Learning How to Read Papers Graduate School

Guide to Reading Academic Research Papers

Larn to tackle this laborious process with a systematic arroyo!

My desk full of papers. Slightly shuffled around for dramatic purposes of grade.

Working in data science and machine learning is an exciting and challenging field. New techniques and tools are constantly percolating and honestly, information technology tin can feel overwhelming. Many of these new developments are establish and first revealed in bookish research articles. Extracting cognition from these articles is difficult because the intended audience of these papers tend to be other researchers. Still in gild to stay current reading papers is an essential skill — luckily one that can be improved with diligence and practice.

In graduate school , you go good (should become adept…) at reading papers and ingesting inquiry. Not everyone will get training in this skill, that doesn't hateful you shouldn't benefit from the knowledge these papers hold. Public tax money is how most of this research gets funded anyways! The goal here is to democratize academia, only a bit, and provide you lot with a scaffolding to apply when walking through a paper.

The way I read papers is not significantly unique, simply information technology is constructive and has served me well. Proceed in mind information technology is not the but style, many techniques exist and as you read more than and more I am sure you will discover your own unique style.

This guide is cleaved downward as follows:

1. Learning this skill will help you! I promise
2. And so I hear reading a paper is hard. Why?
3. How are papers typically organized?
4. My "bullet proof" approach to reading papers
5. Tools to help you get the chore done

Why Learn to Read Papers?

Reading papers certainly builds character because It often takes many hours and in that location is no guarantee you walk abroad with the whole story. This is non to disparage you, simply but to be open up and transparent. Reading papers is hard, there are no two means about it. Advances in fields such as machine learning, deep learning, data scientific discipline, databases, and data engineering often come in the course of bookish enquiry, whose language is that of academic papers. Call back about some of the techniques y'all might use: Convolutional Neural Networks, PCA, and AdaBoost (even Deep Boosting!). These all came out of enquiry, and yes they all have papers. Also, consider that there are many papers on the application and use of these techniques and when you are trying to solve a specific problem, these papers can be critical. Beyond staying current with research information technology is as well worth traveling to the past and giving older papers a read. You will acquire so much. I promise.

Looking at the field of deep learning it seems equally though a new critical newspaper is coming out every few days or weeks. The only manner to stay on top of information technology is to go a agree of the paper and give it a read.

Where the Difficulties Arise…

Here is a figure from a 2017 scientific paper¹ by Hubbard and Dunbar, about reading scientific papers. Scientific Newspaper inception!

Fig 2. Different sections of scientific papers are considered easy to read and of import at unlike stages of academic careers.

A: The proportion of participants because a section easy to read (presented as 'Somewhat like shooting fish in a barrel', 'easy' 'very easy' combined) equally a office of career stage. Results of Chi-square tests are indicated on the left mitt side. B: The mean importance rank of sections as a part of career stage. Mistake confined are omitted from private points for clarity, with the sole mistake bar in grey representing the largest 95% conviction interval for any of the data points. Asterisks above data points bespeak meaning differences in response compared with the previous career stage as determined past Isle of mann-Whitney postal service-hoc tests.

One unsurprising result indicates the further an academic progresses into their career, the easier they observe each section of a newspaper to read. An interesting point is how the various career stages view the importance of each section. Methods, Results and figures seem to be very important, ostensibly because as academics they have greater skill in their field, allowing them to be critical of a newspaper's methods. It also means they know their field very well, thereofore, the introduction and abstract take less importance. Early phase PhD students discover the methods, results, and figures fairly difficult to sympathize. This makes perfect sense as those are the areas of a paper that require the most knowledge of a field to get through. You are probable to have a similar experience.

What is it exactly that makes going through this process so hard and time consuming?

• Authors tend to presume significant background knowledge from readers
• Academic syntax is dumbo and thus difficult for readers to parse
• Mathematical expressions are typically condensed and equations reordered for concision, oftentimes skipping steps in derivations
• Substantial knowledge gaps are filled if a reader has read cited papers (sort of similar — y'all demand experience to get a job, but need a job to get experience!)
• Not all conclusions drawn are right. Small sample size and ability, poor study design, researcher bias, and selective reporting ensures that you must be a critical reader!

Clearly there is a lot to consider when reading a newspaper. Scared? Time to lighten the mood. Hither is a hilarious commodity written on the horrors of reading papers past Dr. Adam Ruben from Science. It shows even scientists can concord that papers are both difficult to read and given how dense they are, will keep you regular.

Think about this, the more than papers yous read, the more you will larn and the faster this process of reading becomes. Trends start cropping up into plain view, and you lot begin to proceeds insight into the scientific method, empathise what certain authors and groups are working on, and form an appreciation for the field you are learning well-nigh. Over time all of this cognition and skill builds into your ability to read papers quicker, more efficiently and with greater success. Learning to read papers is akin to learning to eat. It is messy at first, and your palette is not very well developed. But over fourth dimension your eating experience enhances and y'all acquire more than about what you like and don't like and when a chef's meal is good and poor.

