It is crucial to stay on top of the scientific literature in your field of interest. This will help you shape and guide your experimental plans and keep you informed about what your competitors are working on.
To get the most out of your literature reading time, you need to learn how to read scientific papers efficiently. The problem is that we simply don’t have enough time to read new scientific papers in our results-driven world.
It takes a great deal of time for researchers to learn how to read research papers. Unfortunately, this skill is rarely taught.
I wasted a lot of time reading unnecessary papers in the past since I didn’t have an appropriate workflow to follow. In particular, I needed a way to determine if a paper would interest me before I read it from start to finish.
So, what’s the solution?
This is where I came across the Three-pass method for reading research papers.
Here’s what I’ve learned from using the three pass methods and what tweaks I’ve made to my workflow to make it more personalized.
Build time into your schedule
Before you read anything, you should set aside a set amount of time to read research papers. It will be very hard to read research papers if you do not have a schedule because you will only try to read them for a week or two, and then you will feel frustrated. An organized schedule reduces procrastination significantly.
For example, I take 30-40 minutes each weekday morning to read a research paper I come across.
After you have determined a time “only” to read research papers, you have to have a proper workflow.
Develop a workflow
For example, I follow a customized version of the popular workflow, the “Three-pass method”.
When you are beginning, you may follow the method exactly as described, but as you get more experienced, you can make some changes down the road.
Why you shouldn’t read the entire paper at once?
Oftentimes, the papers you think are so important and that you should read every single word are actually worth only 10 minutes of your time.
Unlike reading an article about science in a blog or newspaper, reading research papers is an entirely different experience. In addition to reading the sections in a different order, you must take notes, read them several times, and probably look up other papers for details.
It may take you a long time to read one paper at first. But that’s okay because you are investing yourself in the process.
However, you’re wasting your time if you don’t have a proper workflow.
Oftentimes, reading a whole paper might not be necessary to get the specific information you need.
The Three-pass concept
The key idea is to read the paper in up to three passes rather than starting at the beginning and plowing through it. With each pass, you accomplish specific goals and build upon the previous one.
The first pass gives you a general idea of the paper. A second pass will allow you to understand the content of the paper, but not its details. A third pass helps you understand the paper more deeply.
The first pass (Maximum: 10 minutes)
The paper is scanned quickly in the first pass to get an overview. Also, you can decide if any more passes are needed. It should take about five to ten minutes to complete this pass.
Carefully read the title, abstract, and introduction
You should be able to tell from the title what the paper is about. In addition, it is a good idea to look at the authors and their affiliations, which may be valuable for various reasons, such as future reference, employment, guidance, and determining the reliability of the research.
The abstract should provide a high-level overview of the paper. You may ask, What are the main goals of the author(s) and what are the high-level results? There are usually some clues in the abstract about the paper’s purpose. You can think of the abstract as a marketing piece.
As you read the introduction, make sure you only focus on the topic sentences, and you can loosely focus on the other content.
What is a topic sentence?
Topic sentences introduce a paragraph by introducing the one topic that will be the focus of that paragraph.
The structure of a paragraph should match the organization of a paper. At the paragraph level, the topic sentence gives the paper’s main idea, just as the thesis statement does at the essay level. After that, the rest of the paragraph supports the topic.
In the beginning, I read the whole paragraph, and it took me more than 30 minutes to complete the first pass. By identifying topic sentences, I have revolutionized my reading game, as I am now only reading the summary of the paragraph, saving me a lot of time during the second and third passes.
Read the section and sub-section headings, but ignore everything else
Regarding methods and discussions, do not attempt to read even topic sentences because you are trying to decide whether this article is useful to you.
Reading the headings and subheadings is the best practice. It allows you to get a feel for the paper without taking up a lot of time.
Read the conclusions
It is standard for good writers to present the foundations of their experiment at the beginning and summarize their findings at the end of their paper.
Therefore, you are well prepared to read and understand the conclusion after reading the abstract and introduction.
Many people overlook the importance of the first pass. In adopting the three-pass method into my workflow, I realized that many papers that I thought had high relevance did not require me to spend more time reading.
Therefore, after the first pass, I can decide not to read it further, saving me a lot of time.
Glance over the references
You can mentally check off the ones you’ve already read.
As you read through the references, you will better understand what has been studied previously in the field of research.
First pass objectives
At the end of the first pass, you should be able to answer these questions:
- What is the category of this paper? Is it an analytical paper? Is it only an “introductory” paper? (if this is the case, probably, you might not want to read further, but it depends on the information you are after)or is it an argumentative research paper?
- Does the context of the paper serve the purpose for what you are looking for? If not, this paper might not be worth passing on to the second stage of this method.
- Does the basic logic of the paper seem to be valid? How do you comment on the correctness of the paper?
- What is the main output of the paper, or is there output at all?
- Is the paper well written? How do you comment on the clarity of the paper?
After the first pass, you should have a good idea whether you want to continue reading the research paper.
Maybe the paper doesn’t interest you, you don’t understand the area enough, or the authors make an incorrect assumption.
In the first pass, you should be able to identify papers that are not related to your area of research but may be useful someday.
You can store your paper with relevant tags in your reference manager, as discussed in the previous blog post in the Bulletproof Literature Management System series.
This is the third post of the four-part blog series: The Bulletproof Literature Management System. Follow the links below to read the other posts in the series:
- How to How to find Research Papers
- How to Manage Research Papers
- How to Read Research Papers (You are here)
- How to Organize Research Papers
The second pass (Maximum: 60 minutes)
You are now ready to make a second pass through the paper if you decide it is worth reading more.
You should now begin taking some high-level notes because there will be words and ideas that are unfamiliar to you.
Most reference managers come with an in-built PDF reader. In this case, taking notes and highlighting notes in the built-in pdf reader is the best practice. This method will prevent you from losing your notes and allow you to revise them easily.
Don’t be discouraged by everything that does not make sense. You can just mark it and move on. It is recommended that you only spend about an hour working on the paper in the second pass.
In the second pass:
- Start with the abstract, skim through the introduction, and give the methods section a thorough look.
- Make sure you pay close attention to the figures, diagrams, and other illustrations on the paper. By just looking at the captions of the figures and tables in a well-written paper, you can grasp 90 percent of the information.
- It is important to pay attention to the overall methodology. There is a lot of detail in the methods section. At this point, you do not need to examine every part.
- Read the results and discussion sections to better understand the key findings.
- Make sure you mark the relevant references in the paper so you can find them later.
Objectives of the second pass
You should be able to understand the paper’s content. Sometimes, it may be okay if you cannot comprehend some details. However, you should now be able to see the main idea of the paper. Otherwise, it might be better to rest and go through the second pass without entering the third.
This is a good time to summarize the paper. During your reading, make sure to make notes.
After the second pass, you can:
- Return to the paper later(If you did not understand the basic idea of the paper)
- Move onto the thirst pass.
The third pass (Maximum: four hours)
You should go to the third stage (the third pass) for a complete understanding of the paper. It may take you a few hours this time to read the paper. However, you may want to avoid reading a single paper for longer than four hours, even at the third pass.
A great deal of attention to detail is required for this pass. Every statement should be challenged, and every assumption should be identified.
By the third pass, you will be able to summarize the paper so that not only do you understand the content, but you can also comment on limitations and potential future developments.
Color coding when reading research papers
Highlighting is one way I help myself learn the material when I read research papers. It is especially helpful to highlight an article when you return to it later.
Therefore, I use different colors for different segments. To manage my references, I use Zotero. There is an inbuilt PDF reader in Zotero. I use the highlighting colors offered by this software. The most important thing is the concept or phrase I want to color code, not the color itself.
Here is my color coding system.
- Problem statement: Violet
- Questions to ask: Red (I highlight in red where I want additional questions to be asked or if I am unfamiliar with the concept)
- Conclusions: Green (in the discussion section, authors draw conclusions based on their data. I prefer to highlight these in the discussion section rather than in the conclusion section since I can easily locate the evidence there)
- Keywords: Blue
- General highlights and notes: Yellow
Minimize distractions
Even though I’m not a morning person, I forced myself to read papers in the morning just to get rid of distractions. In order to follow through with this process (at least when you are starting out), you must have minimum to no distractions because research papers contain a great deal of highly packed information.
It doesn’t mean you can’t have fun doing it, though. Make a cup of coffee and enjoy reading!
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