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Audemic Scholar

Audemic Scholar enables PhDs and researchers to transform stale research PDFs into a time-saving reading and listening experience.

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Audemic Insights

Audemic Insights app summarizes open research articles and reports into brief written and audio summaries for the non-academic.

Access any academic research via audio

A powerful tool that enables Ph.D. students and researchers to save time and organise their knowledge

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Upload your paper

Upload the PDF of any academic paper or import it from your reference manager.

Listen to it

Listen to any academic paper. Choose between the full text or key statements.

Organise yourself

Built for researchers.

Speed up your reading

It will allow you to read and understand papers in much less time, especially for getting to grips with some of the knottier papers.

Inspiration

More 'Aha' moments

Need help reading academic papers, taking notes or organising your research? Audemic allows you to do all of this from one place, so you don’t miss a thing.

Multi-device

Accessible from anywhere

Audemic arrives with the ability to use across devices. Listen when you drive, exercise and even when you rest!

Text-to-speech

No robotic but neural voices

Well read, no stumbling over tricky words and with the possibility of choosing between different voices.

Translation

Language is no longer an obstacle

Scientific knowledge is mostly communicated in English, which may pose a barrier for non-native English speakers. Upload any paper and choose the language you want to translate it into*

* English to Spanish currently available

Need another language? Let us know

Crafted to be accessible

Reading papers can be challenging, especially for those with learning disabilities. We offer features that might support your reading style.

Want to go faster or slower? Not a problem! You can now change the speed of audio playback, sloth to cheetah!

VISUAL IMPAIRMENT

Order sections

Organise the sections of any paper you upload, according to your every whim, from the left-hand sidebar.

Background colour

Change your background colour to one of four handsome options. We know that little visual details can make a big difference.

COLOUR BLINDNESS

Dyslexic font

All of these changes will join our classic dyslexic font option, so you can set up your Audemic experience exactly the way you want it.

No hidden charges. Pick your plan.

Start your 7-day free trial now. If you like it, stick around, and enjoy unlimited access!

• Up to 16 papers
• Access to summaries
• Full interactive reader access
• Unlimited highlights
• ⚡️ Unlimited papers
• Up to 48 papers

No unresolved doubts!

Things you probably wonder.

Get the most out of academic papers, whilst spending less time on them. Audemic allows you to ditch clunky PDFs to provide better listening with intuitive navigation across different sections of the paper, smart summaries, and gives you the ability to easily take and sync highlights across all your devices.

You can use Audemic Scholar free of charge for 7 days .

PDF’s of research papers

Yes! Scholar Mobile App is available on iPhone and Android for users enjoying our 7-day free trial and Premium users (either on Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly plan).

Visit the App Store or Google Play to download instantly.

You can email [email protected] .

Not currently, but we are working hard on this!

You can email  [email protected] , or use the chat-bot available right on the App.

The best way to do this is through our Product Road site but you can also contact us at [email protected] or or tag us to a post on social media! (i.e. LinkedIn ,  Instagram , TikTok or X ).

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Listen to academic papers on the go

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Academic papers are very different from other types of reading.

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Can it pronounce difficult words, like “mesothelioma” or “diphenhydramine”, i only want to listen to the abstract and results..

Audemic: access research articles through listening

• Author: Jose Rayo, CMO & Co-Founder of Audemic interviewed by Kristen Schroeder, PhD

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Preface: In the latest interview in our series on companies that are developing innovative ways to support your research, we speak with Jose from Audemic about how we can access research articles by listening to them in the Audemic App. We asked him about access and inclusivity in research and learned that technology is not only breaking scientists away from long hours reading articles at the computer screen, but it is also opening doors and bringing more people into the scientific world. Check out Audemic’s biweekly podcast, The Research Beat, to be brought even further in and hear about the daily lives of scientists!

Can you tell us about yourself and what led you to start Audemic?

Hi there! My name is Jose Rayo and I am Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder of Audemic , a platform. I have to admit that my professional profile is a bit strange, because I am a corporate lawyer turned marketer! I think this fact speaks for itself but I would define myself as a constant learner and seeker of new challenges – at the end of the day it is what I believe makes us really grow as people… and now I am immersed in the exciting adventure that is Audemic.

I met my co-founders in Madrid when we were participating in a startup incubation hub. The four of us shared the view that there was a very clear problem: scientific research has the greatest impact on people’s lives but it is not accessible at all. So we asked ourselves: what can we do to improve this? How can we make people more productive in reading scientific content? This is how Audemic was born, with the intention of changing the way not only academics and researchers but also the intellectually curious read scientific articles using the full potential of technology.

How does Audemic help to increase access in science?

Accessibility is a very broad term and can be approached from many angles and at Audemic we do just that, creating new and friendlier ways to digest academic research.

The most obvious is perhaps audio, the world is moving to audio (audiobooks, podcasts, etc), because software like Audemic’s broadens the range of possibilities in which to consume these types of texts – you no longer need to be sitting in front of a PDF on your computer or on paper!

Another way in which we work to improve accessibility is the development of functionalities that help our users to maximise their academic performance even if they have learning disabilities or differences. Audemic delivers powerful accessibility features with the same ease of use as a podcast app, which increases uptake and decreases software training. For example, with Audemic you can switch to a dyslexic-friendly font, change the font size or even alter the order in which each section is read.

Are there any restrictions on what form of scientific articles I can listen to on Audemic—textbooks, theses, open access papers, my own research manuscript?

Audemic is designed to process any type of research paper regardless of the field, journal or model under which it has been published. This also includes other broader texts such as theses or research manuscripts, which can also be uploaded and accessed from the platform. However, it should be noted that Audemic is currently trained to process documents with the structure of a scientific article, so it may encounter some difficulties with more general texts.

I would love to create an article playlist while I’m listening—do you have plans to integrate Audemic with search functionality or reference managers?

I’m delighted that you have asked me that question because it’s an idea we’ve already thought about and are working on. There are several users who tell us that they use Audemic on a project basis and that sometimes they need to read huge amounts of articles but only want to listen to some sections. With a feature like this users could create a playlist just like they do in Spotify and add several articles to the queue.

The idea of including a search engine within the App is not something we are working on at the moment because we are focused on being as useful as possible for the user when reading and understanding scientific texts, but it is certainly an improvement that we have considered, especially considering the current strength of the open access movement. Making it easier for the user to search for the article and upload it directly to Audemic would be very powerful, and we are currently working on integrating with existing services that help users to find those articles.

We are constantly releasing new features in the App and one of the latest has been the integration with the Zotero reference manager. With this integration our users can now synchronise their Zotero account and automatically import all articles to be able to read and listen to them in Audemic.

In addition to improving access and making it possible to listen to research articles, Audemic has a podcast. Can you tell us about The Research Beat?

The Research Beat is a podcast promoted by Audemic at the beginning of 2022 and is aimed at telling the incredible stories behind people who are dedicated in one way or another to the world of science or research. We bring profiles ranging from PhD students to science communicators, researchers in industry to professors from around the world. The show, hosted by Jordan Kruszynski and of which we have already done 2 seasons, tries to bring the general public closer to what the guests’ day is like and how their work impacts our lives without us even realising it and also take the opportunity to address current affairs and how they believe they could improve things in academia.

Each week you can find an episode available on the main podcasting platforms so… don’t forget to subscribe! 😉

What is your vision for the future of Audemic?

Our vision for Audemic is to become a fundamental tool for academics, researchers and the intellectually curious, helping them to be more productive, collaborative and innovative across borders, regardless of neurodiversity or disabilities and throughout their careers. But, research papers are just the start, after that we want to go to case studies, legal documents, business reports. If you think about Notion, you think about smart note taking. If you think about Duolingo, you think about smart language learning. We want you to think about Audemic when you think about smart reading.

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Jose for sharing his insight!

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15 Best Text-to-Speech Tools for Academic Reading and Accessibility

Ever considered an easier way to digest academic materials? Discover the best text-to-speech tools for academic reading and accessibility.

For many, it’s a challenge keeping up with the continuous inflow of information. If you’re nodding in agreement, get ready for some good news: technology has a solution. And that solution is text-to-speech (TTS) tools.

Table of Contents

And before you ask, yes, they are a godsend for academia. From ensuring accessibility for visually impaired individuals and those with learning difficulties to helping multilingual researchers comprehend complex texts, TTS tools are changing the academic game. 

Best Text-To-Speech Tools for Academic Reading and Accessibility

#1. google text-to-speech: best for basic tts on android and google translate.

What are the benefits of Google Text-to-Speech?

How much does it cost?

#2. Amazon Polly: Best for High-Quality Speech Synthesis in Applications

Amazon Polly is a tool that shines in high-quality speech synthesis. It uses advanced deep learning technologies to deliver speech that sounds like a human voice. Amazon Polly is not just a tool; it’s a revelation for auditory learners.

What are the benefits of Amazon Polly?

#3. Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services Text-to-Speech: Best for Diverse Voices and Languages in Apps

What are the benefits of Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services Text-to-Speech?

#4. NaturalReader: Best for Personal and Business TTS Needs Across Document Formats

NaturalReader is like the Swiss army knife of TTS tools. From eBooks to PDFs, and everything in between, this tool doesn’t discriminate.

#5. TextAloud 4: Best for Converting Text to Audio for Portable Listening

With TextAloud 4, you can convert any text to audio and make your study schedule as flexible as your lifestyle. It’s like having your personal library in your pocket!

#6. ReadSpeaker: Best for Educational and Business TTS Applications

ReadSpeaker is the gold standard when it comes to TTS tools, making it a reliable companion for any professional or academic journey.

#7 . iSpeech: Best for Multi-language TTS Integration in Apps

Whether you’re developing an app or trying to read a foreign language paper for your research, iSpeech helps break the language barrier.

#8. Balabolka: Best for Free TTS Support Across Multiple File Formats

With Balabolka, everyone can enjoy the benefits of TTS technology. It’s a true champion of inclusive academic learning.

#9. CereProc: Best for Expressive Voices in Multimedia Applications

What are the benefits of CereProc?

#10. Voice Dream Reader: Best for Mobile TTS Across Various Formats

Voice Dream Reader is your mobile academic companion, providing a personalized reading experience wherever you go. This tool ensures your academic pursuits are never at a standstill. Think of it as your pocket-sized academic buddy.

#11. Speechify: Best for TTS for Users with Dyslexia, ADHD, and Visual Impairments

#12. ttsreader: best for online tts for various text content.

With TTSReader, academic reading becomes less of a challenge and more of a breeze. It’s your personal assistant, always ready to read aloud for you.

#13. ClaroRead: Best for TTS Support for Dyslexia, Learning Difficulties, and ESL Learners

Education should be a right, not a privilege, and that’s the philosophy behind ClaroRead. Designed with individuals with learning difficulties, dyslexia, and English as a Second Language (ESL) learners in mind, ClaroRead works to ensure that everyone has equal access to knowledge. 

ClaroRead is a beacon of inclusivity in the world of academia. It’s proof that with the right tools, every learner can shine.

Source: https://www.texthelp.com

#14. Capti Voice: Best for TTS in Academic Reading Across Formats

Capti Voice is your personal academic librarian, always ready to read to you in the format you prefer. From Microsoft Word documents to PDFs, eBooks, and more, Capti Voice thrives in the world of academia.

Capti Voice weaves versatility and a focus on academia into a potent mix. It’s a tool that can take your academic reading experience to new heights.

#15. Speech Central: Best for TTS for News, Documents, eBooks, and Websites

It’s for those who want to stay current on news while juggling academic readings. The tool knows how to multitask, just like the busy academics who use it. It’s your one-stop-shop for all your reading needs.

These text-to-speech tools offer innovative ways to engage with academic content, making learning more accessible and enjoyable. 

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Uni Student? Convert university readings into custom audio

Synthesised AudioBook

See how Articulus works below

From a boring university reading to a custom synthesised audiobook or podcast

1. choose type of audio, 2. upload and customise your reading, 3. conversion in 30 minutes*, 4. email notification upon completion, choose your format.

Full Length Audio

Convert the article into smooth audio that is read back to you. Great for understanding the details on the go. 

Synthesised Audio

Don't have the time to listen to the full-length article? Choose how long you want your Audio to be and we will generate a Synthesised Audio version.

Custom Podcast

Love podcasts? So do we.

Articles are not written to be easily understood, so use our Custom Podcast Generator to consume rich content easily on the go.

