

doxorubicin response in PTEN-

negative prostate xenografts 

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Results

• Will show data to support or falsify

hypothesis (hypotheses)

• Data: Qualitative or Quantitative

• Data: Graphs, Tables, Charts, Pathology

Slides, movies (now), fluorescent pictures

•What type of data is used in this paper? – Should there be more/less data?

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Discussion

• This section should discuss the main conclusions and

scientific findings of the paper 

• This section should also state how this new data/study

advance the knowledge of the field

• What is different about the discussion section in this

paper?

• Does this paper meet this criteria?

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References

• This section should cite enough information

for you to find the cited articles with a online

search engine

 – Pubmed, Google scholar, Web of Science, etc.)

• Does this paper meet this criteria?