User:Natwo001/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Siderophore

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because I am broadly familiar with siderophores, I did my undergraduate research looking at siderophores in certain cyanobacteria. I chose something I was familiar with so I could make a better evaluation of the article.

Evaluate the article
Overall they do a good job describing what a siderophore is. It is a iron-chelating compound that certain bacteria and fungi produce to scavenge for a non bio-available source of iron. I think they could of explain the oxidation and reduction of iron a bit better as that is a major part of siderophores. They mention that Fe3+ or ferric iron is insoluble. It would be important to note that microorganisms prefer ferrous iron, Fe2+ or the reduced form of iron. In addition, I think it would be important to note that ferrous iron is limited in abundance do to its chemical properties and tendencies to be readily oxidized. Again, important to note that this oxidizing agent is oxygen. Thus any elemental iron in the presence of oxygen will be in the form of ferric iron or Fe3+.

The article overall does a great job citing credible sources, and giving a diverse representation of siderophores and their application. The article is written in a nonbiased, informative way. Another note about the over all citation, the authors are conscious about in text citations, and citing after each sentences. Likewise, for my overall view of the citations, there are a wide range of journals from many disciplines to hep cite the claims made in this paper. Having many different journals, and different journal types helps make this article more well rounded and unbias. Likewise the article does a good job of providing images and chemical structures to help the readers visualize what siderophores are. Likewise, all figures and tables are labelled with a caption and have a citing source.

Over all this is a well written, well cited article that given a hearty descriptions of what a siderophore is, and its applications in different science disciplines. The only thing I would add to improve upon this article and keep it updated would be adding in new literature that has be published on siderophores. I believe the most recent journal cited in this article is 2017, which is not outdated, but adding in new publications would help show new science about siderophores and keep this article updated.