Our knowledge of drugs and the brain is advancing quickly, and it is exciting to keep track of the most
recent discoveries. To stimulate thought about recent neuroscience discoveries, students will read
cutting edge original PEER REVIEWED neuroscience articles (with impact factor ≥3.0) that interest
them. On the due dates listed in the syllabus (mark those dates in your calendar!), submit a 1-paragraph
to 1-page summary of an article that interests you to the D2L Assignments Section.
In that summary, provide:
1) The American Psychological Society Style (APA-style) citation for the original peer-reviewed
article (see http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/apa/journal-article/ and
https://guides.library.ualberta.ca/ld.php?content_id=35043857
a. There are some free APA citation generators available online, such as https://zbib.org/ and
https://www.citationmachine.net/apa. These can be useful tools for creating citations, but
it’s important to double-check the citations it generates to make sure all the necessary
elements are included. For example, some generators may not include the volume number
if it can’t be found in their database.
2) This is often where students lose the most points. Look up APA formats (additional notes below).
The format on the website is probably not APA format. For a great visual guide, please review
this pdf: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf
3) Read the original article and provide the PubMed link to the research article (not to the news site
that summarizes findings or to an editorial or review). I do not expect most students to be able to
understand all the details of all primary peer-reviewed article (but please try!), so grading on
comprehension will be lenient – but try! Ask your TA or me if you have specific questions.
4) A 1-paragraph to 1-page discussion/summary that contains 1) a summary of the main discovery
from the article, 2) why it’s interesting to you! in your own words, and 3) one criticism of the
research.
V 1/4/2024
You will get full credit for the submission if all the above criteria are met. If you are not sure what
a peer-reviewed article is or how to check, please ask. A quick test: If you find the article on
PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) then it’s probably a legitimate peer-reviewed
article (unless it’s a review article or opinion piece).
What original peer-reviewed articles are OK for this class?
Articles will focus on neural mechanisms underlying the effects of drugs on different facets of cognition
and behavior. Chosen articles should meet all the following criteria…
• Must be from a journal with an impact factor of ≥3.0. What is an impact factor? It is a measure of
the frequency with which the “average article” published in a given scholarly journal has been
cited in a particular year or period and is often used to measure or describe the importance of a
particular journal to its field. You can find impact factors here https://academic-
accelerator.com/3-Year-Impact-Factor/ or the journal’s website often lists this. If not, Google it.
• Must be peer reviewed (not from BioRxiv for example).
• Must be a primary research article – not a review, book chapter, or opinion article. It should be
clear in the article whether it is a review or not. If you see the word ‘Review’ anywhere near the
title or if the article is missing data figures or a Methods section, then it’s probably not a primary
research article.
• Must be principally about drugs and brains. For example, about the mechanisms underlying the
impact of drugs and perception, mood, brain activity, receptors, etc….
Ask yourself, by reading the article, did I learn something new about the brains+drugs? If so, the
article is probably a good one!
• Rule of thumb: If you cannot find the article on PubMed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) it is
NOT a valid article. If you can find it on PubMed it is a valid article if it meets the criteria above
