Chemistry teachers increasingly use research articles in their undergraduate courses. This trend arises from current pedagogical emphasis on active learning and scientific process. In this paper, we describe some educational experiences on the use of research articles in chemistry higher education. Additionally, we present our own conclusions on the use of such methodology applied to a scientific communication course offered to undergraduate chemistry students at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.; FAPESP; CNPq

OBJECTIVES: The dissemination of health-related news through newspapers can influence the behavior of patients and of health care providers. We conducted a study to analyze the characteristics of health-related research published by two leading Brazilian newspapers. METHOD: We retrospectively evaluated health-related news published in the electronic versions of the newspapers Folha de Sao Paulo and O Estado de Sao Paulo over a period of three months (July through September, 2009). Only articles mentioning medical research were included. The articles were categorized according to topic, source, study location and the nature of the headline. We also analyzed the presence of background information on the topic, citations of medical periodicals, national contextualization and references to products or companies. RESULTS: Scientific research articles corresponded to 57% and 20% of health-related articles published by Folha de Sao Paulo and O Estado de Sao Paulo, respectively. Folha de Sao Paulo published significantly more articles about national studies, and most articles were written by its own staff. In contrast, most articles in O Estado de Sao Paulo came from news agencies. Folha de Sao Paulo also better contextualized its reports for Brazilian society. O Estado de Sao Paulo tended to cite the name of the periodical in which the study was published more frequently...

OBJECTIVES: The dissemination of health-related news through newspapers can influence the behavior of patients and of health care providers. We conducted a study to analyze the characteristics of health-related research published by two leading Brazilian newspapers. METHOD: We retrospectively evaluated health-related news published in the electronic versions of the newspapers Folha de São Paulo and O Estado de São Paulo over a period of three months (July through September, 2009). Only articles mentioning medical research were included. The articles were categorized according to topic, source, study location and the nature of the headline. We also analyzed the presence of background information on the topic, citations of medical periodicals, national contextualization and references to products or companies. RESULTS: Scientific research articles corresponded to 57% and 20% of health-related articles published by Folha de São Paulo and O Estado de São Paulo, respectively. Folha de São Paulo published significantly more articles about national studies, and most articles were written by its own staff. In contrast, most articles in O Estado de São Paulo came from news agencies. Folha de São Paulo also better contextualized its reports for Brazilian society. O Estado de São Paulo tended to cite the name of the periodical in which the study was published more frequently...

OBJECTIVE: To assess and compare the quality of nonstructured and structured abstracts of original research articles in three medical journals. DESIGN: Blind, criterion-based observational study. SAMPLE: Random sample of 300 abstracts (25 abstracts per journal each year) of articles published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the Canadian Medical Association Journal and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 1988 and 1989 (nonstructured abstracts) and in 1991 and 1992 (structured abstracts). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The quality of abstracts was measured against 33 objective criteria, which were divided into eight categories (purpose, research design, setting, subjects, intervention, measurement of variables, results and conclusions). The quality score was determined by dividing the number of criteria present by the number applicable; the score varied from 0 to 1. RESULTS: The overall mean quality scores for nonstructured and structured abstracts were 0.57 and 0.74 respectively (p < 0.001). The frequency in meeting the specific criteria was generally higher for the structured abstracts than for the nonstructured ones. The mean quality score was higher for nonstructured abstracts in JAMA than for those in BMJ (0.60 v. 0.54...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the scientific quality of original research articles on the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke; to determine whether poor article quality is associated with publication in non-peer-reviewed symposium proceedings or with other article characteristics. DESIGN: Cross sectional study of original research articles on the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke published in peer reviewed journals and non-peer-reviewed symposium proceedings from 1980 to 1994. Article quality was assessed by two independent reviewers who used a valid and reliable instrument, were unaware of study hypotheses, were blinded to identifying characteristics of articles, and had no disclosed conflicts of interest. PARTICIPANTS: All symposium articles (n = 68) and a random sample of peer reviewed journal articles (n = 68) that satisfied inclusion/exclusion criteria. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Mean quality scores, which could range from 0 (lowest quality) to 1 (highest quality). RESULTS: Using multivariate regression analysis, symposium articles were of poorer scientific quality than peer reviewed journal articles when controlling simultaneously for the effects of study design, article conclusion, article topic, and source of funding acknowledged (P = 0.027). Article quality was not associated with either source of funding acknowledged or article conclusion in multivariate analyses. CONCLUSIONS: In published reports on environmental tobacco smoke...

