I am looking for advice concerning a (supposedly) known practical issue : article overloads. While doing my PhD I was convinced that everything who went through publication was worth reading and understanding. My opinion as evolved since then for very practical consideration : lack of time to read biblio and absolute necessity to "pre-screen" something before deciding if it's worth reading or not.
Concerning scientific paper, the prescreening can be tricky. Since the format is very standardized as well as the wording (nothings sounds more like a paper than a paper), I often end up reading half a dozen page on a paper, annotates parts, spend time... before deciding I shouldn't spend time on it.
Do you have some "tricks" to share in order to lower that waste of time? While these "tricks" might be completely non-scientific of course, I still would enjoy them
I totally agree with what you said. I face the same exact problem especially when writing Case Reports/Case Series.
What I usually do is read the Intro and Conclusion and have a fast look on the graphs/pictures/etc and if it's an old paper, looking at the citation meter worth's a lot. I then have a general intuition on the paper if it's worth reading or not.
If I'm looking for something specific that's sometimes no elsewhere, word searching it by CTRL + F is an absolute time saver.
If you are reading the prior work just for your literature review, you don't have to meticulously read them as if you are reviewing them as a referee. However, if you identify some errors or shortcomings, take a note of them, perhaps you might end up with another paper idea from them. You just have to identify what is different compared to your paper and how your paper is an improvement or a different but important paper looking from another aspect, etc. If it is highly related to your paper, and you need to be very specific to convince the readers that your contribution is significant, then you should read it very carefully. If you need to get a general idea about the area, for a potential research, then you will need to read the most important (highly cited) and early work on that subject very carefully. You also need to read the most recent work, to be up-to-date on the subject. Your reading of the earliest, the most influential and the latest papers on the subject will lead to more papers to read, to guide your literature review and to improve your understanding of the state of the art in the area.
Hi
If we have to go for new research...obviously we have to consult old one....so if we have to save time and we have to go through this old literature...my advise is go through title if revelant to your research ...abstract and discussion...
PATIENCE SHOULD BE
OTHERWISE BRAIN IN DRAIN
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