Transcript Predatory Reading

Predatory Reading
of scientific articles
Margaret Merrill
&
Kiri Goldbeck
February 5, 2009
Goals for Today
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Identify key concepts
why IMRD format aids finding key
information
Interconnectedness of scientific papers
Identify indicators of reliability
Know when it is appropriate to use
predatory reading
use Predatory Reading for:
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Scientific & technical papers, reports
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Generally original research
anything using a scientific methodology
Do NOT use for
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Understanding the logical sequence of
an argument or thought process
An in-depth analysis
Experiencing the entirety of something
IMRD
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introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion/conclusions
Plus abstract and references
Predatory reading is not linear!!!
Basic Process
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Read title of article & title of journal
Look for author affiliations
Read abstract, introduction &
Discussion/conclusions
Identify key ideas presented
Read reference list for relevant material
Before you read, look for
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Title says the article is about what??
Where do the authors work??
Name of journal and who publishes it?
What does the Abstract say the article is
about??
While you read the
introduction, look for
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What are the main points of the article?
What questions are being asked or what
gap in knowledge is identified
What is the thesis statement, objective,
or purpose – identify the sentence.
While you read the discussion
and/or conclusion, ask yourself
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Does the research answer the questions
posed or find the information needed
What are the implications of this research
for the knowledge base of the discipline
Look at Graphs & Figures
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What jumps out at you?
What is its significance?
Does it support the conclusions?
Review the references, are they
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Related to the key points of the paper
Scholarly
Relevant to your own research
So, what are the benefits of
Predatory Reading
Benefits
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Read more material in time available
Keep up with publications in discipline
Identify key points or ideas quickly
Identify relevant articles quickly
Other???
Apply the process
Go into Scholar and retrieve
Bin, S. and Dowlatabadi, H. 2005.
Consumer lifestyle approach to US energy
use and the related CO2 emissions.
Energy Policy 33:197-208
Predator read this article
What are the key points
References
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Scan references
Do they support the key points?
Let’s retrieve one of them
Retrieving a reference
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Library web site http://www.lib.vt.edu
Ejournals under FIND
Enter journal name
Find year/volume needed
Find issue number needed
Find page numbers needed
Retrieve/open pdf file
Predatory Read for Yourself
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Use the Predatory Reading process to identify the key
points in the article below
Volk, T.A., et.al. 2004. Growing fuel: a
sustainability assessment of willow biomass crops.
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
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2(8):411-418. On Scholar.
Then select a journal article from the list of references,
find the online copy, predatory read it,
look specifically for how the referenced article contributed
to the first article
Complete the worksheet on this process in class today
Take the worksheet to your Discussion group today
Turn the worksheet in to your Instructor
Discussion
– NOTE CARDS
For today’s note cards
 Remember the goals for this session
 Do you think that you can use Predatory
Reading?
 Do you think that you will you use this
technique in the future?