Hannah, New York - 32

"Studying law can be pretty time-consuming. I've been converting papers in to   full length audio which helps me continue studying when I'm out and about or on the move."

Grace, London - 19

"I was cramming for my finals and didn't have time to review all of the content we had studied that semester. I used  synthesised audio to make sure I was still covering the important concepts."

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"I've always struggled to focus on my papers - listening to a custom podcast is way more engaging and helps me concentrate on topics I'd otherwise find boring."

About Articulus

Articulus is the ultimate companion for university students on their academic journey. We understand the challenges of navigating vast amounts of research literature and the need for accessible and understandable resources.

Articulus provides a groundbreaking platform designed to make your research and learning experience seamless. Understand and engage with your readings in your preferred format, whether it's reading, listening to audiobooks, or diving into custom podcasts.

Enhance your understanding, save time, and unlock new insights with Articulus as your trusted companion in higher education.

From a boring university reading to a custom synthesised audiobook...

Click play to experience a summary of the journal article

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• Insights blog

Listen to the latest research when and how you want to

The innovative text-to-audio option available on taylor & francis online.

Taylor & Francis Online  has introduced a new text-to-audio option for all journal content, making research articles more accessible to a wider range of readers.

The introduction of Readspeaker allows logged-in users on  Taylor & Francis Online  to select the journal article they are looking for and listen to it via audio, simply by highlighting or hovering over specific sections, or by pressing play to listen to the entire article from start to finish.

Readspeaker even enables you to download an MP3 recording of the journal article to listen to on the go or choose from fifteen different languages to hear it in – without the need to download any extra programs.

The development was implemented to leverage the latest technology to provide multiple ways to access academic research, as well as to make content available to a larger audience, including those with literacy difficulties, partially sighted users, learning disabilities, or new language learners.

This new feature is accessible to all Taylor & Francis Online registrants, so any users who prefer to learn by listening to audio rather than reading, or those who are simply busy and want to learn while on-the-go will be able to.

Readspeaker has been implemented as a result of Taylor & Francis’ ongoing commitment to provide the best content experience, improve website usability and support all users to find and use the research they need.

Visit Taylor & Francis Online now to try it for yourself.

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The Semantic Reader Open Research Platform

Semantic Reader Project is a collaborative effort of NLP + HCI researchers from non-profit, industry, and academic institutions to create interactive, intelligent reading interfaces for scholarly papers. Our research led to the creation of Semantic Reader, an application used by tens of thousands of scholars each week.

The Semantic Reader Open Research Platform provides resources that enable the broader research community to explore exciting challenges around novel research support tools: PaperMage , a library for processing and analyzing scholarly PDFs, and PaperCraft , a React UI component for building augmented and interactive reading interfaces. Join us in designing the future of scholarly reading interfaces with our open source libraries!

Open Source Libraries

We provide PaperMage + PaperCraft for building intelligent and interactive paper readers. Below we showcase how to extract text from a PDF to prompt a LLM for term definitions and then visually augment the paper with highlights and popups.

Process and Analyze Scholarly PDF Documents

Create Visually Augmented Interactive Readers

Research Prototype Showcase

Here we present several interactive demos to showcase systems you can build with PaperMage and PaperCraft.

Augmenting Research Papers with Author Talk Videos

Demo Paper Presentation

Synergi & Threddy

Clipping Research Threads from Papers for Synthesis and Exploration

Paper Presentation

Paper Plain

Making Medical Research Papers Approachable to Healthcare Consumers

Demo Code Tutorial Paper

LLM Paper Q&A

A GPT-powered PDF QA system with attribution support.

Demo Code Tutorial

Augmenting Citations in Papers with Persistent and Personalized Context

In-Production Paper Presentation

Localizing Incoming Citations from Follow on Papers in the Margins

Automatic highlights for skimming support of scientific papers

In-Production Paper

Augmenting Papers with Just-in-Time Definitions of Terms and Symbols

Founding Project Demo Paper

Publications

Semantic reader project overview.

The Semantic Reader Project: Augmenting Scholarly Documents through AI-Powered Interactive Reading Interfaces Kyle Lo, Joseph Chee Chang, Andrew Head, Jonathan Bragg, Amy X. Zhang, Cassidy Trier, Chloe Anastasiades, Tal August, Russell Authur, Danielle Bragg, Erin Bransom, Isabel Cachola, Stefan Candra, Yoganand Chandrasekhar, Yen-Sung Chen, Evie (Yu-Yen) Cheng, Yvonne Chou, Doug Downey, Rob Evans, Raymond Fok, F.Q. Hu, Regan Huff, Dongyeop Kang, Tae Soo Kim, Rodney Michael Kinney, A. Kittur, Hyeonsu B Kang, Egor Klevak, Bailey Kuehl, Michael Langan, Matt Latzke, Jaron Lochner, Kelsey MacMillan, Eric Stuart Marsh, Tyler Murray, Aakanksha Naik, Ngoc-Uyen Nguyen, Srishti Palani, Soya Park, Caroline Paulic, Napol Rachatasumrit, Smita R Rao, P. Sayre, Zejiang Shen, Pao Siangliulue, Luca Soldaini, Huy Tran, Madeleine van Zuylen, Lucy Lu Wang, Christopher Wilhelm, Caroline M Wu, Jiangjiang Yang, Angele Zamarron, Marti A. Hearst, Daniel S. Weld . ArXiv. 2023 .

Interactive and Intelligent Reading Interfaces

Qlarify: Bridging Scholarly Abstracts and Papers with Recursively Expandable Summaries Raymond Fok, Joseph Chee Chang, Tal August, Amy X. Zhang, Daniel S. Weld . ArXiv. 2023 .

Papeos: Augmenting Research Papers with Talk Videos Tae Soo Kim, Matt Latzke, Jonathan Bragg, Amy X. Zhang, Joseph Chee Chang . The ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. 2023 .

Synergi: A Mixed-Initiative System for Scholarly Synthesis and Sensemaking Hyeonsu B Kang, Sherry Wu, Joseph Chee Chang, A. Kittur . The ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. 2023 .

🏆 Best Paper Award CiteSee: Augmenting Citations in Scientific Papers with Persistent and Personalized Historical Context Joseph Chee Chang, Amy X. Zhang, Jonathan Bragg, Andrew Head, Kyle Lo, Doug Downey, Daniel S. Weld . Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2023 .

