Swine flu is a hot topic for many health care related professionals. However, the receptors specific for human, swine or avian influenza viruses are still unclear, because that conflicting results have been published in top scientific journals.
One of the papers was published in Nature Medicine recently (Vol. 13, 147-149 (2007)). The main conclusion was "ex vivo cultures of human nasopharyngeal, adenoid and tonsillar tissues can be infected with H5N1 viruses in spite of an appearent lack of these receptors", which was based on Fig. 1e and Fig. 1h of the article. However, my opinion is that Fig. 1e and Fig. 1h didn’t provide strong enough evidence for the main conclusion but only provided the results of single experiment with huge experimental errors and without statistical significance.
To make it clearer, I combined the Fig. 1e with Fig. 1h of that article and made a new Figure (see Figure bellow). I would like to get opinions from other scientists whether the results meet the four general criteria for Nature journals or not.
The four general criteria for manuscripts to be published in Nature journals are:
1. Provide strong evidence for its conclusions;
2. Novel;
3. Of extreme importance to scientists in the specific field;
4. Ideally, interesting to researchers in other related disciplines.
Here is the combined Figure:
Please make comments.
