Alright current and future science majors, listen up! As someone pursuing a future in science, you are gonna have to keep up with the latest research going on, and if you are planning to pursuing research, you definitely have to keep up! Scientists love to write complicated jargon about their research in a thing called “peer-review journals”. Sounds terrifying, yes? Hold your seats, cause I’m gonna give you a crash course on how to read them and understand them. This is an important skill to have to help you excel in research, peer review and even writing your own paper in the future.
One of my biggest struggle in being a science major and going into research was I didn’t know how to read and understand peer-review papers; sure reading the paper was fine, but understanding? That was a whole new algorithm. But as time passed, and I read more and more papers, I got used to it. It takes more than a skim through the paper to get it, and if you don’t get it the first time, don’t give up! With practice, and a bit of knowledge how to actually read the paper, you might get more out of it than you think!
Before we go on, I want to clarify, the kind of reading I’m going over is about primary research articles, and some of the techniques might not work for you, but it’s a trial-and-error process of learning.
What you need:
Choose your medium: print vs pdf. Most peer review articles are found online, especially if your university has subscriptions to peer-review journals like Nature, Science, etc. Some people prefer simply pulling up the pdf and reading it from there, and that’s perfectly fine. I personally like to print the articles out so I can read, highlight, and annotate on it.
Have two colored pens on hand, preferably not black because you want to distinguish your notes from the paper.
A sticky note pad and/or notebook to take notes on the side if you can’t fit enough in the margins for annotations
2 highlighters, one for general overview of understand the content, and the other for the findings in the research
The Basics
Skim the first time. Read more than one time.
Always write down or underline unfamiliar words. Go look them up!
Annotation is key! Take notes!!
Describe the data in your own words: graphs, charts, pictures, etc.
Reading strategy changes with different papers. Some authors are great at explaining things; others suck.
Abstract & Introduction
Right off the bat, what does the title tell you about the paper?
Read the introduction first, not the abstract.
Look for the objectives and hypothesis; what are the researchers looking for? These are the ideas that the researchers will be investigating to prove throughout their paper.
Noting other references. The intro gives a bit of background information on the topic to set you up for the paper, and makes references to other papers. If you have time or you need further clarification, these references are a great to skim through to get a better understanding of the current field of the topic.
Summarize the background into a paragraph.
“What work has been done before in this field to answer the BIG QUESTION? What are the limitations of that work? What, according to the authors, needs to be done next?” (violentmetaphors)
Methods and Materials
This section isn’t always super relevant, unless you are reading the peer-review paper in order to set up your own experimental design; and if so, it’s best to consult your PI or a head-research faculty member who can assist you through the process, since they are the ones who will be writing research proposals and grants, etc.
Copy names of method used, and research a bit about it; for example, why use a drug-delivery system for inhibition versus making a genetic mutation, etc.
Draw the methods out. It helps visualizing how the research was done. It doesn’t have to be super detailed and art-sy, but enough to get the basic point across.
Results and Discussion
Pay close attention to tables and pictures. Analyze and interpret what they are trying to tell you. You’ll find that most good papers can be explained through their data.
Read the section with close attention. You’ll be surprised how easily you can miss a “few things”.
Try to answer the following questions: Do the results answer the question? What is your interpretation of the results?
Interpret the data in your own words before looking at the captions and the paragraph referring to the diagrams.
What do the researchers think the results mean? Are there alternatives to the results? Are there any limitations to the research that the researchers identified? What are prospective future studies that can be conducted?
Researchers will not always tell you what they did, or why they did what they did. And sometimes what they did makes no sense. There are stories behind this…like lack of funding, low sample size, etc. it’s your job to identify this and keep it in consideration. Remember, just because it’s stated in a peer-review article does not make it correct or “the answer”.
Put it all together, the Conclusion:
Read the abstract. This will summarize everything in the paper, including what the paper was looking to prove/disprove and the results.
Put it all together. Sometimes a mind map helps organize all the thoughts into one coherent place.
Side note: Do not take a peer-review paper’s word for granted. Just because it has been published at a “top-tier science magazine” like Science, Nature, The Scientist, etc. does not always make it the most credible and correct source of experiment. Trust me, I’ve analyzed some pretty bad peer-review papers in “top science magazines”. Second side note, science does not prove anything true. It can only disprove something. We are constantly learning something new, and the field is always expanding.
Other resources:
How to (seriously) read science papers by ScienceMag
Read (Science) Journal Articles by caffeinatedconfidence
How to read scientific papers part 1 / part 2 by @acysandendorphines
Infographic: How to read a scientific paper by Natalia Rodriguez
How to read and understand a scientific paper: a guide for non-scientists by violentmetaphors
How to read science papers by ScienceMag (humor)
How to read a scientific paper by sciencebuddies
