how to read a research paper

Split the paper content in three passes, in which each pass builds on the previous one cementing your understanding.

First pass gives you a general idea.
Second pass lets you grasp the paper’s content but not its details.
Third pass helps you understand the paper in depth.

First Pass - A bird’s eye view of the paper
This pass should take about 5-10mins and consist of following steps :

Carefully read the title, abstract and introduction.
Read the section and sub-section headings, but ignore everything else.
Glance at the mathematical content (if any) to determine the underlying theoretical foundations.
Read the conclusions.
Glance over the references, mentally ticking off the ones you’ve already read.

At the end, you should be able to answer the five Cs :

Category : What type of paper is this? A measurement paper? An analysis of an existing system? A description of a research prototype? A novel research?
Context : Which other papers is it related to? Which theoretical bases were used to analyze the problem?
Correctness : Do the assumptions appear to be valid?
Contributions : What are the paper’s main contributions?
Clarity : Is the paper well written?

This gives you a basic overview or gist of the paper, after which you can decide whether or not to read the paper.

Second Pass -
Read the paper with elevated attention but ignore details such as proofs. Note down your questions, makes notes, comments alongside, mark references, etc as you go through the paragraphs.

This pass should take up to an hour. After this pass you should be able to summarize the paper, with evidence to someone else.

You may find the paper incomprehensible if you’re new to the topics being discussed, unfamiliarity with acronyms or terminologies, or the paper might be just poorly written with overwhelming number of references attached which makes you go back and forth.

You can then choose to :

set the paper aside, hoping you don’t need to understand the rest and just enough to argue with online strangers.
return to the paper later, perhaps after reading some background material.
persevere and go on to the third pass.

Third Pass - An attempt to virtually re-implement the paper
Mostly for reviewers or nerds by comparing your re-creation with the actual paper, which can help to grasp not only a paper’s innovations but its hidden failings and assumptions.

This pass requires a great attention to detail and you should identify and challenge every assumption in every statement and a rough idea on how you would tackle it.

It can take upto 5-6 hours for beginners, and about an hour for an experienced reader to complete this pass.

Depending on your reading comprehension and cognitive capacity, you may take anywhere from hours to weeks between each review to fully grasp the insights. Alternatively, you may find it beneficial to revisit your notes whenever you come across this topic, which is perfectly fine for refreshing your memory. During these subsequent readings, you might discover new revelations that you overlooked during your initial review, and have your ta-daa!! moment which is extremely rewarding.

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how to read a research paper