Abstract
Good early training of graduate students and postdocs is needed to prevent them turning into future generations of manuscript-savaging reviewers. How can we intercalate typical papers into our training?
Highlights
We teach using papers, published in prominent journals, that contain fatal flaws, not fraud, just faulty assumptions about the properties of organisms or reagents, lack of appropriate controls, or a failure to consider alternative interpretations or to mine the literature completely
Good early training of graduate students and postdocs is needed to prevent them turning into future generations of manuscript-savaging reviewers
Who hasn’t reacted with shock to a devastatingly negative review of a manuscript representing years of work by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows on a difficult, unsolved question? Detailed in its critique, it relentlessly measures the work against a ‘gold standard of excellence’ using the latest and best techniques, before dismissing the years of labor and stating that the manuscript can only be reconsidered with substantially more data providing definitive proof of each claim
Summary
We teach using papers, published in prominent journals, that contain fatal flaws, not fraud, just faulty assumptions about the properties of organisms or reagents, lack of appropriate controls, or a failure to consider alternative interpretations or to mine the literature completely. Discuss and dissect classic papers as a key part of their training. The ‘best practice’ papers chosen for close reading provide training in how to frame a question, how to mine the literature for relevant biological materials to conduct new experiments, and how to construct studies with appropriate controls and analyses to extract conclusions.
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