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The way to read papers: Read the abstract, if still interested read the conclusion, if still interested read the rest.
by panzi 13y ago
The way to read papers: Read the abstract, if still interested read the conclusion, if still interested read the rest.
- kbenson 13y agoThat's probably good in general, I'm not sure how well it holds up to a survey such as this. The paper helpfully assists in this respect though, as I outlined in my edit above.
- twic 13y agoWhile working as a cell biologist, i followed a different approach: ignore the abstract, look at the figures, if still interested skim the materials and methods, and if still interested, read the rest. The rationale for this is that the most interesting thing is what the authors have discovered, but it's only interesting if they've used sensible and relevant methods, and what is very unlikely to be interesting is the authors' attempt to convince you that the result is stronger and more important than it is.
- panzi 13y agoYeah, "my" approach[1] is probably best suited for computer science papers. [1] It's not really mine, it's what I was told at university.