As a scientist I read abstract when they are outside my immediate research area. The
abstract is like a picture of a building, the rest of the article is like the
instructions and sequence for constructing the building. Most people even architects
are not interested in the building instructions unless they are planning to build the
same building. That is not to say the rest isnt important in certain circumstances,
such as when one is not sure how rigorous the publishing journal is. For example,
the introduction and references illuminate how current and widely read the authors
are. But in general, those not in the field are not going to glean very much out of
the paper. You can read it, but unless you are doing research in the area the
specifics are going to be meaningless. It is impossible to assess if their
procedures are normal practice in that field.
What is more illuminating is to see who is quoting a particular article and if they
are agreeing or disagreeing with the conclusions.
Ingrid


(Bill Oliver) wrote:

In article ,
Henry Kuska wrote:
Another recent refereed scientific article, (if you are unfamilar with
the structure of scientific abstracts, please look at both the introductory
sentence and the final conclusion sentences, also note the affiliation of
the authors, I have also provided the link to the journal web page
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/

If you are unfamiliar with the structure of scientific articles, you may
be surprised to learn that not all of the information in the
article is present in the abstract. In fact, it is a common misconception
among the scientifically naieve that one can comprehend an article from
the abstract. The purpose of the abstract is to provide information to
let one know whether or not he or she should read the article; it is
not a substitute for reading the article.

And, in fact, the article does not make the claim to show that
Roundup is dangerous when used as directed.


billo



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