search

ptpuyen1511 / my_notes

My notes which are taken while reading
2 stars 0 forks source link

How To Read Scientific Papers #6

Closed ptpuyen1511 closed 4 years ago

ptpuyen1511 commented 4 years ago

TL;DR

Summarize the way to read a scientific paper

Article link

https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-read-scientific-papers-df3afd454179

Key takeaways

There are three passes when we read a scientific paper

The first pass

Here you get the bird’s-eye view or “the big picture” of the paper. This step usually takes 5 to 10 minutes. You skim through the structure of the paper and ignore any details like math equations but you should read the abstract, title, introduction and conclusions entirely. This step serves as a first check if the paper is worth reading in general. By following this approach you can already discard papers that are not helpful, e.g., in a literature review.

In this pass, we just glance over the following sections:

  1. Abstract
  2. Title
  3. Introduction
  4. Conclusion

At the end of this pass, we should able to answer the so-called "five C's":

  1. Category: The category describes the type of paper. Is this paper about a prototype? About a new optimization method? Is it a literature survey?
  2. Context: The context puts the paper into perspective to other papers. What other papers are related to this one? Can you connect it to something else? You could also see the context as a semantic tree where you assign specific importance to the paper. Is it an important branch or an uninteresting leaf? Maybe you do not have any prior knowledge in this field and therefore you still have to build your semantic tree from the ground up. This can be demotivating in the beginning but it is normal.
  3. Correctness: Correctness is, just as the name suggests, a validity measurement. Are the assumptions valid? Most of the time the first pass won’t give you enough information to answer this question with certainty but you probably have a hunch which is enough in the beginning.
  4. Contributions: Most papers have a list of their contributions right in the introduction section. Are these contributions meaningful? Are they useful? Which problems do they solve? Are these contributions novel?
  5. Clarity: Based on the sections you just read, do you think that the paper is well written? Did you spot any grammar mistakes? Any typos?

The second pass

Here you try to understand the content of the paper by reading it as a whole. This step can take up to 1 hour. You can still ignore details like math equations but try to make some notes at the margins and write down key points. Try to rephrase the key points in your own words. Take some notes at the margins of the paper and write down the key points. Writing down little summaries or key points at the margins in your own words is a great way to see if you really understand what you’ve just read

The third pass

You have to be very certain that this paper is worth your time before continuing with this step because it can take up to 5 hours as a beginner. More experienced readers may be able to finish this step in 1 hour. Now is the time to read the complete paper with all its math equations and details. Try to virtually re-implement the paper or use any tools you like to recreate the results. If you are a reviewer then you probably have to take this step in order to give detailed feedback.

ptpuyen1511 commented 4 years ago

moved to code