Instructor: Danny Ingold - BSC 429;
                                        8222; ingold@muskingum.edu

                                                                 Office Hours: M 4:00-5:00 p.m.; T - 1:00-5:00 p.m.; F - 3:30-5:00 p.m.
                                                                 Suggested Text: Short Guide to Writing about Biology (Jan Pechenik)

Overview: This course is the senior seminar requirement that all biology majors are required to compete. After this course, you may choose to continue on in Biology 421 (fall of senior year) and 422 (spring of senior year).  If you do plan to take Biology 421/422 however, then you are currently reading the wrong syllabus. This particular syllabus is geared towards those who will be writing a literature review paper ... and who do not plan to take Biology 421-422.

The purpose of a literature review paper is to thoroughly and objectively peruse the scientific literature on a particular topic and to integrate these findings into a balanced, well-organized thesis that covers as much of the recent and relevant literature as possible.  For purposes of this course, the text of such a paper (not including the literature citations) should be a minimum of 15 typed, double-spaced pages (12 pt. font) and should include a minimum of 40 literature citations.

Generally a literature review paper includes an introduction or overview, one to several "chapters" covering the different subtopics, a discussion or conclusion section, and literature citations.  You may also include tables and figures taken from the literature, making sure you cite your source(s) if you choose.


How to get started:

1) Begin by exploring ideas and issues that you find interesting and perhaps worthy of a semester's investment of your time. You might want to start by returning to your major course texts: flip through them and consider what ideas or issues leap out to you as particularly compelling or interesting. Once you find a few general issues you are interested in, you are ready to move on to more primary sources for information: scholarly journals, technical reports, and topical books.

2) Many journals can be found right here in the Biology Department. Therefore you should be able to obtain at least some source material very quickly. Use those initial sources to give you additional ideas about where to go looking for more information (pay particular attention to the literature cited section). Dr. Dooley receives Conservation Biology, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Restoration Ecology, Ecology, The American Naturalist and the Journal of Mammalogy.  I receive the following journals: The Auk, The Condor, The Wilson Bulletin and The Journal of Field Ornithology. Feel free to approach either one of us to borrow an issue of a journal in order to xerox an article(s).  In addition, electronic journals (http://journals.ohiolink.edu/local-cgi/subject.pl?subject=Zoology) will give you on-line access to dozens of journal articles and abstracts.

3) Your next step should probably be the campus library. Although you can do much of your "searching" from any computer on campus, there are some good reasons for going over to the libarary itself. First, some journals (e.g., Science, Nature, American Midland Naturalist and others) can be found there. In addition, if you want to order copies of papers you will need to submit your request forms directly to the library staff (see one of us for copies of the form).

4) Through the library, there are a number of options for electronic database searche engines including the electronic journal center: http://journals.ohiolink.edu/local-cgi/subject.pl?category=Life_Sciences  and the Web of Science Index (http://portal.isiknowledge.com/portal.cgi?DestApp=WOS&Func=Frame).  These data bases allow you to search for papers in a variety of ways .... such as by author or subject.  It will then provide you with a list of papers by a particular author or within a particular discipline.  Once you have pinpointed a paper, you will get a list of citations of folks who have cited that paper .... as well as the literature citation section of that paper.  This will lead you to many additional papers.  Many science journals are online in full format (go to electronic journals from library web page) ... while others will provide you with an abstract only.  For the latter category of papers you will need to place orders through our library to obtain the paper in its entirety.  

a) Directly from the Muskingum Page: You will probably find the Periodical Abstracts search function to be particularly helpful. In addition, you may find that the library itself or our other sister libraries in OPAL have books that might prove helpful (whether or not this is true will depend on the nature of your topic - OPAL libraries are all small).

b) Proceeding on to the OhioLink Central Catalog will vastly increase the scope (and effectiveness ) of your search. Remember, you can order any book in the system and it will be delivered right here to Muskingum within a few days.

c) Proceeding to the Databases hyperlink will take you to the periodical (journal) search functions of OhioLink. Again, this should prove a highly valuable resource.  You will find Web of Science at this link.

As you start to formulate your ideas be sure to come talk to me - I can save you a lot of time by pointing out literature that can help you down the road a good bit faster as well as warning you about dead-end paths you might start down.

Course Meetings: We will meet as a group once a week on Monday at 4:00 p.m.. Our weekly meetings will also allow me to see how you are progressing on your review paper and allow you to ask questions. Remember, this is a 3-hour course, and you will be expected to put in the hours to produce a quality paper.

Timeline: In order to ensure that you make adequate progress towards the timely development of your review paper, I will be enforcing a rather strict timeline. To that end you should expect to hit the ground running.

1. 28 January: By this date I will require that you turn in a 1 page description of your topic, outline of your proposal, and a list of 30-35 citations germane to your topic. You do not need to have the papers in hand by this date, you just need to know what literature you will want to pick up during the course of our field trip to the OSU Biology Library.

2. 11 February: Draft of your Introduction is Due

3. 25 February: Final draft of introduction is due and next 5-8 pages

4. 24 March: Draft of entire paper is due for my reivew

5. 21 April: Final paper in binder notebook with name, date, course # on spine is due

Suggested Text: A Short Guide to Writing About Biology - Jan A. Pechenik




*** Grading: Your grade will be determined by the following:

Participation in weekly meetings = 20% Drafts & final version of proposal = 80%