Helping You Read Science

This site was set up to help people become more scientifically literate and less scared of science publications. It would only be right that this site at least help my readers read through scientific journals and research papers. I know it can be scary, so I want to do my best to help you through it.

First of, one would need to know where to find scientific papers. Traditionally, people looked to magazines like Scientific American for popular or newsworthy research. And by newsworthy, this doesn’t include the use of clickbait or trickery. These articles are actually substantial in their own ways & their researchers deserve recognition. Nowadays, I would recommend using Google Scholar & just simply search on a topic you are interested in. I was even able to find papers on learning to read scientific papers. These include Exploring Nutraceuticals to Enhance Scientific Literacy: Aligning with Vision and Change by the National Association of Biology Teachers & A Student’s Scientific Mind: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis from the University of Malaysia. If you aren’t up for looking up papers yourself, YouTube channels like “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”, “Adam Ruins Everything”, and “SciShow” just to name a few list all of the interesting papers they pulled from. I would really recommend shows like this that are focused on clearing up misconceptions and informing the general population, in a format they can digest.

Second, one should read the “abstract” section of the paper. This is the general summary of the paper & its results. If you don’t want to read through all of the scientific jargon but still get a taste, start with the abstract. After this, if you want to look further, go right ahead. Research isn’t free. This means that sometimes a paper won’t be easily accessible right off the bat. However, many schools, universities, and libraries are more than willing to give you access. All you have to do is ask, unless you already attend one, then you don’t even need to do that.

Third, if you get your hands on paper, you’ll see it is split into sections: the Abstract, the Introduction, the Methods, and the Results. The Abstract was already discussed above. The introduction lays the foundation for the study. This gives background info needed and specifies the environment that the study was run under. It contains what kinds of people or thing that the paper applies to. The Methods are how the data was gathered and studied. The Results are the actual results of the studies. Here is where the researchers would analyze the results and tell you what they mean. This also usually contains a disclaimer about their results and limitations of the study. This entire process should tell you that science isn’t perfect, so it’s really important you learn how to navigate and do not get swept up.

Why am I so focused on improving scientific literacy? In this world of subjective interpretation, alternative news, and fake research studies, I feel the best thing I can do is give people the ability to see the research results themselves and see it for what it is. We need to be better. On a social scale the world over, I want even people without anything more than a high school diploma or a GED to be able to understand the information that is at their fingertips. This way, people will be less gullible to what they hear on the news & will foster more discussion of ideas. These will clearly lead to a world better than what we have now.

Sources:

• Exploring Nutraceuticals to Enhance Scientific Literacy: Aligning with Vision and Change http://abt.ucpress.edu/content/81/3/176.abstract
• A Student’s Scientific Mind: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1204885
• Huffington Post Article about how to read a Research Paper https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-raff/how-to-read-and-understand-a-scientific-paper_b_5501628.html