Critical literature analysis

Critical analysis of a recent Cell Biology article. A critical analysis examines an article to determine how effective it is at making an argument or point. To make this determination, you will need to explore prior work that provides the context for the article, carefully examine the scientific methods and results presented in the article, and consider how the conclusions made relate to the topics covered within the module.

The report should be similar to a "news and views" article found in journals such as Nature and Cell - you can find an example of this kind of article at this end of this brief, and there are other examples on Blackboard for you to use to familiarise yourself with this style of writing.

References: The report should be based on the article provided, but in order to provide context you will need to read around the literature to identify the key studies that have lead up to this article. These should be cited and referenced in the SHU-Harvard style. There is no limit on the number or references you can use, but "news and views" articles generally use 12-15 references to support their argument.

You should consider when writing your review:
Background: What is the context for this study? What area of Cell Biology is being addressed, and why was this necessary? What prior work provided important findings which led up to this study?

Hypothesis/aims: Clearly state what the study aimed to identify.

What methods were used: what approaches did the study take? What property of cellular function do these approaches measure? Why were these approaches appropriate?

Findings: What were the key results? What conclusions did the authors draw from these results? How did the experimental data link to the conclusions?

Future work: What was the overall message from this work? Were these conclusions appropriate? What would be these next steps for this work?