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Scientific Papers and Lab Reports: How to Read Scientific Papers

Originally created for Agricultural Sciences courses, this guide will help you identify the parts of a scientific paper, lab reports, and some citing guidelines.

How to Read a Scientific Paper

College requires a lot of reading but you don't have to read everything! Follow these tips to discover best practices for being the most efficient researcher.

Infographic

Video

From Utah State University Libraries

Want a deeper dive?

Follow these links for a more in-depth understanding of how to read a scientific paper/scholarly articles.

  • Reading a Scientific Paper from Jennifer Simms, librarian at Indiana University Bloomington. Scroll past the video for a breakdown of each section.
  • How to Read a Scientific Article from Dr. Mary Purugganan and Dr. Jan Hewitt for the Cain Project for Engineering and Professional Communication from Rice University. This article goes into quite a bit of detail but it also includes a template for taking notes and references to consulted works. The note-taking template is VERY helpful if you choose to continue higher education research.

 

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