This thesis discusses rhetorical features of Indonesian research articles (RAs) in three disciplinary areas: Economics, Education and Psychology. These were written by Indonesian speakers and published mainly in university-based scientific journals. The main focus of this thesis is on the examination of the patterns of communicative purposes or ‘Moves’ and their subsequent elements or ‘Steps’ of the introduction sections of these articles. The analyses include the examination of communicative purposes and persuasive values of the texts, linguistic resources used to materialise the communicative purposes and persuasions, and the cultural factors (ie. norms, beliefs and values) and scientific practices and academic writing conventions underlying the specific rhetorical features. ¶ This study found that the macro rhetorical structure of the Indonesian RAs (ie. the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion or IMRD pattern) is relatively similar to that of the English RAs except that, unlike in English RAs, the conclusion and suggestion section in the Indonesian RAs have a separate section. However, the communicative purposes and persuasions in the introduction sections in the two groups of the RAs (English and Indonesian) are relatively different. Differences are also found in the way that rhetorical works use the linguistic resources to materialise the communicative purposes and persuasions in the introduction sections of the two groups of RAs. Some of the rhetorical differences are because of the differences in the research practices and scientific writing conventions in Indonesian and in English speaking countries...

This guide offers pragmatic tips on how to prepare a research article --- starting from the 1-page concept paper to a first draft and the final version for submission. In addition, it addresses deeper aspects of preparing and publishing research articles as well as some of the limitations and frustrations that are inherent in current editorial systems such as hyperproduction, phoney co-authors and poor reviews.; JRC.H.7-Land management and natural hazards

The present study examines a corpus of ninety discussion sections of applied linguistics research articles, with the goal of analyzing different aspects of academic written discourse. Three types of texts were considered: English texts written by native speakers of English, English texts written by Iranians (as non-natives of English), and Persian texts written by Iranians. In order to understand the cultural differences between Persian and English-speaking researchers, the following metadiscourse sub-types adapted from Hyland's (2004) model were examined: transitions, frame markers, endophoric markers, evidentials, code glosses, hedges, boosters, attitude markers, engagement markers, and self-mentions. The first five comprise interactive metadiscourse, and the rest comprise interactional metadiscourse. After the detailed analysis of the metadiscourse types in question, chi-square tests were carried out to clarify the probable differences. The analysis revealed how academic writings of these groups differed in their rhetorical strategies using metadiscourse type because of their respective mother tongues. However, the different groups were found to use all sub-types of metadiscourse. Yet, some subcategories were used differently by the writers of these two languages. In addition...

This portfolio of three research projects addresses at an educational level the increasing pressure on scientists internationally to publish research in highly-ranked, peer-reviewed journals, and thus in English. Building on a tradition of collaboration between language- and content-based expertise in English for Specific/Academic Purposes, the portfolio examines the contribution of a pedagogical approach dubbed Collaborative Interdisciplinary Publication Skills Education (CIPSE) for teaching novice scientist authors who use English as a first or additional language. Project 1 examines CIPSE development from its antecedents in content-based learning and genre analysis, culminating in the production of a teaching text/website package Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps (WSRA) by a collaborative team of the candidate, an applied linguist, and a publishing, refereeing scientist. The aim was to redress the incomplete coverage of existing approaches to produce a resource accessible to novice authors of all language backgrounds and to teachers/mentors within both science and language contexts. The research questions driving Projects 2 and 3 emerged from initial implementation of CIPSE, and were addressed by analyzing evaluative data from selected implementation sites. Project 2 investigates interdisciplinary teams for publication skills development. Part A...

Objective: The increase in the production of scientific knowledge is of concern to scientists, who must decide daily on selecting literature of utmost scientific merit to support decision- making on research and practice The purpose of this study is to construct two registered instruments5 with psychometric properties, face validity and content validity. Materials and Methods: The Research Article Eligibility Criteria Instrument (ICrESAI) proposes standards to be assessed to determine which research papers should be eligible for a systematic review (SR) or meta-analysis (MA). Inter-reevaluator reliability was calculated as well. The second instrument involves Criteria for Evaluating the Scientific Merit of Articles Selected for Meta-analysis (IMeCI) , which proposes standards to be evaluated to rate the scientific merit and methodological quality of the articles selected for a SR. The estimates for face and content validity were made with three researchers who are experts in research methodology and measurement. Content validity was calculated using the Modified Lawshe Index (Tristán -López, 2008) and inter-codifier reliability was measured for qualitative variables using Cohen’s Kappa Index. Results: The ICrESAI instrument obtained a content validity index (CVI) of 1.0 . The CVI for the IMeCI instrument was 0.75. With the ICrESAI instru- ment...

