How To Read a Paper

“How to Read a Paper”

Compiled by Carol Powell

Instruction Librarian, Prior Health Sciences Library

You may like to do some background reading on finding and appraising evidence for patient care that appears in journal articles.  Below are some links to online articles that you may find of interest.

Basics/General

Greenhalgh T. Assessing the methodological quality of published papers.BMJ 1997;315(7103):305-8.

Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper. Getting your bearings (deciding what the paper is about).BMJ 1997;315(7102):243-6.

Stephenson J, Babiker A. Overview of study design in clinical epidemiology. Sex Transm Infect 2000;76(4):244-7.

Clinical Trials

Glasser S, Howard G. Clinical trial design issues: at least 10 things you should look for in clinical trials.J Clin Pharmacol 2006;46(10):1106-15.

Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper. Papers that report diagnostic or screening tests.BMJ 1997;315(7107):540-3.

Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper. Papers that report drug trials.BMJ 1997;315(7106):480-3.

Miser W. Finding truth from the medical literature: how to critically evaluate an article.Prim Care 2006;33(4):839-62, vi.

Streiner D. Diagnosing tests: using and misusing diagnostic and screening tests. J Pers Assess 2003;81(3):209-19.

Cohort and Case Control Studies

Mann C. Observational research methods. Research design II: cohort, cross sectional, and case-control studies.Emerg Med J 2003;20(1):54-60.

Morabia A. Case-control studies in clinical research: mechanism and prevention of selection bias.Prev Med 1997;26(5 Pt 1):674-7.

Economic Analyses

Brown G, Brown M, Sharma S. Health care economic analyses. Retina 2004;24(1):139-46.

Dijksman L, Poolman R, Bhandari M, Goeree R, Tarride J. Money matters: what to look for in an economic analysis.Acta Orthop 2008;79(1):1-11.

Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper. Papers that tell you what things cost (economic analyses).BMJ 1997;315(7108):596-9.

Qualitative Research

Greenhalgh T, Taylor R. Papers that go beyond numbers (qualitative research).BMJ 1997;315(7110):740-3.

Pickler R. Evaluating qualitative research studies.J Pediatr Health Care 2007;21(3):195-7.

Statistics

Carlin J, Doyle L. Statistics for clinicians: 4: Basic concepts of statistical reasoning: hypothesis tests and the t-test.J Paediatr Child Health 2001;37(1):72-7.

Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper. Statistics for the non-statistician. I: Different types of data need different statistical tests. BMJ 1997;315(7104):364-6.

Greenhalgh T. How to read a paper. Statistics for the non-statistician. II:"Significant"relations and their pitfalls. BMJ 1997;315(7105):422-5.

Stoner M, Rutledge D. 10 statistical terms you should know.Home Healthc Nurse 2005;23(3):183-7.

Young K, Lewis R. What is confidence? Part 1: The use and interpretation of confidence intervals.Ann Emerg Med 1997;30(3):307-10.

Young K, Lewis R. What is confidence? Part 2: Detailed definition and determination of confidence intervals.Ann Emerg Med 1997;30(3):311-8.

Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses

Delaney A, Bagshaw S, Ferland A, Laupland K, Manns B, Doig C. The quality of reports of critical care meta-analyses in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: an independent appraisal.Crit Care Med 2007;35(2):589-94.

Greenhalgh T. Papers that summarise other papers (systematic reviews and meta-analyses).BMJ 1997;315(7109):672-5.