Reading scientific papers

• How to read a scientific paper
• How to (seriously) read a scientific paper
• Tian Zheng’s twitter thread
• Leek group guide to reading academic papers

Accessing scientific papers

Sometimes it is difficult to get access to papers (such as those among the reading assignments), particularly from home. Here are strategies I use:

• Search for the paper on Google scholar. Click on “All ___ versions”, and you may find an open version of the article.

• Install the unpaywall browser extension, which may help you to find a free version of the article.

• Paste ezproxy.library.wisc.edu into the URL for the article. You’ll get to a page asking for your NetID and password, but this could then give you immediate access to the article.

  For example, with the url https://doi.org/10.1198/000313002317572790, you would instead use http://doi.org.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/10.1198/000313002317572790. (Note the use of http rather than https.)

• Try using the GlobalProtect VPN for UW-Madison. Your IP addresss might look like you’re on campus, and so you might get access.

• Sci-Hub provides pirated versions of many journal articles, but this is not an accepted way to get access to copyrighted material.

• If you have trouble getting access to an article for this course, email the instructor.