This article describes a teaching strategy for first-year undergraduate life sciences students at a research university, in which they learn to read authentic research articles by focusing on rhetorical moves that play an important role in the authors' argument. We used cognitive apprenticeship as the pedagogical approach.

BACKGROUND: Since 1987 research articles have been catalogued with the author's affiliation address in the 40 databases of the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS) of the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Md. The present study was conducted to examine the Canadian entries in MEDLARS to interpret past and future trends and to combine the MEDLARS demographic data with data from other sources to rank Canadian research output of human studies both nationally and internationally. METHODS: The PubMed Web site of the National Library of Medicine was used to count medical articles archived in MEDLARS and published from Jan. 1, 1989, through Dec. 31, 1998. The articles attributed to Canadian authors were compared by country, province, city, medical school, hospital, article type, journal and medical specialty. RESULTS: During the study period Canadian authors contributed on average 3% (standard deviation [SD] 0.2%) of the worldwide MEDLARS content each year, which translated to a mean of 11,067 (SD 1037) articles per year; 49% were human studies, of which 13% were clinical or controlled trials, and 55% involved people aged 18 years or less. In total, 68% of the articles were by authors affiliated with Canadian medical schools; those affiliated with the University of Toronto accounted for the greatest number (8604)...

Open access (OA) to the research literature has the potential to accelerate recognition and dissemination of research findings, but its actual effects are controversial. This was a longitudinal bibliometric analysis of a cohort of OA and non-OA articles published between June 8, 2004, and December 20, 2004, in the same journal (PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). Article characteristics were extracted, and citation data were compared between the two groups at three different points in time: at “quasi-baseline” (December 2004, 0–6 mo after publication), in April 2005 (4–10 mo after publication), and in October 2005 (10–16 mo after publication). Potentially confounding variables, including number of authors, authors' lifetime publication count and impact, submission track, country of corresponding author, funding organization, and discipline, were adjusted for in logistic and linear multiple regression models. A total of 1,492 original research articles were analyzed: 212 (14.2% of all articles) were OA articles paid by the author, and 1,280 (85.8%) were non-OA articles. In April 2005 (mean 206 d after publication), 627 (49.0%) of the non-OA articles versus 78 (36.8%) of the OA articles were not cited (relative risk = 1.3 [95% Confidence Interval: 1.1–1.6]; p = 0.001). 6 mo later (mean 288 d after publication)...

Objectives To determine whether free access to research articles on bmj.com is an important factor in authors' decisions on whether to submit to the BMJ, whether the introduction of access controls to part of the BMJ's content has influenced authors' perceptions of the journal, and whether the introduction of further access controls would influence authors' perceptions.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the quality of abstracts of original research articles. DESIGN: Blind, criterion-based survey. SAMPLE: Systematic sample of 33 abstracts of original research articles published in CMAJ in 1989. MEASUREMENT: The quality of abstracts was measured against a checklist of evaluation criteria, which were divided into eight categories. A score for each abstract was obtained by dividing the number of criteria present by the number applicable. The overall mean score was also determined. RESULTS: The overall mean score of abstract quality was 0.63 (standard deviation 0.13) out of 1. Of the abstracts reporting study design 56% did not include specific technical descriptors. About 52% did not explicitly describe the study variables. In describing subject selection 79% failed to use specific technical terms. Of the abstracts reporting results 66% did not provide appropriate supporting data. Of those that gave conclusions 86% did not address study limitations and 93% made no recommendations for future study. CONCLUSION: Most of the abstracts provided some information pertaining to each evaluation criterion but did not provide detail sufficient to enhance the reader's understanding of the article. On the basis of the study sample the abstracts need improvement in description of research design...

