Predatory Reading of scientific articles

1. Predatory Readingof scientific articles Margaret Merrill & Kiri Goldbeck February 5, 2009

2. Goals for Today • Identify key concepts • why IMRD format aids finding key information • Interconnectedness of scientific papers • Identify indicators of reliability • Know when it is appropriate to use predatory reading

3. use Predatory Reading for: • Scientific & technical papers, reports • Generally original research • anything using a scientific methodology

4. Do NOT use for • Understanding the logical sequence of an argument or thought process • An in-depth analysis • Experiencing the entirety of something

5. IMRD • introduction • Methods • Results • Discussion/conclusions • Plus abstract and references

6. Predatory reading is not linear!!!

7. Basic Process • Read title of article & title of journal • Look for author affiliations • Read abstract, introduction & Discussion/conclusions • Identify key ideas presented • Read reference list for relevant material

8. Before you read, look for • Title says the article is about what?? • Where do the authors work?? • Name of journal and who publishes it? • What does the Abstract say the article is about??

9. While you read the introduction, look for • What are the main points of the article? • What questions are being asked or what gap in knowledge is identified • What is the thesis statement, objective, or purpose – identify the sentence.

10. While you read the discussion and/or conclusion, ask yourself • Does the research answer the questions posed or find the information needed • What are the implications of this research for the knowledge base of the discipline

11. Look at Graphs & Figures • What jumps out at you? • What is its significance? • Does it support the conclusions?

12. Review the references, are they • Related to the key points of the paper • Scholarly • Relevant to your own research

13. So, what are the benefits of Predatory Reading

14. Benefits • Read more material in time available • Keep up with publications in discipline • Identify key points or ideas quickly • Identify relevant articles quickly • Other???

15. Apply the process Go into Scholar and retrieve Bin, S. and Dowlatabadi, H. 2005. Consumer lifestyle approach to US energy use and the related CO2 emissions. Energy Policy 33:197-208 Predator read this article

16. What are the key points

17. References • Scan references • Do they support the key points? • Let’s retrieve one of them

18. Retrieving a reference • Library web site http://www.lib.vt.edu • Ejournals under FIND • Enter journal name • Find year/volume needed • Find issue number needed • Find page numbers needed • Retrieve/open pdf file

19. Predatory Read for Yourself • Use the Predatory Reading process to identify the key points in the article below • Volk, T.A., et.al. 2004. Growing fuel: a sustainability assessment of willow biomass crops. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 2(8):411-418. On Scholar. • Then select a journal article from the list of references, find the online copy, predatory read it, • look specifically for how the referenced article contributed to the first article • Complete the worksheet on this process in class today • Take the worksheet to your Discussion group today • Turn the worksheet in to your Instructor

20. Discussion – NOTE CARDS For today’s note cards • Remember the goals for this session • Do you think that you can use Predatory Reading? • Do you think that you will you use this technique in the future?