2024 BIOL391 IntroResearch - Sciences and Scientific Communication PDF

10/20/24 Scientific Communication Science and Scientific Communication...

10/20/24 Scientific Communication Science and Scientific Communication Importance of scientific Ch 1, Hofmann (2025) communication. What effective and clear BIOL 391 communication is. Introduction to Biological Research Overall approach to scientific Burman, Fall 2024 communication. 1 2 Received: 5 April 2024 DOI: 10.3322/caac.21858 ARTICLE - -Revised: 14 May 2024 Accepted: 15 May 2024 Proportion and number of cancer cases and deaths attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors in the A. Scientific method United States, 2019 Science studies the natural world. Farhad Islami MD, PhD1 | Emily C. Marlow PhD1 | Blake Thomson DPhil, MPhil1,2 | Marjorie L. McCullough ScD, RD3 | Harriet Rumgay PhD4 | Susan M. Gapstur PhD, MPH5 | Alpa V. Patel PhD3 | Isabelle Soerjomataram MD, PhD, MSc4 | Ahmedin Jemal DVM, PhD1 1 Surveillance and Health Equity Science, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Abstract In 2018, the authors reported estimates of the number and proportion of cancers Through research, observations, and experiments, scientists glean 2 Stanford University School of Medicine, attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors in 2014 in the United States. These Stanford, California, USA 3 Population Science, American Cancer Society, data are useful for advocating for and informing cancer prevention and control. Atlanta, Georgia, USA Herein, based on up‐to‐date relative risk and cancer occurrence data, the authors 4 Cancer Surveillance Branch, International estimated the proportion and number of invasive cancer cases (excluding non- Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France 5 Epidemiology Consultant, Tiffin, Iowa, USA Correspondence melanoma skin cancers) and deaths, overall and for 30 cancer types among adults who were aged 30 years and older in 2019 in the United States, that were attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors. These included cigarette smoking; second‐hand information and derive models to Farhad Islami, Cancer Disparity Research, American Cancer Society, 270 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA. Email: [email protected] smoke; excess body weight; alcohol consumption; consumption of red and pro- cessed meat; low consumption of fruits and vegetables, dietary fiber, and dietary calcium; physical inactivity; ultraviolet radiation; and seven carcinogenic infections. explain diverse phenomena. Funding information Numbers of cancer cases and deaths were obtained from data sources with complete The steps involved in these studies are American Cancer Society national coverage, risk factor prevalence estimates from nationally representative surveys, and associated relative risks of cancer from published large‐scale pooled or meta‐analyses. In 2019, an estimated 40.0% (713,340 of 1,781,649) of all incident cancers (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancers) and 44.0% (262,120 of 595,737) of all cancer deaths in adults aged 30 years and older in the United States were attributable to the evaluated risk factors. Cigarette smoking was the leading risk factor contrib- uting to cancer cases and deaths overall (19.3% and 28.5%, respectively), followed by excess body weight (7.6% and 7.3%, respectively), and alcohol consumption (5.4% and collectively known as the scientific method. 4.1%, respectively). For 19 of 30 evaluated cancer types, more than one half of the cancer cases and deaths were attributable to the potentially modifiable risk factors considered in this study. Lung cancer had the highest number of cancer cases (201,660) and deaths (122,740) attributable to evaluated risk factors, followed by - female breast cancer (83,840 cases), skin melanoma (82,710), and colorectal cancer This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. © 2024 The Author(s). CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Cancer Society. CA Cancer J Clin. 2024;1–28. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/caac 1 3 4 B. Clear and Effective Scientific method includes: Communication Start by, depending on framework The logical development of ideas and – Asking a question or making an observation. the clear, precise, and succinct – Proposing a hypothesis communication of those ideas through Collect, analyze and interpret the data. writing are among the most difficult skills that can be mastered in college – but – Test the hypothesis through experiments. among the most important ones, regardless Draw conclusions or reject hypothesis. of what your future career turns out to be. Communicate results. Effective writing is also one of the most difficult skills to teach. 5 6 1  10/20/24 Forms of scientific communications: Forms of scientific communications: 1. Original (or primary) scientific 4. Posters and Oral presentations – to research articles – to communicate present your work visually and orally. findings to other scientists and to the 5. Science news articles, blogs, social public. media posts and lectures – to 2. Review articles – to glean and communicate science effectively to the communicate in-depth interpretations of current topics published in primary public, students and others. research articles. 6. Evaluation of other work – as a reviewer 3. Grant proposals – to apply for research of a manuscript or grant proposal. funding. 7 8 Forms of scientific communications: 7. Letters of recommendations. 8. Progress reports. 9. Cover leters. 10.Curriculum vitae (CV or resume) for job applications. 9 10 C. Scientific writing is a very specific Scientific writing vs Science writing form of communication. To be a good scientific writer, basic English Scientific writing is a form of technical composition is not enough. writing by scientist for other scientists. Science writing, on the other hand, is One needs to know what information nontechnical writing about science for a readers in the field expect to find and general audience, for example, for Scientific where in the text thy expect to find it. American, National Geographic, etc. Thus, you need to understand the style and – Science writers explain important and interesting topics to a wide public audience. composition expected in scientific – They use nontechnical language to communicate articles, proposals and presentations. scientific concepts to a lay audience. 