Often while reading a paper, I will see a citation that that seems more relevant than my current one. I'll switch to the new paper, only to experience a similar feeling. Or maybe I need to look something up on Wikipedia. An hour later, I'll still feel as if I didn't really digest anything. I will have skimmed 2-4 papers' introductions and conclusions, scratched some notes on the side, and generally feel overwhelmed.
Is this a bad habit? An abnormal feeling? How have others dealt with this to become more productive readers?
Try to extend your backgrounds about your respected topic.
This problem is quite common among researchers. Actually it's not really a problem, being overwhelmed like this is just natural. Me and all my friends and colleagues face it.
How I overcame this issue: I try to focus on one paper at a time. Try starting reading the latest research paper on a particular subject and go back chronologically. Print the research paper in hard copy, leave computer and cell phone (if possible) behind and start reading the paper. The point here is to avoid internet access. No matter what question you have, do not search it right away. Write it on the side notes and keep reading. Most of the time the answer will be in the later sections of the same article. Even if you do not get the answers, once you finish reading the paper, you can go online and find all the answers. That's how I read literature without falling in a rabbit hole.
Also, reading the Abstract first, then the conclusion, and then the rest of the paper is also effective.
For me, changing place of study also helps to focus and good instrumental music is always a plus.
Dear Fazla Rabbi Mashrur ,
Actually you have already got the answer to your question! Read more articles before starting your own. Good luck!
Best regards,
Dr. Vardan Atoyan
Hi!
There may be a problem with inflation of number of references as well, and people do this referencing a little too mechanical, to make their own papers look serious and good.
I see this myself, as a temptation when writing a text, but also when I am being cited by other researchers. I often find that I am cited for an expression, a part of the introduction, literature review part etc - but seldom for results, discoveries and conclusions - my real research contribution. But I am happy about being cited - but sad that they did probably not read my paper and reflected on my research results (that happens as well, but not so often).
In a close future there will probably be nice Artificial-Intelligence robots online, and an author can write whatever crap he or she wants, and just push a button ”Insert appropriate references from similar papers with a density of x references per text line ”. That could work as a charm...but would of course be meaningless.
However, check this now old automatic crap writing machine for post-modern papers (from 1996 I think). See http://elsewhere.org/journal/pomo/ . If you like to produce another paper, just reload the page. It has happened that these totally meaningless papers has been accepted by postmodern journals...check the wikipedia article on ”Postmodern Generator”.
So I think we have problems here. Citations are intended for a very precise showing how a piece of research is building on or relating to other research. If we don’t take this seriously it becomes meaningless.
Fazla Rabbi Mashrur -- As today's researcher, you load all pdfs into Qiqqa, and use Qiqqa to recommend which document to read first. Then you highlight and annotate (“scratch some notes on the side”). You use Qiqqa to make autotags, and you read thematically, adding manual tags. Then you make libraries for the major themes emerging. You then use Qiqqa to create an automatic annotation report of all your highlights and annotations in one library which you edit as a first, draft interim progress report...
@Ibham Veza The advantages of on-screen reading include the ability to quickly and exhaustively find all occurrences of a wanted word or phrase in the text with Ctrl-F.
Also you can do an exhaustive search over all libraries search for a phrase, tag or author!
Start with the abstract then read the very beginning of the the introduction and last bit of it. After that, have a look at the figures and tables which should give you a general idea about the work and its results. Finally, read the conclusion. This should test if you are interested on the work or not. If yes, it will be enjoyable to go back and read the whole article.
Dear Fazla Rabbi Mashrur, such deviations during literature search often produce unexpected new ideas. I personally do not print out any references but sort them into well-organized folders in my computer.
Only read or focus on those things which you really need.
OR Equivalently:
Refrain from those items which you really do not need.
Fazla Rabbi Mashrur this happens to me quite often and I don't think that it's a bad habit. Quite often I got interesting new ideas by reading unexpected papers.
One suggestion would be to make a personal note (often using pen/paper) about the central idea in each paper and their related links. The objective is to write get a summary of all the relevant literature in about a couple of pages of notes which will be easier to assimilate, while avoiding duplication if they exist.
Ranjan Parekh I use to collect all relevant references in a large file in my computer. It's just important to order them in various sub-folders so that they can be easily found again.
Frank T. Edelmann and Ranjan Parekh Today we use Qiqqa to sort our PDF library, annotate, and produce an annotation report automatically.
The success of a researcher is directly proportional to how much and how far he reads literature and keeps the notes updated. Therefore, it is inevitable to pass through the rabbit hole. It is necessary to look at the article published yesterday if you plan to submit a manuscript today. It is a good practice to start reading from a state of art review article in your field of research. A review article summarizes the developments in one field and gives many inputs to a researcher. The list of the articles cited in the reference section as well as citations of the review article can be read subsequently. The content may appear repeated after reading some articles. It is not necessary to read the whole article sometimes. The abstract and conclusions should be noted carefully. The volume of the articles published in certain fields of science and technology is enormous that one life time is insufficient to go through. The intense competition (rat race among researchers) and the advent of open access journals act like a machine to produce countless articles annually. All are not worthy of reading and squander precious time. One should glance through (look at abstract/ highlights/ conclusions/ figures/table) the content and decide whether to read it or not. Reading should continue just like reading daily newspaper until the day you decide to retire or quit academic research.
Dear Isaac Dinaharan you gave a very good description of how every researcher should keep up with the current and previous literature in his / her field.
Dear Frank T. Edelmann That is a very nice way to collect all relevant references in a large file so that they become available at any time. I suggest also to always save a copy of this file in your dropbox or google drive to easily access it anywhere and in any case.
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