Write down your summaries or key points you took away (understood) from the papers. You are more likely to remember what you have written down than what you just read. Such summaries are also good for quick references if properly kept!

Write down your summaries or key points you took away (understood) from the papers. You are more likely to remember what you have written down than what you just read. Such summaries are also good for quick references if properly kept!

I usually start by reading the abstract to figure out what they have intended to accomplish in the paper. Then go check their concluding remarks. The next step can be checking their figures and reading their figure captions. The method of analysis (or experimental procedure if there is any) would be the next thing I read. Then results and discussion, and finally the introduction section.

I know it seems a little bit weird, but it really works well for me. Also, keep in mind that taking notes from the paper you are reading in a separate notebook can provide you with a very good archive for any future reference. I have found it very useful to write bullet points in my notebook whenever I read a paper. This way you can always go back to your notebook and by taking just a quick glance at your notes you will recall the entire work you had previously read.

Hope this helps!

Vladimir,

You'll get numerous responses from people which may work for them but not necessarily for you. Hopefully, you'll be able to get something useful as well.

I'm using the EndNote. I'm working with hundreds of articles, so I can't remember all of them (not saying "obviously" because somebody could:). The title, the abstract and the keywords plus the full text for every article. When I need to find something I'm using keywords search in the particular collection in EndNote. This part is about remembering...

Regarding understanding, I can't suggest anything special. I usually read several times, check concepts that I don't have enough knowledge, occasionally do cross-referencing. Usually, it's enough to grasp the essentials from the article. 

dear friend

In addition to the above points, I would like to add the following points:

1. Take a paper to read when you are totally free and relaxed for the next 5 or 6 hours.

Its essential that you dont leave the paper half read and then go for some other work and then again come back and read again.

So non disturbed time is essential.

2. downlaoad a paper based on your choice in a field- as many papers as posssible.

Remember, higher is the number, the far better it is.  than having one or two papers at hand.

3. Read abstract and conclusion section, if you liked and find it interesting to you, then read the in between sections, else simply keep it at one side. And then take up the next paper to repeat teh same process.

4. Keep aside all those papers, that you liked .

5. Again take those previously liked papers and go for further indepth study of the underlying methods and the results section.

6. Better keep your log-book filled with the titles and papers details while reading the papers.

I hope this will help you.

Best regards

Dr.Indrajit Mandal

this is a very good question as many scientific people will suffer. 

my experience is that first to check the paper whether it is you want before you read it. when you read it, take a note and when you read enough papers, write a review about it no matter publish it or not. I use to summarize a paper by recording  the motivation, the experimental method and results. i hope this may help you. 

Hi Vladimir Farber,

It is such a interesting question question and my heartiest appreciate for your  post.

In addition to the above mention great ideas, I would like to add the following tips:

Once if  you are decided to study a article better you will take print out and stud. it is more convenient to study and you can remember  easily that studying in personal computer or lap top. some times reading in computer gets eye irritations and tiredness it will lead to less concentration on your not only reading and remembering but also make a note. 

Thanks 

Hi Vladimir Farber,

I follow this technique to remember any research work. as guided by my professors. (This  method will consume time but  very effective--- one must have practice to read  one paper daily to follow this method).

1. Firstly start reading the review paper in your area -  outcome is you will know the main authors and know the terminologies.

2. After selecting  the relevant papers for your research- experimental or computational follow the below steps.

3. while reading the paper , start writing in excel or word format in different columns like author, year of publication, outcome of the paper, major findings- results. make a tabular format so that you can remember major information to track the paper.  Do the procedure for 5 papers ( for example), All the major findings and author names will be fully summarized which will lead to one sheet-- i hope now you can remember major works.

4. Once tabulation of summary of research papers are done  start writing a chapter  for the  summarized papers with figures and justifications. This method will help to go in details and help for thesis and also help to justify your results when your work is same as previous  work.

In my Opinion 

1. pay attention on the key words of the Paper.

2. try to put it down on a note book. because if you writing something it's much more easier to remember. 

3. 

Always keep a note book (A5 or small is a good size that you can take with you anywhere). When you start reading a paper, write some notes to yourself in the notebook. Make sure to include some form of reference so you can find the paper again in the future. Note down any ideas that come to mind or key points in the text as you read. I've tried doing this both digitally and using a notebook. Notebook is for me the best approach - I find digitally that it becomes messy and easier to forget. Maybe because its simply copy/paste vs writing my thoughts down. The key thing here is to experiment with different approaches and chose the one that works for you! Goodluck!

In terms of reading a paper. Here is what I do.

Title. Abstract. Conclusion. Results. Contribution.

If it is a new area of research, I will probably read the Introduction/Lit review first for a few papers until I feel Im familiar enough with the area. From then on I tend to follow the steps above. And I write down in my notebook as I go!

First you have to read the abstract and understand the objective of the paper. Then read the conclusion, where the result of the research is briefed. By this time, you might have got the basic idea of that research. Then you read the methodology and result discussion to get more details.

Just start by looking at many scientific papers whose titles and abstracts you find attractive, and then fully read the ones you think you are most likely to understand. Also try reading some of the great scientific literature - in modern physics that would be Bohr, Dirac, Einstein and Fermi - and see how far you can go.

I think that the useful and important papers remain in memory without any effort. To take an example, I can remember some papers I was reading during my PhD studies made in the seventies of last century. Maybe, the selection of "useful and important" papers is more difficult today because of greater quantity of papers to be selected. But, the quality of logical and well structured paper renders this selection easy.

start reading the abstract and conclusion.  a paper has to be read at least 10 times to start understanding.  Then you will have a vague idea of what is the aim of the paper.  then start reading the implementation and other parts of the paper.

