Reading articles

How do you read research articles? I think everyone develops their own system, but here are a few suggestions.

Decide what you want to know from the article before you start reading. Are you trying to get general information? Are you concerned with methodology? You may not need to read the entire article, but only pieces to get the info you need. Be very careful about simply taking their discussion comments as the results of the study- writers often over-interpret their results, so check them yourself.

Develop a shorthand or marking system. Whether you read the article's pdf or a paper version, you should be developing a method to keep track of important info. I tend to read pdfs, so I highlight in yellow the key points that I want to be able to find again. I also write myself notes in the article, using "add sticky note" an Adobe Acrobat about why I think the highlighted text is important (e.g., "interesting qual method," "confirms my idea on self-efficacy in this population"). If you are reading the paper version, you can add sticky notes marking important issues (consider color coded ones, e.g., pink = method issue). Have a master list of what your codes/ colors mean so you remain consistent.

You may want to keep an Excel file of articles with key points for each article you read. An alternative is do use a bibliographic software such as Endnotes, and make comments in the entries.

The trick to all of these is to be consistent in using and maintaining them. Decide on how you want to read articles- in pdfs or in paper version and set up a filing system to work with your method. 

Next time I will talk about reading articles' literature reviews. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu