You've reviewed several papers with help from a guide. Now it's time to dissect a paper on your own. Select a paper (or access the assigned paper) and use the outline below to dissect it (or download the outline as a PDF or Word document).

Title

• Based on the title, what is the main point being made by the paper? In one to three sentences, explain what you think the title means.

Authors

• Was this research performed by one or a few individuals, or was the research a broad, collaborative effort across several institutions?

• What sort of topics do the first and last authors study? Does this give you any insight into the topic of the paper?

Abstract

• Try to translate the abstract into your own words line by line.

Introduction

• Are there keywords or ideas that you don't understand? If so, look them up. Would reviewing any of the references help you understand those unfamiliar concepts?

• What questions is this study trying to answer? What is the current understanding of these topics?

• Why are the authors addressing the questions that they are?

• Is there a scientific debate or controversy that this study will help address? If so, what is it?

• Try to phrase the main idea being tested in the study as a hypothesis.

Materials and methods

• Summarize the approach that the study takes to answering the main question.

• Does the study involve an experiment, modeling, some other sort of testing, or a combination of approaches?

• Are there any aspects of the study's method that you do not understand? If so, what are they?

Results

• What are the main findings of this study?

• Are there any results presented here that you do not understand? If so, what are they?

Tables

• What interpretations described in the Results section are supported by each table?

• Do any of the tables include particularly important results? If so, what are they?

Figures

• Are any of the figures designed to communicate details of the study design, as opposed to results? If so, which ones?

• What interpretations described in the Results section are supported by each figure?

• Do any of the figures include particularly important results? If so, what are they?

Discussion and conclusion

• What are the most important findings of this study? What ideas are supported or contradicted by these findings?

• Why are these findings important to the study of evolution or biology in general (i.e., outside the context of this particular study)?

• Were any of the study’s findings surprising or hard to explain? If so, what were they, and why were they surprising?

• What were the strengths and weaknesses of the study's design?

• What sort of additional studies would help address the weaknesses of this study?

• What questions about the topic of this paper remain to be answered?

Supporting information

• What is included in the supporting information — additional details of the study methods, more detailed results, or something else?

• Did you examine any of the supporting information?

Acknowledgements

• Does the Acknowledgements section of this paper raise any red flags or concerns for you?

Dissecting a scientific paper
about evolutionary biology II