Relatedly: Scaffolding Literature Reviews with Existing Related Work Sections Srishti Palani, Aakanksha Naik, Doug Downey, Amy X. Zhang, Jonathan Bragg, Joseph Chee Chang . Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2023 .

CiteRead: Integrating Localized Citation Contexts into Scientific Paper Reading Napol Rachatasumrit, Jonathan Bragg, Amy X. Zhang, Daniel S. Weld . 27th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces. 2022 .

🏆 Best Paper Award Math Augmentation: How Authors Enhance the Readability of Formulas using Novel Visual Design Practices Andrew Head, Amber Xie, Marti A. Hearst . Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2022 .

Scim: Intelligent Skimming Support for Scientific Papers Raymond Fok, Hita Kambhamettu, Luca Soldaini, Jonathan Bragg, Kyle Lo, Andrew Head, Marti A. Hearst, Daniel S. Weld . Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces. 2022 .

Exploring Team-Sourced Hyperlinks to Address Navigation Challenges for Low-Vision Readers of Scientific Papers Soya Park, Jonathan Bragg, Michael Chang, K. Larson, Danielle Bragg . Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 2022 .

Paper Plain: Making Medical Research Papers Approachable to Healthcare Consumers with Natural Language Processing Tal August, Lucy Lu Wang, Jonathan Bragg, Marti A. Hearst, Andrew Head, Kyle Lo . ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction. 2022 . Presentation at CHI 2024.

Threddy: An Interactive System for Personalized Thread-based Exploration and Organization of Scientific Literature Hyeonsu B Kang, Joseph Chee Chang, Yongsung Kim, A. Kittur . Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. 2022 .

🏆 Best Paper Award SciA11y: Converting Scientific Papers to Accessible HTML Lucy Lu Wang, Isabel Cachola, Jonathan Bragg, Evie (Yu-Yen) Cheng, Chelsea Hess Haupt, Matt Latzke, Bailey Kuehl, Madeleine van Zuylen, Linda M. Wagner, Daniel S. Weld . Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. 2021 .

Augmenting Scientific Papers with Just-in-Time, Position-Sensitive Definitions of Terms and Symbols Andrew Head, Kyle Lo, Dongyeop Kang, Raymond Fok, Sam Skjonsberg, Daniel S. Weld, Marti A. Hearst . Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2020 .

Open Research Resources: Libraries, Models, Datasets

🏆 Best Paper Award PaperMage: A Unified Toolkit for Processing, Representing, and Manipulating Visually-Rich Scientific Documents Kyle Lo, Zejiang Shen, Benjamin Newman, Joseph Chee Chang, Russell Authur, Erin Bransom, Stefan Candra, Yoganand Chandrasekhar, Regan Huff, Bailey Kuehl, Amanpreet Singh, Chris Wilhelm, Angele Zamarron, Marti A. Hearst, Daniel S. Weld, Doug Downey, Luca Soldaini. Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing: Demos. 2023.

A Question Answering Framework for Decontextualizing User-facing Snippets from Scientific Documents Benjamin Newman, Luca Soldaini, Raymond Fok, Arman Cohan, Kyle Lo . undefined. 2023 .

🏆 Best Paper Award LongEval: Guidelines for Human Evaluation of Faithfulness in Long-form Summarization Kalpesh Krishna, Erin Bransom, Bailey Kuehl, Mohit Iyyer, Pradeep Dasigi, Arman Cohan, Kyle Lo . ArXiv. 2023 .

Are Layout-Infused Language Models Robust to Layout Distribution Shifts? A Case Study with Scientific Documents Catherine Chen, Zejiang Shen, D. Klein, G. Stanovsky, Doug Downey, Kyle Lo . ArXiv. 2023 .

The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform Rodney Michael Kinney, Chloe Anastasiades, Russell Authur, Iz Beltagy, Jonathan Bragg, Alexandra Buraczynski, Isabel Cachola, Stefan Candra, Yoganand Chandrasekhar, Arman Cohan, Miles Crawford, Doug Downey, Jason Dunkelberger, Oren Etzioni, Rob Evans, Sergey Feldman, Joseph Gorney, D. Graham, F.Q. Hu, Regan Huff, Daniel King, Sebastian Kohlmeier, Bailey Kuehl, Michael Langan, Daniel Lin, Haokun Liu, Kyle Lo, Jaron Lochner, Kelsey MacMillan, Tyler Murray, Christopher Newell, Smita R Rao, Shaurya Rohatgi, P. Sayre, Zejiang Shen, Amanpreet Singh, Luca Soldaini, Shivashankar Subramanian, A. Tanaka, Alex D Wade, Linda M. Wagner, Lucy Lu Wang, Christopher Wilhelm, Caroline Wu, Jiangjiang Yang, Angele Zamarron, Madeleine van Zuylen, Daniel S. Weld . ArXiv. 2023 .

VILA: Improving Structured Content Extraction from Scientific PDFs Using Visual Layout Groups Zejiang Shen, Kyle Lo, Lucy Lu Wang, Bailey Kuehl, Daniel S. Weld, Doug Downey . Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics. 2021 .

Document-Level Definition Detection in Scholarly Documents: Existing Models, Error Analyses, and Future Directions Dongyeop Kang, Andrew Head, Risham Sidhu, Kyle Lo, Daniel S. Weld, Marti A. Hearst . Proceedings of the First Workshop on Scholarly Document Processing @ ACL. 2020 .

See the  Project Overview Paper  to see a full list of contributors. † For questions and inquiries, please contact Joseph Chee Chang (PaperCraft & Intelligent reading interfaces), or Kyle Lo and Luca Soldaini (PaperMage & Scientific document processing).

Research Advisory Board

Intelligent reading interfaces research, scientific document processing research, research libraries and tooling.

How to listen to scientific papers

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Discover how text to speech can enable you to listen to scientific papers like never before.

In the dynamic realm of academic research, staying abreast of the latest developments is essential. One innovative approach to consume research papers, academic articles, and scientific literature is by utilizing text to speech ( TTS ) technology. This article delves into the diverse types of scientific papers, addresses challenges encountered in reading scientific papers, highlights the benefits of listening while reading, and introduces Speechify as the premier TTS solution for scientific literature.

