Buzz
Summarizing a scientific paper involves condensing the content of a complete research study that has been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. A scientific paper summary provides readers with a brief overview of the research work, helping them understand the core message of the paper. Summarizing is also a routine task for college students and research assistants. With a little practice, you can read scientific papers efficiently to summarize, brainstorm ideas, and refine your writing.
Steps
Read the Paper
Read the abstract. This short paragraph, written by the author, provides a summary of the research work. The abstract appears in most scientific journals and usually doesn't exceed 100-200 words. It summarizes the content of the paper and highlights the key points of the research study.
- The purpose of the abstract is to help researchers quickly skim through the journal's content and determine whether a specific paper is relevant to their work. For instance, if you are gathering research on immune responses in rodents, you can ascertain, within 100 words, whether a study belongs to your field, and whether its conclusions align with or contrast with your research findings.
- Remember, the abstract and the summary of the research paper are two distinct texts. Therefore, a summary resembling the abstract would be of poor quality. An abstract has been condensed to its core, and cannot provide the details or conclusions found in a full summary.
Understand the research context. Make sure you have a clear grasp of the topic the authors will comment on or analyze, why this topic needs to be studied, and whether the article is written in response to another paper on the same subject. This will help you choose the arguments, quotes, and data you need to analyze in your summary.
Move to the conclusion section. Read the conclusion first to identify the final points of the research. This way, you will have a better understanding of the topic and know where the outline and complex arguments will lead. It is much easier to absorb the information when you read the researchers' conclusions first.
- You should still read the entire article after reading the conclusion, but only if the research is relevant to your work. If you are gathering research, particularly for contrasting viewpoints, you might not need additional sources to reinforce your own research.
Identify the main argument or position of the paper. Be sure to recognize these points from your first read-through to avoid reading the entire paper again just to remember the main idea. As you read, take notes, highlight, or underline the key concepts.
- Pay special attention to the opening paragraphs. This is where the author will likely present the thesis of the entire paper. Identify the thesis and the key arguments and ideas the author is trying to prove through their research.
- Words like hypothesis, results, typical, generally, or
evidently will hint at the thesis statement.
- Words like hypothesis, results, typical, generally, or
- Underline, highlight, or write the thesis on the margins of your paper. Focus on this idea so you can connect the entire article to it and understand how they relate.
- In the humanities, it may sometimes be difficult to find a clear and concise thesis in a scientific paper, as studies in this field often revolve around complex and abstract ideas (e.g., class issues in postmodern poetry or feminist films). In such cases, try to make the thesis as specific as possible to understand the author's perspective and what they are trying to prove through their analysis.
Search for supporting arguments. Continue reading through the sections of the paper and highlight the main points the author discusses. Focus on the key concepts and ideas introduced in the article and try to connect them with the main idea the author presented at the beginning of the paper.
- Different sections of a scientific paper are often marked with subheadings, each addressing a specific step or development in the research process. These subheadings are typically bolded and larger in font size than the rest of the text.
- Note that scientific papers can often be quite dry. Do you really need to read a 500-word section in a study explaining the formula for a glycerin solution used in frogs? It may be necessary, but likely not. Generally, you don’t need to read every word of a scientific paper once you’ve filtered out the main points and understand why that content is included.
Take notes while reading. Efficiency is the key to success when researching and gathering information from scientific papers. Read actively as you search for information from articles. Circle or highlight each section of the paper, focusing on the subheadings.
- These sections often include the introduction, methodology, research findings, conclusion, and the reference list.
Lên ý tưởng cho bản nháp
Mô tả ngắn gọn về công trình nghiên cứu. Viết nháp nhanh bản mô tả quá trình nghiên cứu trong bài báo, liệt kê từ những bước đầu tới kết quả cuối cùng, làm rõ phương pháp luận và hình thức của nghiên cứu đó. Bạn không cần đi sâu vào chi tiết, đó là mục tiêu của bản tóm tắt hoàn chỉnh.
- Khi mới bắt đầu, hãy bỏ qua việc lọc thông tin và viết nhanh tất cả những gì bạn nhớ từ bài báo. Cách này sẽ giúp bạn tìm ra điểm chính để tóm tắt.
Xác định những khía cạnh quan trọng nhất của bài báo. Bạn có thể gọi chúng là các ý hoặc các phần chính yếu củng cố cho luận điểm. Những phần này có thể được xác định qua các tiêu đề phụ, nhưng chúng cũng có thể khó tìm hơn. Bạn cần trình bày trong bản tóm tắt tất cả những điểm chính yếu được sử dụng để củng cố cho luận điểm.
