Research Practice in Biology

6 units (2-0-4) | second

This course will consider scholarly communication in molecular, cellular, developmental and stem cell biology, broadly defined. Students will learn about data standards, the minimal information required to describe an experiment and computer code. Discussion will include long term storage of data and informatics workflows. Appropriate citation of other article and resources will be considered. We will discuss evaluation of scientific premise, rigorous experimental design and interpretation, appropriate statistical power, authentication of key biological and chemical resources, data and material sharing, record keeping, and transparency in reporting data and observations. Students will learn to read papers critically and practice reviewing short articles from Micropublication: biology, which are short enough to allow a thorough analysis of methods necessary to ensure reproducibility. Graded Pass/Fail.