How to read a paper
A method that takes fifteen minutes per paper and leaves a five-line summary you can find again. One a week for four years is two hundred papers.
You are skimming: the title, the first figure, and the short version. Switch to Read in the header for the full page, or Deep to open every deep dive.
Do not read a paper from the first word to the last. Read the abstract, then the figures with their captions, then the last paragraph of the introduction, then the methods only where a figure raised a question, then the discussion’s first paragraph. Write five lines. Fifteen minutes, most of the time.
The order
Abstract. What they did, what they found. Write one line: the claim.
Figures and captions, in order. A paper’s argument is its figures. The text explains them. Look at each one and ask what it is showing and whether it convinces you. The captions carry the methods you actually need. Write one line: which figure carries the paper.
Last paragraph of the introduction. This is where authors state what they did and why it is new. Compare to the abstract.
Methods, selectively. Only for the questions the figures raised. How many subjects? How was accuracy computed, and on what split? What was the sampling rate, the reference, the filter? In BCI papers, the cross-validation paragraph is the one to find; that is where inflated numbers come from.
First paragraph of the discussion. The authors’ honest summary. Then the limitations paragraph, which is usually near the end and usually buried.
The five lines
Citation (first author, year, journal)
Claim: one sentence
Evidence: which figure, N, the number that matters
Doubt: what would make me distrust it
Use: what I would do with thisPut them in one file, in date order. That file becomes the literature review you will need for your first poster, and the thing you check before emailing a professor about their work.
What to read
The reading thread has a list per phase. The general rule: in Phase 1 and 2, read for the instruments (how did they record, what was the noise, what did the electrodes look like). In Phase 3, read for the methods (how was the decoder trained and tested). In Phase 4 and later, read for the ideas.
Where to get papers
The university library gives you nearly everything. For the rest, most authors post preprints on bioRxiv or arXiv, and most will email a PDF if you ask politely. Google Scholar’s “all versions” link often finds a free copy.
Deep dive Reading a BCI paper specifically 4 min
Four questions, every time. How many participants, and were any excluded after the fact? Was the test data from a different session or day than the training data? Is the chance level stated, and is the accuracy compared to it with a statistical test? What is the information transfer rate, not just the accuracy? A paper that passes all four is rare and worth reading twice. A paper that fails the second is reporting a number that will not survive contact with a new day.