Tips on reading papers
Table of Contents
Note from Simon Peter's Data Center class.
Why is reading papers relevant to you?
- understand the latest developments
- learn how to write and present ideas.
- start with other people's ideas to feel the processes
- read critically (ask questions and challenge assumptions)
- at some point you need to write your own papers.
Some model questions?
- What is the research project this paper addresses?
- What are the contributions/novel insights?
- What do I learn when reading this?
- How are the results substantiated? (proofs/experiments/…)
- What are the conclusions and broader impact?
Read a paper at least three times
- First pass: provides the general idea
- 5-10mins
- read abs/intro/conclusion/section headings.
- briefly check which references you know
- Second pass: understand the content
- 1 hour
- read full paper, ignore details (proofs etc.)
- find key points, take notes, check figures carefully to understand them.
- mark references for future reading.
- Third pass: understand the depth
- 4-5 hours
- fully understand everything, attention to detail (read related work).
- try to re-implement experiments, make up own examples, etc.
- question everything!
- generate ideas for your work.