VCU Libraries | Blogs | Nursing Blog | Introducing Non-Experts to Finding Medical Articles and Assessing Their Value Series in BMJ (British Medical Journal)

While preparing for teaching some research classes, I came across a set of articles that give some guidance on how to read medical articles in order to evaluate the information in them. I thought I would pass these citations along in case you may find them of interest as well. They are available for free through PubMed Central.

Introducing Non-Experts to Finding Medical Articles and Assessing Their Value Series in BMJ (British Medical Journal)

How to read a paper. The Medline database.

Greenhalgh T. BMJ. 1997 Jul 19;315(7101):180-3. PMID: 9251552

How to read a paper. Getting your bearings (deciding what the paper is about).

Greenhalgh T. BMJ. 1997 Jul 26;315(7102):243-6. PMID: 9253275

Assessing the methodological quality of published papers.

Greenhalgh T. BMJ. 1997 Aug 2;315(7103):305-8. PMID: 9274555

How to read a paper. Statistics for the non-statistician. I: Different types of data need different statistical tests.

Greenhalgh T. BMJ. 1997 Aug 9;315(7104):364-6 PMID: 9270463

How to read a paper. Statistics for the non-statistician. II: "Significant" relations and their pitfalls.
Greenhalgh T. BMJ. 1997 Aug 16;315(7105):422-5. PMID: 9277611

How to read a paper. Papers that report drug trials.

Greenhalgh T. BMJ. 1997 Aug 23;315(7106):480-3. PMID: 9284672

How to read a paper. Papers that report diagnostic or screening tests.

Greenhalgh T. BMJ. 1997 Aug 30;315(7107):540-3. PMID: 9329312

How to read a paper. Papers that tell you what things cost (economic analyses).

Greenhalgh T. BMJ. 1997 Sep 6;315(7108):596-9. PMID: 9302961

Papers that summarise other papers (systematic reviews and meta-analyses).

Greenhalgh T. BMJ. 1997 Sep 13;315(7109):672-5. PMID: 9310574

Papers that go beyond numbers (qualitative research)

Greenhalgh T, Taylor R. BMJ. 1997 Sep 20;315(7110):740-3. PMID: 9314762