Summer catch-up: How to stay up to date with and organize scientific literature - a blogpost by ESR8 Nina-Louisa Efrém

Summertime is usually the time of the year when things slow down, and the lab gets a bit quieter. A good time to catch up on reading all those scientific papers that accumulate throughout the year in my “to read” bookmark folder or as a pile of printouts on my desk. With the summer (at least in Berlin) coming to a close, this is a good occasion to reflect on practices of how to keep up with scientific literature – a topic haunting me at times given the almost infinite and ever-increasing number of interesting papers out there.

For me personally, scientific papers fall into two categories. Category 1 includes scientific papers that are directly related to my field. These are publications dealing with “my” target protein, or reporting synthesis procedures that I want to apply. The second category more broadly entails reviews, perspectives and case studies unrelated to my daily work. While I usually make time to read “category 1 papers” as soon as possible the latter ones accumulate in my web browser and on my desk.

Let’s first reflect on how to find relevant scientific papers. Probably the most obvious are field-specific scientific journals. Through a subscription to their article alerts, you’ll receive regular updates on new research published. A second strategy that I find useful is to use citation tracking for seminal papers, e.g. in Google Scholar. It allows you to discover the latest research building on these groundbreaking articles and thereby stay up to date on a research topic. Finally, I often find inspiration for readings in online discussion groups and blog posts. These channels have the advantage that they provide, apart from the references themselves, other researcher’s opinions, criticisms and ideas on the respective publications in the form of comments. Translated into the real world, journal clubs are a great opportunity to uncover new literature as well, and discuss it with peers of course.

Once the sources for relevant literature are established, we should turn to a more critical aspect: How to make time to browse and read scientific literature. One strategy to maintain a steady reading pace is to set aside dedicated time for reading. While this may work for some people, I never managed to uphold such a routine. Rather I try to use regular “downtime” for reading, e.g. during waiting time in the lab or commutes.

Finally, let’s review strategies for efficient reading and note-taking. During one of our early ALLODD workshops, I learned the following approach to scientific reading that I have since adopted: Starting from the abstract, I continue by reading the conclusions section of a paper. This helps me to decide whether the paper is worth a deeper read. If it is, I either focus on the figures and tables to identify paragraphs that hold the information that I am looking for, or I continue reading the entire piece from introduction to end. While reading, I like taking notes. I use colour-coding to highlight text and categorize my notes into “hypotheses”, “key findings”, “open questions”, etc. I also find it useful to summarize key points right next to a paper’s title. You may also want to highlight critical data, e.g. the potency of a reference compound that you may want to refer back to later. Likewise, some citation managers allow the addition of keywords or notes to imported publications, which can help retrieve studies at a later point in time. When your goal is comprehensive literature research on a given topic, you may want to compile your notes alongside screenshots and schemes into a larger document that summarizes the findings. 

In summary, keeping up with the literature next to daily lab work and writing a PhD thesis is a continuous and at times challenging task. Setting up article alerts, using citation tracking as well as leveraging social media helps to discover relevant publications. Whether you decide on a dedicated time for reading or squeeze it in during downtime in the lab, efficient reading and annotation strategies alongside citation programs help to manage the sometimes daunting amount of information.
​
Do you have any strategies to find, read and annotate scientific literature? Feel free to share them in the comments section!