How To Read A Research Paper? (for Dummies)

Two newspaper reports about problems with reproducibility in cutting-edge biomedical research.

Science Needs a Solution for the Tempatation of Positive Results
In Science, Irreproducible Research is a Quiet Crisis

You MUST start with a clear understanding of how complex the research and the results it generates are, due to many different reasons. That will help you deal with decision-making more deliberately and thoughtfully, without being misled by hype.

I am not trying to be a downer. It is entirely appropriate that you take a deep interest in your own medical care (or that of loved ones you find yourself responsible for). You just need to do it with a clear head. I am trying to put you in the right frame of mind - a healthy skepticism is the first step in "How to Read a Research Paper".

 

That's enough homework for today. I will try to write/respond thoughtfully, to the extent I can, as long as you keep the thread alive. If not, I'm easily distracted and I will wander off chasing butterflies. Or cat videos.

 

You will find many general science articles in newspapers, magazine and science related publications. But reading a scientific paper is not easy even for experts sometimes due to its technical nature. May be a layman can understand review papers in a better way. But one can easily find abstract, methods, figures and conclusions-which may give some idea.

Peer reviewed papers appear in Journals mostly. There will be no ads inside the article, you will clearly see the affiliations, acknowledgement, contributions etc..you can search google to find peer reviewed journals in your area of interest. They will have a very clear instructions with informational on editors and editorial borad. It varies from journal to journal. [example :About the Journal | Nature . It is a top rated journal with high impact factor, but publish general information plus detailed research papers. ] .

Use google scholar Google Scholar to search any paper or topic related to your interest. You may find a pdf link through which you can access free versions. ResearchGate | Share and discover research is like facebook for researchers where you can find many shared publications. Many peer journals are indexed by International Scientific Indexing (ISI) . Google is the best tool that link many resources in a useful way.

Hope this will give you some idea

 

Very difficult, even for a scientist or the technically trained! Also, it's hard to do online. I'd find myself writing walls of text. Your eyes will glaze over! Besides, I'm not sure I can pull it off. We'll let someone else try if they're willing.
Maybe we can revisit this after the preliminaries. That - the preliinary basics, I mean - I can build around the idea that we all have to make medical decisions at one point or another, for ourselves or someone close, so we might as well do it in a somewhat informed fashion rather than not. I've been in that position, so I have some sense of navigation with that, no matter how imperfect.

I could not access this.

 

We'll get to that soon enough!