BIOL 338: Learning and Memory (BMC) Spring 2025

Having a healthy skepticism is, well, healthy. Ask yourself these questions with regard to primary research articles:

• Why was the study done? Could the reason have any bearing on the research question(s), data collection, or presentation of results?
• Who conducted the study? Do the researcher(s) or organization involved have the expertise needed to conduct the study? Do the researcher(s) or organization have any vested interest in the outcome of the study?
• Who funded the study? Could that have a bearing on its objectivity?
• How were study subjects identified? Were all subjects equally likely to have been selected from the population of interest?
• Does the method of sampling (e.g. identifying subjects) allow for generalizing results back to the population from which the sample came?      
• How big is the sample size, and what does that say about statistical significance?
• Are the conclusions warranted by the variables that were actually investigated?
• Is the analysis of the results sound? Could there be other possible causal relationships? Do the researcher(s) acknowledge alternate explanations for the results?
• Do the researchers acknowledge limitations of the study?           
• Has the same study been done under the same conditions with the same results?

How old is the article? ("Too old" is relative and topic-specific.)

Is the article in a peer-reviewed journal?

Can you tell the reputation of the journal?

• "Impact Factor"--which tells you on average how many times articles in a particular journal are cited by other scholarly sources--is often used to judge reputation. This number, however, can be fraught with bias due to the current practice of scholarly publishing in which many voices are excluded from "the best" journals.
• "Altmetrics" take into account how many times an article is cited by non-traditional sources, such as social media mentions, link backs, blogs, news coverage.
  • Altmetric's free Bookmarklet tool is one way to get altmetrics.

Are the cited sources credible?

What can citing sources tell me? How many times has the article been cited?

• Highly cited articles have been highly vetted. (NOTE: newer articles may not have had a chance to be cited yet by scholarly literature but may still have altmetrics).
• The authors of highly cited articles may be particular experts in the field and good candidates to follow on Twitter or other social media to find more information on your topic.
• Looking through citing articles may allow you to find more information on your topic.

Was the article later retracted? (rare, but it happens!)

• Some databases will alert you if an article has been retracted.
• Zotero will alert you if you add a retracted article to your library.
• See Retraction Watch.