I'm leading a reading group next week and have selected a pretty boring paper (I should have spent more time choosing a more interesting one). There is no way to change the paper, but does anyone have any similar experiences/any tips to get through this?

Painful! I'll get through it... let this be a lesson to me, always choose an interesting paper that is going to be worthy of discussion and thought provoking!

It's where you meet with others in your research group and from other research groups (if bigger) and discuss a paper which you've all read. The person leading will usually summarize the paper and raise some interesting discussion points to get things going.

There are other ways of doing it of course (Powerpoint presentation for example - but then it can be a bit like a lecture rather than a group where everyone contributes - not so interactive).

I've managed to come up with some (hopefully) interesting points linking the paper to the wider research etc. But advice for anyone else doing this - pick a meaty paper to lead on!

Ah, we called it 'journal club'.

Ah! Yeh I have heard it called that before too!

Actually it depends - if several of you are doing research in the same area it can be really helpful - you actually want to read the papers, and have questions and issues that you genuinely want to discuss.

On the other hand, if people's topics are a bit disparate it can be a bit tiresome (especially if someone chooses a boring paper... oops)!

I personally found them quite useful when my group did them. It's a good way to read extra papers and it's a safe place to ask stupid questions and admit when you don't understand things.

Not sure if this kind of meta-discussion is out of scope for your group, but can you maybe have a discussion about what makes it a boring paper (bad writing, unconvincing results, uninteresting research questions, or whatever it is), and what makes for a good/interesting paper?

I must say I found journal club a bit tiresome (in my MRes year, I think) - but then we had to prepare Powerpoint presentations and give talks, which took up a lot of time I'd rather have been spending on my own work. And the papers were assigned to us seemingly randomly, so weren't necessarily interesting or relevant to the person who ended up having to talk about them. We were assessed on it as well, which led to silly things like having to ask a pretend question if you couldn't think of a genuine one, just to get the marks for asking a question.

I can see how it would be a useful exercise though, if a group of like-minded people want to get together to discuss the latest research. Just not sure of the value as an obligation for a cohort of students with not much more in common than starting their grad studies at the same time in the same department.

hi everyone ! i am very new here and i am also just starting my PHD this December. .

I relay like the idea of a reading group . i think it interesting very valuable to exchange thoughts on a paper with a group of people it is a great learning experience . sometimes the topic could be boring to some people but the idea is to criticize the paper with other bright thinkers .

as some one above have mentioned a very interesting way to lead the discussion if the topic was agreed to be boring.. bad writing, unconvincing results, uninteresting research questions, and what makes for a good/interesting paper?... thank you for your valuable contribution .

how could i find a a reading group or maybe lead one ? i would appreciate your tips .

Good idea Ephiny, I may raise that if the discussion runs dry.

Yeh, how safe a space it is depends on who is there... this one isn't only PhD students but also postdocs and higher level staff (some of whom can be a bit judging).