First paper
Goal of this assignment:
- learn to use bibliographic sources to search for biomedical literature
- gain a broader perspective on one area of research: how physiology relates to behavior
Assignment:
Use bibliographic sources to find 10 research articles dealing with the
physiological basis of eating (feeding) behavior. These should be original
research articles, not review articles, published within the past 5 years. They
can be studies of either humans or laboratory animals, but the focus should be on the
physiological basis for eating, not clinical aspects or social factors that influence
eating. You can either concentrate on one of the aspects discussed in
class (such as leptin, cholecystokinin, hypothalamic structures, serotonin, neuropeptide
Y), or you can cover a variety of the hormonal/neuronal aspects. I expect this assignment
to take about 5 hours, with about half that spent on finding the abstracts that interest
you.
Literature search:
If you simply enter the terms "eating behavior" or "feeding behavior",
you'll find 1000s of articles. You can limit these by entering more terms in your
search, like "eating behavior and hormone" or "eating behavior and
neurotransmitter" or "eating behavior and leptin".
You will have to write a cogent summary of 10 research articles, based on their abstract. That means that you should not summarize the first 10 abstracts that you find, but rather the first 10 abstracts that you understand. If you can't understand the purpose of the experiment from the abstract, either find the article and read the introduction, or find a different abstract.
There are several sources for searching the literature.
Intended audience. Write for an audience of other students in this class, not for professional scientists. That means that you should translate what you've read into English. You can find additional suggestions for writing at Writing the Research Paper
Format:
For each article, write first the reference using this format:
Author(s). Publication year. Article title. Journal title Volume: Page numbers
Stern, K., McClintock, MK. (1998) Regulation of ovulation by human
pheromones. Nature 392: 177-179.
This should be followed by a 2-4 sentence summary of the paper, which explains the purpose of the experiment (why was it done? what question is being asked?), the results, and what the authors concluded. Your summary should be written in your own words, and should make it clear that you understood the purpose of the research. Don't just copy the text used in the abstract.
Spelling counts. Use a spell-checker or a dictionary.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is taken very seriously at Columbia University. It can lead to academic disciplicinary action and possible dismissal from the University. Plagiarism includes using the work of another person as if it's your own, as well as using the words of another author without attribution.