Product Description

Everything you need to know to assess medical research is contained in this practical, accessible handbook. It provides a basic introduction to the principles and processes involved in critical appraisal, helping the researcher to make sense of the overwhelming mass of medical literature available

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6166 in Books
• Published on: 1996-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

From the Back Cover
This concise guide to the assessment of medical research is designed to accompany every library visit. The first section of the book introduces the rationale behind critical appraisal, discusses the questions to be asked of each section of paper and identifies the common pitfalls ion published research.

The second section tackles the five main genres of medical research in detail:

• surveys


• clinical trials


• cohort studies


• case control studies


• review papers

Each method is given a comprehensive one page checklist to aid the reader in assessing the methodological quality and clinical relevance of published studies. Experiences researchers will be able to rely on the checklists alone as an aide–memoire, but all of the checklists questions are expanded and discussed in the accompanying text.

This highly practical guide is written in a lively and jargon–free style and will be an indispensable companion to all health professionals and students.

Customer Reviews

A clear, useful and practical guide to critical appraisal.
This book is a very easy to read reference explaining the importance,significance and the practicalities of critical appraisal. It is a must for those trying to clarify the validity and reliability of data portrayed in papers. It takes you through a step by step approach, highlighting what to look for in clinical papers that will help you decide whether the information therein is of any significance and where In today's world where there are numerous papers reported daily it is essential to be able to ascertain the true significance of them and this book helps you to achieve that. It explains the different research methodology and the strengths and weaknessess of them, adding weight to the outcomes. It is an aid not only in assessing others' papers but also when writing one's own and what to be aware of to ensure sound and meaningful results. It really helps you to question what you are reading.