The aim of the present paper is to propose a contrastive framework for a comparison of the explicit signalling of premise-conclusion sequences between English and Spanish. It is argued that in order for contrastive analyses of these kind of phenomena to be valid and useful for applied fields, greater levels of precision are needed than those found in some previous studies. The model first defines the constants of the comparison: explicit premise-conclusion intersentential relations (PQISRs). Then it seeks to determine the variables of the study in the search for differences or similarities. Both the textual plane and the interpersonal plane of the explicit signalling of PQISRs are considered. The model is then applied to two parallel corpora of research articles (RAs) on business and economics, 36 RAs being in English and 36 in Spanish. The results show that both language groups seem to make PQISRs explicit with similar frequency. In addition, they use similar textual realisations for expressing PQISRs. Moreover, those textual strategies appear similarly distributed, except for anaphoric integrated signals. On the interpersonal level, however, some interesting differences are found in the distribution of use of the various hedging strategies available in both languages. Some implications are discussed.; Peer reviewed

19 pages, 1 figures, 3 tables, 1 appendix.; The present paper starts out by assuming that, despite a relative uniformity of research articles (RAs) imposed by the requirements of the genre, there will be significant intercultural variation in the rhetorical preferences of national cultures. Its aim is to find evidence for or against this assumption. To do so, it focuses on one micro-level feature of text rhetoric, the use of causal metatext (or text about text) in orienting readers in the interpretation of cause-effect intersentential relations (CEISRs). An empirical contrastive analysis of 36 RAs in English and 36 RAs in Spanish on business and economics written by native speakers of each language is carried out. In fact, the results show that both language groups seem to make CEISRs explicit with similar frequency. In addition, they use similar strategies for expressing CEISRs, as reflected in the amount of emphasis given to the causal relation, the basic mechanism of coherence used and the choice of peripheral or integrated signals. Moreover, those strategies appear similarly distributed. The only differences across the two languages are shown in their tendencies towards verbal or nominal anaphoric and anaphoric-cum-cataphoric signals. Thus...

19 pages, 5 tables.-- Printed version published Oct 2004.; The present study assumes that, despite the relative uniformity of research articles (RAs) imposed by the requirements of the genre, there may be intercultural variation in the rhetorical preferences of different writing cultures. The paper develops further Moreno’s (1998) model for the comparison of the metatext employed in English and Spanish to signal premise-conclusion intersentential coherence relations. It does so by focusing on the types and preference of use of retrospective cohesive mechanisms employed in premise-conclusion metatext to label the premise from which the upcoming conclusion is to be drawn. Variability is searched for in different aspects of the label arriving at the following conclusions: 1) As regards the extent to which authors make explicit reference to the stretch of discourse from which the upcoming conclusion is to be drawn, Spanish academics show a greater tendency towards the use of fuzzy labels; 2) The overall distribution of the lexical range of labels is also different, English showing a greater tendency towards the use of non-metalinguistic labels. Retrospective labels have a greater tendency to add interpersonal meanings in English both 3) through the label itself and 4) through its modification; 5) The various ways in which modifiers in retrospective labels add ideational meaning seem to be distributed differently.; The present study is part of a research project financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology—Plan Nacional de I+D+I (2000–2003) Ref: BFF2001-0112-...

OBJECTIVES: The dissemination of health-related news through newspapers can influence the behavior of patients and of health care providers. We conducted a study to analyze the characteristics of health-related research published by two leading Brazilian newspapers. METHOD: We retrospectively evaluated health-related news published in the electronic versions of the newspapers Folha de São Paulo and O Estado de São Paulo over a period of three months (July through September, 2009). Only articles mentioning medical research were included. The articles were categorized according to topic, source, study location and the nature of the headline. We also analyzed the presence of background information on the topic, citations of medical periodicals, national contextualization and references to products or companies. RESULTS: Scientific research articles corresponded to 57% and 20% of health-related articles published by Folha de São Paulo and O Estado de São Paulo, respectively. Folha de São Paulo published significantly more articles about national studies, and most articles were written by its own staff. In contrast, most articles in O Estado de São Paulo came from news agencies. Folha de São Paulo also better contextualized its reports for Brazilian society. O Estado de São Paulo tended to cite the name of the periodical in which the study was published more frequently...

Systematic and extensive social science disaster research has been going on for nearly five decades now. Much worthwhile work has been done. A very large number of empirical generalizations have been produced. Yet, I am troubled. In my view, the field more and more, is producing less and less, of what might be characterized as major advances in new knowledge and understanding of disaster related phenomena. Certainly one would be hard pressed to point to the production of new theories, models, explanatory schemes and/or master hypotheses about the phenomena that are notably different from what have been around for some time. In fact and worst, both relatively and absolutely, little of the literature advances explicit theories, models, explanatory schemes and or master hypotheses of any kind. A partially completed informal content analysis of journals that publish disaster research articles in the social sciences support this contention.