It is time-consuming and not very useful to read all the sources you find in their entirety. However, in order to separate the wheat from the chaff from the results of your literature search, you need methods that help you to extract the necessary information quickly and efficiently.
Skimming and scanning are two reading techniques that allow you to quickly gather information from the sources without having to read the entire text in detail.
Skimming
Skimming is about getting a quick overview of the text in order to grasp the main topic, important information or general content. You read at a fast pace and focus on headings, subtitles, words in bold, images, summaries and the first and last paragraphs of a section. By skimming these text elements, you gain an idea of the structure of the text and the most important points without having to read everything in detail. Skimming is an excellent way of quickly deciding whether a text is relevant or interesting and whether it is worth reading in more detail.
Scanning
Scanning is used when you are looking for specific information or want to quickly capture certain details from a text. When scanning, you systematically go through the text and focus on keywords or specific information that interests you. You let your eyes glide over the text and search specifically for the information you are looking for without reading the text in detail. This technique is useful for quickly finding relevant information, for example in articles or books, when you are looking for certain facts or answers to specific questions.
Scientific articles
Since articles from scientific journals are usually structured in a similar way, you can make your reading easier in such cases by adjusting the order in which you approach the sections of the text.
An article in a scientific journal is usually structured as follows:
- Abstract (with key terms)
- Introduction
- Method section
- Results
- Discussion
- Summary, conclusion and/or outlook
You can get a deeper insight into the anatomy of a scientific paper here (in German) and here (in English).
Don’t read an article straight through from beginning to end. Start with the abstract to get a first impression. Then look at the introduction. Then you can skip directly to the discussion and conclusion at the end of the article; you can skip the methods section and the results for now. If the article still seems relevant and usable for your work, you can now read it through completely.