Overview: Your assignment is to write an approximately 6-10 page paper in which you critically evaluate and synthesize at least five primary research papers on an ecological topic of your choice.
Your topic must be an area of study in ecology specific enough so that the papers you find will relate to each other and you can synthesize them to draw a meaningful conclusion, but is general enough so that enough papers have been written about it. Note that a species is NOT a topic, and that different papers on a topic may focus on different species!
The five papers you focus on in your paper must be primary research papers, that is, reports of single studies published in peer reviewed journals. They must be recent -- published within the last 5 years. They must be full-length papers, not "short notes" or "short communications"; the only exception to this is that you may use the short primary research papers from either the journal Science or the journal Nature, since these are the standard paper formats for these journals. Papers from any other journal must be full-length.
To be sure that you have adequate time to read, evaluate, and synthesize the material for your paper, it is crucial that you obtain all papers well in advance of the due date. To be sure that you do this, I require that you show me photocopies of at least the first page of each paper several weeks before the paper is due (see lecture syllabus for due dates.) These must show at least the title, abstract, author's names, journal, title, and date of publication. Having appropriate references ready by the due date is worth 10 points. The paper itself is worth 90 points.
Students taking the course at the same time must have different topics and papers. Sign up for topics on the sign-up sheet on my office door by writing down your name and a brief description of your topic; don't sign up for a topic if it is already taken.
Paper format:
Introductory paragraph: clearly introduce the topic you are writing about; explain what it is and why it is of ecological interest (i.e. how it relates to general ecological knowledge; why it is important for understanding general aspects of the distribution and abundance of organisms.) Then state the main thesis you will make in your paper -- that is, present your main conclusion, the point which the rest of your paper will elaborate and justify.
Body of paper: critically evaluate the papers about which you are writing, as you did in the body of your critique; you can use the questions you answered in your critique as a guideline for the kind of information to be looking for in these papers, but you do not have to answer each of those questions for each paper -- use what you find to be relevant, and consider other areas of content to critique. You should also use the other papers you are writing about as background to help you evaluate each paper. Focus your critique of each paper on the conclusions of that paper; explain how the methods and results of the paper lead to the conclusions and evaluate the conclusions based on the methods and results.
Concluding Synthesis: synthesize the information from the different papers to draw conclusions with regard to this ecological topic; explain, with justification from the body of the paper, which aspects of this topic are well understood, and which require further study. Here are some suggestions for how you can synthesize -- that is, relate the different papers to each other -- other possibilities exist: if different papers reach similar conclusions using different methods, that suggests it is a general conclusion. If similar results occur in different areas or different habitats, it suggests the same factors are important in different areas and habitats. If different results are obtained in different situations, it suggests that the situation affects the topic you're looking at.) Make sure your conclusions are based on your evaluation of the papers, including good and bad points about the papers; refer back to the evaluation to make this clear. Be sure to make it clear specifically what is currently well understood about your topic; this is the main goal of your paper.
Literature cited: give a list of the citations of each of the papers used.
Your paper must be typed, double spaced, have at least 1" margins on all sides, and be written in standard English in the concise format preferred for scientific writing. Maximum length is 10 pages using a font no smaller than 12 pt. The paper must be submitted electronically, as described in the syllabus. Where information is taken from papers, it must be cited by giving author's last name and the year of publication (see your text book or one of the papers you critiqued for examples of this format). More about style is explained below.
Finding papers: The library has computer search programs on CD-ROM;
the best one to use for most aspects of biology, including ecology, is
Biological Abstracts. Other search programs are available via the UTM library
internet site. These are not as complete as Biological Abstracts
but you may find them adequate for your needs (and you don't have to be
in the library to use them.) To find papers on ecological topics, I've
found the best one to be FirstSearch. To use this, go to the main
home page of the library (you can get there from the UTM home page by clicking
Campus Resources, then finding The Paul Meek Library and clicking on it.
You can also click
here to get to the UTM library home page.)
1. From the main library computer screen, click on "Electronic Databases"
2. The names of electronic databases are listed alphabetically.
To get to FirstSearch quickly, click on the "F" in the alphabet near the
top of the page.
3. Click on FirstSearch
4. Type in some key words that describe your topic. Where it
says "Select a topic or database" you can select LifeSciences. Then
click Search. You will get a list of databases and the number of
papers found in each one. WARNING: note that some of these include
sources that are NOT ACCEPTABLE for this term paper, such as web sites
on the topic or articles written in a non-technical style; most include
a mixture of acceptable and unacceptable sources. I usually find
that BasicBIOSIS and AGRICOLA find the most acceptable sources. On this
page, you can select one or more of these databases by clicking on the
boxes to the left of the name of the database.
5. You will then get to a page that tells what you're searching in
and repeats your keywords. At this point you have a chance to "Rank
By" something, and it's a good idea to rank by date. Remember that
you can only use recent references; if you rank by date it will show the
most recent ones first. Once you have done this, click "Search" to
get the list of papers the databases have found.
Important further tips on finding papers: When doing a computer search, be sure to try several different combinations of keywords. The computer does not know what words mean, it just looks to see if they have been mentioned. Since different authors use different words to describe similar topics, using just one keyword combination will NOT find all papers on a topic. Similarly, even with several keyword combinations, the computer will NOT find all papers on a topic! A good approach is to find a few recent papers that look like they're on your topic, and then go look at those papers in the library and read their bibliographies! This will frequently direct you to other papers on the same topic.
Writing Style, Literature citation, etc: I have guidelines for appropriate writing style, etc, on the web page you get by clicking here. It is CRUCIAL that you read through these guidelines carefully and follow them explicitly, and that you use them when you are proofreading your paper. In addition, you should look over some of the papers we have read this semester, and at how the introductions to the papers you're evaluating are written. Look at how they present and discuss information taken from other studies. If you're presenting a lot more detail than they would, you're probably presenting too much. See how they cite information from published studies to help you see where you should cite the works you have read. Looking at how professional ecologists present the kind of material you're presenting is one of the best ways of getting a feel for how to write scientific papers. Note, however, that none of us is a perfect writer, so don't follow any one person too exactly or you'll end up with his/her faults as well as good points!
Cover Sheet: Print a copy of the cover sheet you obtain by clicking here and use it as the cover sheet for your paper. Note that the cover sheet lists the point value of each section of the paper, and indicates what I'll be looking for, so you should use it as a checklist to make sure you are covering the required points. Please select an appropriate font size for printing out the cover sheet so that it all fits onto a single page. Staple the coversheet to to the paper. DO NOT use any other form of report cover (no plastic or cardboard covers); if you do, I will throw them away (they either fall off or otherwise get in my way when I'm carrying papers around and grading them.)
Final Tips: the following points are designed to help you avoid some of the most common major problems I see in animal ecology term papers. They're important!