How Papers are Organized

Proficient news here. The overwhelming majority of papers follow, more or less, the same convention of organization:

1. Title: Hopefully catchy, possibly sexy! Includes additional info about the authors and their institutions
2. Abstruse: Loftier level summary
3. Introduction: Background info on the field and related research leading up to this paper
4. Methods: Highly detailed section on the study that was conducted, how it was prepare, any instruments used, and finally, the procedure and workflow
5. Results: Authors talk about the data that was created or collected, information technology should read as an unbiased account of what occurred
6. Discussions: Here is where authors translate the results, and convince the readers of their findings and hypothesis
7. References: Whatsoever other work that was cited in the body of the text will bear witness upwardly here
8. Appendix: More figures, additional treatments on related math, or extra items of interest tin can discover their way in an appendix

Developing a Systematic Approach

When you sit down down to read information technology's of import to take a program. Only starting to read from folio one to the end will probably exercise you no proficient. Beyond retaining express information, you will be exhausted and accept gained very little for the tremendous effort. This is where many people stop.

Do program to spend anywhere from 3–6 hours to actually digest a paper, remember they are very dumbo! Be ready and willing to make several passes through the paper, each time looking to extract unlike information and agreement. And please, do yourself a favor and practise not read the paper front to finish on your first laissez passer.

Below are two lists. (i.) the systematic arroyo I take, more or less, when reading a paper (ii.) a general list of questions I try to reply as I go through the paper. I typically add more specific questions depending on the paper.

Let'due south get started!

1. Try to find a tranquillity place for a few hours and catch your favorite potable (could be coffee, tea, or annihilation actually). Nowadays I often find myself working in splendid coffee shops².
2. Showtime by reading the championship and abstract. Aiming to gain a high level overview of the newspaper. What are the principal goal(due south) of the writer(south) and the high level results. The abstract typically provides some clues into the purpose of the paper. Retrieve of the abstract as advertizement.
3. Spend nearly 15 minutes skimming the paper. Have a quick look at the figures and note any keywords to look out for when reading the text. Try to go a sense for the layout of the paper and where things are located. You volition exist referencing back and forth betwixt the different sections and pages later, it helps knowing where stuff is located. Attempt non to spend time taking any notes or highlighting/underlining anything merely yet.
4. Turn your attention to the introduction. The more unfamiliar I am with the paper/field, the longer I spend in the intro. Authors tend to do a good job consolidating background info and providing copious amounts of references. This section is commonly the easiest to read and it nearly feels like you are reading from a textbook. Take notes of other references and groundwork info yous don't know or want to examine further.
5. This role is extremely disquisitional. Advisedly pace through each figure and try to get a feeling for what they are telling you. When I was an undergrad, my neuroscience mentor gave me some good communication. Paraphrasing: "Figures contain some of the nigh important data in a newspaper. Authors spend a lot of fourth dimension creating them and accounted the information they incorporate to be of import plenty to communicate to the reader using a visual. Pay item attending to them." You volition not understand all the figures very well the get-go fourth dimension you pace through them, but you will gain some idea of what the authors think is most important, and y'all will also reveal valuable information about what to pay attention to when you read the other sections.
6. And then far you lot have probably spent most an hour. Take a break. Walk a fleck, savor a croissant!
7. Now y'all are gear up to make a offset pass through the paper. This time you should start to take some loftier level notes. You will come upon words, and ideas that are foreign to you. Don't feel like you need to stop at every affair that does not make sense, you lot can simply mark it and motility on. Aim to spend about an hour and a half. Yous don't want to get bogged downwards just yet in all the gory details. The goal of the starting time laissez passer is to get acquainted with the paper. Like a first appointment. Your going to larn about the paper, ask some good questions, maybe make information technology laugh. But you don't desire to get into every single little item. That is rude. Begin again with the abstract, quickly skim through the introduction, requite the methods department a diligent pass. Pay attending to the overall set, the methods section includes a ton of item yous don't demand to scrutinize every part at this point. Finally, read the results and discussion section aiming for some clarity on the key findings and how these findings were determined. Remember, the authors are trying to convince you, the reader, of the merit and findings of their work.
8. Saved by the bell. Take a break, do some jumping jacks and get the blood flowing. Unless y'all're in a coffee shop. So don't do that.
9. Now that yous take a good overview of the newspaper you lot are going to become into the nitty gritty of the figures. Having read the methods, results and give-and-take department, you lot should be able to extract out more than gems from the figures. Find those gems. Aim to spend another 30 minutes to an 60 minutes on the figures.
10. Y'all should feel confident in taking a second full pass through the newspaper. This time you volition exist reading with a very critical eye. This pass can take a long time an hour or two, you tin can also save this for after in the day, or the following day. Pay particular attending to the areas yous marked equally being difficult to sympathize. Leave no word undefined and brand sure you understand each sentence. This laissez passer you are trying to really acquire the paper. Skim through areas you feel confident in (abstruse, intros, results). The focus should be on shoring upward what you did not understand previously, and gaining a control of the methods section and finally being a critical reader of the discussion section. The discussion section is where you tin can consider the authors' reasoning/rational and take what you learned from reading the paper and weigh it confronting evidence supplied in the paper. This section should spark some interesting questions for you to ask your friends, or colleagues. You tin fifty-fifty electronic mail the authors of the newspaper with an insightful question! It might take them a while to get back to you, but authors practice enjoy having dialogue regarding their inquiry and are typically more than happy to answer a question for a reader.
11. At this point, you should feel confident talking almost the paper with colleagues, thinking critically about the results, and existence able to compare the piece of work to other research in the field (if you have read other papers). To retain and enforce what you have learned, I advise y'all write well-nigh the paper. It can simply be a few paragraphs about what you learned and the significance of the results. You can reference the list of questions yous were answering as you read through the paper.

