How to read a research paper

Reading research papers can be intimidating at first, but once you break it down into steps and stages they are so much easier to understand. This guide will hopefully help you to be more familiar with the structure of research papers and how to get the most out of them!

There are two most common types of scientific publications, which are primary research articles and review papers. Primary research papers are peer-reviewed reports of new research that has been done to answer specific questions. Review articles are peer-reviewed too, however they are not new research, but instead summarize multiple primary papers. This gives a good understanding of the knowledge within a topic, and any questions that still exist within the field. Here I will talk about how to read a primary research paper.

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Most papers will be divided into multiple sections which may vary slightly dependent on the journal. I have broken down these general sections below:

• Abstract – a summary of what was researched and what the findings were.
• Introduction – gives context to the research by discussing previous papers, and also has definitions of key phrases.
• Methods – explains how data was collected and identifies the sample size and equipment used. The statistical techniques used are also outlined here.
• Results – here the author presents the findings without any interpretation.
• Discussion – results are summarized and interpreted, referring back to previous research mentioned in introduction and the significance is explained.
• Conclusion – summarizes key findings of the research and implications of the results, as well as any suggestions for areas of future research.

Before you start reading I would take note of the journal that published it. You should be able to find this journal on the Web of Science or Web of Knowledge databases if they are reputable journals. You should also look at the publishing date to see if it is a recent paper or not. The most recent ones are especially good to look out for as they will reflect the current knowledge on the topic.

While reading also take note of any words you don’t understand so that you can look these up. This will be a time-consuming task but it will help your understanding in the long run!

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Where to start

Now for a strategy for how to read them, I would always recommend starting with the abstract. This will help with checking that the paper is relevant to what you are wanting to read about.

Next I would try to identify what the question they are trying to answer is. Sometimes you can determine from this if there is an agenda behind why the research has been conducted.

Next I would read the introduction. I find it useful to summarize the background research in a few sentences to myself so I understand what is already known about the topic, and why the authors have done this research.

I usually will skip the methods for now and go straight onto the results. As a visual learner I find the graphs and diagrams in the results section especially helpful and much easier to understand. Be aware that sometimes these can be found at the end of the paper instead. Make sure that on any graphs you check for error bars and sample sizes. It is also useful to decide for yourself what you think the results mean before you read the author’s interpretation in the discussion.

Once you read the discussion and conclusion it is useful to think critically about the paper. Does it answer the question, do you agree with their interpretation of the results, are there any biases or things that they could have done better? For this it can sometimes be useful to have a skim through the methods section too to check that you agree with how they carried out the study, and whether there is anything obvious that might have skewed the results.

Research papers can be intimidating at first with their complicated jargon however don’t give up! This is a skill that will take practice and patience but you’ll get there and soon enough you’ll be flying through them.