Research within the discipline of Developmental Biology must be established and credible before it can be considered information. The establishment of information occurs through the process of peer review, experimental repeats, and citations.
Peer review is important in all science disciplines. Before a research paper can receive credit within the science community, other researchers must first review it. This allows researchers to argue and participate in a dialogue. Without this dialogue, there would be no filtering mechanism for information within the sciences. This filtering is necessary to the continuation of research in that questions can be posed and investigated from skepticism over papers being reviewed. An aspect of peer review is the idea of experimental repeats. Other researchers will attempt to recreate the work of another to further prove and provide evidence for the paper being reviewed.
Citations are also important when establishing information within this discipline. It is essential that the research being reviewed utilize its sources well and that other sources refer to it. This chain of research provides an implied credibility to its readers. If the paper cites many references and is cited by many other papers, the credibility increases. For example, the research paper “X-ray phase-contrast in vivo microtomography probes new aspects of Xenopus gastrulation,” has been cited by 24 other articles while also citing 34 articles within its own text. This paper would have implied credibility and because it was published through Nature, a peer-reviewed journal, the information it presents is considered to have merit. The cyclical pattern of citations also furthers the importance of being well read as a researcher.
Once a research paper has gained its credibility, the discoveries are then established as information. This information is then used as a foundation for further research and argument. Therefore, it can be said that information within Developmental Biology is formed from research and supported by further research. It is also important to note that as new discoveries are being made, it is possible to disprove previously established information.
Developmental Biology: The Information Paradigm 