Read with a purpose, why are you reading the paper? Make sure you have clear questions going in, else you are just reading for the sake of reading and it is ted

Read with a purpose, why are you reading the paper? Make sure you have clear questions going in, else you are just reading for the sake of reading and it is tedious and wasteful. If you read with purpose you can be much more pragmatic. Read the abstract and the conclusion (or last part of the discussion). Have you obtained the answers you were looking for? Probably not completely, so what are you missing? Not convinced look, at the methods! Not understanding things properly, read the introduction! Doubting the conclusion, read the whole discussion. Does this mean you don't have to read the whole paper, probably not.... but it will make you comprehend the whole thing much better and still faster, because, like you indicate, comprehension is the issue, rather than the text length.