PS 06. How to read scientific papers and generate ideas
Plenary Session

PS 06. How to read scientific papers and generate ideas

Tung-Tien Sun

Departments of Cell Biology, Dermatology, Pharmacology and Urology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA


Some people read a paper word by word, from the beginning to the end. When they finish a paper and fail to understand it, they read the whole paper again, and again, until they finally get it. I call this 'passive reading', which is inefficient and boring. A more effective way of reading and understanding a paper is to read 'with questions in mind'. I call this 'active reading'. In this talk I will discuss the advantages of active reading, as well as how to generate new ideas using a 'three-ring binder system'.

DOI: 10.3978/j.issn.2223-4683.2012.s209

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