Dissecting the Argument: A New Book Teaches Critical Reading Skills for Science

Reading has been on the decline for decades. Researchers have documented falling rates of college students completing assigned reading since the early 1980s — well before smartphones, and long before an AI chatbot could summarize a journal article faster than you can microwave a burrito. Yet, when STEM majors begin research and advanced courses, they are already expected to know how to critically read scientific research articles, even if no one has ever taught them how.

This is one of the reasons two scholars from the University of California San Diego — alumna Genevive Bjorn, MEd ‘15, founder and director of The Higher Learning Lab; and alumnus and Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Adam Burgasser, BS ‘96 — wrote “How to Critically Read the Scientific Research Literature: Introducing the CERIC Method,” recently published by Cambridge University Press.

In this Q&A, Burgasser explains why critical reading skills in science matter and how to use the CERIC Method.

Why are literacy and critical reading skills important in science?