Title: How to Efficiently Read Articles/Books to Determine Relevance to Your Topic
Course: CJ601-01:Seminar in the Administration of Criminal Justice > Section: Literature: Searching, Reading, & Organizing

Reading articles and books is a large part of academic life. But how do you determine whether or not a reading is relevant? You don't want to spend 30+ minutes reading an article, only to later discover that it is irrelevant for your goals. Therefore, it is imperative to come up with a reading strategy. This strategy works in 3 ways:

1. quickly reading (e.g. skimming) an article or book to determine its relevance... dropping those that are irrelevant
2. for those that are relevant, reading more closely to determine their main findings/results and how their work fills a gap
3. read even more closely to become familiar with the methods and data the authors used to address their question, as well as the literature within which the project belongs.

My go to for academic articles is: 1) read the title, abstract, introduction, and conclusion to determine relevance, 2) read the data, methods, and results for relevant articles, then 3) read the literature review.

For academic books: 1) read the introductory chapter, which should give a synopsis of the impetus for the study, as well as outline the key takeaways from each chapter, 2) read the conclusion chapter, 3) read the introductions and conclusions for each chapter.

Below are some videos that outline how to read academic literature.

Required Videos: