GUIDELINES FOR PARASITOLOGY SEMINAR (TRMD 7020)

General Information Course Requirements Preparation of the Report Selection of a Paper Writing the Abstract Oral Presentation Introduction Experimental Design Results Discussion Visual Aids Evaluation

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

Students participating in parasitology seminar will give an oral presentation on a recently published scientific paper and lead a discussion on that paper. Other students are also welcome to attend. These seminars provide an opportunity to discuss current topics relating to all aspects of tropical medicine and infectious diseases. Free discussion of the subjects constitutes an important element of the seminar and participation of the entire group leads to more interesting, stimulating, and informative sessions.

II. COURSE REQUIREMENTS FOR REGISTERED STUDENTS

Each student will make one oral presentation on an article selected from the current scientific literature. Grades for each semester will be based on the oral report and abstract as well as an evaluation of the student's participation (i.e., attendance and discussion) throughout the semester.

All students are required to attend every seminar and expected to actively participate in some of the discussions. In order to more actively participate in the discussions students should read the papers being presented before coming to seminar. An excess of unexcused absences will affect the final grade for the semester. Each student will be allow one unexcused absence. One point will be deducted from the course grade and two points deducted for each unexcused absence after that. Excused absences include illness and travel of school related matters such as attending conferences or interviews. Students anticipating more than two excused absences related to travel should plan to take the seminar course in another semester.

III. PREPARATION OF THE REPORT

Presentation of a journal article report encourages reading of the current literature and provides practice and experience in critical appraisal, note-taking and abstracting, and speaking before an audience. All participants will benefit in proportion to the time and effort which is put into preparation of the presentation.

1. Selection of a Paper

The selection of a paper is primarily the responsibility of the student, either independently or with the guidance and suggestions of a faculty member. The selection should have the final approval of the seminar coordinator. Papers may be found by looking through recent issues of journals in the library or by doing literature searches on topics of potential interest. PubMed of the National Library of Medicine is one possible place to carry out searches of the scientific literature. Other literature search services are available through the Matas Medical Library as well as an on-line catalog to look up the availability of journals at Tulane University.

The paper should be current--preferably appearing during the last year and not more than two years old--on any aspect of infectious disease. Papers older than two years will need special approval and justification. Appropriate topics include experimental investigations, field studies, or descriptive observations of infectious agents, host-parasite interactions, and vectors. The paper should elucidate biological principles in relation to topics such as cell and molecular biology, pathology, immunology, biochemistry, epidemiology, pharmacology, ecology, etc. Above all, the article should be interesting and conducive to discussion. Review papers, brief reports, case reports, taxonomic descriptions, and papers primarily describing techniques are not appropriate. Appropriate papers should generally contain 4-6 data items such as tables and figures. Before proceeding with your preparation, check the schedule, as well as the papers presented in the previous semester, to make sure that your paper has not already been selected by another student during the current year. Copies of the article that are needed in preparing the presentation can be made in the Departmental Office at no cost. Provide the seminar coordinator with a copy or an URL link to the paper as soon as possible.

2. Writing the Abstract

An written abstract of the paper also needs to be prepared. This is an important part of the student's responsibility, and the quality of the abstract is considered in determining the grade. An abstract is a self-contained digest of the article and presentation. It should describe the important new observations, state how they were made, and summarize the conclusions drawn. Preparing the abstract will also help in preparing the oral presentation by highlighting the important points of the paper. Do not copy the author's abstract.

The entire abstract (headings, body and references) should fit on a single page and a specific format is recommended (see sample abstract). The abstract should include:

• Presenter's name
• Index heading
• Citation
• Body of abstract [Single spaced, one paragraph]
• References [List 1-3 key references]

An index heading is a short phrase placed at the top which indicates the general subject of the paper. The full citation of the article then follows. Standard abbreviations for names of journals can be used.

The body of the abstract should be a concise statement of the principal contents of the paper and presentation. The abstract should not be overly technical and easily understood by persons who are not experts in the topic of the paper. One or a few sentences should be included covering each of the following concepts:

• The background or reason for investigating the subject
• The aim and scope of the study or the hypothesis being tested
• The general nature of the experiments carried out or the observations made
• Brief summary of the major results or observations
• The conclusions of the study or investigation

Include 2-3 additional references which are particularly relevant to the presentation. These could include: an important review paper related to the topic, papers which support or refute the presented paper, or an earlier paper which contained important preliminary data. Do not include a long list of references from the paper.

A draft of the abstract may be submitted to the seminar coordinator or other departmental faculty member for editorial suggestions (preferably one week before the seminar is to be given). A copy of the final abstract (preferably as a Word doucument) should be provided to the seminar coordinator no later than the morning of the presentation.. If you are unable to complete the abstract at least one hour before the presentation, you will be responsible for making the copies and bringing them to the presentation for distribution to the faculty and students.

3. Oral Presentation

This is an oral report and evaluation of the contents of the selected article and the presentation should focus on the article. Do not read directly from a prepared manuscript. Not only is this very tedious for the audience, but it gives the appearance that you do not know your subject well. With the help of your notes, describe the background information, experimental procedures, results and conclusions of the authors, and your assessment of these observations, data, and ideas. Be familiar with the details of the subject, and be prepared to answer questions which may arise regarding methods, data, significance, and extrapolation of the findings. It is also important to give a critique of the study.

In preparing your presentation you should keep in mind that the principle audience is your fellow students (not the faculty). The actual presentation should take no more than 40-45 minutes; 30-35 minutes if 3 presentations are to be made; and 20-25 minutes if four presentations are to be made. Presentations of less than 20 minutes will receive a lower grade. It is not necessary to present all of the data of particularly long papers. Choose the data which are most supportive of the main points of the paper. The remaining 10 or 15 minutes will be devoted to class discussion.

