Genome Evolution Course 2011

www.yanaiweb.com/genome

Itai Yanai, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Michal Levin, Teaching assistant

Problem Set #6 assigned June 6th, 2011

To be submitted by email as a PDF or WORD document in English or Hebrew by midnight June 16^th18^th, 2011 to Michal Levin mlevin@tx.technion.ac.il.

Literature search and critical analysis

In this assignment you will practice three major challenges of a literature review:

1. Search for scientific original research papers relevant to a specific subject.

2. Find the most important information as efficiently as possible.

3. Summarize the aims, findings and conclusions in a short summary.

Tasks:

1. Find a recent original research article (from the last 2-3 years, not a review) connecting the topics of Horizontal Gene Transfer and Resistance to Antibiotics, using either:

a. Pubmed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed

a. Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/

b. ISI Web of Knowledge : http://apps.isiknowledge.com/UA_GeneralSearch_input.do?product=UA&search_mode=GeneralSearch&SID=4BiDDJNjLkmJlC9HCEI&preferencesSaved=

2. Write a 500-word critical analysis of this article answering the questions below. The summary should be using appropriate connecting phrases such as “in order to investigate the interaction…the researchers made use of …” or “the authors applied the … method in order to sample…”. The appropriate writing style for a summary of a scientific article is to use simple sentences that express one or two ideas. Do not copy text from the article (more than five identical words is considered plagiarism) but rather express the ideas in your own words.

Summary of main aims, methods and findings:

a. What are the specific aims of the article?

b. Which methods were used and what are the main results?

c. What are the authors’ main conclusions?

Critical Reading:

d. Do the methods used have any limitations?

e. Do you agree with the author’s conclusions?

f. How original is the article?

g. How significant is the article?

The summary can be written in English or in Hebrew.