{"id":97,"date":"2021-01-25T00:59:18","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T00:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-generalscience\/?post_type=chapter&p=97"},"modified":"2021-01-25T00:59:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T00:59:18","slug":"10-understanding-scientific-journals-and-articles","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-generalscience\/chapter\/10-understanding-scientific-journals-and-articles\/","title":{"raw":"10. Understanding Scientific Journals and Articles","rendered":"10. Understanding Scientific Journals and Articles"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n\r\nWe've all read the headlines at the supermarket checkout line: \"Aliens Abduct New Jersey School Teacher\" or \"Quadruplets Born to 99-Year-Old Woman: Exclusive Photos Inside.\" Journals like the National Enquirer<\/em> sell copies by publishing sensational headlines, and most readers believe only a fraction of what is printed. A person more interested in news than gossip could buy a publication like Time, Newsweek<\/em> or Discover<\/em>. These magazines publish information on current news and events, including recent scientific advances. These are not original reports of scientific research<\/a>, however. In fact, most of these stories include phrases like, \"A group of scientists recently published their findings on...\" So where do scientists publish their findings?\r\n\r\nScientists publish their original research<\/a> in scientific journals, which are fundamentally different from news magazines. The articles in scientific journals are not written by journalists \u2013 they are written by scientists. Scientific articles are not sensational stories intended to entertain the reader with an amazing discovery, nor are they news stories intended to summarize recent scientific events, nor even records<\/a> of every successful and unsuccessful research venture. Instead, scientists write articles to describe their findings to the community in a transparent manner.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Scientific journals vs. popular media<\/h2>\r\nWithin a scientific article, scientists present their research<\/a> questions, the methods<\/a> by which the question was approached, and the results they achieved using those methods. In addition, they present their analysis<\/a> of the data<\/a> and describe some of the interpretations<\/a> and implications of their work. Because these articles report new work for the first time, they are called primary literature<\/em>. In contrast, articles or news stories that review or report on scientific research already published elsewhere are referred to as secondary<\/em>.\r\n\r\nThe articles in scientific journals are different from news articles in another way \u2013 they must undergo a process<\/a> called peer review<\/a>, in which other scientists (the professional peers of the authors) evaluate the quality and merit of research<\/a> before recommending whether or not it should be published (see our Peer Review<\/a> module). This is a much lengthier and more rigorous process than the editing and fact-checking that goes on at news organizations. The reason for this thorough evaluation by peers is that a scientific article is more than a snapshot of what is going on at a certain time in a scientist's research. Instead, it is a part of what is collectively called the scientific literature, a global archive of scientific knowledge. When published, each article expands the library of scientific literature available to all scientists and contributes to the overall knowledge base of the discipline of science.\r\n
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Comprehension Checkpoint<\/p>\r\n

Articles published in scientific literature are considered primary<\/em> literature when<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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