paper

How to read a paper

  • Authors: Keshav, S.
  • Year: 2007
  • Publication: ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review
  • DOI: 10.1145/1273445.1273458

Chapters

  • The three pass approach
  • The first pass
  • The second pass
  • The third pass

Motivation

Provide a procedure for student to read a paper, prevent they from spending time try and error.

Method

  • The first pass
    • 5 to 10 minutes
    • Read the abstract, introduction and conclusion carefully
    • Read the titles but ignore the content
    • Check the reference
  • The second pass
    • One hour
    • Read again but ignore the detail such as proofs
    • Read the graphs, figures, results
    • Should be able to summarize
      • Do the assumptions appear to be valid?
      • What are the paper’s main contributions?
      • Which theoretical bases were used to analyze the problem?
    • Decide whether to continue the reading
  • The third pass
    • few hours, depends
    • identify and challenge every assumption in every statement
    • how would I present a particular idea
    • jot down ideas for future work

Results

Takeaways

Highlights

Images

Vocabulary