How to Read a Scientific Paper

Scientific papers are not written for general audiences, but scientists in the same field, who share years of specialized vocabulary. For anyone, nevertheless a high school student reading one for the first time, the experience is pretty overwhelming. With anything, though, reading a research paper gets easier with practice.

First: you don't read it straight through

The single most important thing to know is that scientists don't read papers from start-to-finish (believe it or not!). They use a non-linear approach that lets them quickly assess whether a paper is relevant and worth a deeper read before committing to every methodological detail.

A useful order for students: read the Abstract first, then the Introduction, then jump to the Figures and their captions, then the Discussion and Conclusion, and only then — if you still need it — go back to the Methods. This gives you the findings without getting buried in technical procedure before you even know what the paper is about.

Understanding the structure

Most scientific papers follow a format called IMRaD: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Each section serves a distinct purpose.

• The Abstract is a 150-300 word summary of the entire paper. Read it first to get a general understanding.

• The Introduction explains the background and context, which is normally comprehensible to the average person. This contains what was already known, what gap existed, and why this study was conducted.

• The Methods section describes exactly how the study was done. It's the most technical part and often the least useful for a first read.

• The Results section presents the data. Normally, there are figures, tables, and statistical summaries. 

• The Discussion interprets the results, where the authors explain what they think the findings mean, what their limitations are, and what future research is needed.

The jargon (I know, there’s a lot!)

Specialized vocabulary will slow you down at first. Instead of looking up each word (which is inefficient), you should try to grasp the general meaning from context and make a note of terms to look up after you've finished a section. Many of the most important concepts in a paper will be explained or defined somewhere within the introduction or can be found with a quick search.

Focus on the figures

Figures are the actual data in a scientific paper. If you can understand the figures and their captions, you understand the core findings. Look at what's being measured on each axis, what the error bars represent (a measure of variability), and what the authors are claiming the figure shows. Then read the caption, which is usually a miniature explanation of everything you're looking at.