Given this is my first ever attempt at a blog post, let alone one on such a highly regarded platform I feel it’s proper that I introduce myself. Hi, my name is Maranga, I am a second-year SABS student starting my DPhil project in Small molecules, and honestly, I really don’t like reading. Especially, scientific journals. Now I can appreciate this does not bode well given my chosen career path, however, my aversion for reading is not new (shoutout to Biff, Chip and Kipper) and hopefully not permanent.

Reading is clearly an unavoidable and integral part of being a good research student but all too often I have read or more accurately stared at, entire journal articles with no recollection, let alone an understanding of what the author was trying to tell me.

I appreciate that for most people reading long, dense, aggressively bland manuscripts explaining the intricacies of modern discovery may be a joyous task, however, if there is anyone, who like me struggles (or a new student about to embark on the most exciting of scientific journeys), I hope this helps.

Here are my top 5 tips for reading scientific literature:

1. Don’t read it in order

Read the abstract first, then conclusion, potentially the introduction then onto figures. Then go back and figure out the details. Reading the abstract first will let you know pretty quickly whether this paper is of interest to you. Secondly, reading in this order will give you a good overview of the paper and its context without getting lost in the numbers or methods. That being said if the paper is in an area of research you are not familiar with, read the introduction rather than the abstract first, abstracts can be extremely dense and not massively helpful if the material is foreign to you.

2. What is the point?

Try to identify the Big question(‘s) as soon as possible. What exactly were the authors trying to answer with their work and why is that important? Determining the point of the presented research will not only help you with understanding the details but also enable you to think more critically.

3. Reload it

If you get stuck, go back and try again. Carrying on won’t always make it easier. There is no harm re-reading the same paragraph a few times. If this doesn’t work, try explaining everything you do understand to someone (even yourself) up until the point you get lost. I sometimes find that re-synthesizing information with the view to explaining helps me understand. After all, papers should be logical, right?

4. Budget more time than you think

However long you think it will take to properly digest a paper will almost always never be enough. Plus, reading in a rush will only make it more difficult.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Paper from title: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720363592?via%3Dihub