Scientific papers serve as the backbone of scholarly communication in the realm of academia, providing a platform for researchers to share their findings, analyses, and insights with the global scientific community. These papers come in various types, each tailored to specific objectives and intended audiences. Let’s delve into the top types of scientific literature:

• Scientific news articles: Scientific news articles are concise and accessible articles providing non-experts with summaries of recent research findings. The purpose of these works are to disseminate scientific information to a broader audience, fostering public understanding.
• Abstracts: Abstracts offer brief overviews of research papers, summarizing the study's objectives, methods, results, and conclusions to provide a snapshot of a paper's content, aiding researchers in deciding its relevance.
• Studies: Scientific studies are a comprehensive exploration of a particular topic. Studies present detailed methodologies, analyses, and findings to contribute new knowledge and insights to the academic community.
• Conference proceedings: Conference proceedings are documents summarizing presentations and discussions that occurred during academic conferences. They help to share the latest scientific research, innovations, and ideas presented at conferences.
• Dissertations: Dissertations are in-depth scientific research projects submitted for advanced degrees, presenting original contributions to a field of study. They are designed to demonstrate a candidate's mastery of their subject and contribute new knowledge.
• Journal articles: Rigorously peer-reviewed scientific articles published in academic journals are written to share original research, contribute to the scholarly conversation, and disseminate research findings.
• Grant Proposals: Scientific grant proposals are documents outlining a researcher's plan and justification for obtaining financial support for a specific project.

Text to speech technology utilizes advanced natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to convert written text into spoken words. The process begins with the input of textual content, which is then analyzed for linguistic patterns, syntax, and semantics.

Text to speech services, such as Speechify, employ sophisticated voice synthesis models that generate human-like speech, taking into account intonation, pitch, and rhythm to enhance the naturalness of the audio output. The technology can adapt to different voices and languages, providing a versatile and inclusive solution for users who struggle with reading difficulties or users who prefer listening to text read aloud.

Challenges of reading scientific papers and how text to speech can help

Navigating the realm of scientific papers is a task often laden with challenges, as the dense and specialized nature of these documents can pose obstacles to comprehension. Thankfully, text to speech emerges as a valuable solution. Let’s explore the challenges of reading scientific papers and how text to speech can help:

Scientific papers often use specialized terminology and jargon that can be intimidating and challenging for individuals who are not experts in the field. The complexity of language can create a barrier to understanding, hindering the accessibility of valuable research. By vocalizing intricate scientific terms and explanations, text to speech technology ensures that even those unfamiliar with the terminology can comprehend the content. This feature makes scientific papers more inclusive and accessible to a broader audience, fostering knowledge dissemination across disciplines.

The length and density of scientific papers can be overwhelming. Researchers and academics may find it challenging to dedicate extended periods to reading, especially when balancing multiple responsibilities. Text to speech technology offers a solution to the time-consuming nature of reading dense papers. By converting text into spoken words, TTS allows users to multitask and absorb information more efficiently. Whether commuting, exercising, or engaging in other activities, individuals can listen to scientific papers, maximizing their productivity and staying informed without sacrificing time.

PhD students, researchers, and academics often face time constraints due to the demands of their rigorous schedules. Finding time to thoroughly read and comprehend scientific papers can be a significant challenge. With TTS technology, users can seamlessly integrate the consumption of scientific papers into their daily routines by listening while performing other tasks. This adaptability enables individuals to make the most of their time, staying updated on the latest research developments without compromising other professional or personal commitments.

Traditional reading methods may pose challenges for individuals with visual impairments or reading difficulties, such as dyslexia, limiting their access to valuable academic content. TTS plays a crucial role in enhancing accessibility. By providing an auditory alternative, it ensures that scientific papers are accessible to all individuals. This inclusivity is a fundamental aspect of democratizing knowledge, allowing a diverse audience to engage with and contribute to academic discussions.

Proofreading scientific papers can be a meticulous task, and errors or inconsistencies may go unnoticed during silent reading. Listening to scientific papers with TTS serves as an effective proofreading strategy. The auditory experience helps users identify errors, awkward phrasing, or inconsistencies that may be overlooked during silent reading. This additional layer of scrutiny contributes to the overall improvement of the quality and clarity of academic writing and literature review.

Integrating listening into the process of reading scientific papers can substantially elevate the learning experience. By merging auditory input with the visual engagement of reading, a multimodal learning approach is formed, accommodating diverse learning styles. The practice of utilizing text to speech to have scientific papers read aloud can enhance concentration and sustain focus amid the demanding and intricate nature of digesting such content. This dual-input technique not only strengthens comprehension but also contributes to information retention by leveraging multiple cognitive channels.

Why Speechify is the best TTS for reading scientific papers aloud

In the ever-expanding landscape of text to speech applications, here are just a few unique features that position Speechify as the go-to TTS app for the scientific community, elevating the reading experience for scientific papers to unprecedented heights:

Speechify's text highlighting feature is a game-changer in the realm of TTS platforms. It synchronizes visual and auditory elements, highlighting and emphasizing the words being spoken in real-time. This dynamic visual aid reinforces comprehension.

Speechify recognizes the diverse preferences and reading speeds of its users. The platform offers customizable speed controls, allowing individuals to adjust the pace of the narration according to their comfort and comprehension levels.

Speechify boasts a diverse range of 200+ natural-sounding voices indistinguishable from human speech across 30+ various languages and accents, including English, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, French, Chinese, and more. Speechify even offers celebrity voice options for premium subscribers.

Speechify's cross-platform syncing allows users to seamlessly transition between different devices, such as Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android devices, without losing their reading progress.

Speechify goes the extra mile by supporting Optical Character Recognition (OCR), allowing users to convert images and scanned PDFs into spoken words. The OCR scanning feature enables users to explore academic material beyond digital text formats in a new way.

How to read scientific papers aloud with Speechify

Speechify, the premier text to speech solution, presents an unmatched solution for listening to scientific papers, delivering a smooth and enriching experience for academic readers. Let’s delve into the ways you can leverage the Speechify website, Chrome extension , or app to read scientific papers aloud:

You can listen to scientific papers straight from the Speechify website. Simply follow the steps below:

• Open your web browser and navigate to Speechify.com
• Sign in or create an account if you haven’t already.
• Tap “New” in the left-hand toolbar.
• Click “Text Document.”
• Copy and paste the scientific paper copy into the text box.
• Press submit.
• Customize the voice, reading speed, and other preferences.
• Click the “Play” button to listen to your scientific paper with Speechify.
• Enjoy a seamless and accessible reading experience right in your web browser.

