With a topic, what do you do next? Read. What do you start with? Your review, of course. Read that paper. From the sections which are most pertinent, pull the papers cited as sources. These papers are likely to be the papers which demonstrate the small results which are assembled into a review paper. [A short digression about scientific publishing. Primary research reports are akin to the laboratory results you have written so many times as an undergraduate. These papers focus on one small aspect of the universe and present a small number of very particular findings. Learning these little kernels of knowledge is good, but there is more to understanding life than that. You must be able to relate all these little observation and conclusions into a much larger system of how living things function. That is what a review paper attempts to do. Reviews are surveys of a field, topic or technique that attempts to build all of those relationships. They are necessarily distant from the data, and they are the prototypes of text books, the ultimate high-level review. Understanding what a review is will help you use the paper to find the primary results. It should also help since you are trying to write one too.] Having read the primary research reports cited in your review, you have two other easy ways to find related articles.

One method is, having read some papers and knowing key terms, is to return to the literature databases (PubMed, SciFinder or Web of Knowledge) and search for those keywords. At this point you will wish to drop the date limit along with the limit to review papers so that you find primary research reports as well. This strategy will help you find others who are working on the same topic (they may have a very different view of the world) as well as papers on these topics published after your review was written (it is not uncommon for a review to be written a full calendar year before it makes it into the journal).

Another method utilizes the fact that people tend to work on the same topic for extended periods. In an author list, traditionally the first author is the person doing most of the benchwork, usually a graduate student of postdoctoral research assistant. The final author is usually the principle investigator, who will work in this field for many years. A search of the databases by author often returns a small set of related papers to what you have read. Add a keyword to focus your search.

As you read these papers, you will want to read the papers they cite for background, history or methodology discussion. Searching the biological literature is very recursive, and you may well find yourself reading article written well before you (or your instructor) were born.

How do you actually find these papers? We subscribe to many journals where the papers are available directly from the publisher's website. These are the links you will find in PubMed, and they are the easiest method. There are, however, some journals (or volumes of journals) for which our access comes through another provider. The Grove City College Henry Buhl Library Journal List page has a complete listing of journals accessible at Grove City College. Document delivery is available for articles not in the holdings of Buhl Library.

How much do you have to read? You are required to cite 15 sources in your review. Those 15 sources can be drawn from review papers (you already have one), primary research reports (these will be the bulk the papers you cite) and other sources (a book or online database, for example).

When you have assembled your citations, please format them according to the Biochemistry journal model listed in the Reference Guidelines.

As for the outline, it should be a brief suggestion of where your paper may be headed. At this point, major topics/heading/points are about the level of detail you need. You should also be able to place the better part of your references into this outline. Feel free to be more detailed if you are that far along, but the outline does not need to exceed one page.

Your assignment is due on 18 or 20 February, 2026.