Interesting paper. Consequently, a similar approach is outlined in "How to Read a Book" by Mortimer J. Adler, which covers reading approaches for a variety of formats.
How to Read a Paper [pdf]
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Re: How to Read a Paper [pdf]
#12Is there a DOI for this paper? Couldn’t find it
Re: How to Read a Paper [pdf]
#13"The first version of this document was drafted by my students: …"
So why aren't they listed as co-authors? :-)
Re: How to Read a Paper [pdf]
#14I give all my doctoral students a copy of the following great paper (and I've used a variant of the check list at the end for years - avoids errors when working on multiple papers with multiple international teams in parallel):
How to Write a Paper http://www-mech.eng.cam.ac.uk/mmd/ashby-paper-V6.pdf
Re: How to Read a Paper [pdf]
#15Is there a DOI for this paper? Couldn’t find it
It's an ACM publication, when in doubt search their digital library:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1273445.1273458 is their entry for it with the following: https://doi.org/10.1145/1273445.1273458
Re: How to Read a Paper [pdf]
#16interesting. Are there such papers - that one can check the proofs and references and etc - on IT/computing related stuff? Most papers i have stumbled upon, back in time, have been some mumbo-jumbo showing-off this or that approach or achievement, but rarely coherent or consistent (one example talks X, another talks Y, with no link inbetween).
Hence i stopped reading any such papers, years ago..
Re: How to Read a Paper [pdf]
#17The 3-pass method seems to roughly correspond the Adler's[1] technique for reading a book. The first pass is the systematic skimming of the inspectional level, the second pass corresponds to the analytical level, and the final pass of evaluating the arguments and ideas corresponds to his syntopical level.
1 Adler, Mortimer Jerome, and Charles Van Doren. 1972. How to Read a Book. Rev. and updated ed. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Re: How to Read a Paper [pdf]
#18I don't really agree with such advice. The only important thing is to read (or skim) many papers in the relevant field. Initially they will be hard to understand as they are full of difficult jargon. But after a while, you will notice the jargon that repeats across articles, be able to look it up, and ultimately understand more and more. After a while it will be fairly easy.
But there is no general "paper reading ability" one could learn. Papers outside your field of expertise will always be hard to understand as long as you are not used to the relevant field, the jargon and style.
Re: How to Read a Paper [pdf]
#19"The first version of this document was drafted by my students: …" So why aren't they listed as co-authors? :-)
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Re: How to Read a Paper [pdf]
#20I give all my doctoral students a copy of the following great paper (and I've used a variant of the check list at the end for years - avoids errors when working on multiple papers with multiple international teams in parallel): How to Write a Paper http://www-mech.eng.cam.ac.uk/mmd/ashby-paper-V6.pdf
Umberto Eco wrote a little (229p) volume titled How to Write a Thesis in 1977. In the introduction to the revised 1985 edition, Eco describes the book as one that "focuses on the spirit, mentality, and research methods required to write a good thesis, rather than on its content".
It's a bit longer than Ashby's paper, and some of the internet age may look disdainfully on his advice for index cards, paper notes, and photocopies, but the intent behind them and the general method translates easily to the digital age, and thankfully we have tools like Zotero to drastically reduce some of the busywork.