How to prepare for a reading groupBring anchors for discussion, not a script

Terminology first — usage varies by institution and lab, so here's how this article uses the words.

A journal club is a session where one assigned person reads a single paper and presents it to the group. The presenter is the center of gravity, and the format is largely one-way.

A reading group is a session where everyone reads the same paper, book, or chapter and discusses it in turn, often as a multi-week series. The center of gravity is the discussion itself, not the presenter.

That difference changes the prep. What's asked of a reading group leader is laying the groundwork for the discussion to catch fire.

What a reading group needs from you isn't a polished script to read aloud, but anchors for discussion: fixed points that say, "today, let's dig into this part, this part, and this part."

Script-style prep exhausts the leader, and the session tends to collapse into a listening exercise. Anchor-style prep is lighter on the leader and turns the session back into a conversation.

The leader doesn't need to understand everything — identifying what's hard is enough. Offering the parts you didn't understand as entry points for discussion is better reading group prep than hiding them.

Anchor-style prep comes together in five steps.

Step one: confirm your assigned range and the goal of the session. Prep differs depending on whether the goal is "understand this chapter" or "decide whether this method could work in our own research."

Step two: make a map of the range — a one-line list of what each section covers. Step three: mark three hard spots. Choose the places where you genuinely got stuck, without smoothing anything over.

Step four: prepare two discussion questions — questions with no single right answer, the kind everyone should chew on. Step five: keep the PDF and your notes in one place, for next time and for the next leader.

The map is minimal: one line per section of your range — "this is background," "this is the method," "this is the result." Show it at the start of the session and everyone knows where they are.

The three hard spots are wherever you stopped and thought "hm?" This matters because the places where you get stuck are usually the places others get stuck too. "I read this part this way — is that right?" is a genuinely valuable contribution in a reading group.

The two questions are ones the text doesn't answer: "Could we use this method in our research?" "Would these results hold in our own field?" Drop one in when the discussion stalls, and the room starts moving again.

Of the five steps, AI is best at the map. Have it summarize the PDF of your range, and a section-by-section list appears in minutes.

Spending the time you save on the hard spots and the questions is the right division of labor for reading group prep in the AI era.

But don't outsource the hard spots or the questions. Where you get stuck and where an AI flags "this looks difficult" are not the same thing. And any interpretation or number you bring into the discussion should be verified against the original text and figures.

Reading groups have something journal clubs don't: they're part of a running series.

Session three, someone asks, "Doesn't this contradict what we assumed in session one?" — and nobody knows where the session-one leader's notes went. Every reading group has lived this.

So a system that keeps each session's PDFs, summaries, and notes in one place isn't mere convenience — it feeds straight into the quality of the discussion. Groups that can consult past sessions build on them; groups that can't reset to zero each time.

Paperfy works well as the home for that accumulation.

Upload the paper PDF and the AI summary and figures gather on the same page — build your map there. When a hard spot resolves after you check the original, edit the AI summary and overwrite it with your new understanding.

Add the session's conclusions to the summary, and the leader keeps a note they can return to next time — then share it back to the team via screen share or a shared memo.

You can also turn your assigned range into radio audio and listen the night before. Since the script is editable and regenerable, you can even fold in a recap of the previous discussion and use it to warm up before the next session.

A reading group is a discussion group, not a presentation venue. Instead of a script, prepare anchors: a map, three hard spots, and two questions.

Let AI handle the map; think through the hard spots and questions yourself. Verify interpretations and numbers in the original. Keep every record in one place for next time.

A discussion sparked by a good question outlasts a flawless presentation. Next time it's your turn, skip the script and bring three hard spots and two questions.