How to read a paper effectively? Here are some suggestions to optimize your reading time.
Step 1: Read the summary.
The abstract will provide you with an overview of the main points of the paper. Most importantly, it will give you a hint as to whether you should continue reading the rest of this article. Abstract can usually be viewed before buying or downloading an article, so reading this article before submitting the full text can save time and money.
Step 2: Skip the introduction.
The introduction is mostly background knowledge. If you are already familiar with the literature, you can browse or even skip it, because you may already know everything. If you have time after reading the more substantive part of the paper, you can always go back to the introduction.
Step 3: Scanning method
Don't get too involved in methods unless you are studying a new product or technology. Unless the paper introduces a particularly novel method in detail, just browse it.
However, don't completely ignore the method section, because the method used will help you determine the validity of the results.
Step 4: Pay attention to numbers.
If you want to read a scientific paper effectively, the result part is where you really should spend most of your time.
How you "read" the results is very important, because although the text reads well, it is only the author's description of the results. The author may say that protein's expression level has changed significantly, but you need to look at the results to make sure that this change is really significant. Although we hope that the authors will not exaggerate their results, it is easy to manipulate the figures to make them look more surprising than they really are. We also hope that such things can be found in editorial comments, but peer review may be a flawed process!
Some key things to note when looking at numbers include:
Proper scaling of graphs
Effective statistical analysis
A sufficient number of n
Proper control.
Don't forget any supplementary figures and tables. Just because they are complementary doesn't mean they are unimportant. Usually some of the most important (but not exciting) results will be found here.
We don't encourage you to avoid reading the results, of course you should. Just don't take the author's words as gospel. As the saying goes, "a picture can say a thousand words", which is true. Your job is to make sure that they are consistent with what the author said.
Step 5: Respond to the discussion
Discussion is a good way to determine whether you really understand the results and overall information of the paper. Spending more time on discussion is more valuable than introduction, because it shapes the results of the paper into a story and helps you imagine how they fit into the overall picture. You should be wary of the authors exaggerating the importance of their works again, and use their own judgment to judge whether their judgment on their works is consistent with yours.
A useful exercise to train you to read scientific papers (when you have time! ) It means blacking out the abstract, reading the paper, and then writing the abstract. Then compare the abstract of this paper with what you wrote. This can prove whether you have grasped the most important point and the most important information in the paper.
Step 6: Archive
Taking a little time to archive the papers you have read now can save you a lot of time in the future (for example, when you write your own papers). Use the reference management system and ensure that the project includes: