How to read a paper?

By :

B. Ramesh
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering,
St. Joseph’s College of Engineering,
Jeppiaar Trust, Chennai-119
Ph.D. Research Scholar
College of Engineering Guindy campus,
Anna University,
Chennai-25.
 How to read a paper?

Three pass method:

First pass : General idea about the paper ( Getting a bird’s-eye-view)

Second pass: Grasp the paper’s content, but not its details

(Note: First and second pass for a paper in which you are interested, but does not lie in your
research speciality)

Third pass: Understand the paper in depth.

First pass: 5 to 10 minutes

1. Read title, abstract, introduction

2. Read section and sub section headings
3. Read the conclusions
4. Glance the references

Output:

1. Type of paper ?
2. Theoretical bases used to analyze the problem ?
3. Assumptions valid?
4. Paper’s main contribution?

Second pass : One hour

1. Read the paper with greater care, but ignore details such as proofs or experimental
techniques.
2. Look figures, diagrams, graphs and other illustrations.
3. Mark relevant unread references for further reading.

Output:

1. Grasp the content of the paper.

Third pass: For a reviewer. 4 to 5 hours for beginner, 1 hour for experienced reader.

1. Virtually re-implement the paper.

2. Compare the actual with virtual.
3. Jot down ideas for future work.

Sciencedirect,springerlink,Google scholar, citeseer. Find repeated author names.

1. Go to their website.
2. Find where they published recently.
3. Go to the website of top conferences and look their recent proceedings.

Note: Make two passes,Iterate as necessary. Find a key paper.