Doing this will halve your research paper reading time.

Why am I reading this journal article?

Sounds like a silly question to be even asking.

And you’re correct.

So silly that most of the time we just assume we know the answer.

Is it to survey the current knowledge landscape just to get a feel of the field?

Is it to read widely to collate the various studies on the same topic to generate a systematic review?

Is it to search specifically for data to back up a particular point you are trying to make in drafting your first research manuscript?

I don’t know.

I’m simply reading this journal article because it seems interesting.

Who knows, It might just be useful for when I’m working on a future unknown project sometime down the long and windy road.

I’m afraid of missing out on this article if I skip over it now. I’ll never be able to find it again. It’ll only take 1 more hour, anyway.

And I get that.

The anxiety of wanting to dive right into reading due to the pressure to get something done today.

The uncertainty when you’re starting out that your research path ahead might rely on the knowledge in this article.

The fear of missing out on a particular piece of knowledge if you didn’t read this paper right now even though it might not be as relevant at this juncture.

I get all of that.

Because here’s my story.

In fact, I’m sure you’ve heard about my story.

Yes, and maybe your story sounds somewhat similar:

I read my first research paper when I was 19.

It was my second year at medical school and we had to perform a literature review using the PICO framework.

PsstPICO stands for Problem/Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome.

My question was “For patients with hypertension, was beta-blocker (a type of anti-hypertensive medication) effective in lowering blood pressure compared to placebo?

Off I went down the protocol for a literature review, going through EMBASE, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library, searching with the keywords “hypertension”, “beta-blocker”, and “efficacy” — picking up every relevant piece of article throughout the 20-year-period from 2000 to 2020.

I ended up with 437 publications.

The distressing memory of seeing that number is still fresh in my head.

I started to read the first article.

From start to finish.

Then the second.

Onto the third.

Soon, maybe after 5 hours of solid reading, I was on the 10th article.

“I’ve got this,” I told myself.

After all, I’ve gotten the straight As it took to haul myself into medical school.

There’s an end in sight.

Yes, 427 more pieces of densely packed information to decode.

Looking into the hats that I’ve got, I began to pull out the speed reading tricks I’ve picked up along the way.

The Asian “cramp and regurgitate” examination system certainly prepared me well.

I started to scan the text at a regular pace, not stopping even when certain concepts were unclear.

I moved on to scan with a finger running under the lines to prevent myself from re-reading.

My fingers then ran under every three words and so did my eyes.

Before long I was only reading the first 3 words and the last 3 words of each line.

These tactics plunged me through 10 more articles that afternoon.

Come on, pretty spectacular stuff for a beginner.

Then I got greedy.

With all these tactics, my reading time would be worn down to a third before I finished these 400 or so articles.

The sky was literally the limit and the worst-case scenario? —

— I ended up understanding nothing after “reading” 400 papers.

Not that bad, is it?

I spent all my time gobbling up any resources on speed reading: from YouTube, blogs, and books.

I experimented with any tactics that I came across, implemented them in my reading, and fine-tuned the sharp edges to suit my reading style.

Eventually, I was done with all 437 papers in just under 2 weeks.

Not too shabby, if you’d asked me.

If and only if one doesn’t throw in the cost of time, attention, and the opportunity cost of NOT being able to produce the literature review, which was the sole purpose of reading those 400 papers.

Some of the papers were relevant, others were somewhat relevant, and still, others were frankly irrelevant.

Yet, relevant or not, I read them all.

My goal was to read them all and I succeeded.

But wait a second.

Wasn’t my goal to draft up a systematic review on the efficacy of beta-blockers for the treatment of hypertension?

Where did that go as I went down the rabbit hole of “reading”?

All because I hadn’t asked that silly question:

Why am I reading this journal article?

I’ve Had Enough Of Reading For The Sake Of Reading.

You see, my mistake (and perhaps yours) was that I reversed the steps of approaching research reading.

I dialed up a journal database, input a couple of keywords, and threw myself into that sea of articles hoping that I’ll swim till I reach land before I drown.

I was focused on the “What” part of reading — the prized pearl of information hidden beneath the sea.

Yet how was I supposed to know “What” I was looking for without knowing “Why” I was looking for it?

What’s more, I didn’t know “Where” to look for these information pearls.

Frantically trying to catch my breath, I was swimming far and wide across the oceans when all I had to search for was amongst the oyster beds.

The conventional approach to research reading appears to be something like this:

  1. What are you reading?
  2. Where are you reading?
  3. Why are you reading?

And I don’t blame my former self and you shouldn’t blame yours too.

This was the easy route because it didn’t require much thinking.

Just read.

We weren’t taught otherwise in medical school either.

Remember re-thinking how you read research is as important, if not more, as the reading itself.

I told you that this guide would stretch your brains.

Our approach should always begin with the hardest of questions:

Why are you even reading this journal article?

Once you know why you are reading this article, you know where to look for within the article.

And once you know where to look for within the article, you know you should be able to find what you are looking for.

If you don’t find what you’re looking for, move on to the next article with the confidence that you are not missing out on anything addressing your “Why.

So the System of Research Reading that all scientific articles fall under is:

  1. Why are you reading?
  2. Where are you reading?
  3. What are you reading?

No researcher can thrive by thinking that they get to fall outside of this system.

It doesn’t work like that.

It’s impossible.

So ask yourself: Why are you reading this particular article opened on your Adobe Acrobat Reader?

Does it address your why?

If not, the onus is on you to say “No, I’m going to skip this one“.

The reality is more than half, if not the majority, of journal articles that pop up on database searches would not match your specific “Why”.

You’re then off to the good start clearing those away from your reading list.

With a clear “Why” in mind, let’s move on to the second step:

Where are you reading?

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