Students are required to read and critically review 2-3 original research papers of his/her own choice. Please also get some background information on your subject on the Internet or other sources.

Assignment (2-4 pages) should be submitted by 1st May via e-mail. Please name your file this way:
your family name_2011_species (or problem)

Working in pairs is possible. Pairs review 4-6 articles, on the same topic.

Do not reproduce copy-righted figures. Your work will be uploaded on the Internet.

Plagiarism is a serious offense and will not be tolerated.
Plagiarism: copy-paste, patchwork, or to present results, ideas or thoughts of someone else as yours without giving credit.

In the old days it was not so easy to steal ideas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNC-aj76zI4&feature=related, today it takes only a little surfing. Resist the temptation.

Cite the paper you review like this:
Farid, M.F.A., El-Shennawy, M.M., Mehrez, A.Z. & Salem, A.M.M. (1983). Protein requirements for maintenance of Barki desert sheep. World Review of Animal Production, 19: 31–36.

Cite any webpage you use by giving the title of the page and the address. Important: cite the specific page you used and not just the website.

Cite the articles or web pages in your text whenever that information is used. For example: "The zebrafish dorsal habenula projects to the IPN (Aizawa et al., 2005; Gamse et al., 2005) and is thus analogous to the medial habenula of mammals.". Alternatively, you can number your references and cite the serial numbers: The zebrafish dorsal habenula projects to the IPN (3, 15, 16) and is thus analogous to the medial habenula of mammals.

After you get a confirmation of acceptance you can come for oral, which will focus on your chosen topic. Additionally, please remember basic concepts we discussed (polygyny, ritualization, optimal territory size etc.)

What is a research paper?

Any article from a primary scientific journal. Usually has Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion section.

1) Visit PMC homepage and type keywords into the search box. Keywords like "wildlife" or "tiger" will result in hundreds of free articles.

2) From any PC at campus you can register to a free science database (ScienceDirect).

Have a Hun at hand (the form is in Hungarian) and register here

Please make sure that the selected article has not been reviewed by others. You can check that here

1) What is the yout question/interest?
2) Why is that question important/interesting?
3) What are the results? Just briefly, highlight the most important points.
4) Critically discuss the findings.

Style: preferably more like a news item (an example) than a scientific article.

Scandinavian Brown Bear Project, excellent site with free articles under "Publication"

On Coriolis force

From Norway: Timing and Synchrony of Ovulation in Red Deer Constrained
by Short Northern Summers

Fitch and Reby: The descended larynx is not uniquely human

The influence of top-down, bottom-up and abiotic factors on the moose (Alces alces) population of Isle Royale

The descended larynx is not uniquely human

Age-dependent sexual selection in bighorn rams

Contributions of nitrogen deposition and forest regrowth to terrestrial carbon uptake

Clouded leopard phylogeny revisited: support for species recognition and population division between Borneo and Sumatra