- Tùy từng nghiên cứu, bạn có thể mô tả cơ sở lý luận của nghiên cứu hoặc giả thiết của các nhà nghiên cứu. Trong viết luận khoa học, bạn cần tóm tắt một cách rõ ràng những giả thuyết được các nhà nghiên cứu đưa ra trước khi tiến hành nghiên cứu, cũng như các trình tự được áp dụng trong dự án nghiên cứu. Tổng kết ngắn gọn kết quả thống kê có được và giải thích sơ bộ về những số liệu này trong bản tóm tắt.
- Với các bài báo thuộc ngành nhân văn, bạn nên tóm tắt những giả thiết cơ bản cũng như trường phái tư duy của tác giả, bên cạnh các ví dụ và ý tưởng xuyên suốt bài báo.
Xác định những từ ngữ quan trọng cần đưa vào bản tóm tắt. Đảm bảo các từ khóa chính yếu được sử dụng trong bài báo cũng được đưa vào bản tóm tắt. Bạn cần xem xét đầy đủ ý nghĩa của những thuật ngữ phức tạp trước khi soạn thảo bản tóm tắt, điều này sẽ giúp người đọc có thể hiểu được nội dung bài viết của bạn.
- Đề cập và giải thích bất cứ từ ngữ hay thuật ngữ nào do tác giả tạo ra trong bản tóm tắt.
Cố gắng viết bản tóm tắt ngắn gọn. Bài tóm tắt không cần dài như bài báo khoa học. Đây là văn bản mô tả tách biệt, súc tích về công trình nghiên cứu, nhằm hỗ trợ thu thập nghiên cứu bước đầu hoặc giúp lĩnh hội thông tin ở những giai đoạn sau của quá trình nghiên cứu.
- Theo kinh nghiệm chung, bạn có thể dành một đoạn văn cho mỗi ý chính và viết tổng cộng 500-1000 từ cho bản tóm tắt. Phần lớn các bản tóm tắt sẽ bao gồm một vài đoạn văn ngắn tóm lược từng phần của bài báo.
Writing a Summary
Avoid using personal pronouns such as I, you, we.
Maintain a neutral tone. The goal is to summarize, not to evaluate the scientific paper.
Start by identifying the research question. In the introduction of the paper, typically in the opening section, the author will highlight the core focus and objectives of the research. This should be the starting point for your summary. Describe the main argument that the author aims to prove through their research using your own words.
- Scientific papers often have an introductory section that lays the foundation for the entire experiment or study and does not provide much information for summarization. This section is followed by the research question and experimental methods, which are critical elements that influence the remainder of the paper.
Address the methodology used by the authors. This part discusses the tools and methods used in the research. In other words, you need to summarize how the authors or researchers arrived at their conclusions based on the research or data they directly collected.
- There is no need to include every detail of the experimental methods in the summary. The experimental methods should be condensed into a simple point to clarify how the research question was addressed. The research results are typically processed data, sometimes including raw data before processing. Only include the processed data in the summary.
Description of the Results. One of the most critical parts of a summary is the results achieved by the authors in their research. Did they succeed? Were the research objectives met? What conclusions were drawn? What are the implications of the research presented in the paper?
- Ensure the summary addresses the research question, the conclusions/results, and the methods used to achieve them. These are essential components of the paper and must not be omitted from the summary.
Link the key ideas presented in the paper. In some summaries, it's necessary to discuss how the ideas developed by the author relate to each other. The primary goal of the summary is to give the reader a clear overview of the main points the author makes, so you need to analyze and explain these arguments in your own words. Add any missing ideas and hypotheses, clarify, and summarize the research content.
- This step can be especially important when summarizing papers in the humanities. For example, when analyzing a nuanced argument about the relationship between poet George Herbert and the gods, a simple summary such as this might benefit your paper: "The author anthropomorphizes Herbert through comments on his daily life rather than his philosophical beliefs."
Do not present your own conclusions. A summary should not be an opinion piece and should not explain the data according to your own interpretation, unless specifically requested in the writing. Generally, the summary should capture the author's viewpoint, not your own.
- This can be challenging for those with limited experience in writing research papers, but remember to set aside your personal views in the summary.
Avoid direct quotes from the scientific paper. Direct quotations are used more frequently in argumentative writing at the university level and are less important in a summary. Focus on writing the author's views in your own words while maintaining the meaning and content of those viewpoints.
Use the present simple tense. Always use the present simple tense when referring to the content of a scientific paper. This will help maintain a consistent grammatical structure throughout your writing.
Read and revise the draft. Great writing is shaped through revision. Compare the focus and content of the summary to check if it aligns with the paper's original material. A high-quality summary of a scientific paper should concisely provide the reader with an overview of the research work, which is crucial when they are searching for specific information on a given topic.
