25  Recommended Readings (STEM)

This page contains a list of readings that I would recommend for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students getting started in STEM research. It includes articles focused on best practices, important research papers, and science integrity.

25.1 Best Practices

  1. How to succeed in science: a concise guide for young biomedical scientists. Part I: taking the plunge. Yewdell JW, Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. (2008).
  2. How to succeed in science: a concise guide for young biomedical scientists. Part II: making discoveries. Yewdell JW, Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. (2008).
  3. The importance of stupidity in scientific research. Schwartz MA, J Cell Sci. (2008).
  4. Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments (Dunning-Kruger Effect). Kruger J and Dunning D, J Pers Soc Psychol. (1999).
  5. How to choose a good scientific problem. Alon U, Mol Cell. (2009).
  6. PLOS “Ten Simple Rules” Collection provides a quick, concentrated guide for mastering some of the professional challenges research scientists face in their careers. PloS.
  7. Resources for PhD Students Guillaume Dalle.

25.2 Challenges

  1. The Emotional Toll of Graduate School. Puri P, Sci Am. (2019).
  2. PhDs: the tortuous truth. Woolston C, Nature (2019).
  3. Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time The Economist, Medium (2016).
  4. There’s an awful cost to getting a PhD that no one talks about Walker J, Quartz (2015).
  5. Strategies for Supporting Engineering Student Mental Health Wilson & Goldberg, CEE (2023).
  6. Prioritizing mental health and wellness in engineering S. Wilson, ASEE (2022)

25.3 Transformative Research Papers in Biomedical Science

  1. A Programmable Dual-RNA-Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity Jinek et al., Science (2012) from the Doudna and Charpentier Lab
  2. Induction of pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic and adult fibroblast cultures by defined factors Takahashi et al., Cell (2006) from the Yamanaka Lab
  3. Induction of pluripotent stem cells from adult human fibroblasts by defined factors Takahashi et al., Cell (2006) from the Yamanaka Lab
  4. Matrix Elasticity Directs Stem Cell Lineage Specification Engler et al., Cell (2006) from the Discher Lab

25.4 Statistics

  1. What exactly is ‘N’ in cell culture and animal experiments? Lazic SE et al., PloS Biol. (2018).
  2. SuperPlots: Communicating reproducibility and variability in cell biology. Lord SJ et al., J Cell Biol. (2020).
  3. Ten common statistical mistakes to watch out for when writing or reviewing a manuscript. Makin TR et al. eLife (2019).
  4. Beyond bar and line graphs: time for a new data presentation paradigm. Weissgerber TL et al. PloS Biol. (2015).
  5. Statistical relevance—relevant statistics, part I. Klaus B EMBO J. (2015).
  6. Statistical relevance-relevant statistics, part II: presenting experimental data. Klaus B EMBO J. (2015).
  7. Ten simple rules for getting started with statistics in graduate school Zitomer RA et al. PloS Comput Biol. (2022).

25.5 Writing

  1. ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication. ACS. (2020).
  2. The art of writing science. Plaxco KW, Prot. Sci. (2010).
  3. Whitesides’ Group: Writing a Paper. Whitesides GM, Adv. Mat. (2004).
  4. How to write a first-class paper. Gewin V, Nature (2018).
  5. Writing readable prose: When planning a scientific manuscript, following a few simple rules has a large impact. Bredan AS & van Roy F, EMBO Rep. (2006).
  6. Ten simple rules for structuring papers Mensh B & Kording K, PLoS Comp Biol. (2017).
  7. Write accessibly Editors, Nat Biomed Eng. (2021).

25.6 Science Integrity

  1. Science Integrity Digest Bik E
  2. Brookes Lab Brookes P. Sample Post focused on “Fake Data”
  3. PubPeer: The Online Journal Club
  4. For Better Science Schneider L
  5. Retraction Watch
  6. Automatic detection of image manipulations in the biomedical literature Bucci EM, Cell Death and Disease (2018).
  7. Learning to identify image manipulations in scientific publications Mazaheri G et al., arXiv (2021).
  8. Publishing ethics in the era of paper mills Hackett R and Kelly S, Biol Open (2020).