How to Read a Qualitative Research Paper
To form a truly educated opinion on a scientific subject, you need to become familiar with current inquiry in that field. And to be able to distinguish between skillful and bad interpretations of inquiry, you have to be willing and able to read the primary research literature for yourself. Reading and agreement enquiry papers is a skill that every unmarried doctor and scientist has had to larn during graduate school. You tin larn information technology besides, but like any skill it takes patience and practice.
Reading a scientific newspaper is a completely dissimilar process from reading an article about science in a blog or newspaper. Not merely do you lot read the sections in a different order than they're presented, but you besides have to take notes, read it multiple times, and probably go look up other papers in order to understand some of the details. Reading a unmarried newspaper may take you a very long time at first, only be patient with yourself. The process will go much faster as you gain experience.
The type of scientific newspaper I'one thousand discussing here is referred to every bit a primary research article. It's a peer-reviewed study of new research on a specific question (or questions). Near manufactures will exist divided into the post-obit sections: abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions/interpretations/discussion.
Before you begin reading a newspaper, take notation of the authors and their institutional affiliations. Some institutions (eastward.g., University of Texas) are well-respected; others may appear to be legitimate research institutions but are actually agenda-driven. Besides take notation of the periodical in which it's published. Be cautious of articles from questionable journals, or sites like Natural News, that might resemble peer-reviewed scientific journals but aren't.
Step-past-Step Instructions for Reading a Primary Research Article
one. Begin past reading the introduction, not the abstruse.
The abstract is that dense first paragraph at the very beginning of a paper. In fact, that'south often the only part of a paper that many non-scientists read when they're trying to build a scientific statement. (This is a terrible practice. Don't exercise it.) I ever read the abstract final, because it contains a succinct summary of the entire paper, and I'm concerned virtually inadvertently becoming biased past the authors' interpretation of the results.
2. Identify the big question.
Not "What is this paper about?" just "What problem is this entire field trying to solve?" This helps you focus on why this inquiry is being done. Look closely for show of agenda-motivated research.
three. Summarize the background in five sentences or less.
What piece of work has been washed before in this field to reply the big question? What are the limitations of that piece of work? What, according to the authors, needs to be done adjacent? You lot demand to be able to succinctly explain why this research has been done in order to understand it.
iv. Place the specific question(s).
What exactly are the authors trying to respond with their research? At that place may be multiple questions, or but one. Write them down. If information technology's the kind of research that tests ane or more null hypotheses, identify it/them.
v. Identify the approach.
What are the authors going to do to answer the specific question(south)?
6. Read the methods department.
Draw a diagram for each experiment, showing exactly what the authors did. Include every bit much detail every bit you need to fully understand the work.
seven. Read the results department.
Write one or more than paragraphs to summarize the results for each experiment, each figure, and each tabular array. Don't yet try to make up one's mind what the results hateful; just write downwards what they are. You'll ofttimes find that results are summarized in the figures and tables. Pay careful attention to them! You may too need to go to supplementary online data files to find some of the results. Also pay attention to:
- The words "meaning" and "non-meaning." These have precise statistical meanings. Read more nigh this here.
viii. Determine whether the results answer the specific question(southward).
What practise you remember they mean? Don't move on until you have thought nearly this. Information technology's OK to modify your mind in lite of the authors' interpretation -- in fact, you lot probably volition if y'all're still a beginner at this kind of assay -- simply it'south a actually good habit to first forming your ain interpretations before you lot read those of others.
9. Read the decision/discussion/interpretation section.
What do the authors remember the results mean? Do you agree with them? Tin can you come up with any alternative mode of interpreting them? Do the authors identify any weaknesses in their own study? Do y'all see any that the authors missed? (Don't assume they're infallible!) What do they propose to do equally a side by side step? Do you agree with that?
10. Go back to the starting time and read the abstract.
Does it match what the authors said in the paper? Does information technology fit with your interpretation of the paper?
11. Discover out what other researchers say most the paper.
Who are the (best-selling or self-proclaimed) experts in this particular field? Practice they have criticisms of the report that you oasis't idea of, or do they generally support it? Don't fail to do this! Here's a place where I practise recommend you lot apply Google! Just do it concluding, and then you lot are better prepared to call back critically about what other people say.
A full-length version of this post originally appeared on the author's personal blog.
Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-to-read-and-understand-a-scientific-paper_b_5501628
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