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How to read and understand a scientific paper:
a guide for non-scientists
By Jennifer Raff
From vaccinations to climate change, getting science wrong has
very real consequences. But journal articles, a primary way
science is communicated in academia, are a different format to
newspaper articles or blogs and require a level of skill and
undoubtedly a greater amount of patience. Here Jennifer Raff
has prepared a helpful guide for non-scientists on how to read a
scientific paper. These steps and tips will be useful to anyone
interested in the presentation of scientific findings and raise
important points for scientists to consider with their own
writing practice.
My post, The truth about vaccinations: Your physician knows more
than the University of Google sparked a very lively discussion,
with comments from several people trying to persuade me (and the
other readers) that their paper disproved everything that ICÇÖd
been saying. While I encourage you to go read the comments and
contribute your own, here I want to focus on the much larger
issue that this debate raised: what constitutes scientific
authority?
ItCÇÖs not just a fun academic problem. Getting the science wrong
has very real consequences. For example, when a community
doesnCÇÖt vaccinate children because theyCÇÖre afraid of CÇ£toxinsCÇØ
and think that prayer (or diet, exercise, and CÇ£clean livingCÇØ) is
enough to prevent infection, outbreaks happen.
[...]
Read the rest of the article:
TinyUrl:
http://tinyurl.com/h4rjfxb
FIDOGAZETTE Vol 11 No 26 Page 4 June 28, 2017
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