3 min read · Sep 14, 2017
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Note 1: Universities provide access to a range of scientific papers through user-friendly search engines. If you’re a student, I strongly encourage you to utilize this opportunity and delve into topics that pique your interest.
Note 2: Without a university library system, accessing papers becomes more difficult due to the challenges of getting around the publication paywall. Thankfully, the landscape is changing. Websites like ‘Sci-Hub’ offer a new way to download academic papers. Google Scholar has a growing database.
Here’s how to read a scientific paper as quickly and efficiently as possible. This method was taught to me by a professor and takes advantage of the way a scientific paper is typically structured; Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, and Literature Cited.
1. Skim the abstract
Skimming the abstract first will allow you to get somewhat familiar with the topic at hand. However, at this point, it’s unnecessary to read through the methodology, data, or most of the other information included in the abstract. What you should read here is the reason for the study, find out why they felt the need to do this research in the first place, and then you can determine if reading further will be worth your time.
There are millions of scientific papers. You do not have the time, the inclination, the brainpower, or any ability to read them all, so don’t bother trying. Whatever topic you are perusing will probably have a substantial amount of research around it. Focus on finding the right papers for you.
2. Read the conclusion
The conclusion of the paper is generally the last paragraph of the discussion, and it summarizes what just happened with more detail than the introduction.
The conclusion is relevant to understanding at a high level what the authors did and why they did it. If you read the conclusion and it's not relevant to your scientific inquiry then consider moving on to a new paper at this point (see step 5).
3. After the conclusion, read the results
The conclusion will give you insight into what the results mean so read it first. Focus on understanding if these results directly address your research question.
4. Read the methods section
If you are sure the results and conclusion are relevant, then you should read the methods section and dive into how the results were found.
The methodology should be very detailed so that other scientists can reproduce the result. By reading the methodology you will get a big-picture sense of the type of research being done. At this point, you can consider if the strategy that the authors used to achieve the result is trustworthy or not. Are the authors cautious or do they overstate things?
5. Start this process over again with a different paper
At the bottom of your paper, there will be a number (often lots of numbers) of reference papers. Once you find a good paper, find its best references and then try to find other papers that reference the reference paper.
Science is largely built on references so if you have a paper that has zero references then it’s probably not a scientific paper…
Find the references that are relevant to your query, then go and do this process over again.
Conclusion
Searching through scientific literature should be a fairly quick task. Spend more time on the few highly relevant papers that you find.
Most of the papers you encounter have absolutely nothing to offer you or your specific query. It's essential to move through them fast otherwise you will waste time reading things that are interesting but not relevant.
Reading science papers can be fun, but it can also be tedious if you are trying to learn about something specific under a deadline. Read through lots of papers with speed and you will have time to comb through the relevant papers later.
