Three Pass Approach
First Pass - General idea of the paper Second Pass - Grasp paper’s content Third Pass - Understand paper in depth
The First Pass 😇
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Read title, abstract, and introduction carefully.
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Read section and sub-section headings. Ignore everything else.
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Read conclusions.
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Glace over references
At the end of the first pass, you should be able to answer the 5 C’s:
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Category: What type of paper is this? A measurement paper? Analysis of an existing system? A description of a research prototype?
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Context: What other papers is it related to? Which theoretical basis were used to analyze the problem?
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Correctness: Do the assumptions seem to be valid?
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Contributions: What are the paper’s main contributions?
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Clarity: Is the paper well written?
The Second Pass 🧐
Read the paper with greater care, but ignore the details such as proofs. Write down the key points, make comments on the margins as you read.
- Look carefully at figures, try to notice mistakes, axes labels, etc.
- Mark relevant unread references for further reading (good for learning more about the background of the paper). The second pass should take up to an hour. After this pass, you should be able to grasp the content of the paper and summarize it with supporting evidence.
Now you may choose to: (a) Set the paper aside, hoping you may not need to understand the material to be successful (b) Return to the paper later, perhaps after reading background material (c) Persevere and go onto the 3rd pass.
The Third Pass 🤓
The key to the third pass is to virtually re-implement the paper. I.E make the same assumptions as the authors, re-create the work. By comparing this re-creation with the actual paper, you can identify not only the paper’s innovations, but also it’s hidden failings and assumptions.
This pass requires a great attention to detail.
You should identify and challenge every assumption in every statement. Think about how you yourself would present a particular idea. Also write down ideas for future work.
This pass can take 4-5 hours for beginners.
About 1 hour for an experienced reader. At the end of this pass, you should be able to reconstruct the entire paper from memory, as well as identify it’s strong and weak points. In particular, pinpoint implicit assumptions, missing citations to relevant work, and potential issues with experimental or analytical techniques.