Guidelines for Writing a Science-Driven Paper on a Macronutrient and Health Outcome

Areas to Cover in the Research Paper

Students will work individually to compose an 8- to-10 page, science-driven paper on a topic relating a macronutrient of your choice to a health outcome.

Students are asked to address four major areas in the individual research paper:

1.Clearly define your macronutrient-related question and the reason for your question (i.e., background information).  

a.Example:  “Is consumption of corn syrup related to development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)?” is potentially a good question, but you must justify the reason for asking the question.  To do so, you should also address background information, such as:

i.Why corn syrup?

ii.How much do we eat?

iii.Where is it in our food supply?

iv.What is NAFLD (broadly)?

v.Why is it so important that we ask this question?

2.What scientific and metabolism concepts apply to this question?  How and why?  Examples of topics to include here:

a.Food composition  (What’s actually in corn syrup?)

b.Digestion

c.Absorption

d.Transport/storage in the body

e.Metabolism

f.Hormonal regulation

g.Pertinent biomarkers (Are there any blood lipids that are relevant to NAFLD?  How else would NAFLD be diagnosed?)

h.Details pertinent to a disease state or mechanism of disease progression.  (A different example:  LDL forms a fatty streak in the initial phases of cardiovascular disease and progresses to…)

3.What is the current state of the science regarding your question?  

a.This is basically a literature review, while also adding your judgment on what the literature means.

b.Provide evidence from peer-reviewed research articles, textbooks (if it’s an older concept), researcher websites, and other scientific sources.  

i.Primary sources (i.e., original research articles) are preferred, but review articles that review many published articles can be useful, too.

c.You may find it helpful to use non-scientific sources to inform your perspective, but be very cautious.  (These are blogs, personal websites, news stories, etc.)  They should not define the current state of the science.

d.I’ve been intentionally vague with this section’s guidelines.  Each topic will have differing levels and types of evidence.  Use your best judgment in presenting it.  
e.I prefer that you present an accurate and deep understanding of the information, rather than lots and lots of it.  Many nutritional questions will only have a handful of good articles to discuss, and don’t yet have complete answers.  That’s ok, but acknowledge it!  

4.What’s next?

a.What don’t we understand about this topic yet?  

b.What new evidence would help us make better/stronger dietary recommendations?

Double-spaced, 12-point font

One-inch margins

You must use in-text citations and provide a list of references cited.

The references cited list is not included in page allotment.

References should mainly be peer-reviewed, primary research articles; however, review articles, book chapters, and non-scientific sources may also be used in moderation.  (Non-scientific references may be particularly useful in demonstrating the importance of asking and answering your question.)