If your favorite browser is Google Chrome, you can also listen to scientific papers by using the Speechify Chrome extension. Here’s a breakdown of how to get started:

• Install the Speechify Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store.
• Click on the Speechify icon in your browser toolbar.
• Sign in or create an account.
• Select the text you want to read and choose your desired settings.
• Click the “Play” button on the Speechify pop-up to start the text to speech conversion.
• Listen to the content being read out loud while you browse the web, and even adjust settings on the fly.

If you’d like to read scientific papers on the go, follow this easy tutorial showing how to use the Speechify app:

• Download the Speechify iOS or Android app from the App Store or Google Play Store.
• Open the app and sign in or create a new account.
• Tap “Add” on the bottom toolbar.
• Choose “From your computer.”
• Choose files and import your scientific paper or copy and paste text into the app.
• Customize voice preferences, reading speed, and other settings.
• Tap the “Play” button to begin listening to the converted content.
• Use the app’s additional features, such as highlighting text or changing the voice for a more interactive reading experience.

You can even read printed scientific papers with Speechify. Follow this guide to use the Speechify app to scan pictures of your physical academic papers:

• Download the Speechify IOS or Android app on your mobile device from the App store or Google Play store.
• Choose “Scan Pages.”
• Grant Speechify access to your camera.
• Use the OCR scanner to take photos of the scientific paper you wish to convert to audio files.
• Press “Next” in the bottom right-hand corner.
• Click “Listen” in the top right-hand corner.
• Press “Save.”
• Tap the “Play” button to begin listening to the new audio version of your scientific paper.
• Customize the settings to suit your preferences, such as reading speed and voice selection.
• Enjoy hands-free learning while you focus on comprehension or follow along as the text is highlighted.

Whether you are a PhD student, researcher, postdoc, or academic, Speechify provides a seamless solution for consuming academic content. Speechify empowers users to explore the world of scientific research effortlessly with text to speech. In fact, Speechify allows users to transform any text into speech, including PDF files, web pages, scientific research papers, hypotheses, social media content, and so much more.

Whether you're delving into specific questions, reading papers, working on citations, formulating research questions, searching through Google Scholar, Audemic Scholar, PubMed, or the Directory of Open Access Journals and open access materials, or crafting research articles, Speechify can do the reading for you.

Discover how text to speech can level up your reading experience and try Speechify for free today.

Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that specializes in scholarly literature, allowing users to find the full text of academic articles, theses, books, conference papers, and patents across various disciplines.

College students can take effective science notes by actively engaging in lectures, organizing information hierarchically, using visual aids, and integrating examples and applications to enhance comprehension and retention.

First-time college students can benefit from study tools such as note-taking apps, flashcard platforms, organizational apps, and, notably, text to speech applications, such as Speechify, and audiobooks to enhance accessibility and comprehension of course materials through auditory learning.

Zotero is a reference manager, a free and open-source software tool that helps researchers and students organize, collect, and cite sources for academic writing and research projects.

Several scientific podcasts cater to diverse interests, including Science Vs. , Radiolab , Stuff You Should Know , The Infinite Monkey Cage , TED Talks Science , and the StartUp Podcast .

Yes, Speechify is an excellent text to speech tool that enables users to listen to academic articles, providing an accessible and efficient way to absorb scholarly content through audio.

Scientific peer review is a rigorous evaluation process where experts in a particular field assess the validity, quality, and originality of research manuscripts before they are published in a scientific journal.

Yes, Speechify is a text to speech app that allows users to both read and listen to scientific papers, providing a versatile platform for accessing scholarly content through both visual and auditory channels.

Voices.com vs. Voice123

Read Aloud: Transforming the Way We Experience Text

Cliff Weitzman

Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.

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PDF to audio software for academic papers?

I sometimes find it difficult to allocate time to read (edit: academic ) papers. However, I sometimes have long commutes so have plenty of time to listen to audio books. That said, is there any accurate (key word) software that converts PDF text to audio? Is there such software tailored to various academic publication formats?

Edit: Since I'll probably use this while commuting, Android solutions are preferable, or at least Mac OS X converters with output that can be downloaded to Android.

• speech-synthesis

• 3 This can be decomposed into two questions: PDF -> TEXT and TEXT -> SPEECH. pdftotext generally does a good job in the first part. There are plenty of TTS softwares but I don't use them... –  Memming Commented Aug 12, 2014 at 6:22
• 1 Could you please edit your question and add at least what OS you target? While on it, you might also wish to take a look at What is required for a question to contain "enough information"? to check if there's more to add ;) Thanks! –  Izzy Commented Aug 12, 2014 at 8:48
• question related with this one: Is there a better pdf to text converter than pdftotext? askubuntu.com/questions/52040/… (not only linux) –  JinSnow Commented Sep 16, 2018 at 8:25

5 Answers 5

Preview in Mac OS X can speak selected text or a whole PDF document. To save the speech to a file, you can copy the PDF text into a plain text file, edit out any erroneous bits, and use say -f plain_text_input_file.txt -o audio_output_file.aiff in Terminal.

Tables, equations, non-dictionary acronyms, Greek letters, and other such "oddities" are not read very well, though the tool deals well with regular sentences. Perhaps there is a more science-orientated text to speech program available, but I haven't heard of it.

