Annotate a Paper: The Human Challenge Study

Read a real primary research article and mark it up alongside your classmates

This activity uses a real paper: a study in which healthy young adults were deliberately infected with SARS-CoV-2 under medical supervision, so researchers could watch an infection unfold from the very first hour.

You will read it in an annotating PDF viewer. When you select text, a note panel opens and you can leave a comment or a question that the rest of the class can see and reply to.

NoteWhat you are being asked to do
  1. Leave at least three annotations, each one naming something you do not know or do not understand. Be specific about what is confusing rather than marking a passage as generally hard.
  2. Reply to at least two classmates. Choose a question someone else asked and answer it in plain, simple language. Linking a source that helped you is welcome, but the explanation itself should be in your own words.

You are not expected to understand every sentence. Confusion, stated clearly and specifically, is the point.

Before you start: one-time setup

You need a free Hypothesis account, and you need to join our class group so your annotations go to the class and not to the public internet.

  1. Create an account at hypothes.is/signup.
  2. Join the class group using the invite link posted in Canvas.
  3. Open the reading below and sign in using the panel on the right.
ImportantCheck the group selector before you annotate

At the top of the annotation panel there is a dropdown that controls who sees your note. It should read BILD 5.

If it reads Public, switch it to BILD 5 before you post — Public means the whole internet can read it. If you post to Public by mistake, delete the annotation and post it again in the group.

The reading

Open the paper and annotate it

Opens in a new tab. Give it a moment on first load: it is a large file.

If the annotation panel does not appear, or you cannot get signed in, you can still read the paper on its own: download the plain PDF. Bring your notes to class and we will get the tool working with you.

Citation

Killingley, B., Mann, A.J., Kalinova, M. et al. Safety, tolerability and viral kinetics during SARS-CoV-2 human challenge in young adults. Nature Medicine 28, 1031–1041 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01780-9

Published open access under a Creative Commons Attribution licence.