If the paper is complicated, read it again and again. Every time you will grasp something new.
A agree with Ivo but if you want to proceed further based on a publication first of all you need to understand the write-up in the publication.
Also see
https://medium.com/@drewdennis/how-to-read-scientific-papers-quickly-efficiently-e7030c4018fa
I always read scientific articles "diagonally." Those, it really is not like reading a novel. It is important to me understand: what the article is about and what conclusions are made (it’s only for art is important “not what, but how” ...). Thus, I spend on a new article no more than 2-3 minutes. Pictures, graphics and tables help me a lot to understand the essence. The property of my memory is such that I remember: 1. the fact of its existence; 2. group, or leader researcher; 3. main tasks, formulated in the article; 4. key findings. If in further work I need to refer to this, then I recall: "... there was such an article from group X in the journal Y ..." This is enough to find it in my archive and look more carefully. There are some articles that I read and reread fully because these are very informative and clever, but these situation are extremely rare.
You read first and then study the key relevance of the paper. You may need to compare results with other empirical studies for netter understanding.
First read methodology section to know their factors and levels, place of experiment, design used, starting of research, Statistical software used, ANOVA, etc
Then read the abstract part to know the significant results.
First one has to take a hard copy (printout) of the article and read it carefully... Whenever you read a important lines make it underline and write the key words before the important line...So at the second time reading you get an idea of the important lines...
Ivo, I think I understand what you are trying to say and in some ways agree with you. But.... the best scientific papers are great stories. They have a question or observation that leads them to investigate the topic (intro). They then need to solve the mystery by creating a methodology to find the answer. This then leads to some information, which when examined and analyzed gives clues and maybe even some answer. Well described results can be a work of art, like literature. The conclusions or discussion can often be like great creative nonfiction providing some conclusion to the story as well as insights and even prophecy for future research.
I struggle with the idea of reading the methodology first. If you have not read the introduction it seems the methodology would not make any sense. What is the reason and purpose of the methods? What are you trying to find out? Once you understand the question in need of research and the hypothesis that is proposed to try to answer the question then the methods should make sense.
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