In this assignment, you will be reading a research article and write a summary. The journal paper you will summarize is "An introduction to Docker for reproducible research, with examples from the R environment". Click here

Links to an external site. to access the paper online or download the pdf below.

DockerIntroduction.pdf

Download DockerIntroduction.pdf

A research summary is a type of paper designed to provide a brief overview of a given study - typically, an article from a peer-reviewed academic journal. It is a frequent type of task encountered in US colleges and universities, which is due to how important it is to teach students to properly interact with and interpret scientific literature and in particular, academic papers, which are the keyway through which new ideas, theories, and evidence are presented to experts in many fields of knowledge.

Research Summary Structure

The research summary format resembles that found in the original paper (just a concise version of it). Content from all sections should be covered and reflected upon, regardless of whether corresponding headings are present or not. Key structural elements of any research summary are as follows:

Title it announces the exact topic/area of analysis and can even be formulated to briefly announce key finding(s) or argument(s) delivered.

Abstract this is a very concise and comprehensive description of the study, present virtually in any academic article (the length varies greatly, typically within 100-500 words). Unlike an academic article, your research summary is expected to have a much shorter abstract.

Introduction this is an essential part of any research summary which provides necessary context (the literature review) that helps introduce readers to the subject by presenting the current state of the investigation, an important concept or definition, etc. This section might also describe the subjects importance (or might not, for instance, when it is self-evident). Finally, an introduction typically lists investigation questions and hypotheses advanced by authors, which are normally mentioned in detail in any research summary (obviously, doing this is only possible after identifying these elements in the original paper).

Methodology regardless of its location, this section details experimental methods or data analysis methods used (e.g. types of experiments, surveys, sampling, or statistical analysis). In a research summary, many of these details would have to be omitted; hence, it is important to understand what is most important to mention.

Results section this section lists in detail evidence obtained from all experiments with some primary data analysis, conclusions, observations, and primary interpretations being made. It is typically the largest section of any analysis paper, so, it has to be concisely rewritten, which implies understanding which content is worth omitting and worth keeping.

Discussion This is where results are being discussed in the context of current knowledge among experts. This section contains interpretations of results, theoretical models explaining the observed results, study strengths and especially limitations, complementary future exploration to be undertaken, conclusions, etc. All these are important elements that need to be conveyed in a summary.

Conclusion in the original article, this section could be absent or merged with Discussion. Specific research summary instructions might require this to be a standalone section. In a conclusion, hypotheses are revisited and validated or denied, based on how convincing the evidence is (key lines of evidence could be highlighted).

References this section is for mentioning those cited works directly in your summary obviously, one has to provide appropriate citations at least for the original article (this often suffices). Mentioning other works might be relevant when your critical opinion is also required (supported with new unrelated evidence).

Deliverable:

To make things easier, make sure your research article summary contains the following three sections: Introduction, Methodology, and Results/ Discussion. Ensure there are at least two paragraphs is present for Methodology and Results/ Discussion. Minimum 1000 words, and a maximum of 2000 words.