As mentioned in a higher place, hither is a general list of questions to help guide you. If you lot can answer these you have a solid agreement of the paper, at least to where you can communicate intelligently virtually it to others.

          i. What previous research and ideas were cited that this newspaper is building off of? (this info tends to live in the introduction)
2. Was there reasoning for performing this enquiry, if and so what was information technology? (introduction department)
3. Conspicuously list out the objectives of the study
4. Was any equipment/software used? (methods department)
5. What variables were measured during experimentation? (methods)
half-dozen. Were any statistical tests used? What were their results? (methods/results section)
seven. What are the chief findings? (results section)
eight. How do these results fit into the context of other research and their 'field'? (discussion department)
9. Explain each figure and hash out their significance.
ten. Can the results be reproduced and is at that place whatever code bachelor?
11. Name the authors, year, and title of the paper!
12. Are any of the authors familiar, do you know their previous work?            
thirteen. What key terms and concepts do I not know and need to look up in a dictionary, textbook, or inquire someone?
14. What are your thoughts on the results? Exercise they seem valid?        

I recommend finding people either in person or online to discuss the paper. Start a periodical club with a goal of getting through ane–2 papers a month. The amount of extra insight I have gained from discussing a paper with a friend is immense. Remember.. the merely thing better than suffering through a paper alone, is suffering through it with friends!

On some other notation there was a skillful commodity written by Keshav³ on how to read a newspaper. He introduces and explores a iii phrase arroyo that might be of some interest to yous. Requite it a read as well!

Tools to Help You Go the Task Done

Y'all tin can discover papers primarily from several sources:

• arXiv: is an open-access repository (maintained at Cornell) where you tin can freely download and read pre-print research papers from many quantitative fields. Here is some more general info about arXiv. Many papers you find on the web will link back to the arXiv paper.
• PubMed: They say information technology best: "PubMed Fundamental® (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Wellness's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM)." PubMed has a robust search feature if you are looking for medical or life science related papers.
• Google Scholar: I use google scholar merely as I would use google. Merely search for a topic, writer or newspaper and google gets to piece of work, on your behalf. Equally Google puts it "Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From 1 place, you tin can search beyond many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and courtroom opinions, from academic publishers, professional person societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research."
• Social media: I find out about a lot of new papers simply by following and keeping upwards with several people who actively publish. Added bonus.. they typically push other papers they discover interesting and which you might desire to know most or read.
• Friends and colleagues: Find people interested in the aforementioned stuff as you lot, read papers with them and larn from each other. I get recommendations for expert papers from friends. They act as good filters.
• University: going to your local higher or university (if at that place is one close past) gives you admission to libraries, librarians (very helpful search wizards!) and many journals where you can detect and read articles that are typically behind online paywalls.

As you brainstorm to read more papers you are going to desire to shop them somewhere. Tossing PDFs into a folder on your drive is all well and good, just there are creature comforts missing. Most researchers and grad students use a reference managing director. Zotero and Mendeley are very pop, I like Zotero. Recently, I take been using PaperPile. I like PaperPile because information technology is lightweight, lives in my browser, and uses Google Drive to back upwardly and store all my PDFs. It has a simple, refreshing user interface, and it has a really good tagging and folder hierarchy system. I can also annotate PDFs in my browser and build citation lists when I write. You get a lot of these features with almost any reference manager, but I happen to similar PaperPile best.

A reference manager volition quickly become your best friend as you lot collect and read more than and more than papers.

Thank you for reading through this. I promise y'all establish it helpful and it gave yous some good ideas when tackling your side by side paper. Well-nigh people have their own unique process when reading a paper. I am certain y'all will develop your own tweaks in time, hopefully this is a good template for you to get started.

For now just trust the process.

I am besides hoping that we volition get some good feedback and comments with other tips and tricks from readers.

Cheers,

Kyle

Accomplish me at: datasci@kmshannon.com

linkedin.com/in/kmshannon/

twitter.com/ButFirstData

[one] Hubbard, Chiliad. E., & Dunbar, S. D. (2017). Perceptions of scientific research literature and strategies for reading papers depend on academic career stage. PloS i, 12(12), e0189753.

[2] Shout out to Chris at CoffeeCycle! Simply the best coffee in San Diego.

[3] Keshav, South. (2007). How to read a paper. ACM SIGCOMM Reckoner Communication Review, 37(3), 83–84.

brownvathe1991.blogspot.com

Source: https://towardsdatascience.com/guide-to-reading-academic-research-papers-c69c21619de6

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