When I was in my early teens, an Aunt of mine back in Jamaica once asked me, “Why don’t you do the sciences? My response to her was "I can’t understand that stuff!" Her response to me was “If it’s in a book and you can read, you can do it”

I’ve never forgotten that statement and that led me to pursue and eventually obtain a PhD in Chemistry. You see, I enjoy learning, researching, teaching science, but it was never easy for me, in fact I can honestly say that I was never really the brightest bulb in class (if you know what I mean). But enough about me!!

What if you could take a seemingly complex peer-reviewed science, say from a journal like Nature, Science, Cell, or the Journal of Organic Chemistry and figure out what some of the best scientists in the world are doing and writing about? Would that help you build confidence in chemistry or biology or physics? Could it improve your grades? Would it impress your parents or employer? or improve your college entrance chances?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then, 7 tips to reading peer-reviewed science journals can help.

1. Fear is not an option
There are so many resources out there that practically any topic, technique, problem or question can be researched. Knowing how to filter the information is the critical first step in the process and being afraid to explore the information won’t help.

2. Identify the animal or cell model used to study the problem
In order to figure out a problem in chemistry or biology or physics, scientists use a model to mimic the system they want to study. This is usually the most difficult develop and has proven to be the down fall of many a good research project and research scientists. However, the more closely the model is to the system being investigated the easier it is to make changes, observe results and explain what is happening.

3. Identify the measurement tool used to study the problem
Without an appropriate measurement tool to study a problem, results can be meaningless. For example if you needed to weigh an item to the nearest milligram it is pointless to use a scale that measures to the nearest kilogram. Identifying the measuring tool or tools that are used in an experiment helps you understand the level of accuracy and precision the researchers are working with to solve a problem.

4. Identify the gene or protein being studied
This is an important step in the process, simply because without this knowledge understanding a disease condition or biological process is next to impossible. Modern medical research spends an extraordinary amount of time and money studying the genes and proteins involved in disease and therefore learning about these large molecules is fundamental. There are incredible resources on line to help you discover what a specific gene(s) or protein(s) does and from that information you can work towards understanding how it relates to the research topic you are studying.

5. Don’t be afraid of the words
If you think about how you were taught English, French, or Spanish you started slowly to build your understanding of the words, there meaning, how they are used in sentences, then phrases, then paragraphs and so on. Scientific jargon is exactly like learning a new language and it takes time and patience. What you must be willing to do is learn the new words as they pop up in the article and dig a little deeper to gain more knowledge.

6. Be bold when reading and summarizing the information in the paper
The best scientists in the world are constantly reviewing other peoples science and people are constantly reviewing there science. Writing out what you think is going on is a part of the learning process and you shouldn't worry about the fine details, there will always be plenty of help available to help you refine your understanding of the problem.

7. Identify the scientific hypothesis
For most students this is the single most difficult task to overcome and the reason is simple. In our early years of education students are often taught that a scientific hypothesis posed as a question. This is never the case. A scientific hypothesis is always, always presented as a statement, but more important it is a statement that is testable and can be made shown to be true or false through experimentation, data collection and analysis.

What I really enjoy about science is that no matter how much you think you know there is always something else to learn. Learning to read the science is however a critical first step in the process!

Yours in Science,

Gregory I. Simpson, PhD