• 1 Since the OP is looking for academic PDF's this is unlikely to work. Academic papers are very often in 2-column format so copy and pasting does not work well. –  John Commented Aug 12, 2014 at 10:38
• 1 @John Not necessarily true. Double-column PDFs copy-paste fine in OS X in Preview and Adobe Reader. The output from pdftotext on my Linux box is a bit out of order. Grabbing the LaTeX source from arXiv and running detex is another option. Every solution I can think of will still need a little manual tweaking for each paper to remove page numbers, running headers, etc, while getting even uglier when equations and symbols get involved. –  Moriarty Commented Aug 12, 2014 at 11:48
• say seems to work fairly well for my text to speech. The only issues are conversion (AIFF to MP3) and formatting the .txt output for say . Copy-paste can grab some irrelevant footers, and LaTeX isn't always available (or is hard to find). I was hoping for a more unified, less manual solution to save substantial time, but for now, this seems like the best possible option. Thanks! –  Matt Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 20:16
• @user262504 afconvert is a command-line interface to Core Audio to compress to AAC or HE-AAC, though the documentation ( afconvert --help ) is a little obtuse. You could install ffmpeg with Homebrew to convert to MP3. There are also plenty of GUI converters out there (iTunes included) that can do the job for you too, if command line tinkering isn't your thing. –  Moriarty Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 20:46

On Android, there's e.g. Moon+ Reader Pro supporting PDF and text-to-speak:

As the screenshots show, it's pretty configurable: not only can you adjust volume, but also speed. A bunch of additional features make it very much fit for your purpose: you can highlight/annotate text (for study material, this is probably a must). With PDF files, these annotations/highlights are directly stored into the .pdf file and additionally in "Moonies" database for faster access (with other formats, it's only stored in the database) – so you can later process your annotations/highlights on a different computer. Furthermore, it supports different dictionaries like Fora or (my recommendation) ColorDict – both capable of online and offline dictionaries and using standard formats ( ColorDict even offers to install some of them from within the app, while for Fora you'd need to do that manually).

For Text-to-Speech, Moon+ relies on the TTS engine provided by the system. Depending on the language used (and the quality of speech support for it), quality varies; for English it seems to be pretty good, for German I wouldn't use it to read me a novel (but that's a general thing: TTS cannot detect "moods" of the text it reads). Words are pronounced accurately.

Though not specifically tailored to academic text, I think it's a good match (especially considering you might want to use it "on the road", where a tablet/smartphone is preferable to a laptop) – and currently offered for 50% off at Google Play . I'm a long-time user of Moon+ and really love it. Support is great, and the app very reliable.

There's a free (ad supported) version available for a first look, but that doesn't support PDF nor TTS, unfortunately.

PS: As an afterthought. I rarely use PDF (mostly only to proof-read print variants of my books sent to me by my publisher), and almost never TTS – so I cannot say how well these two features work together (though the app description explicitely states: PDF support, fast & speech compatible , so it should work or Seany wouldn't state so). Furthermore, I doubt it will work with e.g. PDFs only composed of images, as Moon+ to my knowledge doesn't contain an OCR engine to extract text from images.

You can use Adobe Acrobat Pro

• Windows/Linux/Mac
• can read a PDF with the Read Out Loud option :

The Read Out Loud feature reads aloud the text in a PDF, including the text in comments and alternate text descriptions for images and fillable fields. In tagged PDFs, content is read in the order in which it appears in the document’s logical structure tree. In untagged documents, the reading order is inferred, unless a reading order has been specified in the Reading preferences.

(FYI: Best Practices for PDF Accessibility )

• 1 The OP wants to export this to an audio file. Unless there is a way to export the speech to an audio file as quickly as the CPU can process the document, capturing the computer's audio output in real time is rather tedious solution. –  Moriarty Commented Aug 12, 2014 at 11:58

"Paper to Audio" is a chrome extension specifically for converting academic papers to speech (this includes PDFs). It gets rid of references etc. when speaking the text.

The link is: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/paper-to-audio/djncfliejhhejjgbhcopflpnlaeicnco?authuser=1

It may have a few bugs which I'm still trying to sort out. Hope this helps.

My app Speech Central can handle this use case well. In some cases it is free (on Android and iOS if you read one book in a month or for blind people). It is also available for Windows and Mac as a single fairly affordable payment.

It should handle some specifics of academic PDFs that most apps can’t like skipping headers and footers or skipping quotations. On top of that it can skip even footnotes, which no other app can.

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“The only truly modern academic research engine”

Oa.mg is a search engine for academic papers, specialising in open access. we have over 250 million papers in our index..

How to Read Research Papers: A Cheat Sheet for Graduate Students

• August 4, 2022
• PRODUCTIVITY

It is crucial to stay on top of the scientific literature in your field of interest. This will help you shape and guide your experimental plans and keep you informed about what your competitors are working on.

To get the most out of your literature reading time, you need to learn how to read scientific papers efficiently. The problem is that we simply don’t have enough time to read new scientific papers in our results-driven world. 

It takes a great deal of time for researchers to learn how to read research papers. Unfortunately, this skill is rarely taught.

I wasted a lot of time reading unnecessary papers in the past since I didn’t have an appropriate workflow to follow. In particular, I needed a way to determine if a paper would interest me before I read it from start to finish.

So, what’s the solution?

This is where I came across the Three-pass method for reading research papers. 

Here’s what I’ve learned from using the three pass methods and what tweaks I’ve made to my workflow to make it more personalized.

Build time into your schedule 

Before you read anything, you should set aside a set amount of time to read research papers. It will be very hard to read research papers if you do not have a schedule because you will only try to read them for a week or two, and then you will feel frustrated. An organized schedule reduces procrastination significantly.

 For example, I take 30-40 minutes each weekday morning to read a research paper I come across.

After you have determined a time “only” to read research papers, you have to have a proper workflow.

Develop a workflow

For example, I follow a customized version of the popular workflow, the “Three-pass method”. 

When you are beginning, you may follow the method exactly as described, but as you get more experienced, you can make some changes down the road.

Why you shouldn’t read the entire paper at once?

Oftentimes, the papers you think are so important and that you should read every single word are actually worth only 10 minutes of your time.

Unlike reading an article about science in a blog or newspaper, reading research papers is an entirely different experience. In addition to reading the sections in a different order, you must take notes, read them several times, and probably look up other papers for details. 

It may take you a long time to read one paper at first. But that’s okay because you are investing yourself in the process.

However, you’re wasting your time if you don’t have a proper workflow. 

Oftentimes, reading a whole paper might not be necessary to get the specific information you need.

The Three-pass concept

The key idea is to read the paper in up to three passes rather than starting at the beginning and plowing through it. With each pass, you accomplish specific goals and build upon the previous one.

The first pass gives you a general idea of the paper. A second pass will allow you to understand the content of the paper, but not its details. A third pass helps you understand the paper more deeply.

The first pass (Maximum: 10 minutes)

The paper is scanned quickly in the first pass to get an overview. Also, you can decide if any more passes are needed. It should take about five to ten minutes to complete this pass.

Carefully read the title, abstract, and introduction

You should be able to tell from the title what the paper is about. In addition, it is a good idea to look at the authors and their affiliations, which may be valuable for various reasons, such as future reference, employment, guidance, and determining the reliability of the research.

