Presentation of Scientific Findings
Brent Mishler, Professor
Integrative Biology
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2023 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2024.
Even though sound and sufficiently robust data is the essence of a good scientific paper, the presentation of the findings is of equally great importance in communicating discoveries to the scientific community and advancing the overall knowledge in a field. Presenting data in a clear and accurate manner and putting them into context require skills that are best learned by exposure and experience. We will provide an opportunity for exceptional apprentices to be introduced to how we communicate our findings to the scientific community by preparing our work for submission to peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Using the studies already completed in the Mishler Lab, we aim to educate apprentices by involving them in as many of the following steps as possible:
a) organizing, double-checking, preparing and structuring all material used and information obtained in different phases of each project.
b) manuscript development, including a thorough search for and review of scientific and historical references
c) manuscript preparation (including illustrations, figures and tables)
d) deposit of data in public databases
e) organization and backup of all files related to each phase of each study for easy future access
f) other support tasks as assigned
Role: Through this experience, the students will learn how similar or different “real” research papers are from the typical lab reports that they are required to prepare for science classes, and, in addition, will receive training in ethics of reporting the findings. We aim to help the students develop a clear understanding of the process of data preparation for a manuscript and the boundaries in scientific research and publishing, lack of which can, knowingly or unknowingly, result in scientific misconduct such as plagiarism or falsification of data.
Our overall goal is to help our apprentices develop a sense for the breadth and depth of standards that we believe result in high quality scientific publications, and provide them with a better vision for the kind of reporting they are expected to produce in their upper division science courses, and in their future graduate or professional careers.
All majors are welcome to apply. The students will earn URAP units upon satisfactory performance and will be mentioned in the acknowledgment section of the resulting papers.
Qualifications: - Responsible, reliable, punctual
- Interest in science
- Excellent organizational skills
- Excellent attention to detail
- Ability to follow instructions fully and exactly
- Ability to formulate and ask questions
- Excellent ability to maintain focus while doing repetitive tasks and catch mistakes.
Preference for candidates with one or more of the following:
- Experience in the R language and environment, or coding in general
- Experience in illustration
- Experience in layout and design
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Sonia Nosratinia, Staff Researcher
Hours: to be negotiated
Biological & Health Sciences Environmental Issues