Asides being broke, reading scientific journals can be the most boring thing in the world. There are a lot of things you can avoid but like your mobile phone, you may not be able to avoid these journals especially if you're an academic student. What do you do? How do you understand tiny fonts of unending jargons?
1. Journal Nobe Storybook: If you're not reviewing a paper and also not doing some really important work concerning that paper, always remember that journals are reference materials. Peep and go. When you're carrying out a literature research, know what you're looking for and go straight to it. Most times, I find what I'm looking for in the Introduction. After scanning through the abstract, I already have the summary of the whole journal. I scan the introduction and know why the paper was written. Most times, the abstract, introduction and conclusion is the really important thing to look out for.
2. Prior Knowledge: Journal nobe storybook. It is not written for leisure. So you must have some background knowledge in the discipline. Most scientific journals would expect you to know some terminologies and technicalities. If you open a journal and find too much jargons. Do the following;
a) drop it and find something else along that line
b) if you find something else and you still don't understand, write those concepts out and Google them.
c) after googling, read extensively about them.
d) pick the journal up, dust it and find your wisdom restored without the teeth.
3. Swallow Your Fear: Sometimes, you might be overwhelmed with the font size, cluster of words and serious outlook. What to do is to aspire to acquire the desire that you admire, but if in the process you perspire, don't retire but refire to acquire the desire which you admire. I will not forgive myself for typing that yen yen yen. Bottom line is to loosen up a bit and be ready to learn.
4. Talk To Someone: Most times, you will not fully comprehend the journal on your first read. You need to read it again. Someone once said you don't read a good poem once, so this is our poetry. You read. Pause. Process. Read again. After that, explain your thoughts to someone around you. If the person nods and thinks you're saying something deep. Congratulations, you might have gotten the gist. If the person looks as confused as you see, take a deep breath and drop the journal in annoyance. By the time you pick it up, it will be sorry for its action.
5. Take Note: Like Linda, take note! It could be mental notes or written notes—just take them. Create a mental bridge, relate what you just learnt with what you already know. If you'd be citing the journal, know how to reference—it's an intellectual property. If you'd be using the experimental methods there, write them out clearly and compare with others and tweak them to fit your research model.