Why You Should Also Read Research Papers?

Are you the curious cat in your group or love binge reading articles on Wikipedia? Have you experienced the Dopamine rush when the answer clicks in your brain or when you complete reading a book? You also get that high when you understand a concept and things start settling in place inside your mind. The process when a concept connects with your previous knowledge is something we crave for.

If you resonate with any of those, you must add a few research papers in your reading list if you want an overdose of knowledge.

Now in case you are not aware of what a research article is, it is the Medium through knowledge genii communicate! (It is an article by a researcher or a group of researchers about there experiment or research project). Some folks might think that they probably won’t understand a word from a research paper. You will indeed need some technical vocabulary, but you will keep learning as you go along. After all, that’s the motto behind taking the effort. Also, there are many research articles written mainly for ordinary people like us!

What you will get out of reading them:

1. Reading a research paper increases your technical lexicon in a particular subject. Good technical know-how helps you express your ideas better and more clearly. When you encounter any new term you have to invest in learning the meaning of the new expression. This churns the idle nerves in your brain and makes new connections to store the new information. Now that’s your daily dose of brain exercise!
2. You get to learn about the scientific method. You learn what questions are unanswered and how the researcher approached the problem. This polishes your aptitude and appetite for research. You learn how to methodically approach a real-world problem and sharpens your inquiry skills.
3. You learn how to communicate a scientific message and how to organize them. You learn where and how to effectively place graphs and diagrams (or other visual media for that matter). This can help you write better in your school/uni projects and maintain a formal/professional format(you are sure to get extra attention when you write like professional researchers!).
4. You get a pair of Eagle eyes that can see through any myth!

What’s next?

Well no matter what is/was your favorite subject, there is always more than you can ever read material out there! Research papers are not only written by physicists and mathematicians; there are papers written by Archaeologists and linguists as well (and every other subject specialist in between).
Research papers provide a plethora of rich feelings that you won’t be able to resist yourself from craving more of.
Well before writing this article, I had just finished reading the paper on the discovery of Homo Naledi by Lee Berger and his team (Lee Berger is one of my favorite scientists).

Here’s what you will find when you get yourself a pdf of a research paper from ResearchGate or any other source: The Title! Well, you must have read it before getting the pdf. It is nothing more than just a title. Next, you get introduced to the Subject matter of the paper with a beautiful Abstract. The abstract provides all the important findings, highlights the main topics, summarizes the paper, and mentions the aim of the study. It is at this point that you need to decide if you should read the paper or if it is way beyond your level! Now you can probably see an introduction. This section introduces you to the paper and may provide some background. Then is the Body of the paper. The conclusion is obviously the last thing, but many readers prefer to read them first for it lets them better judge if they should read the paper.

Where to start?

You are just a search away from the love of your life, I mean the PDF of a science paper. (Maybe you want to know about Crystal lattices or know more about Cisplatin or maybe you are interested in Dicot embryogenesis or maybe mRNAs and proteins were tickling you!). There is also a Scholarly Article section on Google! (Have you ever been there?)

You should always start with your area of specialization. But if you seem to be lost you can start according to your level of knowledge. You just can’t expect to pick up the latest article on string theory and supersymmetry and digest it all! It is always better to start with papers on Archeology or something relating to Paleo studies (usually most people have a general interest in these fields and they are easier to understand). You can also start with papers on Bio subjects (they are also easier).

A picture from the paper on H. Naledi

You can start with this paper on H. Naledi ;) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324115078_Homo_naledi_a_new_species_of_the_genus_Homo_from_the_Dinaledi_Chamber_South_Africa

Happy learning!