Using the NEU Library

Research Tutorials

NEU Librarians have created an Information Literacy Toolkit, which includes series of tutorials to help faculty and students conduct research and use the library's resources. Visit the toolkit here.

Finding Papers, Proceedings, and Books

You can search for articles, proceedings and books by going to the NEU Library Scholar OneSearch search page at https://onesearch.library.northeastern.edu. Sign in with your Northeastern University user name and password, and follow the directions to search by title or author.

Accessing Digital Content

You can usually access online articles, proceedings, and books through the publisher's website if NEU has a subscription to the publication and you are currently on campus. For example, the University subscribes to the ACM Digital Library, which contains all journals and conference proceedings published by the Association for Computing Machinery, and you can access any of the content by selecting the PDF icon or the "Full Text Available" link.

For example, to access the article "HCI Research as Problem Solving" by Antti Oulasvirta, in the ACM SIGCHI 2016 Conference. pages 4956-4967, go to the ACM digital library at https://dl.acm.org and search for the title. You will see the PDF icon and the "Full text available" link. Simply select this link to get the article.

If you are not on campus, you can access the article by going to the NEU Library Scholar OneSearch search page at https://onesearch.library.northeastern.edu and searching for the article. You can quote the title if you know it exactly. Now select the "Full text available" link, and then the "View record in ACM" link. You can now download the article PDF.

Getting Help

Brooke Williams, is a Research and Insructional Librarian, and your liason for Khoury College students and faculty.

"Whether you'd like to request a session on library resources and research for your class, please contact me for one-on-one research help, or talk to me about your own research needs, I'm here to help."

Contact Brooke at b.williams@northeastern.edu or (617)373-2363.

How to Read a Research Paper

by Andrea G. Parker
Northeastern University

This discussion pre-supposes that you have a good reason to carefully read a research paper – for example, the fact that a paper is assigned for a class is a good reason for you to read it. You may also need to carefully read a paper if you are asked to review it, or if it is relevant to your own research.

When you read a research paper, your goal is to understand the scientific contributions the authors are making. This is not an easy task. (NB: It would be easier if more research papers were well written... but again, we will discuss writing another time.) It may require going over the paper several times. Expect to spend several hours to read a paper.

While reading a paper

Here are some initial guidelines for how to read a paper:

• 􏰀Read critically: Reading a research paper must be a critical process. You should not assume that the authors are always correct. Instead, be suspicious. Critical reading involves asking appropriate questions. If the authors attempt to solve a problem, are they solving the right problem? Are there simple solutions the authors do not seem to have considered? What are the limitations of the solution (including limitations the authors might not have noticed or clearly admitted)?

  Are the assumptions the authors make reasonable? Is the logic of the paper clear and justifiable, given the assumptions, or is there a flaw in the reasoning?

  If the authors present data, did they gather the right data to substantiate their argument, and did they appear to gather it in the correct manner? Did they interpret the data in a reasonable manner? Would other data be more compelling?

• 􏰀Read creatively: Reading a paper critically is easy, in that it is always easier to tear something down than to build it up. Reading creatively involves harder, more positive thinking. What are the good ideas in this paper? Do these ideas have other applications or extensions that the authors might not have thought of? Can they be generalized further? Are there possible improvements that might make important practical differences? If you were going to start doing research from this paper, what would be the next thing you would do?
  
• 􏰀Make notes as you read the paper:

  Many people cover the margins of their copies of papers with notes. Use whatever style you prefer. If you have questions or criticisms, write them down so you do not forget them. Underline key points the authors make. Mark the data that is most important or that appears questionable. Such efforts help the first time you read a paper and pay big dividends when you have to

• 􏰀After the first read-through, try to summarize the paper in one or two sentences.

  Almost all good research papers try to provide an answer a specific question. (Sometimes the question is a natural one that people specifically set out to answer; sometimes a good idea just ends up answering a worthwhile question.) If you can succinctly describe a paper, you have probably recognized the question the authors started with with and the answer they provide. Once you have focused on the main idea, you can go back and try to outline the paper to gain insight into more specific details. Indeed, if summarizing the paper in one or two sentences is easy, go back and try to deepen your outline by summarizing the three or four most important subpoints of the main idea.

• If possible, compare the paper to other works.

  Summarizing the paper is one way to try to determine the scientific contribution of a paper. But to really guage the scientific merit, you must compare the paper to other works in the area. Are the ideas really novel, or have they appeared before? (Of course we do not expect you to be experts and know the areas ahead of time in this class!)

  It is worth mentioning that scientific contributions can take on many forms. Some papers offer new ideas; others implement ideas, and show how they work; others bring previous ideas together and unite them under a novel framework. Knowing other work in the area can help you to determine which sort of contribution a paper is actually making.

Reviewing a Research Paper

It is often useful to write a short, one page review of a paper. Although this may sound like a simple assignment, it could take some amount of time, especially in the beginning. (Remember, it often takes several hours just to read the paper!) Keeping the above in mind as you read the paper should make the process easier.

Your one page review should include the following:

• 􏰀 a one or two sentence summary of the paper.
• 􏰀 a deeper, more extensive outline of the main points of the paper, including for example assumptions made, arguments presented, data analyzed, and conclusions drawn. 􏰀 any limitations or extensions you see for the ideas in the paper.
• 􏰀 your opinion of the paper; primarily, the quality of the ideas and its potential impact.