 In this video, we're going to talk about some tips relating to decoding research articles. Now, it can be really difficult to read and interpret research articles, but one of the biggest tips that I can give you is to break up the sections into chunks. Now, there's many ways you can do so, but given in this video is one technique that might be useful, and this is known as the baton technique. In this technique, you break the article up into five discrete reading sections. The first is the background, or B, where you look for context theories and past research. Then you have the aim, where you're looking for what the researchers did and why. Then you've got T or techniques, where you're looking for things they use for data collection, so experiments and things like that, as well as the analysis tools. Then you have the outcome, which is where you look for results, findings, conclusions, as well as how this was linked more broadly. And then finally, you're looking for the next step, and this is what the article can lead to, what follows from it. Now, the best way to try and use this or any other technique is to get an article yourself and have it go at implementing themselves. So we're going to spend a bit of time on each section, but try and get a research article of your own and see if you can work through each step. I also advise you to have five different colors so that you can color each of these sections a different shade. Let's give it a go. Section one or background refers to what theories and concepts are linked to the study. So here you're looking for things like theories or laws or things that relate to that discipline, as well as any concepts that are previously studied. You're also looking for the research context, in other words, where it fits and why this research is important, what it allows you to do. You might also be looking for prior research. In this component, you're looking for other research that's been done, and here you're looking for in-text references of other studies. All of this information can often be found in the introduction section, as well as to a tiny extent in the abstract section. And finding each of these bits of information can be a really important part of decoding your research article. It's also important to try and group your information into chunks if you can. So, for example, if a particular theory shows up quite a bit in the introduction, try and label it in a particular way so you can flag them as all the mentions of that theory. So have a go at doing this. Underline and label some relevant background components of your research article. The next step in this process is the A or AIMS. And here what we're looking for is what unique thing the researchers did, as well as to some extent why they chose to do this. In other words, what research need they're trying to address. Now, research is always done to fill a gap in knowledge, and what we're trying to do when we read the papers to identify that gap in the knowledge. So the sections you focus on here are your abstract. Again, there might be a tiny summary of this there, but primarily the introduction, particularly the latter half of it, and the AIM. You also would be well informed to try and look for what's known as a gap sentence. This is normally a sentence or two that flags why the research is done. The structure of that sentence is often very distinct. So something like, however, what hasn't been identified, that kind of thing. This kind of gives you a really important why of why the research was done. So have a go at doing this yourself. See if you can identify any AIM based writing in your article. That stage is the T or techniques. This is a really important part of the article, but it's also a really difficult thing often to interpret. Here we're looking for information on specific techniques on experiments, data connection, analysis, and things like that. We're also primarily going to start with the abstract again. So here you might have occasional terms mentioned, but inevitably you'll have to go into the method for more detail. The method will give you more specifics as well as details of how those techniques were actually implemented. If you're using a review article instead of a research article here, you might want to focus on the search criteria or the subtopics. In any case, identifying this is a good idea to start with the abstract and then move on to the actual method section. So have a go at doing this. See if you can find any specific techniques of which are mentioned in the method. Even if you don't know the name or the meaning of these techniques, label them and identify them as techniques and spend some time a little bit later on looking up what they are in context. The fourth stage of this process, the O stands for outcome. And here what we're looking for are the actual findings of the investigation. So the data analysis, the output of that, as well as any raw data. And here you might look for specific mention of averages or things like that, but you are also then looking for how these findings are linked more broadly. In other words, how the authors linked it to theory as well as background covered earlier. And here you might look for references to other studies. You also then are looking for conclusions they drew as a result of this. Now, again, you can start with the abstract, but then you want to essentially work your way progressively through first the results, then the discussion, and then the conclusion. The best thing you can do is to find one particular thread or one particular point and identify where it shows up and then follow that thread through. Find the data that relates to it in the results. Then find how it was talked about in the discussion. And then again, look for what they concluded based on that. So have a go at doing this. Look for a key finding as if it is mentioned in the abstract. Then look for the results to find the actual data relating to this. Then look at the discussion and the conclusion to see what broader links they drew on the basis of this. Again, if you have any mention of things that are difficult to understand, like particular statistical tests, underline and label them and try to come back to them later on. But for the moment, just identify them as results or outcomes of the research. The last step of this process is something that's often overlooked when reading a research article. And that over here we're going to call the next step. What you're looking for here is things like limitations or extensions that can be addressed in future studies. No research is perfect. There's always things that can be improved upon. And identifying that allows you to build on that in future studies. It is also useful to identify any implications or applications. In other ways, how can these research tools be used? How can the findings be used more broadly? And this can give you an idea again of what the next step would be. How can they be implemented in some practical way? You can look for a number of different sentence structures here, but labeling them is a really important part. Again, you might find a very, very brief summary in the abstract, particularly the latter half of the abstract. But for this, you want to be reading the second half of the discussion often, as well as the conclusion. There might also be a designated section called Limitations once in a while. And if so, then that's immediately where you look. If not explicitly mentioned, you may have to read between the lines and draw your own conclusions based on what you consider to be good scientific practice. So I would go with doing this. See if you can find any limitations, extensions, implications, and or applications in any of the sections. Find at least one example if you can, and if you've done that, good work. And that essentially brings us to the end of this five-step process. Now, some other tips that might be handy for when you're reading articles is, first of all, reading and rereading sections. Very often when you read an article, it's very hard to make sense of it on the first go. Reading and rereading sections, particularly in a systematic manner, can help you make sense of it. Break it up into sections. There's many ways to do so. We've gone through one in this video, but there are multiple other ways to do so. Label and highlight as you read. We mentioned earlier to try and label those five different sections in different colors. Make sure you do that and leave yourself breadcrumbs or notes you can follow later on. Read other sources. Sometimes having a little bit of background reading can help understand a couple of terms, particularly when it comes to techniques or statistical analyses. Label and look up difficult terms that kind of goes without saying as well. If you find in terms that might be misleading, see if you can read them in another context. That might help you understand them. And then speaking of context, try making sense of the terms that are difficult in this particular context. Sometimes when you read a sentence like this one, ICP-MS was used to detect metal levels. You might not know what it is, but labeling it as a technique is a starting point. You know that it is something we use to detect metal levels. So even just by identifying what they are in context, you can go a step further. That essentially brings us to the end of this video. We hope you find it useful. Thanks.