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BSC 1005: Life in Its Biological Environment

This guide is designed to provide library research support for BSC1005.

The Scientific Method

Scientific articles that report the results of scientific research generally follow the same outline:

  1. Introduction - includes the hypothesis and a review of the scientific literature;
  2. Methods - provides enough detail for other scientists to be able to replicate your experiment;
  3. Results - your analysis of the data; and
  4. Discussion - your thoughts on what the results mean in the context of your hypothesis (did you find an answer to your question?) and the existing literature (i.e., what others have already learned)

Take a look to see how this corresponds to the cycle shown below.

The video in the box to the right provides some good context for understanding the scientific method and its importance to scientific research.

The Scientific Method

In your science courses, you will be learning about biology, but you will also be learning how to conduct scientific research - how to design and conduct experiments to help you find answers to a specific question. You will do this by using something called the scientific method.

Part of the scientific research process is knowing what others have already learned, and to do this, you need to look within the scientific literature that is out there.

This library resource guide has been created to support you in finding scientific articles that you can use.

Books on the Scientific Method

How to Read A Scientific Article

There are several ways in which the scientific literature is reflected in reports of scientific research.

Raff, J. (2013, August 25). How to read and understand a scientific paper: A guide for non-scientists [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://violentmetaphors.com/2013/08/25/how-to-read-and-understand-a-scientific-paper-2/

An example of the scientific method: coral snakes.

 

 

Scientific Research