[ALittleLight]

I've only done this as an amateur with nothing really at stake, but my approach is - skim the paper, read the paper, read about the paper, reread the paper while taking notes.

Usually on skimming and first read I'll flush out all the concepts and words I don't understand. I can then figure those out when reading about the paper. Reading what other people have written about it will help you understand more as well. Then, on the final reread I'm prepared to understand.

At this point, I'm either satisfied with some takeaway (usually much narrower than any press about the article) or I have doubts or questions. Search to see what others say about the doubts or questions. Then, read references around central or implausible claims. It's not really uncommon to find references that are dubious - e.g. the author cites a figure from another paper, you go to that paper and it gets the figure from somewhere that gets it from somewhere that gets it from someone's example of a different thing.