Best Practices Reading News & Pop-culture Items Reading Textbooks Reading Scientific Journal Articles

This page outlines my personal approach to reading and is meant to help you quickly and critically assess a document. This is not the only right way to read – use what works for you, forget the rest.

Introduction: How does a scientist read?

There’s often more to reading than it may seem. Although we are taught in school to sit down and read books cover to cover, that’s rarely how material is digested by scientists. And even though each scientist has developed their own approach to reading that suits them personally (as you should do!), there are some common themes and practices that can help when attempting to process scientific writing. Although the cover-to-cover approach is good for certain materials (e.g. textbooks and novels), alternate methods are often employed when approaching scientific writings. Instead of reading a journal article from start to finish, scientists will usually start with the title and abstract, move on the skimming the results and conclusions, and – if deemed worthwhile – dive in and read the paper thoroughly. Finally, a scientist will go back over the paper again and spend time processing and new or unfamiliar concepts. Throughout this process, scientists are assessing the article for relevancy and accuracy. And that’s is a key point of critical reading in the sciences: We are always assessing the claims we read for factual basis. Regardless of the strategies you develop for your own reading habits, the important thing as that you are an active, critical reader.

Best Practices for Scientific Reading

Embrace confusion and ambiguity (at first). You’ll be confronted with numerous words, techniques, and details that may not immediately make sense. That’s OK! In fact, it means you’ll have a lot to learn from the paper, which should make it quite interesting. Try not to get frustrated or derailed by these things at first and instead focus on the parts you understand. Go back and fill in the gaps later.
Develop an note-taking system. Come up with note-taking habits that work for you. You can highlight books, make notes in the margins, outline readings on a separate sheet of paper, take notes on a computer, use bullet journaling, adopt the Cornell method, draw pictures, or whatever works for you. Just develop a consistent note-taking format that you’ll be able to use and recognize throughout your career. Often some hybrid of these various systems works best for most people.
Read without distraction. Find a productive environment to read. It may be a quiet library, and pleasantly noisy coffee shop, your dorm room, or a sunny spot on campus. You may need complete quite or perhaps music helps you focus. Find the environment that works best for you – and don’t forget about that Do Not Disturb setting on your phone!
Review your notes. Set aside 5-10 minutes each day to review your notes from the past few days. Reviewing concepts over and over is the best way to make them stick. And the more often you review, the less you have to cram before a test!
Know when to stop. We all reach a point when we need a break. Know when you need a break and don’t be afraid to give it to yourself.

Strategies for Scientific Reading

News/Popculture

Read the Title. Try to anticipate what the work will address, and assess whether the article seems legitimate or sensationalized (i.e. clickbait).
Assess the Publisher and Author of the Article. Can you think of any competing interests? For example, would an article about the positive health effects of eating Cheerios published by General Mills be suspect? Competing interests don’t make something untrue, but do warrant close inspection.
Read the Article. News/magazine articles often have a lot of “fluff” and often repeat themselves. There are many parts you may be able to skim over, but make sure you fully understand their claims and the evidence for their claims.
Note Dubious or Unqualified Claims. Make note of any claims that seem too good to be true and try to find alternate sources to back them up.
Reflect. Summarize the key argument or theme of the piece. Do you agree or disagree? How does it fit in with your prior knowledge of the topic?

Textbooks

Read Cover to Cover. For assigned readings from textbooks you should read from start to finish. That said, if there’s a day when you truly don’t have time to read an assignment cover to cover, even skimming the material is better than not looking at it at all.
Take Notes. Take notes while you read and bring a list of questions about the reading to ask in class.
Reflect. Summarize the key concepts covered in each assigned section.
Review. Review terms, key concepts, and figures often. Again, the more you review, the less you need to cram!
Study the Table of Contents. Get to know the layout of the book so you can quickly find material.
Learn to Use the Index. If you need to look up a specific item, check for it in the index.
Do the Practice Problems and Problems with Solutions. The more you practice something, the easier it gets.
Use the Glossary. Look up unknown terms in the glossary.
Use Bookmarks for Important Items. Fill your book with sticky notes or some other book mark to quickly find the things you reference often.

For Journal Articles

Read the Title. As you read the title, try to anticipate what the work will address.
Skim the Abstract and Results Sections. Analyze any figures and tables to understand their content. Try to identify the major conclusions.
Skim the Entire Document. Get a sense for the layout of the document and what’s addressed where. Scan topic sentences (usually the first sentence of each paragraph) during this process. Keep in mind that headings may contain key information as well.
Note and Look Up New Vocabulary As you scan the document, keep a list of any words you don’t know and look them up. This will help when you read the document in detail. Keep doing this throughout your read.
Go Back and Read the Full Document. Read the entire document, but focus on the places that are most important to your project or assignment (you’ll know where these are from skimming it). For example, you may encounter background information you already know in the Introduction, which you can read quickly. Or, you may encounter experimental details you don’t need to understand in detail – you may also read quickly over those. But if your project requires you to have a deep understanding of a particular result you should spend extra time on that part of the paper.
Take Notes. There are many styles of note taking, so it doesn’t so much matter how you take notes as long as you take notes! This boosts reading comprehension for many students. You should determine which style works best for you (see Habits, below). And remember to keep noting and looking up new vocabulary as you read.
Note Unqualified and/or Dubious Claims and Look for References. Learn to spot claims that aren’t backed up with data and find the source of the claim in the references section. Make a list of these references and follow up on them later.
Reflect. After you’ve finished reading, try to summarize the key points of what you just read. Think about how it connects with other things you’ve read. Does it agree or disagree with other sources? It may be helpful to write these things in your notes or do write a such a summary of each section.