How and why to read (and write and publish) academic research

This article is designed to concisely teach undergraduate and new graduate students lessons in reading and writing I have learned in my past two decades as a university student, teacher, and researcher (including through publishing, retracting, correcting, and republishing articles in outlets with varying levels of “impact” and publication fees). Don’t just start at the beginning of an academic article/book and try to read straight to the end! Instead, I recommend starting by reading the title(s)/author(s) and abstract(s), then the figures, reading the Discussion section, and skimming/spot-checking the references, peer reviews, and data (e.g., spreadsheets, audiovisual stimuli, surveys), if available. Only once you have done this and evaluated whether it seems worth your time do I recommend deciding whether to read every word of some/all sections/chapters (and any accompanying supplementary material) or digging deeper into reanalysing/replicating the data. I recommend writing accordingly so that most of your key information will be conveyed even if your reader only gets through your title, abstract, and figures. I discuss various strategies to improve your own academic reading/writing and the broader culture of academia, from practical (e.g., formatting and tracking references and citations using Zotero and Google Scholar, asking constructive questions rather than self-promoting comments, publishing using Peer Community In Registered Reports, using the “sandwich thesis” model for PhD dissertations) to philosophical (e.g., ethical issues in authorship, citation, AI, publishing, and funding). I explain the intended goals of academic research (to create and distribute valuable new knowledge) and perverse incentives that lead us astray from these goals (e.g., chasing prestige and funding). I conclude by contemplating if and how we should dismantle the current extortionary academic-industrial complex and re-design it to align with its intended goals.