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by tnecniv 3460 days ago
1) Have a reasonable math background, or at least be willing to take it slow and google.

2) Read the abstract, intro, and conclusion and see if the problem and result are worth the effort.

3) Read the body. The whole body may or may not be relevant to you depending on your interest. If you are starting out in a field, try to read and understand the whole thing. You will learn lingo, what is expected of a published paper in the field, improve your math skills, and make reading other papers easier.

If you are having a lot of trouble with 1 or 3, find a MOOC relevant to the subfield and go through it then go back to the literature.