11 12 2  10/20/24 Scientific writing Scientific writing is not meant to be creative but fact-based and objective. It reports on studies, observations, and findings in a specific format, for example, in peer-reviewed journal articles in Science and Nature. Grant proposals and literature review articles also belong to this genre of scientific writing. 13 14 D. Keys to success in scientific E. What do biologist write about? writing. Why? It helps to read a lot of good scientific Like a good term paper, research report, oral writing, and not just in biology. presentation/lecture, or thesis, scientific writing is an argument; it presents All good scientific writing involves two information in an orderly manner, and it struggles: seeks to convince an audience that this information fits sensibly into some much larger 1. the struggle for understanding and story. 2. the struggle to communicate that In addition to scientific articles, many understanding to readers. biologists spend quite a bit of time writing The skill only improves with practice. grant proposals to fund their research and evaluating proposals submitted by colleagues. 15 16 Research Proposal Publication or Presentation A research proposal is unquestionably an When we are not writing grant proposals or argument; success depends on our ability to convince a panel of other biologists that what lectures, we are often preparing the results we wish to do is worth doing, that we are of our research for publication or for capable of doing it, that we can interpret the presentation at meetings. results correctly, that the work cannot be done without the funds requested, and that the amount Preparing research reports typically involves of funding requested is appropriate for the the following steps: research planned. Research money is not plentiful. Even well-written 1. Organizing and analyzing the data. proposals have a difficult time; poorly written 2. Preparing a first draft of the article. proposals generally don’t stand a chance. 3. Revising and reprinting the paper. 17 18 3  10/20/24 Publication or Presentation Publication or Presentation 8. The editor then sends the manuscript out to be 4. Asking one or more colleagues to read the reviewed by 2 or 3 other biologists. Their comments, paper critically. along with those of the editor, are then sent to the author, who must revise the paper again—often 5. Revising the paper in accordance with the extensively. comments and suggestions of the readers. 9. The editor may then accept or reject the revised manuscript, or the editor may request that it be 6. Reprinting and proofreading the paper. rewritten yet again before publication. 7. Sending the paper to the editor of the Oral or poster presentations involve similar journal in which we would most like to see preparation. The data are organized and examined, our work published. a draft of the talk/poster is prepared, feedback is solicited from colleagues, and the presentation/poster is revised. 19 20 F. Types of components or materials used in scientific communication. Text Graphs Tables/ spreadsheets Statistical analysis Slides Posters 21 22 Technical expertise required G. Scientific Ethics To create text, graphs, figures, etc, Wide area – use of human/animal subjects computer literacy and basic skills in including fetal tissues, fraud, sponsorship of various computer programs are needed. research and plagiarism. – Microsoft Office for writing and formatting Ethics in science is important because it: documents, making tables and preparing graphs. 1. ensures accuracy and truth – Google docs/sheets 2. ensure mutual respect, fairness and trust, and – Statistical software packages for statistical 3. holds scientists accountable. analysis (e.g., R, Minitab, SigmaPlot, etc). 23 24 4  10/20/24 Ethical agreements pertinent to Ethics in scientific writing. science Declaration of Helsinki – ethical Scientific misconduct, defined as principles developed by the World Medical intended actions like fabrication and Association to provide guidelines for falsifying of data and plagiarism, are research on human subjects. unethical. Nuremberg Code – set of ethical Unlike misconduct, human errors, principles for experimentation on humans sloppiness, miscalculations, bias, disparities established after WWII. of methods and interpretation and even negligence, are not considered misconduct. 25 26 H. Media literacy in scientific Other unethical behaviors in science writing. Stealing someone else’s data and ideas Verify information from sources (rather Submitting same paper in multiple journals than relying on references from a review Authorships – including someone that has article). not contributed to a project, asking for Peer-reviewed primary articles are better sexual favors in exchange for authorship than non-peer-reviewed articles/websites. – Learn to distinguish peer-reviewed from non-peer- Exploiting students and postdocs reviewed articles. Misrepresenting facts on documents (e.g., Do not report your opinion as fact. CVs) – Clearly indicate if its your own opinion. 27 28 I. Understand your readers. It is shown that readers immediately interpret what they read. – Additionally, different readers interpret words differently. – Textual interpretations occur at the word level, sentences, paragraphs and the overall organization of the information. – Readers are much more concerned with larger structures, like organization of information, location of paragraphs, etc, rather than words. 29 30 5  10/20/24 Write with your reader in mind. Summary Text is best when complemented with effective Write with the reader in mind. use of graphs depicting data or figures to Spend time writing clearly, concisely and at communicate complex biological the readers’ level so that they can follow and understand your writing. phenomena. Basic scientific writing guidelines include Understanding the needs of your audience – understanding the scientific method, learn is important in becoming a successful writer. and practice scientific writing, know the type of tools used for writing, distinguish between To ”write with your reader in mind” means to scientific writing and science writing, practice consider how the reader interprets what you ethical writing, be media literate and have written. understand your reading audience. 31 32 6