🛑 STOP! 🛑

Do not try to read a scientific paper from beginning to end like you would a novel. Actual scientists do not read papers from beginning to end. Save time and frustration by reading strategically.

Have a goal in mind

What do you want to learn from this paper? What questions do you hope it can answer? Think about that before you read. This will focus your reading and help you to pull out the important information.

Example goals could be: "I want to understand why mononucleosis is more prevalent among teenagers and young adults" OR "I want to know how close we are to having an effective vaccine against mononucleosis"

How to read

1. Read the abstract. What is this paper about? Is it relevant to your reading goals? If not, move on to another article.
2. Read/skim the introduction. This gives you the background information you need to understand the study. Look up words and concepts you don't understand in an accessible source like Wikipedia.
3. Look at the charts and graphs and read the discussion. What did the researchers find? How does this answer your questions?
4. Read/skim the other sections, saving the methods for last. Are the researchers' conclusions supported by their methods and results?
5. Think back to your reading goals. Did the paper answer your questions? Take some notes about how this paper can fit into your writing assignment.
6. If you need to read more articles, look at the introduction and reference sections.

Anatomy of a scientific paper

Most scientific papers have roughly the same structure. Some parts of the paper are easier to understand and give a good summary of the study and results. Others are very dense and may not be necessary for you to understand. Knowing which sections to focus on is important.