怎样有效阅读外文文献(转)

monica

How to Read Papers Effectively?
To work on an IMPORTANT problem. To do a GREAT research.

At the beginning of my research, I tried to read as many papers as possible and tried to get all details of papers. After several weeks I was got stuck. There are so many papers and so many topics and some many problems. I did not know what I should read more and what I should focus on. In fact, I found that I did not know how to do research. My most urgent problem was to learn how to read papers. Then I spent two days to learn it. I searched on the website and got lots of good advices on this topic. I appricated all the help to me. These suggestions from different people have different emphasis. According to my understanding of these suggestions, I summarised these ideas and listed them as following to guide my ongoing research.

Whenever reading, always keep in mind "Know what you want, and then get it and no more".

- It is better to keep your own mind free and to not let the thinking of others interfere with your own free thinking.

- You need to keep up more to find out what the problems are than to read to find the solutions.

- The reading is necessary to know what is going on and what is possible. But reading to get the solutions does not be the way to do great research.

- Don't give yourself very much time. "figure out what this paper's about" within the 30 minutes. Just do it; you will figure it out. Just imagine you're a reviewer whose plane is landing in twenty minutes, and you have to decide whether this paper is crappy or good!

Pass One: What's the point? (5 minutes)

1. Read title carefully and think what I will do under this title if I was the author for 5 minutes.

2. Read abstract, skim section headlines, introduction and conclusion.

--> Answer the following questions:

1. What's the problem?

2. What is the benefit to solve this problem?

3. What have been done on the problem?

4. Why are others' work inadequate?

5. What is the authers' solutions? Under what assumptions?

6. Why is his/her solution better than others? What's the limitation?

Pass Two: What's the evidence? (15 minutes) only when you believe it deserves a carefully reading

Whenever reading the details, always keep in mind "Do NOT miss the BIG picture". Don't assume that understanding each phrase will enable you to understand the whole idea.

--> Answer the following questions:

1. What's the new solution?

2. How does the author evaluate the solution in terms of argument or an experiment/simulation?

3. Does the conclusion follow logically from the observations?

4. Do I think it is true? Can I convince someone else that it is true?

5. Is there any more conclusion or alternative conclusion?

6. Does the conclusion still hold for some special cases?

7. How should the work be followed up by the author? by myself?

Pass three: Make the idea your own.(10 minutes)

Reflect on the paper. Follow the idea back to its origin and rediscover it for yourself. Skim the paper back and forth if necessary.

1. Write down a outline in your own words in 3-5 sentences.

2. How do you apply their approach to your own work

3. Write down your questions when you go along.

易林

monica, 好东东

jennifer-tang

Thanks，Monica！

韩冰

Thanks for your suggestions.