Skip to main content

Scientific Papers: Methods to read with Lucidity

Introduction

Despite passing out of engineering, surpassing books and topics heavier than my body weight, I am yet to understand how to read those scientific papers with a sense of achievement.
Upon googling and pleading to a higher being for help, I figured that there are some hard and fast methods that you could apply while reading that highly complex literature. 

1. Communicate with the Paper

Think of the scientific paper as a girl/guy that is way out of your league. Muster some courage, crack your knuckles (Do some pre-reading about the topic) and approach the paper with the utmost respect and try to build an effective rapport with it. 
Try to think from the author's perspective and ask yourself why he would have written it in this manner, whether he stresses or repeats contents if you can see any patterns or techniques in the content that you can inculcate in your project or homework.
Ensure that you approach the paper with a goal, read the abstract before you dive in deep.

2.   Find your superhuman ability and put it to use

If you are the lazy but as curious as a cat as I am, you are likely to stall after reading a few lines just because you were unable to comprehend the underlying definitions and root causes of the paragraph. The only option here is to use tools ( foundational notes, videos) or guidance (such as your lecturers or smartass friends) which would help simplify the damn show that the author was trying to put up. Also, finding out what your learning style is would best help you understand and store info better for later use. 

Look at what one of the genius hotties at Harvard has to say...

"I will save informative sentences from each article about a specific topic in a Word document. I'll write comments along the way about new ideas I got or questions I need to explore further. Then, in the future, I’ll only need to read this document instead of re-reading all the individual papers.
Likewise, when I want to figure out how to conduct a particular experiment, I create a handy table in Excel summarizing how a variety of research teams went about doing a particular experiment."

- Lina A. Colucci, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program.

3.   Dig into the graphs and illustrations

Consider providing special attention to why the author had put up these graphs over the possible those, and try to derive maximum information from them. Verify your findings from the graph with the content that author served you with and circle out the anomalies. Work on them and you will find yourself with less pity for your life. 

Conclusion

This is not the end, only the beginning! I will try to update this post with relevant info as and when I can, so do revisit if you liked it.

References:

http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/03/how-seriously-read-scientific-paper


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AI Springtime!

Post the freedom of physically strenuous jobs due to the industrial revolution, slavery has taken its form in the shape of mental torture through meaningless work: middle management of stuff and staff who do not need supervision, box tickers, cold callers, maintenance on the same problems every day, being a Donald Trump etc., you get my point. These are the kind of jobs we don't need a brain for, in fact these are the exact kind of jobs that kill our brains in the first place. Yet many are satisfied to spend a third of their day doing work with no meaning as long as the greens fill their pockets. Not to mention that they are absolutely ready to challenge any change or innovation such as AI which would pose a threat to their jobs, not knowing that this would lead to their retraining which would allow them to enroll in jobs with a purpose.There was a time when we could see the result of our sweat and blood, which was the original definition of work, or labor. But now the notion hold
2 comments
Read more

Have you fed a lion on your first date? Rather, are you yet to have your first lucid dream?

If you have been oblivious to the opportunities lucid dreaming provides you with, read on. Think of a world where everything is possible. You could be a part of this. Think of a world which is a fresh start every day. You could be a part of this too. Think of a dimension where you end up marrying your childhood crush ( not sure if it ever is a good idea), you could be a part of any of these crazy fantasies.  I want you to try this on a dull day when you wish you had a little magic to life. Set up an hourly chime/alarm app: Android users click here and Apple users over here . This will enable you to perform reality checks throughout the day. Ask yourself if you are in the real world or if you are in a dream every time the reminder goes off. Count your fingers, look at yourself in a mirror. If you were in a dream, you may find yourself with eleven or more fingers, find a distorted face of yourself in the mirror or lose a sense of gravity. Reality checks are important for
Post a Comment
Read more