Our mission is to make the hidden curriculum of scientific literacy explicit and accessible for every learner in higher education.
Coming June 2026
The CERIC Method is now a book. How to Critically Read the Scientific Research Literature, published by Cambridge University Press, brings our framework to print for students, educators, and researchers worldwide. Learn more →
Who We Serve
The CERIC Method is designed for learners and educators across higher education who believe that reading scientific literature should not be a gatekept skill.
Students
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional students building scientific literacy skills
Educators
Faculty, instructors, and teaching assistants integrating critical reading into their courses
Program Leaders
Department chairs and program directors seeking scalable literacy frameworks
Librarians
Academic librarians supporting information and scientific literacy initiatives
Program Administrators and Staff
Academic coordinators, curriculum specialists, and support staff who manage program logistics, track student progress, and ensure smooth delivery of critical reading initiatives across departments
Peer Reviewers and Journal Editors
Researchers and scholars who evaluate scientific manuscripts and oversee the publication process, using structured critical reading frameworks to improve review quality and editorial decision-making
The Problem: The Hidden Curriculum
In higher education, students are expected to read, analyze, and critique scientific literature. But most are never taught how. This unspoken expectation is part of what researchers call the hidden curriculum: the implicit skills and knowledge that are assumed but rarely taught. Students who do not come from research-active backgrounds or who are the first in their families to attend college are disproportionately affected.
The result is a gap: capable, motivated students struggle not because they lack the ability to understand science, but because they have never been given a framework for approaching a scientific paper.
The Solution: The CERIC Method
The CERIC Method closes that gap. It provides a clear, structured framework for reading scientific literature through four key elements: Claims, Evidence, Reasoning, and Interpretation in Context. Instead of leaving students to figure it out on their own, CERIC names the skills, breaks them into learnable steps, and builds competence progressively across four scaffolded courses.
The result: students gain confidence, improve their critical thinking, and develop the ability to independently read and discuss primary literature in any scientific discipline.
about Us
We are a dynamic team who love helping others learn and thrive
Transform Your Learning
Next Level Critical Reading
“The CERIC Method completely changed how I approach reading papers. It is a powerful tool to make papers accessible that I plan to study more and use in my career.”
Genevive Bjorn, Ed.D.
Research, Learning, and Development
I am an education researcher who studies how higher education shapes—and is shaped by—the evolving demands of the workforce, drawing on my doctoral research and years of teaching experience to investigate the links between learning, skills, and employment. My work focuses on making hidden curricula visible and teachable, helping students and educators thrive in academic environments.
Adam Burgasser, Ph.D.
Course Development and Integration
I am an observational astronomer who studies the coldest stars, brown dwarfs, and extrasolar planets. My research experience fuels a deep commitment to science education, and I integrate authentic scientific practices into course design and mentoring so learners can engage with data, inquiry, and discovery the way scientists do.
The CERIC Method
Story of The Work
1
Since 2015: Evidence-Based Courses and Workshops
As a science teacher and researcher, Dr. Bjorn recognized a deep need for a better way to teach critical reading of scientific literature. She developed the CER (Claims, Evidence, Reasoning) approach, and Dr. Burgasser later insisted on adding the IC (Implications and Context). CERIC was born.
2
2019-2024: Research-Validated at Johns Hopkins
Dr. Bjorn’s dissertation research and peer-reviewed articles validated the CERIC Method for developing critical reading skills in scientific literature in higher education. More development and adaptation ensued.
3
from 2025: Wrote the Book and Created CericMethod.com
With overwhelmingly positive feedback from learners using the CERIC Method, we published a book with Cambridge University Press, available digitally in June 2026, and created evidence-based courses, including the Foundations courses available at CericMethod.com.
Genevive’s Story
The CERIC Method grew out of a simple observation: students and researchers at every level struggle to critically evaluate the scientific literature they read. What began as a classroom strategy for teaching structured reading skills evolved into a comprehensive, five-step framework—Claims, Evidence, Reasoning, Implications, and Context—designed to make critical analysis accessible, repeatable, and applicable across disciplines. Through years of teaching, feedback, and refinement, the CERIC Method became a full suite of online courses, workshops, and, now, a published guidebook, all built around the belief that scientific literacy is a skill anyone can develop with the right tools and guidance.
The moment I realized the hidden curriculum was a problem occurred while teaching high school chemistry in San Diego, California. Many of my students were first-generation students and learners with neurodifferences, and the traditional process of listening to the master teacher opine on an article, followed by discussing it with peers, produced confusion, anxiety, and fear of research articles—the exact opposite of what I intended. The early experiments with the method’s core (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) began in those high school chemistry classrooms and hit major developmental milestones while I taught international graduate students in Europe and during my doctoral research program at Johns Hopkins. My vision is a future where every teachable skill is taught explicitly, so that anyone who wants to contribute to research has the knowledge and support to do so.