One of the most important aspects of natural science is communication.  We have explored some nuances of scientific communication through the advertising world, but we have yet to address the heart of science - peer communication.  Chemists and other scientists publish their work after having it peer reviewed.  Further review then takes place in the larger community of scientists after the work appears in a journal.  Over the years various influential pieces of work form the basis or central canons of scientific thought (i.e. the patterns recognized in such works are observed repeatedly and predictably).

This assignment is designed to get you familiar with some parts of the chemical literature and to show you how frequently topics addressed in this class are continuing to be investigated and reported to the broader chemical community.

Instructions:

• Use the ** Web of Science ** to find a FULL EXPERIMENTAL PAPER related in some way to a topic we have studied this term.  A sample of topics we have covered include: equilibrium, acids, bases, solubility, gases, and precipitation.  You can feel free to pick the desired "context" of the paper (for example, you might search "environment" and "gases").
• Please confine your search to these chemistry related journals: Analytical Chemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Environmental Science and Technology (Carleton)
• Find the journal in the science library and photocopy the paper.  Note: FULL PAPERS appear prior to COMMUNICATIONS and have clear sections, such as abstract, introduction, methods, experimental, results, discussion, and summary.  In particular make sure the paper has some sort of experimental section and is not solely based on theoretical calculations.
• Read through the paper TWICE.  During the first reading don't worry much about understanding the content, but instead focus on the writing style.  Make a table with the section headings and evaluate the verb tense used in the section as well as the person writing.  An example is shown below.

• During the second reading, examine the content (chemistry) of the paper.  Don't get too worked up about the nitty-gritty details, but focus on the bigger picture by attempting to answer these two questions:
• What do you conclude is the main point of the paper?
• What makes you believe that this work is important?
• How do the authors support their conclusions?
• Write up your analysis (the table and answers to the three questions posed above) as your assignment.  Make sure you include the entire citation of the paper.  The appropriate citation format is shown here.  (Refer to The ACS Style Guide if you have questions about format.  The guide is found in the reference section of the science library)

Authors (separated by semi-colons) "Title written in quotations," Journal Title in Italics Year of publication in bold, Volume(Issue No.) in italics, page numbers.
 
 

**The WEB OF SCIENCE is a scientific database purchased by the college so that members of the community have searchable access to scientific information.  Due to cost constraints there can be only 3 simultaneous users on campus.  DO NOT LEAVE THIS ASSIGNMENT TO THE LAST MINUTE.  The login constraints will pose some problems for you if you wait.  If you are having problems with the Web of Science, please ask me or Charlie Priorie (our excellent science librarian)!

Disclaimer