Papers for dummies
- 2. 1. What do I need? Old School • Printed copy of paper • Pencil, pen • Highlighter New Kid • Tablet device/computer with PDF software capable of allowing annotations • PDF copy of paper
- 3. What do I need? • Patience • Healthy dose of skepticism
- 4. 2. Read the paper • Critical thinking process • Don’t assume the authors are always correct. • Be skeptical – apply the rigours of the scientific model to all research
- 5. Some questions to ask • If the authors attempt to solve a problem, are they solving the right problem? • What are the limitations of the solution (including limitations the authors might not have noticed or admitted)? • Are there other solutions the authors do not seem to have considered? • What are the good ideas in this paper?
- 6. Some more questions • Are the assumptions the authors make reasonable? • Is the logic of the paper clear and justifiable, given the assumptions, or is there a flaw in the reasoning? • If the authors present data, did they gather the right data to substantiate their argument? • Did they gather and interpret the data in the correct manner?
- 7. Even more questions • Would other data or other means of collection of data be more compelling? • Can the results or ideas be generalised to wider populations? • Are there improvements that might make important differences? • If you were going to start doing research from this paper, what would be the next thing you would do?
- 8. While reading • Make notes • Go through the references in the paper • Highlight the key points • Highlight key data • Highlight anything questionable
- 9. Some papers may require a number of readings
- 10. 3. The Anatomy of a Paper
- 12. Abstract
- 13. Introduction
- 14. Introduction • Authors put their research into context • Make a case for what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and why it’s important • A brief overview of prior related research • Identify gaps in knowledge that they hope to fill
- 15. Methods
- 16. Methods • Explain exactly how they carried out their research • Detailed, step-by-step explanation of all of the methods • Theoretically replicate the research and achieve the same results
- 17. Results
- 18. Results • Summarises the main findings of the study • Present the results, not discuss them • Graphs, tables, etc. are often used to present and summarise data
- 19. Discussion
- 20. Discussion • Implications of results • Do the results support the authors’ original hypotheses? • Different ways to interpret the results? • Future research? • Limitations!
- 21. References
- 22. References • Sometimes the most useful part of a paper! • Almost always something listed in the references that you didn’t find yourself (or didn’t even think to look for)
- 23. 4. Compare Compare it to similar papers
- 24. 5. Archive • File/folder • Endnote • Mendeley • Papers • Zotero • Read by QxMD