Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 1

First lecture: gathering of scientific information

Second lecture: oral presentations

Third lecture:

Written reports, citation issues

Practical part: technical support with powerpoint, animations

Overview

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 2

Outline for today

Citations - Importance and procedures - Plagiarism - Copyright issues

Powerpoint presentations (graphics) - Resources (quality of images), inserting images and videos - Effects and Animations

The written reports - Structure - How to introduce citations (in text: Endnote; different reference styles)

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 3

From practical work to written reports

Path One:

You collect information about a topic based on the work of other scientists

You think about them in order to understand the topic

You write about the topic using your own words and ideas (mentioning thepublished literature)

In this way, you are generating your own piece of scientific work(Essays, reviews, news and views, etc)

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 4

From practical work to written reports

Path Two:

You perform the practical work (independently or with supervision) on a specifictopic (project)

In parallel, you collect the published information about the topic

You write your results using your own words and ideas and comparing them withthe published literature

In this way, you are generating your own piece of scientific work(lab reports, master or PhD thesis, scientific papers, etc)

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 5

To write is to think andcommunicate

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 6

Avoidmis-interpretations !

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 7

Some golden rules:Be precise

Write in a clear and concise way (avoid long sentences)

Organise the information in a logical order (for each section and entiredocument)

Pay attention to grammar, spelling and typos

Avoid slang and colloquial terms

Give enough background information for people to understand and/orreproduce what you have done (experimental work)

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 8

Define abbreviations

Use a consistent style for the entire documentFor ex.: use bold for major headings, italic for minor headings write minutes or min. but do not mix both

Some golden rules:

If showing pictures, figures - refer to them in the textFor ex.: The development of cancer is a multi-step process (Figure 1).

Add references to text when appropriateFor ex.: Mitotic exit network (MEN) proteins associate with centrosomes(reviewed in Pereira and Schiebel, 2000).

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 9

Good practical rules:

Always use your own words

DO NOT COPY AND PASTE SENTENCES FROM OTHER PUBLICATIONS

DO NOT USE PUBLISHED PICTURES (in full or partial) WITHOUT CITATION

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 10

Plagiarism (Täuschung)

"use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of anotherauthor and the representation of them as one's own original work.”

Definition (from Wikipedia)

Copyright infringement

“is a violation of the rights of a copyright holder, when material protected by copyright is used without consent.”

Definition (from Wikipedia)

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 11

You can include sentences and phrases of published work to your report if(AND ONLY IF) you phrase it and cite the source of information

Good practical rules:

Examples

Accordingly to Keiser and colleagues (Nature, 2009), “Some of the new off-targetsmay contribute to a drug's adverse reactions.”

“In budding yeast, the initial assembly of the actomyosin ring starts early at the G1 phasewith the accumulation of Myo1 (the sole class II myosin in yeast) at the bud neck region (Bi et al., 1998; Lippincott and Li, 1998b).”

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 12

When showing a picture (written reports or oral presentations) or part of apicture, you must cite the source

For ex.: Figure 1 shows the localisation of Cdc14 (taken from Pereira et al., 2000)

When using a pre-existing picture (drawing) and modifying it, you must cite theSource

For ex.: Schematic representation of mitosis (modified from Pereira et al., 2000)

Good practical rules:

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 13

Do not copy and paste !

Cite all sources of information that you have used

Read, assimilate and re-write with you own words

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 14

Good summary about plagiarism (in Deutsch):

See pages 18-20 of the report

www.cl.uni-heidelberg.de/courses/archiv/ws04/sp/SeminarHandbuch.pdf

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 15

Scientific reports

Introduction

Results

Materials and Methods

Discussion

References

Summary

Title

Conclusions

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 16

Title

Concise, convey essential points of the report (use keywords)

“High Diversity of the Viral Community from an Antarctic Lake”

“Impaired embryonic haematopoiesis yet normal arterial development in the absence of theNotch ligand Jagged1”

“FLIP-mediated autophagy regulation in cell death control”

“DNA damage signalling prevents deleterious telomere addition at DNA breaks”

Examples:

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 17

Abstract/Summary

Summary of report main findings/focus/aims

Space limitations: no extra, unnecessary information

Elements:Set up the context (one introductory sentence)Explain the main question of the studyBriefly say how you analysed it and the main findingsEnd up with a final conclusion

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 18

Example

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 19

One page summaries(hand-outs, meetings/thesis abstracts, etc)

Focus:

Overall importance and main findings of the work

Attract the interest of a broad audience

Examples of meetings abstracts

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 20

Introduction

First paragraph: short overview of the topic

Introduce the problem (open questions, make it interesting)

Give background information, which is necessary to understandthe work (be concise, cut out unnecessary information)

- Cite findings done by others scientists -

Finish with the precise aims (key questions of the work) anda summary of the main findings

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 21

Materials and Methods

Exact description of the reagents used (reference to source) andthe methods used (also how experiments have been done)

Your aim: other scientists should be able to repeat your workand reproduce your data

- Do not include results in this section -

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 22

ResultsExplain the actual findings

Split the results into sections

For each section:short statement of the aim(s) - short introductionhow you analysed itdescription of the findings (refer to figures)conclusions (based on results only!)

Organise the sections in a logical wayIf possible they should be sequentially linked to each other

- no general conclusions in this part -

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 23

DiscussionDiscussion the importance of your findings (based on the overall aimsand literature)

Lab reports:Space to discuss difficulties encounteredFailure in getting results (reasons? How to solve it?)

But keep the focus! Do not speculate too much!

Conclusions

Briefly summarise the aims of the study and the key findings

Use clear and concise statements

Keep this section brief and focused to the point

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 24

Discussion

Results

Conclusions

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 25

References

Add citations to the text:- most common: author surname and year- Examples: Pereira, 2009 (single author) Caydasi and Pereira, 2009 (two authors)

Meitinger et al., 2009 (more than 3 authors)

- Other formats: each citation gets a number (by order of appearance in the text)

End of the document: reference list- Format varies!- If not specified: chose your favorite citation format and

be consistent

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 26

Bibliography/References

Adding citations to text files: EndNote (or similar programmes)

Examples

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 27

Home work:

Choose different scientific publications (with and without primary data)and find out how the different sections were structured

How would you structure an essay during your exams?

Start practicing by writing one page summaries !

Einführung in das Studium Biologie WS 2009/10 Gislene Pereira, slide 28

Practical use of Powerpoint

Animations

After the break (in the computer room)