#5Papers

I have felt some well-intended pressure to read more in 2016, and while I am attending a bit with #SixtyBooks (to read 60 books in a year, an ambitious goal beyond my time and wherewithal) by committing to reading 24 books (2 books a month), I DO want to read and share more research articles. I participated in #TJC15 and #365Papers, though want something regular and workable, so this will not become a burden but rather a learning and sharing opportunity.

Reading research stimulates me, helps keep me current, and continues to challenge and move my ideas forward.

Thus, I will try #5Papers–reading and sharing via brief article summaries of research papers–each week day, totaling 5 papers per week: #5Papers!

One research paper each day (Mon-Fri) seems somewhat reasonable, something that many of us who engaged in doctoral studies did while engaging with the literature, and will keep me current with thinking in my areas of inquiry (doctoral studies, researcher development, actor-network theory, social media use in higher education and nonprofit communication, networked and connected learning in higher education and organizational contexts, and environmental education).

As I have seemingly endless searches always gathering articles for me to read, I have no shortage of research articles and studies to read, I hope to:

• read academic (research or theory) papers
• summarize them in Tweet-sized posts
• reply to myself to keep the threads together to allow for easier reading
• number my posts to help the flow
• combine them in a blog post in the research summary and #5Papers categories
• tag them using #5Papers
• focus this on my own reading and interests

I cannot do an objective summary and will not pretend it will be. Reading and writing occur through my own voice, experiences, and perspectives, and while I will seek to be fair and positive, I am focusing on what I am taking from the study and what can I do with it.

These are the questions that I use to guide my summary:

1. Reference to the Article (for those who may want to locate it)
2. What attracted me to this Article?
3. What is it about (Problem / Purpose / Research Questions)?
4. Where does this come from (Literature / Theoretical Framework)?
5. What did they do (Methodology & Method)?
6. What did they learn (Results / Discussion)?
7. What did I learn?

While many will agree that reading more is a good thing, I find that having that alone without a stretch goal of what more means is not enough. I need something toward which to work, and 5 (we work 5 days, at least, per week) seems reasonable, so after considering #30Papers (one each day a month just seems a bit much), we will start with 5.