Reporting and critical evaluation of biological research Flashcards
(30 cards)
Background information should be?
Clear, relevant and unambiguous.
The title should provide?
A succinct explanation of the study.
The abstract should outline?
The aims and findings of the study.
The aim must link the?
Independent and dependent variables.
The introduction should provide any information to support?
Choices of method, results and discussion.
What else should the introduction explain?
Why the study has been carried out and place the study in the context of existing understanding.
In the introduction, key points should be ——— and supporting and contradicting information ———
Summarised, identified
In the introduction, several sources should be selected to…
Support statements and citations and references should be in standard form.
In the introduction, decisions regarding basic selection of study methods and organisms should be ——— as should the —— and ——
Covered as should the aims and hypothesis
A method section should contain…
Sufficient information to allow another investigator to repeat the work.
Experimental design should address … and test …
Address the intended aim and test the hypothesis.
I’m experimental design, the validity and reliability of the experimental design should be ———.
Evaluated
What is an invalid experimental design?
One that does not address the intended aim or test the hypothesis.
Treatment effects should be compared to ———.
Controls
Confounding variables should be … or …
Taken into account or standardised across treatments.
When can the validity of an experiment be compromised?
When factors other than the independent variable influence the value of the dependent variable.
What is selection bias?
The selection of a sample in a non random way, so that the sample is not representative of the whole population.
Sample size may not be sufficient enough to decide…
Without bias whether the change to the independent variable has caused an effect in the dependent variable.
In results data should be presented in a…
Clear, logical manner suitable for analysis.
Anomolous results?
Consideration should be given to the validity of outliers and anomalous results.
Statistical tests are used to…
Determine whether the differences between the means are likely or unlikely to have occurred by chance.
Error bars indicate…
The variability of data around a mean.
If the treatment mean differs from the control mean sufficiently for their error bars not to overlap, this indicates that…
The difference may be significant.
Conclusions should refer to?
The aim the results and the hypothesis.
