Reading research the good enough way

good-enough-research-skim.md

How to read research the good enough way

There are many, many, many, many opinions on how to read research papers.

Here is my introduction to how to read enough of a paper to know whether you want to read more.

1. Check the source

• Where did this version of a paper come from?
• Has anyone outside the authors reviewed this work?
• Who is providing funding for this work?

2. Read the abstract

• What problem space are the authors exploring and what do they expect?

3. Skim the methodology

• Is the sampling size sufficient?
• What data did they use?

4. Read the conclusions + future work

• Did you reach the same conclusions as the authors?

5. Skim the problem statement + prior art

6. Open all of the interesting references in tabs or lovingly print them off for that "TO READ" paper pile.

• This is THE most important step.