This club works to simplify complex scientific and medical research into more accessible articles for the general public
By MADELINE HASS — science@theaggie.org
Since 2020, the undergraduate-led branch of Morning Sign Out at UC Davis has been dedicated to publishing quarterly articles detailing recent science and medical news. This branch is a part of the larger network of Morning Sign Out chapters that can be found at universities across the country.
The main goals of this online publication group relate heavily to their namesake, with the phrase “sign out” referring to the healthcare process of medical professionals accurately and concisely communicating information in between shifts. Their group aims to present new research publications in an engaging and easily accessible format.
Varsha Vijayakartik, a third-year human biology major and the co-president of Morning Sign Out at UC Davis, remarked on their mission statement and what it means to their group.
“Our mission statement relates a lot to our name; the sign out part relates to — in the healthcare field — when one shift or one team will sign out their patient and sign out their information to the next shift so that there’s constant communication ensuring things are operating smoothly,” Vijayakartik said. “I think that this [is] an application of that; we’re trying to sign out certain types of information onto a community that might not necessarily have good access to it.”
The articles published highlight the main points of the research they are focused on in a manner that doesn’t require readers to have previous knowledge. They are constantly working to bridge any gaps between the scientific community and the general public through articles that highlight the key takeaways in an easily digestible and readable way.
Khushi Jain, a third-year genetics major and editor for Morning Sign Out, described this in more detail.
“I think the objective of the group itself is my favorite part,” Jain said. “We’re taking research articles and making them simpler while not losing the main interest topic. I think even coming from a STEM background it can be very easy to not get the key idea of a research paper but instead get lost in the literature and health-related jargon. So, I can’t imagine how hard it would be for people who don’t have that literacy or don’t have access to that type of knowledge to be able to break down these types of papers.”
Student writers will each work on one or two articles to be published per quarter. They are allowed complete freedom and autonomy in selecting the topics for their articles, as long as the research publication they are basing their writing on is considered to be a primary source. This permits and encourages a wide variety of articles to be published, thereby allowing for a diverse range of accessible scientific information to be offered to the community.
Harriet Gensler, a second-year biochemistry major and co-editor-in-chief of Morning Sign Out, spoke on this.
“We don’t restrict topics,” Gensler said. “The only restriction is that writers have to pick a scientific article that has to be an original primary research article. We prefer them to be relatively recent, otherwise there’s a plethora of topics writers can choose from.”
Vijayakartik further expressed similar sentiments.
“We just want writers to be passionate about the topic they choose as that will come through in their article,” Vijayakartik said. “Topics could even be a humanities-based analysis of science. So, something like a science and technology study about the history and study of science; It doesn’t have to just be STEM-related, as long as the research behind it is purely more empirical.”
A major focus of the Morning Sign Out at UC Davis group is to increase science literacy — amongst not just community members, but also club members, in addition to helping strengthen members’ writing skills. Within their group, the co-editors-in-chief will often run workshops centered around this goal and offering writing insight.
Andrea Liu, a third-year global disease biology major and co-editor-in-chief of Morning Sign out at UC Davis, shed light on this.
“We don’t have any type of requirements or previous experience required for people wanting to join Morning Sign Out,” Liu said. “Instead, we are really focused on teaching people how to read, write and edit scientific articles. We’ll host in-person workshop events throughout the quarter to try to achieve this.”
As time moves forward, this group hopes to continue providing the community with accessible science and medical articles and increase their impact and presence as a whole.
“There are so many clubs on campus that it’s easy to get lost, so moving forward we hope to show more people what our club is about and who we are,” Liu said. “We’re working towards drawing more attention to ourselves from the community and people who could benefit from reading our articles.”
Written by: Madeline Hass— science@theaggie.org
