David Chung 
226 words
1 minute
How to read a Research Paper?
Motivation
- As a researcher we need to spend a lot of time reading SoTA papers, however there isn’t a lesson dedicated to paper reading technique.
- I want to be more efficient with reading papers.
- I want to solidify those cutting-edge knowledge in my brain and for futher inspirations.
The Three-Pass Approach
First Pass
- 5 to 10 mins.
- Have a bird’s-eye view of the paper.
- Read title, abstract, introduction.
- Read section headings and sub-section headings.
- Jump to conclusion.
- Ticking off the references that you’ve read.
Second Pass
- Around one hour.
- Ignore Proofs.
- Pay special attention to graphs, figures, diagrams and other illustrations.
- Mark relevanr unread references.
Third Pass
- Four to five hours.
- Challenge the paper’s assumptions through re-implement.
- Jot down ideas for future work after identifying a paper’s innovaiton and hidden failings.
Mindset
- Don’t assume that the authors are always correct. Although it’s more trustworthy if the paper is accepted by top conferences.
- Try to find the gold within the paper for you and put that into your bag.
- Take notes on the paper may save time for future when there’s a need for re-reading the paper.
- Try to summarize three key points after Second Pass mentioned above.
- Compare paper contributions with other papers, this may bring ideas together and by uniting those ideas there might already be scientific contributions.
One Page Paper review
- One or two sentences to sum up the paper.
- Important breakthrough and framework it presented.
- Any limitations or Future ideas that you can hop onto.
- Try to explain the concepts in your own words.
How to read a Research Paper?
http://localhost:4321/posts/2025-12-08-how-to-read-paper/ Last updated on 2025-12-08，1 days ago
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