As we roll into the start of summer research, it is time for all of those scientific papers you need to read to start piling up again. Be it papers from your PI, your CI-M instructor, or simply ones you want to read for yourself, you will be expected to read a lot of papers during your scientific career. Although it is often not taught to you in class, being able to efficiently read journal articles is an important skill to learn. When I was a first-year UROP I would read every paper from start to finish. However, many hours later, I still didn’t have the information I needed. That’s when my postdoc presented a revolutionary idea to me: that I didn’t need to read the paper from start to finish
What are the parts of a paper?
Before you can decide what is necessary to read, it’s important to understand what each section of the paper is trying to communicate. While what sections are called and their order can change depending on the author or the journal publishing the work, the outline of every paper tends to consist of the following sections:
- Abstract: The goal of the abstract is to quickly explain the goal and result of the paper in a paragraph. This allows the readers to immediately learn if the paper might be useful.
- Introduction: The goal of the introduction is to get you prepared to read the paper. It does this by providing background knowledge, defining the problem, and providing the goal of the paper.
- Methods: The goal of the methods section is to explain how to recreate the work done in the paper, as well as to justify assumptions or uncommon choices made.
- Results: The goal of the results section is to present the first-level results of the paper. This means presenting the data and figures, without making statements about what the results mean.
- Conclusion/Discussion: The goal of the conclusion is to summarize the findings of the paper. Sometimes this part is combined with the discussion section. This section takes the results a step further by relating them to the bigger picture.
For more information on what each section of a paper entails, I recommend reading through the Comm Kits on the sections linked here: https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/nse/commkit/introduction-to-manuscripts
So what’s the formula?
How you read a paper is very dependent on why you are reading a paper. If you are reading a paper to try to recreate an experiment, it is very important to read the methods, but if you are simply trying to find one particular result, it is less important to read some of the in-between sections. Because of this, it is crucial to define your questions and goals before beginning to read the paper. Here, I will give both Zoe’s and my general approaches. In this case, our goals are to understand what the paper is about and determine whether or not it is useful to our research.
My Approach:
I always, ALWAYS start with the abstract. From there I am normally able to gather whether or not this paper will be useful to me, and I will have a rough outline of the research I can refer back to if I get confused along the way.
From there, I then move on to reading the introduction. My work is very interdisciplinary, so reading the introduction is crucial as it defines terminology, but more importantly, gives me an idea of the education level and field they expect the reader to be in. Normally, after I read the introduction, I can get a good idea of whether or not the paper will go over my head, and what terminology I need to define before I continue.
From there, I look at all the figures and read the figure descriptions. By looking at these, I am normally able to get a good idea of the methods or experimental design they used and of the results they obtained. I am a visual learner, so I find taking time to look at and understand the figures to be much more insightful than reading the methods or results section.
Finally, I read through the conclusion. When I do this, I don’t focus on the discussion if they include the two together. My goal is normally to read through a summary of their results and direct conclusions.
After that, if I decide that the paper is super useful, or if there are holes in my knowledge, I will then go through and read the whole paper from start to finish.
However, my approach is not the only approach! To illustrate this, I got one of my trusted colleagues (shout out to Zoe) to explain her general approach to reading papers as well.
Zoe’s Approach (Written by Zoe):
First I familiarize myself with the study by carefully reading the abstract. When speed-reading papers, I treat the abstract as a skeleton outline and rely on it to highlight the most important results and implications.
Generally, I proceed to the conclusion and make sure I understand the study’s main results—having already digested the abstract makes this much easier. I like using the conclusion instead of the results because it will concisely reiterate the pertinent data. I may look at the data in the results section, but a well-written conclusion usually tells me what I need to know.
If I’m a little less familiar with the topic, I’ll usually skim the introduction, but I often find myself skipping these sections or quickly reading them at the end to make sure I didn’t miss any major points.
Lastly, I’ll quickly look through the figures and data to make sure I have a good feel for the information collected in the study.
Whenever I am confused, I revert back to the abstract to reorient myself.
I also try to keep in mind that the paper is written in its original order for a reason and that there is nothing wrong with slowing down and reading it front-to-back if I’m struggling with the material. Otherwise, I’d summarize my article reading method as 1) abstract 2) results and discussion 3) intro/background as needed 4) skim remaining content and figures.
What about those methods and results sections?
As you probably noticed, neither Zoe nor I included the methods and results section in our general approaches. This doesn’t mean that those sections are not useful, it just means we find that unless they are relevant to a specific goal, we do not need them to understand the paper. Some examples of when the methods section is important to read are when you are trying to recreate an experiment or, if you are a theorist, when you want to know more about a specific formula the paper is based on. The results section can also be super useful, particularly when you are looking for a specific numerical value.
Final Thoughts
Neither of us are experts at reading scientific papers (if there is such a thing), but we’ve found that being strategic in our paper reading has saved us time and stress, all while improving our reading comprehension. These are the approaches we have found most useful to us as grad students. We encourage you to try them as is, mix them up, and try your own, as only you know what works best for you! Given that the order in which you read a paper is dependent on what information you are trying to obtain, your reading method will likely change depending on the paper. Feel free to experiment and remember: No one is expecting you to read every page of every paper you look at! Good luck with your reading!
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Zoe Fisher for contributing to this post
Brianna Ryan is a PhD candidate in Profs. Formaggio (Physics) and Short’s group. She is also an NSE Communication Fellow.
Published June 12, 2025