Guidelines for Preparation of Written Article Reviews

1. Why was the study done? Summarize the relevant background information

to demonstrate that you understand why the study was done. Explain the

investigators’ working hypothesis and the predictions that the investigators

made based upon that hypothesis.

2. What techniques/experimental procedures were used to collect results? Why

were the techniques used valid for the type of information the investigators

wanted to collect?

3. How was the study done? For each of the figures and tables that include

experimental results, describe the experimental design. What were the controls

that were used? What was the purpose of using each of these controls?

Are there any other controls that would have been useful to include?

4. What results did the investigators collect? For each of the figures and tables

that include experimental results, describe the results that were collected.

What do these results suggest? Do they support the investigators’ hypothesis?

Why or why not?

5. For informational diagrams, explain why the diagram was included in the

article. What does the diagram demonstrate? How does it enhance the

reader’s understanding of the article.

6. What conclusions did the investigators reach based upon their data? Are

there viable alternative interpretations of their data? How do these new data

influence and relate to the literature in this field? In other words, how does

this study fit into the “big picture” of cell biology?