dreamy days

Illustration of S T U D Y B L R S 📚😉

Taken from Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of the Tiger Mother

Tips for skim reading PEER-REVIEW ARTICLES, from your friendly public health scientist

0. Types of peer-review articles:

Research articles: I have a hypothesis, I did my own research to reject or accept the hypothesis

(Systematic) reviews: I read a whole of bunch of existing articles and wrote a summary of their findings

Meta analysis: I took data from a whole bunch of exisiting research to reject or accept a hypothesis (more data=more participants=more likely to represent real life=closer to the truth)

Commentary/correspondence: I have a strong opinion on something, usually to call for more attention in a research area (always topical)

Case studies/series: I found something interesting that maybe significant to a larger group of people but I don’t have enough data to prove it, especially if it’s time sensitive

1. What am I looking for?  (no, I don’t mean the topic)

Depending on the outcome of your need, you may be only focusing on either the Methods section, the Results section, or Discussion, or Conclusion. For example, are you looking for how to measure PTSD (methods) or what is the rate of PTSD in a community (results)

Introduction/background: what is the topic and what questions will this paper answer (based on existing literature)

Methods: how I did my research (the measurement tools, type statistical analysis, who I did my research on)

Results: What I found (percentages, rates, odd ratios, relative risks, confidence intervals, regressions, etc.)

Discussion: Explanation for what I’ve found and how it compares to existing research (more existing literature which may or may not support the results)

Conclusion:  What direction is my research and what should the next step be (the gap in research, limitations in the research)

1a. Narrow your scope of research

Have a simple inclusion or exclusion criteria

Is there time frame to when the research has to be published by (e.g. 2000-2018)?

Is it about women only, men only, children under 5 only, excludes people with A and B?

Specific language only?

At least a certain sample size (e.g. must have 400 participants)?

controlled or not controlled environment (e.g. fieldwork or lab-based)?

Locations specific (e.g. countries, districts, continents, counties)?

2. Read the goddamn abstract

If it describes what you are looking for, download the pdf. This ensures what you are looking for is in the article so you don’t waste your time reading the whole damn thing. The abstract should describe everything in the first bulletpoint. DO NOT RELY ON TITLE

If the abstract doesn’t give you a taste of what you want, skip it, it’s probably not worth reading

2a. Skip the intro/background

If you know what your topic is, skip this section, it will not give you any new information. If you are unfamiliar with the topic, read 1 or 3 introductions and skip it for the rest of the articles

3. Control + F

Sometimes abstracts can be deceiving, if you have key words or criterias that you must meet e.g. women who have PTSD, then please look up the word ‘women’ to make sure actual research was done about women and it was not just mentioned in the introduction section. Don’t think you have to read the entire paper

4. Refernce and take notes

You’re not going to remember what you read where so take notes! Open an excel or word doc and have one column be the title and the other one be the notes in bulletpoint form. 

Fnd a reference software e.g. refworks, mendeley so you don’t have to type each reference by hand. they are usually free (if you are in school)

SAVE THE GODDAMN PDF. Don’t lose it. If you can’t download a PDF, PRINT —> save as PDF. 

Don’t have the license or money to buy the article, try emailing the author, use any school/college/university library computer, email a nerdy friend!

5. Where to get started

Search Engines: Pubmed, Google scholar, Medline

Journal servers: they tend to have recommendations like ‘articles you might enjoy,’ click on those

References: bibliographies and references of articles you’ve read are alway a good source

A friend once asked me how I manage to do my tasks so efficiently. I wrote a 500-word essay in 20 minutes. I finished my math homework and studied for a quiz in the half hour before morning assembly. I sleep at 9 pm on most nights. But how can I possibly achieve that?

I’ve seen people, even good students, check their phone every minute or two as they’re studying. I’ve seen students “study” for six hours straight, meaning taking down some notes then watching a YouTube video then reading their textbook then opening Instagram… you know what I mean.

My advice is to commit to whatever you’re doing. Not too long ago, another friend asked me, “Jo, do you ever get distracted at home?” to which I replied, “Distracted by what?” They told me about how they always have the urge to check their phones, talk to their friends, or get some food.  I can’t say I never get distracted, but it very rarely happens to me because I focus on what I’m doing–and only what I’m doing. Here’s how:

1. During the time I allocate for working, I turn my phone to airplane mode (with WiFi switched off, of course). No messages or notifications will distract me from what I’m currently doing. Recently, though, I’ve left my phone on in case there’s anything important. There might an RMUN photoshoot tomorrow, or a Physics quiz, or a music showcase. I know myself well enough to know that I have the discipline to do nothing more than glance at the notification. However, if this isn’t true for you, then I suggest you keep your phone on airplane mode.

2. When I allocate time for relaxing, that’s all I do. No homework. No textbooks. No opening emails as they come. Just me and a good book or Photoshop or the piano or something. That way, I can satiate my thirst to relax within the half hour or so and not crave more when I start working

As for music, it’s been proven that music makes you less productive when trying to recall and absorb information (studying, in other words). Music only makes you happier when you’re doing things but not more productive.

By this, I don’t only mean which ones are most urgent, but which ones you can’t accomplish anywhere other than at home. For example, let’s say you have these three tasks: a) research about structural unemployment; b) write a poem with the theme of death; c) answer some questions about quantum physics; d) do a problem set about implicit functions; and e) memorize a set of chemical reactions. This is how I would do them:

Write the poem on the way to school. Maybe this is just because I like poetry. And because I can’t write when other people are around. I’d probably get a first draft done by the time I get home.

Do the research about structural unemployment. My school’s WiFi is terrible.

Answer the quantum physics questions. The new information is still fresh in my brain and doing the homework will help me revise, easing the process of spaced repetition.

Memorize the chemical reactions before I go to bed. Studying before you sleep is supposed to improve your memory, and since my memory is terrible, that’s exactly what I’ll do.

Do the implicit functions problem set as soon as I get to school the next morning. Math is undoubtedly my best subject, and it’s very refreshing to do math at 6:45 AM in the morning.

If you saw the pattern, I assigned each task a time slot when I would be most productive. I also did them from easiest to most difficult to the easiest again. Because everyone works differently, I suggest you find out which types of tasks are the most difficult (memorizing, in my case) and which types of tasks require a certain environment (e.g. requiring WiFi for doing research).

I guess that’s pretty much self-explanatory. I like to nap right after I get home from school if I’m feeling especially tired. As for breaks, I prefer to take them between tasks instead of every 25 minutes because of my high study inertia.

Commit to what you’re doing

Delegate and prioritize

Give yourself shorter deadlines

Take breaks!

30 Jan 2019 || 3:19 pm

more studying!! staying on track is hard nowadays with all the stuff that i need to do, but i’m doing my best to stay balanced with everything!