How to extract evidence from research papers

A highlight is not evidence. Evidence is a claim you could defend, the support that is actually in the paper, and a way back to the page.

Three fields, always

For every finding you might reuse, write:

  1. Claim — in your words, one sentence, with the population and the outcome.
  2. Support — the number, quotation, or figure result. Not “they showed.” The thing they showed.
  3. Locator — page, and a short heading if the PDF has one.

If you cannot fill support, you have a vibe, not a citation. If you cannot fill locator, you will not find it next month.

Claim vs. evidence vs. interpretation

Authors mix these in the discussion. Your notes should not. “Mean readmission fell 4%” is evidence. “The program works” is a claim. “Hospitals should adopt this” is an interpretation. Keep them on separate lines. Future-you will thank present-you during the rebuttal.

Quotes need context

A six-word quote can reverse meaning without the previous clause (“not,” “in mice,” “on the training set”). Copy the bound as well as the flourish. If you use PDF Lens, select the whole sentence, not the adjective.

Numbers need a denominator

“Improved by 40%” is incomplete. Forty percent of what, in whom, versus what, with how many people. Put N and the comparator in the support field. If the paper hid N in a supplement, that belongs in limitations.

A workflow that survives contact with a PDF

  1. Search for the outcome term.
  2. Read the results paragraph, then the table or figure it cites.
  3. Write claim / support / page before you ask a model to rephrase anything.
  4. Only if the sentence is unreadable, explain it in place, then rewrite the three fields again.

Paper Chat in PDF Lens may return [p. N] citations. Use them as jump links. If the page does not contain the support, delete the note. Do not launder a model sentence into your literature review.

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