APA citation:
Chowdhury, N. R., MacGregor-Ramiasa, M., Zilm, P., Majewski, P., & Vasilev, K. (2016). ‘Chocolate ’silver nanoparticles: Synthesis, antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 482, 151-158.
Descriptive annotation:
Nanoparticles are becoming a popular tool to treat diseases and microbes. The most common antimicrobial nanoparticles are silver based. The issues involved with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are the hazardous materials and toxic byproducts associated with their synthesis. A new emerging method involving cocoa extract is being investigated to synthesize more environmentally friendly AgNPs. The authors results show that cocoa based AgNPs are sustainable and effective antimicrobial agents against harmful pathogens while having low cytotoxicity on human cells.
Evaluation annotation:
- The article was published in 2016, which is very reasonable for my topic because I am looking for new emerging methods involved in antimicrobial nanoparticles
- This article helps answer my research by giving me an example of an effective nanoparticle being used to treat specific pathogens. It also allows me to talk about environmental consequences of this technology, which is a perspective I'd like to include in my paper.
- There are 5 authors on this paper including the corresponding author Krasimir Vasilev. I looked up professor Vasilev and he has a lot of experience in polymer chemistry. In 2016, he was awarded the prestigious Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers from the Humboldt foundation. His papers have also been cited over 3000 times.
- The article has an environmental viewpoint on silver nanoparticles because they are looking for a greener way to synthesize these antimicrobial agents. The academic discipline is a combination of nanotechnology, material science, and microbiology. I do not perceive any biases in the article -- its experiment follows the scientific method and has appropriate statistical analysis.
- Because this is a peer reviewed article I believe the facts and figures they present are truthful. If they were not, I would assume the article would not have passed peer review and would not have been published.
- This article is meant for scientists interested in the nanotechnology and microbiology, specifically with silver nanoparticles. It has a specific focus on AgNPs and a new method for its synthesis.
Hi Danny, this is excellent. Overall, you've done a very good job of addressing all the evaluation criteria, but please be sure to label them with headings (Currency, Relevance, etc.) for the final project. Your citation format is perfect and there are just two areas of the evaluation where I would like to see a little more: (1) Authority/credibility: You've focused on the corresponding author, which is certainly reasonable and appropriate for science research, but it would also be good to say something about the first author since they are most likely the primary researcher (even though Vasilev is likely the more experienced researcher and probably had major input in the research design). (2)Accuracy: Peer-review is a pretty good "filter" for accuracy, but it isn't perfect. You also need to use what you know about the topic and think critically about the research method and the use of sources. For an experimental science article this is pretty straightforward: do the conclusions follow logically from the results, and are there any obvious gaps or distortions in the literature review? It's probably fine, but please show that you are thinking about these things.--Sam
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