---
name: structured-paper-summary
description: Reading a paper for what it demonstrates rather than what it claims, and writing the summary in a fixed shape.
when_to_use: You are summarising a research paper for a digest, a brief, or a decision.
tags: [research, reading]
---

# Summarise the evidence, not the abstract

An abstract is the authors' pitch. The summary that is worth writing states what
was actually demonstrated, on what, against what — and where those differ from
the claim, that difference is the most valuable line in your summary.

## The shape

```
CLAIM       what the authors say they show, one sentence
METHOD      what they actually did — the experiment, not the framing
EVIDENCE    dataset, baselines, headline numbers, and what was NOT tested
STRENGTH    strong / suggestive / anecdotal, with the reason
BEARING     which of our problems this touches, or none
```

`BEARING: none` is a complete and useful entry. Most papers do not apply.

## Read these four things first

1. **The baselines.** A method that beats a weak baseline has shown almost
   nothing. Check whether the comparison is against the current standard or
   against a version of it the authors implemented.
2. **The dataset size and shape.** A result on a million short web snippets may
   not survive on ten thousand long documents. Note the scale explicitly — it is
   the most common reason a transferable-looking result does not transfer.
3. **The ablations.** A paper with no ablation has not shown which part of its
   contribution matters. If they claim four components and ablate none, treat
   the mechanism as unproven even if the number is real.
4. **What is missing.** No error bars, one seed, one hardware configuration, no
   negative results — each weakens the claim, and none of them appear in the
   abstract.

## Numbers with their conditions or not at all

"12% better recall" is unusable. "12% better recall at k=10 on SIFT1M against
HNSW with M=16" can be checked, transferred or dismissed. If the conditions are
not in the paper, that is itself the finding.

## Say what would change your mind

The most useful line for a reader deciding whether to act: what result would
make this wrong, and did the authors test it? A summary that a reader can act on
tells them where the risk is, not just what the number was.