General advice on reading scholarly material
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Good general advice for reading a science journal article follows:
Royal Society of Chemistry - How to read a Chemistry Paper
How to read a journal article
Reading this guide will help you read and understand journal articles. It explains how they are structured, where to find specific information, what peer review is and how you can critically assess the content.
A journalist explains how she reads science articles she may not understand
How to read a scientific paper
by Alexandra Witze, science journalist and master explainer.
The Open Notebook is here with a primer on how to read a scientific paper. The key is to familiarize yourself with the framework in which scientists describe their discoveries, and to not let yourself get bogged down in detail as you’re trying to understand the overarching point of it all.