How To Read Scientific Papers - Deepstash
How to Be Happy

Learn more about scienceandnature with this collection

How to find purpose and meaning in life

How to cultivate gratitude

Techniques for managing negative thoughts

How to Be Happy

Discover 100 similar ideas in

It takes just

13 mins to read

The Three Pass Approach

Srinivasan Keshav describes the three-pass approach which acts as a filtering system. It is an iterative and incremental way of reading a paper. It consists of: 

  1. The First Pass: The bird's-eye view 
  2. The second pass: Grasp the content
  3. The third pass: Virtually re-implement the paper

242

3.85K reads

The First Pass: The bird’s-eye view

Goal: To get the big picture of the paper 

Duration: Less than 10 minutes.

Activity: Glancing over the following sections of paper: 

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

Ignore the content of section and sub-sections. 

230

760 reads

The 5 C's

At the end of the first pass you should be able to answer:

  • Category: What is the type of paper? Literature? Prototype?
  • Context: What other papers are related to this one? Can you connect it to something else?
  • Correctness: This is a validity measurement. Are the assumptions valid? Answer based on your hunch.
  • Contributions: Most papers have a contribution section at the beginning. Are these contributions meaningful? Are they useful? Which problems do they solve? Are these contributions novel?
  • Clarity: do you think that the paper is well written? Did you spot any grammar mistakes? Any typos?

228

496 reads

The second pass: Grasp the content

Duration: Can take up to 1 hour. 

Activity:

  •  Read the complete paper. 
  • Ignore details such as proofs or equations. 
  • Take some notes at the margins of the paper and write down the key points.
  • Look at any type of illustration in the paper like tables and figures and see if you can spot any mistakes or discrepancies.

At the end of the second pass it can happen that you still don’t understand what you’ve just read. Maybe this is not your field of expertise or you are lacking background information. Write down what you didn't get and fill the knowledge gap later.

223

450 reads

The Third Pass: Virtually re-implement the paper

Duration: Can take up to 4-5 hours if you're a beginner(you should carefully consider if this step is worth your time). 

Activity: 

  • Read the paper in its entirety and question every detail.
  • Make the same assumptions as the authors and re-create the work from scratch. You can virtually re-implement the steps in your head or use any tools(like flowcharts) that you may deem fit.

At the end of this pass you should be an expert and know the paper’s strong and weak points. You can reconstruct the structure and explain to someone in simple language what the paper is all about.

224

384 reads

Doing A Literature Survey

Doing a literature survey is a bit different than reading a single paper. 

  1. First pass: In the first pass you have to collect potentially useful papers. Find 3 to 5 recent papers. You can now continue with the usual first pass procedure. You can also skim through the references to see if the papers have any citations in common. Common citations are good candidates to include in your survey.
  2. Second pass: Vist the author's websites and see if you can find any recent work. Download the commonly cited papers. 
  3. Third pass: Try to visit the websites of the top conferences or journals.

224

315 reads

Optional extensions(Part 1)

Use this only if you have to read the entire paper. 

  • Make little boxes: Surround equations, figures and tables with boxes. Do this during the first-pass. It will help to quantify how many details in terms of math equations you can expect. 
  • Highlighters: Highlighters are a great tool to mark sections in your paper and give them distinctive meanings.
  • Mindmaps: There are no strict rules in creating mind maps. This may help you to get the big picture more visually and will refresh your memory about a paper after some time has passed.

218

237 reads

Optional Extensions(Part 2)

  • Pomodoro Sessions: If you feel intimidated by the paper and lack motivation, you can use the pomodoro technique. Start a 25 minute timer without any expectations and read the paper. 
  • Feynman technique: Choose a concept you want to learn; pretend you're teaching it to someone with no prior knowledge; review your explanation and identify weak points; simplify your explanation. 

224

363 reads

More like this

stash-superman-illustration

Explore the World’s

Best Ideas

200,000+ ideas on pretty much any topic. Created by the smartest people around & well-organized so you can explore at will.

An Idea for Everything

Explore the biggest library of insights. And we've infused it with powerful filtering tools so you can easily find what you need.

Knowledge Library

Powerful Saving & Organizational Tools

Save ideas for later reading, for personalized stashes, or for remembering it later.

# Personal Growth

Take Your Ideas

Anywhere

Organize your ideas & listen on the go. And with Pro, there are no limits.

Listen on the go

Just press play and we take care of the words.

Never worry about spotty connections

No Internet access? No problem. Within the mobile app, all your ideas are available, even when offline.

Get Organized with Stashes

Ideas for your next work project? Quotes that inspire you? Put them in the right place so you never lose them.

Join

2 Million Stashers

4.8

5,740 Reviews

App Store

4.7

72,690 Reviews

Google Play

samz905

Don’t look further if you love learning new things. A refreshing concept that provides quick ideas for busy thought leaders.

Shankul Varada

Best app ever! You heard it right. This app has helped me get back on my quest to get things done while equipping myself with knowledge everyday.

Ashley Anthony

This app is LOADED with RELEVANT, HELPFUL, AND EDUCATIONAL material. It is creatively intellectual, yet minimal enough to not overstimulate and create a learning block. I am exceptionally impressed with this app!

Sean Green

Great interesting short snippets of informative articles. Highly recommended to anyone who loves information and lacks patience.

Laetitia Berton

I have only been using it for a few days now, but I have found answers to questions I had never consciously formulated, or to problems I face everyday at work or at home. I wish I had found this earlier, highly recommended!

Giovanna Scalzone

Brilliant. It feels fresh and encouraging. So many interesting pieces of information that are just enough to absorb and apply. So happy I found this.

Jamyson Haug

Great for quick bits of information and interesting ideas around whatever topics you are interested in. Visually, it looks great as well.

Ghazala Begum

Even five minutes a day will improve your thinking. I've come across new ideas and learnt to improve existing ways to become more motivated, confident and happier.

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving & library

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Personalized recommendations

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates