Reading Academic Papers - jonathancolmer/lab-guide GitHub Wiki

Introduction

Reading academic papers is a skill that develops over time. It’s not just about absorbing information β€” it’s about engaging critically, connecting ideas across studies, and extracting what’s useful for your own work.
This guide distills strategies, questions, and tools to help you read with purpose and efficiency.

1. The Four Levels of Reading (Adler & Van Doren, 1940)

Not all reading is the same. Adler and Van Doren describe a progression of depth:

  • Elementary Reading β€” Understanding the basic meaning of words and sentences.
  • Inspectional Reading β€” Skimming to get the gist of the paper.
  • Analytical Reading β€” Engaging deeply to understand and critique the paper.
  • Syntopical Reading β€” Comparing and synthesizing multiple papers to build a comprehensive understanding.

Most research reading lives between inspectional and analytical, but aim for syntopical when writing your own paper.

2. Active Reading Strategies

  • Prioritize β€” Focus on the most relevant papers for your current project.
  • Annotate β€” Take notes, underline key points, and write questions in the margins.
  • Summarize β€” After reading, write a short summary in your own words.
  • Engage β€” Discuss the paper with others for new perspectives.
  • Revisit β€” Re-read difficult or important sections.
  • Apply β€” Use insights to inform your own research.

3. Critical Reading and Analysis

  • Question Assumptions β€” What assumptions does the author make?
  • Evaluate Evidence β€” Is the evidence convincing?
  • Consider Alternatives β€” How does this argument compare to other perspectives?
  • Reflect on Implications β€” What are the broader consequences if the findings are correct?

4. Reading Research Takes Practice

It takes time to develop the ability to distinguish between different levels of quality in research β€” even within the same journal.
It’s easy to be overly critical early on.

5. Common Pitfalls to Avoid

  • Reading Without Purpose β€” Know why you’re reading a particular paper.
  • Passive Reading β€” Engage actively; don’t just absorb.
  • Reading Everything in Detail β€” Focus on what’s relevant.
  • Uncritical Acceptance β€” Challenge ideas and conclusions.
  • Neglecting Re-Reading β€” Important papers often need multiple readings.
  • Overloading β€” Quality over quantity.
  • Ignoring Context β€” Consider the historical and disciplinary context.

6. The Importance of Reading for Writing

β€œTo write well, you must read well.” β€” Joe Moran

  • Read to Write β€” Reading widely improves your writing.
  • Learn from Others β€” Study how strong writers structure arguments and sentences.
  • Critical Reading β€” Analyze style, structure, and clarity; borrow effective techniques.

7. Questions to Ask When Reading a Paper

All Papers

  1. What are the concrete questions studied?
  2. Why do we care? (Motivation)
  3. What’s the bottom line? (Main finding in 1–2 sentences)
  4. What are the contributions, and how do they build on or depart from existing literature?

If Theoretical

  1. What is the model? (Sketch the setup)
  2. Is it a variation on a familiar framework?
  3. What are the key results?
  4. What assumptions or mechanisms drive the results?

If Empirical

  1. What is the theoretical framework (if any) motivating the empirics?
  2. What is the empirical model? What parameters are estimated?
  3. What is the estimation strategy? What are the identifying assumptions?
  4. What dataset is used? Is it appropriate and well-documented?
  5. What are the main results? (Magnitude and direction)

All Papers (continued)

  1. What are the main weaknesses or limitations?
  2. Can those problems be addressed? How?
  3. Propose 2–3 ideas for follow-up work.

8. Tools for Reading, Annotating, and Organizing Papers

  • Zotero (Desktop + iOS) β€” Main reference manager for storing PDFs, managing citations, and exporting annotations. Chrome plugin captures metadata and PDFs directly from journals.
  • BrowZine β€” Browse journals UVA subscribes to; more user-friendly than Library’s Virgo or Journal Finder.
  • LibKey Nomad (Browser Extension) β€” Links directly to UVA-accessible articles.
  • Obsidian β€” Plain-text note-taking with backlinking to connect ideas.

9. A Note on Notes: Zettelkasten & Commonplace Books

  • Write brief notes on every paper you read.
  • Capture both reflections and answers to the core reading questions.
  • Zettelkasten-style β€” Link atomic ideas across topics.
  • Commonplace book-style β€” Store useful quotes, insights, and references.
  • Obsidian makes it easy to build connections and search notes.
  • You don’t need a perfect system β€” the goal is to capture insights and revisit them.