Paper Selection
Select a paper to present from the following list:
TBD
Presentations will be in the order of the spreadsheet. Grading will be more generous for those presenting on the first day. You may present in groups of one or two.
Fill in your name(s) in the Presenter column in the above spreadsheet once you have selected a paper.
Presentation
The emphasis will be on clarity of presentation with the aim that all participants can understand the main points of the paper and the discussion. You are teaching the material, not simply presenting a slide show of the figures from the paper. Make connections to course content as appopriate. All members of the group must present.
Target presentation length is 12-15 minutes.
Here is a recommended structure for your presentation:
- Background (area of the research: biological and computational background, at a high level)
- Significance (why is the work important, what is the motivation)
- Related work (context) [this can also go in the discussion]
- Main results — the story of the paper. Provide enough detail to explain the key results or methodological advances. It is better to explain one (interesting) component of the paper well than to explain multiple components poorly.
- Discussion/critique
- Summary of results
- Limitations and caveats
- Broader implications of the work beyond the present results
- REQUIRED: On your last slide, provide an example quiz question asking about a key point of the paper. This may be true/false, multiple choice, free response, but should be explicitly formatted as a quiz question. Depending on how you feel towards your classmates, you may or may not choose to also provide the answer.
Other points:
- Number your slides.
- Keep the slides simple and focus on walking the audience through them step-by-step. If you have multiple blocks of text and/or figures on a single slide, consider reducing the complexity of the slide by breaking it up into multiple slides or at least using animation to focus the attention of the audience on the points of the slide as you discuss them.
- Practice your presentation in advance to ensure you are within the required time range.
- Be prepared to answer questions about the methods and data you present.
- Audience members will be encouraged to interrupt to request clarification of any points that are unclear, so focus on explaining clearly rather than trying to cram in a lot of information.
- Keep PDFs of the paper and supplemental materials handy so they can be used to discuss questions that arise during the discussion.
Prior to your presentation, upload your slides to GradeScope. If you presented as a group, both members should upload slides.
Rubric
You will receive a score from 1-5 for each of the following ten categories according to the scale:
5 — Exceptional. Rarely awarded
4 — Good. Should be the most common score.
3 — Some improvement needed.
2 — Significant improvement needed.
1 — Missing.
Logical Flow — Does the presentation have a logical structure?
Introduction/Motivation — Are the goals of the paper and why they matter clearly stated?
Clarity of Methods — Are the methods clearly presented? If time constraints prevent a complete exposition of the methods, are the portions selected for explanation appropriate and placed into the high level context of the method?
Clarity of Results — Are the results and their meaning clearly presented?
Discussion — Does the presenter provide a meaningful summary and critique of the paper including limitations and/or next steps?
Understanding (presenting) — Does the presentation indicate a more than superficial understanding of the paper?
Understanding (interactive) — Can the presenter provide thoughtful answers to questions?
Visual Presentation — Are the slides clear and effective without walls of redundant text? Does the speaker speak in a clear and engaging manner?
Time Management — Is the presentation (not including questions) between 12 and 15 minutes?
Completeness — Are all required components provided including uploading slides to GradeScope in advance and including a quiz question at the end?
As we anticipate a 4 to be the most common score, the total presentation grade will be out of 40 points.
Participation
An additional 20 points will be awarded for providing meaningful feedback to other presenters. Fill out the provided form for each journal club presentation with one strength and one weakness of the presentation. While your feedback can be succinct, generic or missing feedback will be penalized. For example, submitting "Good job" as a strength and "Nothing" as a weakness will result in the loss of 1 point (out of 20). Since everyone will be receiving ~40 pieces of feedback, consider providing highly specific responses so there is a wider range of responses (e.g., on slide 4 the legend font was too small; the animation on slide 8 was helpful for understanding the method).