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How to Read a Paper (2016) [pdf]

blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca

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Re: How to Read a Paper (2016) [pdf]

#3
This has some nice hints on how to read the text of a paper, but I think it misses all the important things that you need to be aware when you want to understand a paper. In particular, things like the research paradigm or research programme in which the paper fits, its historical context etc. I wrote a post about this recently: http://tomasp.net/blog/2017/papers-we-scrutinize/

Re: How to Read a Paper (2016) [pdf]

#7
I was all ready to mock this by saying how most papers get only 1) Read the abstract, 2) Read the conclusion, 3) Look at the graphics, from me.

Turns out that it's basically what the paper says, but then goes into more detail about going into more detail. Worth at least a second pass :)

Re: How to Read a Paper (2016) [pdf]

#8
I sometimes do an exercise with my students where I give them a paper and ask them to tell me in 5 minutes what is the research question and the answer. Usually works well (if the paper is well written), and shows hem that they can get a good grasp of papers without spending hours reading them.

Re: How to Read a Paper (2016) [pdf]

#9
If papers were written better, you might not need to read them over 3 times.

There should be a paper called "how to write useful headlines for your paper."

"first pass" "second pass" "third pass" should be replaced with unique, useful, preferably memorable headlines. For instance: "Quick scan" "Deeper but ignore details" and "Challenge every assumption in every statement"

Then you haven't wasted the attention those big bold headlines get.

Re: How to Read a Paper (2016) [pdf]

#10

I was all ready to mock this by saying how most papers get only 1) Read the abstract, 2) Read the conclusion, 3) Look at the graphics, from me. Turns out that it's basically what the paper says, but then goes into more detail about going into more detail. Worth at least a second pass :)

It's how I got through over 10,000 papers on IT and INFOSEC. When they're well-written, I could look at the abstract, a select bit of details, related work, and conclusion. Would take me about a minute or so a paper once I got good at it. Sometimes less. Some papers were more complex or just not well written where it took significantly more time to evaluate them. All in all, though, the speed reading methods save a ton of time.
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