15 Tips for Reading a Scientific Research Paper

by MELISSA KARNAZE
One of the most valuable things I learned from college was how to read a published
scientific study.
One of the first papers I read was about the arborization of dendritic spines, so you
can imagine it was a bit intimidating starting out.
But now, almost four years later, I actually prefer to read a good research paper over
breakfast, especially an affective science one. This is because many studies on
emotion can be considered highly technical self-help writings, as research is
showing more and more how our feelings are not so dangerous and
mystified after all, but rather parts of ourselves that we must not neglect.
Thus, there are numerous studies relaying an empowering message about human
behavior and human potentialand they are backed up by science.
Unfortunately, though, many of these studies are only circulated in club academia. If
they reach the general public, they are at the mercy of the mediaand we all know
media can mean sound bite (with a mean sociopolitical slant). And when a study
becomes a headline, you probably still have to purchase it to read it in its entirety, or
have some type membership or university privilege (even if its just access to a
university library computer).
Fortunately, some studies are made publicly available. Browsing through university
laboratory pages is a great way to find papers for free (especially if youre logged in at
a university library computer).
Here are publication lists for three different university laboratories that are
doing some exciting things in affective science:

Columbia University, Professor Kevin Ochsners Social Cognitive

Neuroscience Lab I highly recommend reading even just the first few pages of
the chapter, Thinking makes it so: A social cognitive neuroscience approach to
emotion regulation (pp. 221-255), from K. Vohs & R. Baumeister (Eds.), The
Handbook of Self-Regulation.
Professor James Grosss Stanford Psychophysiology Laboratory
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Professor Richard J. Davidsons Lab for

Affective Neuroscience
So now that you have reading material, are you ready to get started?
Well, if you need some encouragement, because you find that scientific papers are
written for scientists and not the general public, dont worry. These papers sound
smart, but just think of them as scholarly and specializedits not that you are lessthan-smart if its a struggle for you to read them, its that you need to start practicing,
because just like any other type of reading, digesting a study is a skill.

To undauntify the thought of downloading and reading a scientific research

paper, follow these 15 helpful tips:
1 ) To see if the study interests you, check the title, abstract, and parts of
the conclusion if needed. A study isnt written like a suspense story, so the meat
of it should be obvious on the first page. This means that the bias (aka
theoretical framework) of the authors should be obvious as wellsince the
researchers had assumptions and intuitions before the research, which informed
their hypothesis and led them to conduct their study the way they did.
2 ) Print out the paper and grab something to write and highlight with. A recent
paper shows that being able to manipulate the physical space of printed
material has unique qualities that arent there when trying to read from the
computer screen. So reading online may not be as rewarding or effective as
the printed word (Online v. print reading: which one makes us smarter?
Scientific American 60-Second Science).
3 ) Refresh on the 6 steps of the scientific method, because any peer-reviewed
study will be based upon this process; it has to in order to be considered
scientific.
4 ) Keep in mind that the strength of a study lies in its controlsthat is, how well
the researchers minimized extraneous variables that could explain why the
independent variable (i.e., the variable being changed) correlated with the
dependent variable (i.e., the phenomena being studied, in regards to the
independent variable).
5 ) Dont feel unworthy if you dont understand all of the mathyou can still get
the main point without memorizing the tables, graphs, and charts. What you do
need to know is that the study was published because it showed some
phenomena having statistical significance. To read more about statistics,
wikipedi it.
6 ) Before reading, be prepared for jargon, or scientist speak. Its there for other
scientists to read, but youre not excluded from the discussionyou just have to
translate. It takes work, but hey its worth it when you can cite a cool study to
impress your friends.
7 ) Big words are the long and complicated version of smaller words. When you
see a big word, domesticate itlook it up with a dictionary or wiktionary, or
Google it, and then write out what it means in a way you can understand in the
margin or your notes. When you see the big word again, it wont appear as a
wild animal, but a tamed one, and harmless.
8 ) When you see an acronym, catch it! Dont let your eyes roam any further
until you write out in the margin or on your notes what the acronym means.

Heres an example: Excerpt from a fictitious study The method of

Working the Margin (WM) is highly effective when reading a publication for
the first time. WM allows you translate words that are unfamiliar to you so
that you can have a better understanding of what the authors are talking

about. Only veteran consumers of publications, who are well versed in their
field of study, can successfully read a study without WM.
See how the first time the acronym was introduced, it followed the term that it
stands for? You can count on that freebie in every paper, so take advantage of
it.
9 ) If you get bogged down by the passive voice, turn it into the active voice. If
you get bogged down by extra words or phrases that make one appear to be
more intelligent, cross them out, or translate them. For scientists, streamlined
writing isnt the aim, so a paper is usually overtaken by the passive voice and
verbiage, meaning that it is often slowed down so that the patience and
commitment of the reader to finish the study are tested quite thoroughly
throughout the duration of the particular reading under discussion. (That was to
see if you were paying attention.)
10 ) When you notice the same sentence or message being repeated again and
againyou are on the right track! Researchers dont go for style points, they
repeat themselves as much as they possibly can to convey their hypothesis
and/or conclusion and tell you again and again why they made such a good
study (worth quoting to your friends).
11 ) Dont be afraid to reread sections, or reread the entire paper (multiple
times if needed). If you reread, it means that (a) you are aware that you didnt
get it all the first time, and (b) you believe that with another go-around will get
more out of it. Thats a good thing!
12 ) Know that it takes practice for your brain to learn this new languageover
time it will get easier and you will be able to read faster and get more out of it
at the first reading.
13 ) When youre finished reading, test how successful you were by writing out
in your own words:
(a) the hypothesis
(b) how the researchers tested that hypothesis
(c) what their results were
(d) why those results supported (or fell short of supporting) their hypothesis
14 ) If you want to go pro, discuss the study with someone else who has read it
(bonus points for discussing with a member of club academia) to see if you both
understood the same basic points. After that you can critique any parts of the
study that werent clear or werent well founded. If you think studies cant be
criticizedone of my professors devoted an entire course for in-class critiques of
cognitive science studies, so remember that critical reading can and needs to be
done in order to improve research.
15 ) Know that this list is only the beginning. You can spend months or years
learning about a particular research method [e.g., functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI)] and its strengths and limitations. You can also spend
considerable time analyzing the experimental set-up, thinking about the

ecological validity (or how the results have real-life relevance and applicability),
and checking out the references and related studies.
If you are looking for some highly technical self-help reading material to inspire you
over breakfast, these tips will help get you started. Textbooks and less-technical
writings that cite studies are also informative, but theres nothing like going to the
source of the research.
If everyone were versed in the critical reading of cognitive-affective science and
psychology studies, there would be a lot more critical thinking about what emotions
are and how they are implicated in human behavior. And we boost our emotional
intelligence when we read studies about emotionso lets get reading!
Suggestions for Further Reading:
Designing Experiments Using the Scientific Method For Dummies
How to Read a Scientific Research Paper a four-step guide for students and for faculty
How to Read a Scientific Paper
Suggestions for Further Study Searching:
A Psychological Literature Database: PsycINFO
A Biomedical Literature Database: PubMED (MEDLINE)
http://mindfulconstruct.com/2008/12/27/15-tips-for-reading-a-scientific-researchpaper/