Here is an article every librarian / info scientist should read. Many in technical libraries are in abstracting area. THey will get useful tips / guidelines. I agree why you should read the abstract last as advised by Jennifer Raff. How I wish there is a similar paper on patents. =============== How to read and understand a scientific paper: a guide for non-scientists From vaccinations to climate change, getting science wrong has very real consequences. But journal articles, a primary way science is communicated in academia, are a different format to newspaper articles or blogs and require a level of skill and undoubtedly a greater amount of patience. Here Jennifer Raff has prepared a helpful guide for non-scientists on how to read a scientific paper. These steps and tips will be useful to anyone interested in the presentation of scientific findings and raise important points for scientists to consider with their own writing practice. Read full paper here in the link given below http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/05/09/how-to-read-and-und... -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.