Picking a Topic

Lab-based research is fun!

Selecting a topic may be the hardest part of the whole research-paper process. Pick some aspect ofbiochemistry that interests you and start poking around -- Wikipedia, Google searches, encyclopedias, and the like. Once you have a grasp of the material, you'll be in a better position to narrow it down to a specific topic. For example, you may decide that you want to do something with spectrophotometry because you really like using cuvettes. "Use of spectrophotometers in biochemistry" is way too broad, of course, so you do some searches using keywords like spectrophotometry, biochemistry, carbohydrates, proteins, and the like. You come up with an analytical technique called the Bradford Assay which allows biochemists determine protein concentrations using UV spectrophotometry. Sounds like a perfect topic for a lab-based paper!

Remember, one of your papers has to be laboratory-based research. The other paper can be pure research on a topic of interest to you or it can be another laboratory-based paper. Either way, we'll need to discuss your chosen topic in class before you get started. A classroom discussion may help you to narrow your topic to something more manageable. The discussion may even lead you in a totally new (but incredibly fascinating) direction. For experimental papers, we'll need to determine whether we have access to the equipment and supplies that might be needed for your lab research.

Finding Sources

Okay, so now you have a topic in mind. Where do you find the information you need to put together a good scientific paper? I don't want to see anyone citing encyclopedias (yes, that includes Wikipedia) or some random guy's biochem site that he put together in his parents' basement. Encyclopedias are way too general for scientific research and the random guy is just too unreliable. We want scientific-quality information from reputable sources, preferably peer-reviewed. So how do you find them? Here are a few science databases and search engines to get you started. Once you find a few good articles, start mining their reference lists for more sources.

arXiv.org -- Pronounced "archive" (the X is really the Greek letter chi), this is a database used by professional scientists to post their papers that are due to be published soon. It's a great source for cutting-edge research, and just to let you in on a little secret, it's how I always seem to know about the latest developments in the sciences. Its emphasis is on physics, so it will be of limited use to us, but its quantitative biology section may have produce some recent research. It can't hurt to plug your topic into the search box and see if anything comes up.

eMedicine.com -- This is the professional side of WebMD; it's the site that doctors use when they need to brush up on diseases, disorders, and the like. If you're doing the biochemistry behind some medical condition, this site could be a gold mine.

FindArticles -- It's more of a popular site than a strictly scientific site, but it does turn up some really good articles. It can't hurt to try!

PubMed -- This is a government database run by the National Institutes of Health. It can give you a comprehensive list of the most recent research available on your topic. It usually lets you read article abstracts so that you can decide if they cover material that you want, and often provides links to the article itself. At the very least, you'll know where the article can be found.

ScienceDirect -- This is a professional science database. Since you're not a subscriber (and neither am I, for that matter), you won't have full access to all the articles that you find, but you will be able to read the abstracts. Sometimes the abstract gives you all the information you need for your paper. Yes, you can actually cite an abstract as a source. Besides, once you know about an article, you can do a web search for the article and the author(s). You'd be surprised how often you can turn up related work done by the same people, and sometimes you even get lucky and find the full text of the original article.

Scirus -- This is a scientific search engine. It works just like Google, but it only returns valid scientific sources. If you're doing research on hormones, Google will probably return a bunch of site that you don't want to see. Well, okay, some of you may want to see it, but it won't help you with your research. Scirus is a good way to limit your search to sources that are scientific in nature. The drawback? Many of the sources are professional journals that want you to pay for access to their articles. Even so, you usually have free access to the article's abstract, and often that provides enough information for you to use in your paper.

Don't forget the library!

Feel free to try other avenues as well. Don't forget about the old-fashioned library; they still makebooks, you know. I'll bet that WCCC next door has a fairly well-stocked library that you could look through. It can't hurt to do a Google search and see what pops up. You may have to sift through a bunch of unrelated material, but no one said science research would be easy! Sometimes you can strike gold by checking out the sources cited at the bottom of a Wikipedia article. When going outside of peer-reviewed scientific sources, make sure that your source is valid. Look for corroborating information. If your source agrees with other scientific sources you've found, the odds are it's a good source. If it says a bunch of stuff that no other source says or, worse, if it contradicts accepted sources, you might want to stay away!