No matter what your major, at some point in college you're probably going to encounter some scientific literature. It could be for your social science gen ed, or maybe for a class project involving research. For someone who isn't familiar with this type of literature, getting through these heavy articles can be a daunting task. Here are some tips and tricks that I've found that will hopefully make these articles easier to read and understand!
1. Don't get hung up on the intro
This is something that I have to remind myself of a lot. The intro is often very dense and very technical, and can serve to confuse the reader before they really get into the meat of the paper. Don't get me wrong, the intro is an integral part of the paper, but if your main focus is to understand the study being done and the outcome of it, then what you really want to focus on is the methods and results. Try to get the main gist of the intro, or even try reading it after reading the rest of the paper. At that point, it's likely to make a little more sense!
2. Look up words you don't know
I know, sometimes you just aren't motivated enough to open up a new tab to look up a word or concept. I get it, I'm the same way. But honestly, it helps so much. It's definitely worth the extra time to look something up, because the rest of the article will be a lot easier to understand if you actually know what they're talking about.
3. Learn how to navigate in-text citations
One of the hardest things I had to get used to was reading around parenthetical citations. Unless you're conducting research and looking for articles related to the one you're reading, the best thing you can do is skip over the citations. Sometimes online they're in a different color than the rest of the text, which makes them easier to spot and skip. If they're not, try highlighting or crossing them out on your own until you get used to reading around them.
4. Re-read sections to make sure you understand them
Again, this takes a lot more time to do than we're willing to invest. I've found that a lot of the material covered in journal articles is hard to get the first time through. Even if you understand it on the first read, a second go-through will help solidify the information or show you something new about it.
5. Take a look at the charts and graphs - they help!
I know every time I see a chart or graph my first thought is "Yay! Something I don't have to read!" It's easy to want to skip these to save time reading, but they really help show the written information in a different way. Graphs and charts are there to enrich the presentation of statistics and results - use them to your advantage!
The most important thing to remember when reading scientific literature is this:
