This resource offers practical strategies for reading academic papers and psychology* publications more effectively.

Research papers require purposeful, strategic reading, without any single "correct" approach. The strategies outlined here will help you identify your reading goals, choose an approach that matches them, and practice executing the approach with detailed, step-by-step instructions.

None of these frameworks are gospel. The intention is to explore a few methods of annotation that you can adapt to your own work style, or that can help inspire something totally different that works for you!

*And other social science readings, but with a bias toward empirical psychology studies

Reading with a Purpose

When you read a novel you pick it up, turn to the first page, and read until the end. You know, how reading works. Unfortunately, this approach often isn’t going to cut it when you read a peer-reviewed journal article or other scientific publication. Even more unfortunate, there isn’t a “correct” way to read these kinds of materials, and you’re often going to be on your own trying to figure out a way to make sense of things.

So how do you read a paper? Start by figuring out why you’re reading it. You’ve got two major categories of answers here: 1) you want to and 2) you have to.

Let’s say you have to read this paper, like it was assigned for a class. You still need to think more about what you want to get out of it. What’s your goal?

1. Learn the basic information in a right-or-wrong kind of way
2. Understand it well enough to follow along or participate in an hour-long discussion
3. Figure out how it relates to something else – another reading, a lecture, a broader topic
4. Write a critique of its theory or methods
5. Decide whether it’s worth including in a longer paper or assignment
6. Something else! Just clearly articulate it.

Maybe you want to read it. Or at least, you voluntarily chose to read this particular paper. What’s your goal?

1. Something from the list of “have-to” goals above
2. Get the general gist to stay current with a body of literature
3. Critique the theory, methods, or writing in order to give feedback to the authors
4. Fill a gap in your knowledge of a topic
5. Understand fine-grained details of methods to use in your own research
6. Decide whether it’s worth including in a literature review for your own paper
7. Figure out how the findings fit into your own conceptualization of a phenomenon
8. Prepare for battle, tearing its logic, methods, and premise to shreds as you lead your side to victory in the war of hot takes on your super niche topic of interest