How to Read Academic Papers When You Have ADHD

Academic papers are hard reading for anyone, and with ADHD the usual advice (read it carefully from start to finish) is close to impossible. The fix is to stop reading them like books. Researchers themselves rarely read a paper straight through.

Read in passes, not in order

A well-known method, from computer scientist S. Keshav's guide "How to Read a Paper", is to read in three passes:

1. First pass (5 to 10 minutes): title, abstract, headings, figures and conclusion. Decide whether the paper is worth more time.
2. Second pass (about an hour): read the main text, skipping heavy details like proofs or statistics. Note the key points and what you didn't understand.
3. Third pass (only for papers you need deeply): work through the details as if you had to reproduce the work.

This suits ADHD well: each pass is short, has a clear goal, and you get the big picture early, which makes the details easier to hold on to.

Work in short, defined blocks

• Use a timer: 20 to 25 minutes of reading, then a short break.
• Give each block one job, such as "figures and results" or "methods section".
• Write down one or two sentences after each block about what you learned. It forces active reading and gives you notes for later.

Keep your place and cut distractions

• Use the HTML version when there is one. Many journals and arXiv offer papers as web pages, which work with reading tools that can't run inside PDFs.
• On web pages, ADHD Reading Focus shows one paragraph at a time, and Reading Progress Bar shows how far you've got. Neither works inside Chrome's PDF viewer, since extensions can't change it.
• For PDFs, reference managers such as Zotero have a built-in reader with highlighting and notes.
• Close other tabs, or keep them in a saved session for later.

Listen and read together

Text-to-speech while you follow along helps many people with ADHD stay on track. Chrome's Reading mode can read web pages aloud with word highlighting. See audiobooks vs reading with ADHD.

Make the paper talk back

• Write questions in the margins: "why this method?", "how big was the sample?"
• Explain the paper out loud to someone, or to yourself, in two minutes.
• Draw the argument as a quick diagram.

Tools for managing papers

A reference manager like Zotero saves papers and citations in one place so they don't pile up as tabs. See the best extensions for researchers.