Guidelines for Discussing Papers

During the course of the semester, each student will be the primary discussion leader and prepare a short handout (1-2 pages) on either a research or review article. The following guidelines provide a general template for review, writeup and discussion (< 15 min/paper) of these assigned papers. (If an electronic version of the assigned paper is not available, drop off a copy of the article in CNR Copy Ctr. by end of Monday's class & bring 14 copies of your summary writeup for distribution on Friday /see also weekly assignments below) 

I) Definitions: Write down words or terms that are new to you in the assigned paper. (Define these terms prior to arrival in class if possible; otherwise, define them during the group discussion.)

II) Summary: Write a short, objective summary of the paper. Do not criticize the paper at this point, simply summarize in a few sentences the purpose, main findings and "take home" message(s).

III) Objectives: Explicitly state the objective(s) of the paper, as given by the author(s). What reason(s) are given to support the scientific importance or relevance of the objectives?

IV) Methods: Are the methods used appropriate and adequate for the questions or hypotheses being addressed? Identify any methods that are not clearly presented or that you do not understand.

V) Results: List the main results presented in the paper. How do the results relate to the questions (or test the hypotheses) set forth in the objectives? Identify any unclear results.

VI) Discussion: (Here is where you should offer your personal evaluation of the paper.) How well does the discussion reflect the results? Are interpretations of the data presented in the results section justified, or are interpretations and discussion very speculative? Does the paper adequately represent both the strengths/weaknesses of the main findings?

VII) Overall: What do you consider as the main strengths of the paper? What are the weaknesses? What is interesting about the paper? What new did you learn? What relevance does this paper have to issues or topics that have been discussed in class? What additional topics in other areas of ecology can you relate this paper to, either in terms of basic science or in terms of applied science?

VII) Class presentation:  Do not read your handout to the class.  Bring along overheads of key figures, photos of research area, etc., focus presentation on research highlights (methods, results, discussion) & future implications...

Assigned Literature Review Papers