Most of us enter the PhD thinking that we can read. Most of us are embarrasingly wrong.
Reading (correctly) is arguably the most important, overlooked part of a PhD. Keeping up with all of the literature is an impossible task, and anyone that tries to do so is bound to fail. Dedicate some time to finding a flow that works for you (i.e. one that you consistently use), and after you find this, don’t spend more time modifying it. If it works, don’t fix it!
I hope that what I write here might help someone else too in organizing their research ideas just as it helped me when I started getting serious about research (and my future self whenever he forgets this flow).
Reading checklist
Overall, anytime someone mentions their reading questions, these points should definitely pop up.
| Checklist | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Problem | What problem is the research addressing? |
| Context | What previous research has led to this problem? What is the current state? |
| Importance | Relevance of the problem? Why is it worth doing? |
| Goal | What is the paper’s main objective? |
| Methods | Key mechanism. Why is it effective in addressing the problem? |
| Results | Meaning and interpretation. Are the results novel? |
| Implications | Ramifications in theory, applications, or future research? |
Note that these questions get more specific as they go down, i.e. there is a difference between the Problem and the Goal. One tries to go from big-picture and narrow down to specifics.
It should also be stated that any critiques of a paper should be always written or expressed. In other words, don’t be afraid to question what has been written! Worst case, you’ll learn something new.
Furthermore, these questions should also be useful to guide your scientific writing. Check any piece of written work you have made, could someone easily answer the above checklist?
Reccomendations
Set up an RSS feed collection, I use NetNewsWire because it is libre and just works!
Use it and subscribe to journals of your choice (see list below)
Prioritize the journals where most of your research is from, but also give space to some that might not be of utmost importance at first glance. It is useful to have some knowledge about what other areas are working on (e.g. some research in photonic crystals could be applied to crystalline, solid-state materials).
a) The Google Scholar feature for creating alerts is useful for very specific topics
Write as you read !
There are two kinds of reading: skimming and understanding
Don’t listen to any music as you read! (Turn off the radio – C.S. Lewis), make it intentional
Think about the big picture
- Think about the relevance of the work, i.e. why is it that this research matters and how does it fit in the global scope? If it does not fit, it will not be worth your time.
The routine
- You only get around 4 hours of useful brain power. Use it wisely, and keep less intensive tasks towards the end of the day.
Journal list
Here are some journals that I follow through their RSS feeds.
When you add the RSS feeds for any journal, it will be overwhelmingly full of articles. You might be tempted to skip through them all just to get rid of the 100+ unread notification. Dedicate some time to reading the titles+abstracts, this will prove useful for consistency.
Materials Science and Computational Materials
Editor’s Suggestions