The format of the presentation could follow that of the scientific paper (i.e., Introduction, Experimental Design, Results, Discussion). However, other formats are also appropriate, depending on the paper. For example, for some experimental papers it may be more effective to present an experimental procedure followed immediately by that particular result, and then describe the methods and results of the next experiment, etc. Similarly, in some instances is might be advantageous to describe the experiment or observation followed immediately by some discussion of that result in regards to its significance or other published studies. Regardless of the exact format, the various sections should consider the following:

• The Introduction is an important aspect of the presentation. Concisely summarize the background material necessary for the understanding of why this particular study was carried out and why this information is important. In addition, be sure to briefly summarize any topics that the entire audience may not be familiar with (eg., immunological, biochemical, molecular, ecological aspects). If you are presenting a controversial topic be sure to describe all aspects of the controversy. However, the Introduction should not be an exhaustive review of the literature and should normally take no more the 5-10 minutes. Avoid discussing topics that are not integral to the paper being presented. For example it is not necessary to give a complete summary of the pathogen in regards to its life cycle, pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, treatments, etc. Focus on those aspects which are integral to the paper being presented. Conclude the Introduction by describing the specific aims and objectives, overall goals or purpose of the study, or state any hypotheses that are being tested.

• Briefly, but adequately, describe the Experimental Design of the study so that the results will be understandable. The exact format of this section will depend on the type of study. Things to include in the experimental design might include: study population, model systems being used, sources of biological or clinical material, and/or the assays used. Flow charts and figures can be especially useful. In general, describe what was being evaluated and how it was evaluated. Do not give all of the technical details of the materials and methods. It is generally sufficient to indicate what procedures were used to evaluate the phenomenon being observed. For example, simply state that antibody titers were assessed by ELISA or that the gene polymorphisms were evaluated by PCR rather than give detailed descriptions of how an ELISA or a PCR is carried out. If there are details of the methods which need to be addressed it is generally best to mention these things when describing those particular results. In cases where several complex experimental procedures are utilized to investigate a single phenomenon it may be preferable to describe the how the first experiment was carried out followed immediately by the results of that experiment, then describe the methods and results of the second experiment, etc.; rather that describe all of the methods followed by all of the results. This may increase the understanding of the experiments by the audience.

• The most crucial aspect of the presentation is the Results. You will need to show all or selected data (tables, graphs and figures) from the paper. In many published articles there may be more data than you can effectively present during the allotted time. Choose the experimental data which most effectively demonstrates the point(s) the authors are trying to make. Complex tables or figures may be redone to show only the most crucial data. Alternatively, particular rows or columns in tables can be highlighted. With all illustrative materials, strive for clarity. It may be beneficial to the audience to briefly described the experiment or what is being evaluated before showing the data. Describe the data completely and in detail. This includes pointing to particular rows or columns in tables, bands on gels, particular structures in microscopic images, etc. Say something about the significance of the findings or other pertinent information. Do not simply show the data and state these are the results, and then move on to the next slide.

• During the Discussion summarize the experimental findings and conclusions of the authors as they relate to what is already known about the particular topic. Also indicate how these results concur with or dispute previously published material. Give some indication as to how much this study advances our understanding of subject area or may lead to new applications in regards to the control or treatment of the disease. As part of the discussion, you should provide a critique of the paper. Indicate whether or not you feel the authors have sufficiently demonstrated the major conclusions of the study or proved the hypotheses they were testing. Factors to consider include: the robustness of the data, the execution of the experiments or observations, whether the correct experimental approaches were used, were additonal experiments needed, were the results correctly interpretted, the appropriateness of the model system, etc. Finish the presentation with a brief summary that includes your own conclusions.

4. Visual Aids

The presentation of a scientific paper will necessitate the use of visual aids. Students should prepare their presentation in Powerpoint and save it on a medium (flash drive, CD, email a copy to yourself, etc.) compatible with the computer and LCD projector in the classroom. It is recommended to frequently backup your file during its preparation and to save the final version in multiple formats. For example, email the final file to yourself and save it on a flashdrive.

Some suggestions on preparing slides:

• Use short phrases and avoid long sentences. Long sentences are difficult to read by the audience and the presenter tends to read the slides rather than give an oral presentation. Do include the lengthy descriptions in your own personal notes though.
• Make sure the figures and table are large enough to be clearly seen by the audience. This might require re-doing the figures and tables so that only the most crucial elements are shown. Alternatively large tables can be re-formatted into several smaller tables or large composite figures can be shown as sequential individual figures.
• In general a light background with dark lettering is the most visible. This is especially true in rooms with a lot of background light.
• If using dark backgrounds, avoid red shades for the text.
• It is possible to enhance figures and other scanned items by altering the contrast and brightness on the picture tool bar in Powerpoint.
• Large or high resolution image files can be compressed in Powerpoint to reduce the size of the file. (Click on the image and choose format picture and push compress button.)
• Low resolution and small image files (eg., from some webpages) may not project well. (An image occupying an entire powerpoint slide should be at least 800 x 600 pixels.)

IV. EVALUATION

The presentations will be evaluated by the attending faculty. Evaluation criteria include: quality of abstract, effectiveness in presenting the various aspects of the paper, and the use of visual aids (clarity, not technological). (See annotated sample evaluation form for details of criteria.) The course grade will be determined by the average of the faculty submitting evaluations and class participation and attendance. A summary of the written comments of the faculty will be returned to the student.

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