Medical Sciences Lab - Week 4

what is a peer review

cycle of feedback & author rewrite until accepted

What are the issues of peer review

• time: could take up to years (research could be invalidated, or new findings)

• reveiwing styles: could differ between writer and reviewer

• money: authors have to pay to publish

• accessibility for views: if authors had to pay to publish, so does general public (subscription)

you are awesome good job!

Review Process

what is in the discussion?

• main findings

• how confident the author is in the research

• strengths and limitations

• how do findings support or contradict previous research

• mechanism underlying changes seen (little things lead to big change)

• diff pathways or processes involved

• what does this mean for future studies or research

What is move 1

present the principle claim

what happens in move 1 “present principle claim”

• principle claim: primary finding of the study

• key results

• propose explanation and/or highlighting the value of the results

what are the moves that are important for finding a quick key summary of the key research?

• intro: move 3

• discussion: move 1

What are errors when stating your principle claim?

• correlation does not equal causation (give a cause and effect relationship when there is only a correlation)

• Clinical significance does not mean something is clinically/practically relevant: just because something is stat significant, it could be so small it might not be clinically relevant 

• Not accounting for all data: ignoring things that don’t fit your findings

• Suggesting animal model system is human significance: saying bc it works in animals it should work in humans 

• Failing to account for alternative explanations of the study results 

• Solving a problem far beyond the scope of data 

• Preventing room for criticism by the reader: saying this is the only way things can happen

• Speculating on economic benefits or costs when research does not address these issues 

What is move 2

contextualize research findings by comparing the results of current study to previously published research

what happens in move 2?

• Longest and least structured subsection 

• Compares the results of the current study to previously published research results

  • If they are similar what does this mean? If they are different what does this mean? 

• More detailed context than the intro: summary of previous findings, compare them to yours “they found this, but we found that” & criticize 

What is move 3?

analyzing research approach (methods)

What happens in move 3?

• what are the strengths and limitations and how do they influence the paper's ability to reach the objective 

• Specific, not generic (e.g., “sample size was small” vs “statistical power was low due to sample size, study findings may not apply to X situation”) 

• Limitations ≠ technical errors (pipetting errors are not a limitation, you can do this properly, ex why did you choose PCR strengths and weaknesses) 

• Limitations should not undermine (findings are not meaningless just because of limitations) 

What is move 4?

provide conclusions

in move 4 how do you provide conclusions?

• Summarizing the principal claim, (recap on what was found) 

• Presenting the implications of the research

  • Implications: what is the value of the research field (unique things), more than just “this study adds to the literature”

• Providing specific recommendations for future research.

  • Future research; how could this study help/influence someone else? 

• Generalized claim/take- home message

what is inductive reasoning ?

using the past to make predictions about the future

rules out what cant be true and what can be true

does not provide certainty, just tells you what is likely to be true

what is deductive reasoning

what is true

The principle claim of the discussion must be:

• based on evidence in results

• appropriately tempered - avoid taking interpretation too far beyond data

• presented carefully and precisely to avoid overstating the certainly of the statement

what is hedging?

tempered writing style, appropriate to the claims being made, how well suppported they are by the data

What are lexical verbs?

infer general claim from data

What are examples of lexical verbs?

indicate

suggest

appear

propose

What are modal adjectives?

degree of uncertainly to the reason for an observation

What are examples modal adjectives?

likely

possible

most

consistent with

What are adverbial forms?

“downtoners”

• decrease force of verb

• decrease force of statement

What are the adverbial forms to decrease force of a verb?

quite

almost

usually

What are the adverbial forms to decrease force of a statement ?

probably

generally

evidently

What are modal verbs forms?

introduce a degree of uncertainty in statements

What are examples of modal verbs forms?

would

may

could

what are modal nouns?

degree of uncertainty of a statement

what are examples of modal nouns?

possibility

assumption

estimate

tendency

What are words to use when you are appropriately cautious

suggest

indicate

show

demonstrate

What are words to use when you agree with other studies

support

are consistent with

What are words when you disagree with other studies?

differ

are inconsistent with

what are words you use when you are overly confident

DO NOT USE THESE WORDS (too strong)

prove

confirm

substantiate

verify

mean