On Reading a Research Paper

Research papers are not for the layman, unlike most articles and blogs on the web. They are almost certainly for those skilled in a specific field. It’s not easy for anyone to grab a random research paper and start consuming everything with full understanding.

To read research papers and benefit from it, you need to know two things:

1. What do you want out of the paper?
2. Where to find it in the paper?

Research papers are usually presented in three broad sections; the introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction will contain the main reason for writing the paper, the problem being solved in the paper, and some idea of how the problem was solved. The body will go into detail about how the problem was solved, the steps involved in solving the problem and new ideas or methods that were invented to solve the problem if any, why this solution to the problem was used, and what makes this solution to the problem better than the previous methods. The conclusion will contain a summary of the paper and the next steps from the paper.

To fully understand and retain as much as you can from a research paper, you need to make notes while reading the paper and alongside making the notes, the following are questions you want to answer while reading a paper.

1. Why was the paper written in the first place? What is the main problem the author is trying to solve?
2. How did the author solve the problem? Why is the solution best for the problem?
3. Does the solution work? How does it compare to previous solutions?
4. What do you think of the problem and the solution?
5. What value does the paper bring to their field? Do the authors use a new experimental method? Do the authors create new software tools and algorithms?
6. What are the next steps for the paper?
7. How would you summarise the paper? From your perspective, what implications does the paper have for the field?

As you’re reading the paper, you attempt to answer the questions, proactively, gain more context on the paper, and make more connections between sections of the paper. If at the end of a paper you haven’t fully grasped the content, you’d likely need to read through again. A second reading is sometimes necessary to fully understand the paper.