Name: 如何讓研究變得簡單（甚至是有趣的研究 (How to Make Research Easy (& Even Enjoyable))
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T10:56:24.000Z
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If you're in a STEM field, chances are you'll need to read primary literature - also known

情態副詞

And unlike books, effectively and efficiently reading a research paper requires a nuanced

When I first started reading research papers as a neuroscience major in college, it took

considerable effort and time to make sense of it all.

But since then, I've read through thousands of papers, published dozens of my own in peer

reviewed journals, and can now crank through them with ease.

First, Determine the Purpose of Reading. Depending on the purpose and your goal in

reading a research paper, your approach may differ considerably.

Keep that in mind as we cover the following sections.

If you're reading a paper as a requirement for a class, like I initially had to for my

neuroscience courses, you will be focusing on comprehension rather than determining utility.

You'll need to know the study hypothesis, the methods they used, the findings, and the

As you proceed with your medical training, you will likely write many of your own research

After all, doing so is one of the most powerful ways to stand out and strengthen your medical

In these instances, you are mostly referencing other research papers and it becomes more

important to quickly determine relevance and value prior to committing a more in depth

You will also use papers as tools to figure out other papers to read by taking advantage

Now that you've identified your primary goal, it's time to begin reading.

Not every section in a research article is

Unlike reading a traditional book, I don't advise you read a research paper in order.

First, you should read the title and the abstract to get an overview of the paper.

If, at any time during your reading, you come across a word or acronym you don't understand,

This is not like a novel where you can infer the meaning and likely not see the word again.

The language in research articles is generally pretty straightforward, and terms you don't

understand are often the scientific terms that are critical to your understanding of

Again, this is a research paper, not a novel, so you're not running into any spoilers.

The conclusion effectively summarizes the most pertinent findings.

Now that you have a better idea of what the paper is about, spend as much time as you

desire going over the figures, methods, results, and discussion sections.

The discussion will likely be the highest yield portion that requires the most amount

of time, but to truly understand the paper you must also go over the methods and results.

A big element to reading papers is understanding

the limitations of the study, which then allows you to more accurately determine the paper's significance.

The biggest and most widespread mistake is jumping to the conclusion and not understanding

the limitations and generalizability of a study.

Look at any media article summarizing “new ground breaking research” and you'll see

Towards the end of the discussion section in most any paper, you'll find the author's

own interpretation of the limitations of their study.

But, there are always many more limitations beyond what they mention.

There have been entire books dedicated to the nuances of statistics and

extrapolating conclusions from the research, and this is something I may consider making

Let me know in the comments below so I can gauge interest.

Most people know about randomization, placebo-controlled, and single or double blinded studies.

That being said, there is so much more nuance to it.

First, study design: is the study retrospective, meaning looking back historically, or prospective,

starting with individuals that are followed over time?

Is it case-control, cohort, or cross-sectional study?

Number two, what are the end points used?

If the study draws conclusions about heart disease and health but only uses HDL as a

surrogate marker, understand the surrogate is just that - an imperfect proxy.

There are too many to cover, but selection, recall, sampling, confounding, procedure,

lead-time, and the Hawthorne effect are all biases you shou ld familiarize yourself with.

And number four, basic statistical analyses: sensitivity versus specificity, normal and skewed distributions,

positive and negative predictive values, etc.

Over time, you'll be reading dozens or even

hundreds of research papers, and it becomes a challenge to keep everything straight.

Again, depending on the purpose, there are a few options to consider.

If you're reading as a class assignment, I recommend you print out the paper, highlight,

More recently, I have done this on an iPad with Apple pencil, such that printing out

If, on the other hand, you're reading in order to write your own paper, start using

a citation manager immediately from the beginning.

EndNote is often referenced as the rather expensive gold standard, but Mendeley is a

As soon as you begin reading papers, import them into your citation manager.

In a separate Word document, begin jotting down the key points of the paper that are

This notes document will now become the main resource from which you will begin writing

Trust me, it's much better this way, otherwise you'll spend considerable time and effort

hunting for facts from the dozens of PDF's that you've read.

Lastly, understand that a big part of reading speed in both regular books as well as research papers

I started off reading neuroscience papers quite slowly, but as my expertise in the area grew,

I knew the anatomy and terminology like the back of my hand, and coming across terms like

CA1 vs CA2 neurons of the hippocampus no longer required additional processing.

Similarly, when I first started diving into plastic surgery research, I didn't know

all the nuances of hand anatomy or principles of aesthetic surgery.

But as I grew to understand more, reading and understanding the literature became second

nature, and once again I was able to breeze through them.

It's important to keep this in mind to make sure you don't get discouraged.

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如何讓研究變得簡單（甚至是有趣的研究 (How to Make Research Easy (& Even Enjoyable))

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