The Science Information Cycle

Researcher has an idea Researcher articulates idea in a thesis Researcher

designs experiment to test thesis

Researcher conducts experiment and collects data

Researcher publishes a paper on results

The popular media summarizes results

Someone reads it (and quotes it)

The Science Information Cycle

Researcher has an idea Does hormone replacement therapy increase the risk for breast cancer?

Women’s Health Initiative designs study

WHI conducts study on trial group of over 16,000 women

Paper published in Journal of the American Medical Association

Results reported on news, Internet, magazines. CQ Researcher article discusses it.

Someone reads it (and quotes it)

Articles in scholarly journals•Are written by professors or researchers (look for a university or laboratory affiliation in the article)•Have abstracts and reference lists•Have a specialized format (often consisting of an introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusions)•Use discipline-specific language•Examples: Nature, American Arachnology, Bulletin of Entomological Research

Articles in popular magazines•Are written by journalists•Rarely have abstracts and reference lists•Don't follow a specialized format•Use language understandable by the general public •Examples: Time, Smithsonian, Science News

Scholarly Journals vs Popular Magazines

Biology tutorial Retrieved 8/18/2009, from http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/biology/

North Carolina State University