Starter School & college skill
Read an academic paper
Read an academic paper by tracing its question, claims, method, evidence, limitations, and relationship to other research.
Separate what the paper observes from what it concludes.
When to use
- Use for empirical, theoretical, review, or methods papers.
- Do not treat publication, citation count, or author reputation as proof that a claim is correct.
Procedure
- Record the full citation, stable link, version, publication status, access date, and any correction or retraction notice.
- Read the title, abstract, figures, tables, conclusion, and headings to map the argument before reading linearly.
- State the research question, population or system, comparison, outcome, and claimed contribution in your own words.
- Identify study design, data source, sampling, measures, intervention or exposure, analysis, and stated assumptions.
- Trace each major claim to the exact result, figure, derivation, or cited source that supports it.
- Inspect uncertainty, missing data, alternative explanations, researcher choices, and whether the design supports causal language.
- Compare limitations stated by the authors with limitations visible from the method.
- Check conflicts, funding, preregistration, data or code availability, peer-review status, and relevant later evidence.
- Write a bounded conclusion describing what the paper supports, does not support, and what evidence would change the assessment.
Worked example
A paper reports that a teaching tool improves scores. Close reading shows a small volunteer sample, no random assignment, and a different exam from the comparison class. The reading note accurately reports the observed score difference but rejects a broad causal claim and records the population and design limits.
--- name: read-an-academic-paper category: school description: Read an academic paper by tracing its question, claims, method, evidence, limitations, and relationship to other research. Use when studying, reviewing literature, or deciding whether a paper supports a claim. --- # read-an-academic-paper Separate what the paper observes from what it concludes. ## When to use - Use for empirical, theoretical, review, or methods papers. - Do not treat publication, citation count, or author reputation as proof that a claim is correct. ## Procedure 1. Record the full citation, stable link, version, publication status, access date, and any correction or retraction notice. 2. Read the title, abstract, figures, tables, conclusion, and headings to map the argument before reading linearly. 3. State the research question, population or system, comparison, outcome, and claimed contribution in your own words. 4. Identify study design, data source, sampling, measures, intervention or exposure, analysis, and stated assumptions. 5. Trace each major claim to the exact result, figure, derivation, or cited source that supports it. 6. Inspect uncertainty, missing data, alternative explanations, researcher choices, and whether the design supports causal language. 7. Compare limitations stated by the authors with limitations visible from the method. 8. Check conflicts, funding, preregistration, data or code availability, peer-review status, and relevant later evidence. 9. Write a bounded conclusion describing what the paper supports, does not support, and what evidence would change the assessment. ## Worked example A paper reports that a teaching tool improves scores. Close reading shows a small volunteer sample, no random assignment, and a different exam from the comparison class. The reading note accurately reports the observed score difference but rejects a broad causal claim and records the population and design limits. ## Done - A paper review document links the question, method, claims, evidence, uncertainty, limitations, and research context - Every major conclusion is checked against the paper's design and exact supporting result