The abstract should provide a high-level overview of the paper. You may ask, What are the main goals of the author(s) and what are the high-level results? There are usually some clues in the abstract about the paper’s purpose. You can think of the abstract as a marketing piece.

As you read the introduction, make sure you only focus on the topic sentences, and you can loosely focus on the other content.

What is a topic sentence?

Topic sentences introduce a paragraph by introducing the one topic that will be the focus of that paragraph. 

The structure of a paragraph should match the organization of a paper. At the paragraph level, the topic sentence gives the paper’s main idea, just as the thesis statement does at the essay level. After that, the rest of the paragraph supports the topic.

In the beginning, I read the whole paragraph, and it took me more than 30 minutes to complete the first pass. By identifying topic sentences, I have revolutionized my reading game, as I am now only reading the summary of the paragraph, saving me a lot of time during the second and third passes.

Read the section and sub-section headings, but ignore everything else 

Regarding methods and discussions, do not attempt to read even topic sentences because you are trying to decide whether this article is useful to you.

Reading the headings and subheadings is the best practice. It allows you to get a feel for the paper without taking up a lot of time.

Read the conclusions

It is standard for good writers to present the foundations of their experiment at the beginning and summarize their findings at the end of their paper.

Therefore, you are well prepared to read and understand the conclusion after reading the abstract and introduction.

Many people overlook the importance of the first pass. In adopting the three-pass method into my workflow, I realized that many papers that I thought had high relevance did not require me to spend more time reading. 

Therefore, after the first pass, I can decide not to read it further, saving me a lot of time.

Glance over the references

You can mentally check off the ones you’ve already read.

As you read through the references, you will better understand what has been studied previously in the field of research.

First pass objectives

At the end of the first pass, you should be able to answer these questions: 

• What is the  category  of this paper? Is it an analytical paper? Is it only an “introductory” paper? (if this is the case, probably, you might not want to read further, but it depends on the information you are after)or is it an argumentative research paper?
• Does the  context  of the paper serve the purpose for what you are looking for? If not, this paper might not be worth passing on to the second stage of this method.
• Does the basic logic of the paper seem to be valid? How do you comment on the  correctness  of the paper?
• What is the main  output  of the paper, or is there output at all?
• Is the paper well written? How do you comment on the  clarity  of the paper?

After the first pass, you should have a good idea whether you want to continue reading the research paper.

Maybe the paper doesn’t interest you, you don’t understand the area enough, or the authors make an incorrect assumption. 

In the first pass, you should be able to identify papers that are not related to your area of research but may be useful someday. 

You can store your paper with relevant tags in your reference manager, as discussed in the previous blog post in the  Bulletproof Literature Management System  series.

This is the third post of the four-part blog series:  The Bulletproof Literature Management System . Follow the links below to read the other posts in the series:

• How to How to find Research Papers
• How to Manage Research Papers
• How to Read Research Papers (You are here)
• How to Organize Research Papers

The second pass (Maximum: 60 minutes)

You are now ready to make a second pass through the paper if you decide it is worth reading more.

You should now begin taking some high-level notes because there will be words and ideas that are unfamiliar to you. 

Most reference managers come with an in-built PDF reader. In this case, taking notes and highlighting notes in the built-in pdf reader is the best practice. This method will prevent you from losing your notes and allow you to revise them easily.

Don’t be discouraged by everything that does not make sense. You can just mark it and move on. It is recommended that you only spend about an hour working on the paper in the second pass. 

In the second pass:

• Start with the abstract, skim through the introduction, and give the methods section a thorough look. 
• Make sure you pay close attention to the figures, diagrams, and other illustrations on the paper. By just looking at the captions of the figures and tables in a well-written paper, you can grasp 90 percent of the information. 
• It is important to pay attention to the overall methodology . There is a lot of detail in the methods section. At this point, you do not need to examine every part. 
• Read the results and discussion sections to better understand the key findings.
• Make sure you mark the relevant references in the paper so you can find them later.

Objectives of the second pass

You should be able to understand the paper’s content. Sometimes, it may be okay if you cannot comprehend some details. However, you should now be able to see the main idea of the paper. Otherwise, it might be better to rest and go through the second pass without entering the third. 

This is a good time to summarize the paper. During your reading, make sure to make notes.

After the second pass, you can: 

• Return to the paper later(If you did not understand the basic idea of the paper)
• Move onto the thirst pass.

The third pass (Maximum: four hours)

You should go to the third stage (the third pass) for a complete understanding of the paper. It may take you a few hours this time to read the paper. However, you may want to avoid reading a single paper for longer than four hours, even at the third pass.

A great deal of attention to detail is required for this pass. Every statement should be challenged, and every assumption should be identified.

By the third pass, you will be able to summarize the paper so that not only do you understand the content, but you can also comment on limitations and potential future developments.

Color coding when reading research papers

Highlighting is one way I help myself learn the material when I read research papers. It is especially helpful to highlight an article when you return to it later. 

Therefore, I use different colors for different segments. To manage my references, I use Zotero. There is an inbuilt PDF reader in Zotero. I use the highlighting colors offered by this software. The most important thing is the concept or phrase I want to color code, not the color itself.

Here is my color coding system.

• Problem statement: Violet
• Questions to ask: Red (I highlight in red where I want additional questions to be asked or if I am unfamiliar with the concept)
• Conclusions: Green (in the discussion section, authors draw conclusions based on their data. I prefer to highlight these in the discussion section rather than in the conclusion section since I can easily locate the evidence there)
• Keywords: Blue
• General highlights and notes: Yellow

Minimize distractions

Even though I’m not a morning person, I forced myself to read papers in the morning just to get rid of distractions. In order to follow through with this process (at least when you are starting out), you must have minimum to no distractions because research papers contain a great deal of highly packed information.

It doesn’t mean you can’t have fun doing it, though. Make a cup of coffee and enjoy reading!

Images courtesy : Online working vector created by storyset – www.freepik.com

Aruna Kumarasiri

Founder at Proactive Grad, Materials Engineer, Researcher, and turned author. In 2019, he started his professional carrier as a materials engineer with the continuation of his research studies. His exposure to both academic and industrial worlds has provided many opportunities for him to give back to young professionals.

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