You don't need to be a genius or a scientific authority to access directly the new and exciting knowledge produced by science people. At CuriosaMente, to make our videos, we like to consult the richest and most reliable sources: research articles, known in English as papers. And you can too! How to understand them in an easy and effective way? Let's learn today... How to read a scientific article? In a scientific article, the results of research conducted by experts in various disciplines are published. The latest discovery about black holes! The most recent answer to fundamental questions about human behavior! The most innovative hypothesis about the evolution of living beings! Unfortunately, scientific articles are not made to be read by a wide audience, but for science people to communicate with each other. That's why they usually have technical language and a way of presenting things that can confuse and alienate the non-specialized public. So, to understand the discoveries, we usually depend on science journalists and outreach people. Don't depend on them anymore! The first thing is to choose your sources well: you know there are many false things posted on the Internet. Choose those that come from institutions with teams of specialists that support their prestige in years of research and that also publish their studies in peer-reviewed publications: this means that not just anyone presents there.

His ideas: before publishing something, other specialists evaluate the quality and reliability of the research and decide if it is truthful enough to make it available to the rest of the scientific community. In the description, we provide you with an extensive list of scientific publications that we consider reliable. Oh, one detail! Some of these publications do not have all their articles available to the general public. We believe that knowledge should be for everyone, especially if the research was conducted with public funding. If you come across an article behind a paywall, you can try to unlock it using the Sci-hub website, created by the neuroscientist, programmer, and activist Alexandra Elbakyan, a sort of Robin Hood of science. Well, now that you have your article, to read it efficiently, it is advisable to know the parts of its structure. Title, which is usually very descriptive; Authors, names that you can search to verify the background of those who conducted the research. Keywords that help facilitate the search and identification of the article; Abstract that condenses the most relevant information; Introduction, which describes the observed problem, the formulated question, any possible hypotheses, and justifies the study. Methodology that describes the experiment conducted or the procedures followed to obtain an answer to the question; Results obtained or findings made, as well as a discussion of their possible interpretation; Conclusions, expressing the level of certainty in the results obtained and pointing towards new paths or suggesting new studies.

To delve into the research; and lastly, References that refer to other studies consulted to develop the present. We recommend not reading each of these parts in order: it can be cumbersome and, if it turns out that the article is not relevant to what we are looking for, it can make us waste a lot of time. That's why we suggest reading in two passes. How does it work? The first pass is a general review that will allow us to know if the article contains the information we need. It shouldn't take more than 3 to 5 minutes. If the article provides us with what we need, we will continue with the second pass, but if at any time we realize that it is not relevant to our purpose, we can stop reading and look for other sources. In this first pass, we read the title and keywords to identify if the topic that interests us is touched on from the discipline we need. Next, we will read the abstract. Here we must know what question the researchers asked and what results they obtained. In the example on the screen, the title does not make the finding very evident, but in the abstract, we can see that it was discovered that climate change has caused many bird species to reduce their size. Pro tip: the most important part of the abstract is usually in the last sentences of the paragraph. Finally, if the abstract captures our interest, we can go directly to the conclusions to complete the fundamental information that the article communicates.

In this stage, we will start by reviewing the graphs, tables, and figures in the results and findings. Reading the introduction will help us understand the importance of the research and the motivation for carrying it out, as well as other previous studies that inform this particular study. Lastly, if we have doubts about the procedures followed, the size of the analyzed sample, the location where it was conducted, etc., let's consult the methodological section. To get an idea of how reliable or generalizable the results are, let's ask ourselves: Was the study conducted with a few subjects or with a large population? Is the sample representative? Was it randomly selected, or is there any bias in its selection? If an experiment was conducted, was it double-blind? Is there a control group? Additionally, let's check the references only if we wish to delve deeper into other related studies.
Before finishing, two very useful recommendations:
The first is that, throughout your review of the article, have your notebook of notes, cards, or a document at hand where you can record the data that you found interesting or questions that have arisen for further investigation.
The other recommendation is that a significant part of the scientific studies conducted worldwide are published in English, so it is very useful to familiarize yourself with that language. Hopefully, this video will be very helpful to you!
Now you will have more elements to form an informed opinion and evaluate if a news piece misinterpreted or exaggerated the results.

Or to create your own outreach project, or simply to support your arguments in an online discussion. But use this power for good! Interestingly, we invite you to support us through Patreon at patreon.com/curiosamente or become a channel member with the join button. A small monthly contribution helps us continue producing content that may be valuable to you and others, and also gives you the opportunity to participate in deciding which questions you would like us to answer in the new videos.

¿Cómo leer un artículo científico?

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