Keeping up to date with the latest literature is a must-have for successful researchers. First of all, this will allow you to grasp the development trends in related fields and discover relevant research issues that drive the development of the field. Second, reading the literature will familiarize you with the latest technologies and methods and apply them to your own research. Third, exploring these valuable questions in your paper can help you build credibility and reputation. Although most researchers understand these points, they all have a common difficulty - not enough time!
Therefore, the strategy you take needs to keep up with the latest research trends without sacrificing too much valuable time. This article will help you achieve this goal in two ways: search strategy and reading strategy .
Let's talk about the search strategy first. How do you generally search for articles related to your research direction? If you are like most people, then you will use the index database of Web of Science, Scopus or PubMed. They are great resources to help you keep abreast of the latest developments in the field. However, understanding the differences between these databases will allow you to find the most useful articles more selectively. Databases can generally be divided into two broad categories, depending on whether the journal requires an application to join.
The first category of databases includes Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science. Journals need to apply to be included. These databases are optional! Scopus will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the quality and content of journal editors and will generally only accept 25-30% of journal applications. PubMed, through Medline, generally only accepts 15% of journal applications. Web of Science is a bit like "Nature" in the index database, the most rigorous, only the top 10%. That is to say, if you see the same article in the same journal in three databases, it means that the journal has passed three independent external evaluations and is consistently recognized as a high-quality journal. You can be more confident about the quality of the content they publish.
Springer Nature also offers another very useful service called Recommended ("Recommended for you") . This service is completely free and retrieves the 100 most recent articles you have read on Nature.com, SpringerLink or Biomed Central. Based on your reading behavior, the Recommended one will pick the best matching article (through CrossRef) from 45,000 journals in different publishers and send it to your email address.
Applying these strategies helps to simplify and refine your search when searching for new content related to your research direction. I recommend taking 20-30 minutes a day to read the abstract of the article sent to your mailbox. It is better to have a cup of coffee companion, and then choose the article you want to read throughout.
This is the second strategy that can help you build a professional knowledge system - reading strategies. Time is limited, and you are always too busy, so the possibility of reading each article from the beginning to the end is very low. Fortunately, this is actually not necessary. The paper's textual architecture is designed to allow readers to quickly find the information they are looking for.
The first thing you have to do is ask yourself: "What am I looking for?" There is a reason for downloading an article. You must be looking for something from the paper. What are you looking for? With this in mind, you can read the article with a goal. Recalling those words in your mind while reading, this ensures that you find the information that is most important to you.
The second step is to know where the most critical information is in the article . Fortunately, the paper consistently uses the IMRaD format—Introduction (I), Method (M), Result (R), and Discussion (D), which helps you quickly locate the location of different content.
Most quotes will give some background information. If you are already familiar with the topic, there is no need to read the introduction. However, you should pay attention to what the problem is trying to solve in this study. Why do authors believe that this research is necessary? This type of information usually appears at the end of the introduction and is derived from the word "however" ("but"). Once you have caught this keyword, slowly read the following sentence, because this sentence is the research motivation that the author wants to point out. This also allows you to better understand the background of the birth of the research, and the research purpose usually appears in the last paragraph of the introduction.
Next, browse through the various charts in the text . If you are familiar with the methods used in the research, you should not be unfamiliar with these figures. You can evaluate the data the author has obtained by reading the comments below the chart. Now imagine that these are your own data, how would you interpret them? What will you do next? Have those extra experiments done? If not, why? Answering these questions, you may be able to further expand your research direction based on this research.
If you don't see a particular trend or relationship, you can jump directly to the "results" where the author will interpret the chart. The “Results” section usually points out trends and better guides the reader. Do you agree with the trends or relationships described by the author? Have you found any trends not mentioned in the text? Again, these are likely to expand further in your own research projects.
Finally, read through the "Discussion" section. The author usually interprets the results of the research in conjunction with existing knowledge.
Some papers will combine the results and interpretations in the "Results-Discussion" section. Do you agree with the author's interpretation? Do you think that some related studies are not discussed in the text? Does the method or analysis used by the author have limitations that affect the conclusions of the study? You can contact the author of the paper to discuss these issues. They will be grateful for your attention to their research, and you can also establish professional relationships with your peers around the world. Building a professional network is one of the best ways to open up your industry's visibility.
You need to ask yourself the questions mentioned above to verify the significance and usefulness of the research. If you don't ask yourself these questions when you read them - I call them "passive reading," you won't be able to extract really important information that will increase your expertise.
Unless you have accumulated enough experience to actively read articles, I suggest that you write down the above questions. After repeated training, these questions will naturally appear when you read new articles, and your reading efficiency will be higher.
In general, reading a paper is a key step in becoming a high-yield researcher. Due to time constraints, you need to adopt effective strategies to discover new articles and extract valuable information. In this way, you can not only improve your research projects, build your own knowledge system, but also build your reputation in the field.
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