Just read as many papers as possible and master all of them.

You need not have to remember any thing or note it down in any particular way if you learn anything properly.

Once you learn well you can make a paper out of your knowledge.

These days too much literature. first step is to sort & identify which paper is worth to be read..

Start by reading abstract & conclusions.. everything in between are details.. If abstract & conclusions are 'impressive'.. then focus on the paper and read it fully.

Yes, there are exceptions wherein some authors who write 'heaven & earth' in abstract and have eye-catching titles.. peer-review process has its limitations too.

Try to write the review of a paper. If you try to write down some comments about paper content, you will definitely remember it. If paper is very impressive and interesting for you, it is better to prepare the PPT presentation describing this paper. Then you will understand it much better, and this knowledge will be with you for a long time.

I agree with Prof. Lech Pawlowski. The value of paper for you is very important. 

If you get something from paper that is useful in your own work, you will remember it better. Some important papers, which I referred to, I can even reproduce again from my mind. I also memorize Journal's, number, year and all co-authors of paper, because I used to cite it many times.

In general, once we are attracted by a title of the paper, we read the abstract to get its essense to get further attracted by its contents and simplicity of language. Introduction gives a brief history of the work to understand its purpose and need which directs us to the conclusion to see the final answer. If we find these three parts of the paper interesting, then we are automatically forced to continue to read in detail and  depth, depending on our interest and needs.

It is no simple to remember all the papers you read. This is one of my trouble, when I starting my research.

You can find some techniques, your own techniques. For example I print interesting papers, and reading them, I underline some most interesting part. Then I collect the paper in some physical folders dividing them by issue.

Hope this is helpful.

Mariano.

It fully depends on the content of the paper that you read, if it is related to your interest area. You will surely remember the basic content of the paper, even though you don't remember it line by line.  

whenever required you can retrieve it back with another round of reading.

Thanks!

Regards,

Rajesh.

I suggest to highlight the key lines in the article to facilitate finding the desirable points of a paper in a long time later, and also write the key summaries, results or concepts you understood from the paper in your special review notebook, maybe one or two pages for every article.  As far as I'm concerned it can help you to review and compare the points of similar articles in a moment.

Regards,

very interesting question..

First to dissociate the title name it self, can arrange some cues on what the story is going to come. Then abstract, now a days most of the papers in turn less speak in abstract ,,because it does not propose any theory only says the important key elements.

Then jump into rapid summary or conclusions, where you can find maximum out put they want to propose by the paper.

Again to check Introductions,, now it might clear objectives that you already red ,, the difficult part of the paper is to understand the results,,specially now a days it is with complex images and lot of makeup.

For me, i love to read in that way..few authors can specifically stress on few points that can make us to interpret and and understand very well.

The noble paper of Shinya yamanaka's on IPS cell is great that can easily gets into the mind with a first reading,,..

Just read and imagine like a story...

sriki

Data vs information... with experience you will learn to discern & differentiate between these two.

Thank to everyone for the useful and interesting tips.

I recently met the method known as mnemonic (containing of the set of techniques which intended to general memory improvement), but I have not fully understood how it works. Does anyone tried to apply mnemonic to remember articles?

Let me share the method which I follow in reading the research papers.

Before reading the paper, I will get some basic concept on the domain in which the paper has been written. 

Then I will start reading the Abstract, Introduction and directly to the algorithms or experiment carried out in the paper. To get the future scope of the paper, I will read the conclusion of the paper.  

Hello Vladimir, I use mnemonics, and one of my research areas is musical mnemonics.  Mnemonics facilitated memory recall when I was learning biochemistry. I still use mnemonics to remember many things.

"Mnemonics effectively perform this role by linking the new, unfamiliar information with information, knowledge or experience that is already within the repository of the learner, with the use of visual and auditory cues (Mastropieri et al., 2000). Studies showed that teenage learners found that mnemonic strategies like acrostics and acronyms facilitated their recall of information by making new information more familiar, meaningful and more concrete (Bakken & Simpson, 2011, Yeoh, 2014b). Acrostics and acronyms are effective for the students to recall information on a wide range of subjects. Literature revealed that young adult learners used mnemonics to improve their vocabulary (Bakken & Simpson, 2011); and recall of selected biological pathways (Yeoh, 2015a, 2015b)."

Article MUSICAL MNEMONICS TO FACILITATE THE LEARNING OF DNA REPLICATION

Know about Skimming and Scanning. It will be more useful while reading a research paper. 

I think it is a specific issue. People read papers which they interested in and remember for long time which really help them to solve their problem or gave something to understand in their professional or personal life

It's a good question, one that students often ask but which applies to academics, too. When looking at study habits and memory, two useful findings are the spacing effect and retrieval practice.

The spacing effect means that information is better remembered if practiced after a delay than if practiced rapidly. So re-reading the same day will be much less effective than returning to your research papers after a week or a month.

Retrieval practice is active recall, in contrast to passive re-reading. It occurs if you test yourself on the content, rather than just reading it over again. You may notice that if you describe research in something you are writing, those citations tends to stick with you very well. You can do this by writing summaries from memory. Again, this is best done after a delay.

Finally, understanding boosts memory, so the better you understand it, the more you will remember. Tasks such as compare/contrast or categorising research papers could be useful, here.

This blog post on evidence-based strategies is aimed at students, but the principles are the same http://www.jonathanfirth.co.uk/blog/studyhabits