Guide to How to read a scientific article

how should you approach reading scientific article

1. Skim first for the big picture, focusing on the intro (motivation) and the conclusion (next steps)

2. Highlight and take notes as you go, and look up unfamiliar terms

3. Read it a second time in order to reinforce your understanding

what are 3 questions you should be asking as you read the paper and when you read figures

1. What do the authors want to know?

2. What did they do?

3. Why did they do it that way?

4. What do the results show?

5. How did they interpret the results?

6. What should happen next? (Think of your own answer, too.)

what is the most important part in a research paper

the figures and data — identify axis, variables, and how data was collected

what does the intro, results, and discussion tell us

intro - background and the research question

results - actual data, spend the most time here

discussion - authors interpretation of results, that is NOT necessarily fact