I think this is why implementing is such a useful learning tool. Papers I tried to implement I probably read cover-to-cover 10 or 20 times, as opposed just skimming abstract, method, results.
When missing key info, after searching the paper a few times:
- my first step was see if I could find anything on paperswithcode or github.
- failing that, google searches. see if I could find anything on forums, stack exchange sites, reddit.
- uni library or academic paper web search engines
- see if any papers that cite the paper I'm implementing give some clue
- last resort was to look into papers they cite.
That was all the tricks I had, keen to know any more.
I tried to copy as much as possible from the paper, then fill in the blanks with how I would have solved it. I only had a partial solution but I still learnt heaps more than just reading the paper.