Reading Academic Papers

Read the paper 3 times to extract information for your purpose	First Read Second Read Third Read Home

After three readings you will know what to look for in your research reading: facts and theories that help answer your question other people's opinions about whether specific answers are good ones
Read slowly
By slowing down, you will make more connections within the text.
Use the dictionary and other appropriate reference works
If there is a word in the text that is not clear or difficult to define in context: look it up. Every word is important, and if part of the text is thick with technical terms, it is doubly important to know how the author is using them.
First read
• Abstract: for an overall picture of what the author is trying to communicate • Introduction: to understand the background of the subject and the authors interests • Conclusion: to understand the findings of the study and their implications for the field • References: for an idea of the sources of the background information
If the paper is well written, you should now know: what problem the authors are addressing, why the problem is important, what the authors solution is, what their solution contributes to the area, and how the authors demonstrate/prove that their solutions works and that it improves on other solutions in some way(s).
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Second Read
Next read through the entire paper starting with the abstract again. Don't skip over figures, re-read parts that you don't understand. Write down questions you have as you go along.
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Third Read
Finally, re-read the paper critically. Did the authors do what they said they were going to do? What are the important ideas? (just because an author says something is important doesn't mean it really is) Do their results make sense? Are their methods sound? What assumptions are they making? How does their work fit in with other similar work? What improvements/extensions do they contribute?
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last updated: August 7, 2003	Marti Lindsey mlindsey@u.arizona.edu