User:Arianalramos/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Epigenetics of anxiety and stress–related disorders

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because I am interested in the biological impact of chronic stress and epigenetic explanations for the inheritance of anxiety and stress-related disorders. This article in particular encompasses transgenerational stress as well as a wide variety of disorders, such as PTSD and alcohol use disorder. The epigenetics of stress and related disorders is an intriguing and important topic that approaches explanations for the experiences of countless people globally, and its understanding is critical for the advancement of the fields of genetics and neuroscience. My preliminary impression of the article is that of a good overview of what is currently understood about this topic, covering a wide variety of disorders with explanations for each. It provides a concise and well-explained introduction of the different epigenetic mechanisms, and it concludes with the most recent and common understandings of potential treatments for these disorders. The article is organized well, with a beginning, middle, and end, and it leaves the reader with an adequate, baseline understanding of the topic.

Lead section

 * The lead section of the article clearly and concisely describes the article's topic, and introduces a few, but not all, of the article's major sections.
 * It could use some elaboration (perhaps a sentence or two) on what epigenetics is and what subfield of epigentics the article pertains to.
 * Otherwise, it does a good job of providing a brief overview of the topic, including an example and a statement on the most recent work done in this field, without extraneous information.

Content
A good Wikipedia article should cover all the important aspects of a topic, without putting too much weight on one part while neglecting another.


 * Overall, the content of each section is up-to-date and relevant to the topic. The article does not address any specific equity gap or topic related to historically underrepresented populations, although it does mention the Holocaust and veterans in the context of experiences of trauma.
 * The weight of information is fairly evenly distributed throughout the article, without prominent gaps in information.
 * The first section, "Epigenetic writers, erasers, and readers", highlights the two central types of epigenetic modification, DNA methylation and histone acetylation, and it provides examples of each specifically relevant to anxiety and/or stess-related disorders. I think this gives a good, detailed overview of the basics of epigenetics that are most pertinent to this particular subfield.
 * Although "transgenerational epigenetic influences" was not mentioned in the lead section, this section is well-written. It provides a readable and well-organized explanation for someone new to the topic. It incorporates well-established and intriguing examples of the work done in the field, like the Holocaust and rodent studies of the effects of parental stress. However, the subsection of parental exposure to positive stimulation is short and vague. Although this may be due to lack of available information on the topic, this section could use further elaboration.
 * The section on PTSD seems to be the longest section in this article, which is perhaps due to the relative abundance of available research on the topic. The subdivisions into dna methylation, the HPA axis, and immune dysregulation makes this section more readable and comprehensive. The use of the chart to list human studies also contributes to the readability, presenting the most relevant information in an organized fashion. The immune dysregulation subsection seems relatively underdeveloped, and it includes more technical jargon that could use elaboration.
 * The following sections, "alcohol use disorder" and "potential epigenetic drug treatments", are generally shorter and less elaborate than the previous sections. Despite this difference in length, both sections are well written and relevant to the overarching topic. They provide a good conclusion to the article, acknowledging the most recently established information on the topic and future directions.

Tone and Balance

 * Overall, the article is written in a very neutral, unbiased way. The information is presented directly and passively, without any sense of persuasive tone. In part due to the scientific nature of the topic, any personal opinion of the author is not clearly present in the text, and the general consensus of the scientific community on this topic is accurately described.

Sources and References
A Wikipedia article should be based on the best sources available for the topic at hand. When possible, this means academic and peer-reviewed publications or scholarly books.


 * The information provided in the article is adequately backed up by secondary sources of information via reliable, scientific reviews.
 * The author of the article references over 60 sources of information, indicating a thorough evaluation of the available literature on the topic.
 * The majority of the sources were published within the last decade, many within the last 5 years.
 * A very diverse group of authors are represented in the references for the article. There are very few instance of more than 1 article by the same author, indicating that the information compiled in the article is accurate to the general consensus of the scientific community. The author(s) did a very thorough literature review in preparation for the writing and publishing of this article.
 * The links to the sources referenced were functional.

Organization and writing quality
The writing should be clear and professional, the the content should be organized sensibly into sections.


 * Overall, the article is well-written and easy to read, despite the subject matter being quite technical. There were no detectable grammatical or spelling errors that took away from the article's content.
 * The article is well-organized in to sections and subsections, making the information easier to read for someone new to the topic. The division of each section into subsections provides a good scope of all the topic includes.

Images and Media

 * The article includes a couple images of relevant molecular structure and simple mechanisms that help the reader visualize the content of the section. The images are concisely captioned, but provide adequate descriptions of the image.
 * Given the article's length and information covered, it could use a few more images to explain the topics that are perhaps more difficult to understand or visualize.
 * For example, a diagram or two may be helpful to explain the role of the HPA axis in stress response and the relevant genes.
 * The images included in the article adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations.

Talk page discussion

 * The talk page for this article was quite short. However, a note was made about the need to clear out primary sources from the references in this article. The user recommended a few additional citations, as well as the mention of the difficulties of translation epigenetic studies to field of medicine.
 * This article has been rated C-class for the following WikiProjects: Psychology, Medical genetics, Genetics, and Molecular and cell biology.
 * Although we have not discussed this topic specifically in class thus far, the article approaches the topic from a neutral, scientific perspective, mostly aligning with the way the topic would be discussed in an academic setting. Its use of well-established review articles as references validates the information in the article, and deems it more similar to current academic discussions of the topic.

Overall impressions

 * Overall, the article is well-written and provides a good representation of the information currently available on the field of epigenetics of anxiety and stress-related disorders.
 * The articles's strengths include its comprehensive coverage of basic epigenetic modifications and PTSD. It provides an adequate baseline of understanding of epigenetics in order to understand how ti pertains specifically to anxiety and stess-related disorders.
 * The article could be improved by a stronger lead section, that more accurately describes the topics covered in the article. The lead section should leave the reader with a basic understanding of the information included. There are also a few underdeveloped subsections, such as the immune dysregulation and sncRNA sections, that could be improved with elaboration.
 * Overall, the article is well-developed, although perhaps not yet complete. There remain areas for improvement, but the article provides a readable, accurate overview of the topic nonetheless.