Stop Reading Top to Bottom! This Is How To Read An Academic Paper.
If you have ever read an article about a new research topic and thought, “I should read a research paper!” you have probably come across the difficulty of not understanding most of the paper…
Today, many academic papers are quite difficult to read. Even researchers struggle to read papers within their fields. It causes a high barrier to entry into the research field.
With this guide to reading academic papers, you will be able to understand the meaning of these difficult papers with 3 easy steps.
- Stop reading top to bottom!
Throw away your idea that you must read a paper from top to bottom in the following order; abstract→ introduction → data & analysis → conclusion. After reading the abstract, you may slow down in the introduction, and once you hit the data and analysis, you’re done for! It is information overload and the information is hardly understandable.
Instead, follow a better reading strategy.
2. Read the Abstract → Conclusion → Introduction → Data & Analysis
Reading the abstract is a great way to get a brief explanation of what is in the paper. However, once you read the abstract, you should go to the conclusion instead of the introduction. I know, I know, it is weird to read the first paragraph and then jump to the end, but trust me, this will help you understand the paper. The conclusion will tell you what findings were found in the paper and give you a good idea of whether you should even continue reading.
This process is like a filtering process. Instead of finding a paper and just reading it, we want to make sure it is worth our time. After reading the abstract, we check if the conclusion has interesting findings. If so, we move on to the introduction to get more context on the topic, and if we really want to, we can then get into data and analysis.
Finally, we need a helper in the research paper reading process.
3. Have your favorite search engine at the ready!
If you are reading a paper in a new or different field, you may be unfamiliar with many concepts referenced in the paper. That is why you need to have a search engine like google or duckduckgo with you at all times when reading a paper so that you can easily look up words, phrases, and/or concepts right as you read them. It is useless to read through a paper without knowing the concepts within.
4. Take breaks.
Yes, I know, I said 3 steps but I thought you needed this one too.
It is essential for you to take breaks from reading a dense paper. Your mind is trying to understand difficult topics. If you have been trying to read a paper for 90 minutes, a 10-minute break may be helpful. The best practice would be to allow an amount of time every day to read the papers you are interested in so that you are fresh on the topics. Sometimes you may even need to take a break from one paper to learn more about a certain topic heavily referenced within that paper.
Academic reading is essential for the development of thought and innovation. The research industry is constantly evolving and needs to be translated by readers to gain real-world applications and innovations. So take your time with the research that you are interested in and join me in bettering our academic reading ability!
