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One Page Microbiology Articles Reports

The purpose of reading articles for microbiology and reviewing them is three fold:

· Expand your knowledge in microbiology

· Apply the knowledge you receive in class in a meaningful way

· Develop or practice good writing skills

In order to receive credit for your article requires that you strictly follow the following rules.

The written report must be typed on a single 8 ½ by 11 paper and must be turned into to me during class (no electronic email attachments).
The report may be no more than 1 ½ spaced, but may be single spaced, and must be on a single page. Margins, top, bottom and sides are not to exceed one inch, but may be less. Font must be either 10 or 12 size and easy to read.
No more than one report per week may be turned in, no exceptions! The last day that reports will be accepted is indicated in your syllabus. Make sure to keep all article reports and number them. I may request that you turn in all of your graded reports at the end of the semester. If you cannot do this, you will get 0 points for all reports that you can not show me.
The report must include the title of the article, the author, the journal it came from, the date of the journal and the page number.
The report must be in your own words, I’m not interested in quotes. Plagiarism will not be tolerated! I may request copies of the articles if I suspect this is going on, or check your source directly.
Pick an article concerning microbiological pathogens (including bacteria, viruses, fungi, helminthes and protozoans). In particular look for articles that include good case studies.
Write a summary of the article. The summary of the article must be one-half page or more!
In addition to providing a summary of the article, the review must contain clearly defined statements addressing the following:

a. Why did you pick this article? Be specific, don’t just put “I was interested in it”.

b. How does the article relate to class? Find a topic word in the article in your text book in the index. Read that section of the text book and in your own words include at least two sentences that summarize relevant items in that section and then reference the text book, page and chapter where that information was found (see example review!)

c. Provide one microbiology question that you would have liked the article to address or a microbiology question that the article inspires you to ask.

The article must come from an accredited scientific journal published within the last 4 years. Here is a list of accepted journals. There are more acceptable journals, but you must get my approval before using one not on this list. As a rule of thumb, if the title of the journal starts out “Journal of”, then it will probably be acceptable. Items in bold are somewhat easier reading.

However, I highly recommend going to the CDC site – www.cdc.gov and entering into the search field the name of the disease you are interested in (one caused by a microbe) and then the terms “article” or “case study”. Make sure you find an article, one with authors up front. Avoid encyclopedic entries as these will receive no credit if reviewed.

Another site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez can be searched. Look for links to “Free Full Length Articles”. You need to be careful though, because many of these articles can be quite technical. Use the words “Case Study” in order to keep your search focused and avoid in depth molecular biology research articles.

a. Natural History

b. Science

c. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

d. New England Journal of Medicine

e. Journal of Respiratory Diseases

f. Nature

g. Respiratory Care

h. American Journal of Nursing

i. Journal of Infectious Diseases

j. Journal of Bacteriology

k. Journal of Virology

l. Lancet

m. Journal of Clinical Microbiology – some shorter ones here under “s” below

n. Clinical microbiology Reviews

o. Science News

p. Infection and Immunology

q. http://www.asm.org/microbe/ -this is a great site with many back issues and also a link to the journals page with access to some articles.

i. Any of these journals on this site are acceptable, but beware, they can be beyond your conceptual level at this time. Pick articles from which you can understand some material. Try and find relatively short articles 1-4 pages, but not too short.

Report Grading.

1. Is the article one page? More than one page and I hand it back ungraded.

2. Is the article on an acceptable topic? From an acceptable journal? If not, automatic zero points and redo.

3. Was the students name and article review number included? Half a point each

4. Is the title of the article, author, journal name, date and page included? One point each or zero and redo if unable to correlate to an acceptable journal

5. Grammar and spelling? 1-10 points

6. Are the margins, spacing, font correct? One point each or more, depending on how much it detracts from #5 below.

7. Is there a full half a page of article summary? One to four points

8. Did they include why they picked the article? One point

9. Did they directly relate aspects of the article to material from the text, by including chapter reference and text material where appropriate? If not done, automatic zero and redo, otherwise 1-3 points if incomplete.

10. Did they ask a microbiological question? One point

Some suggestions:

1. Start early on the articles. Get my feedback, particularly if you are going to use a journal not on my list!

2. Use the library resources. In addition to paper journals, the library has access to acceptable electronic journals. Just ask the librarians for help!

3. Don’t wait to the last minute! If you wait till week 5 to start, you probably will not get all the points for articles, and none for extra-credit. You’ll have my sympathy but not points.

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