You will always need to evaluate resources to establish if they are suitable for your purpose:
RELEVANT? This is likely to be your first consideration. You don't have to read the whole article to evaluate relevance - look at the title, then the abstract and if those pass your relevance test access the full-text. Then maybe read the introduction and/or methodology and conclusion to get a good idea of the contents before committing time to read the whole thing. It can also be helpful to display your search question next to your computer as you review search results.
RECENT? Is the information too old to be useful? Sometimes older articles are "seminal", influential and still relevant. Not every piece of research has to be repeated every 5 years - but be very aware of what might have changed in terms of medical practice or social situations since an older article was published.
RELIABLE? Just because an article was published in a scholarly journal does not mean you can accept its findings without proper consideration. Is the article a piece of original research? If so is the methodology sound, does it include a large enough sample of the population being considered etc. If it is a review article does it have something useful to say and are the findings backed up by any original research cited?
How to Read a Paper by
Required reading in many medical and healthcare institutions, How to Read a Paper is a clear and wide-ranging introduction to evidence-based medicine and healthcare, helping readers to understand its central principles, critically evaluate published data, and implement the results in practical settings. Author Trisha Greenhalgh guides readers through each fundamental step of inquiry, from searching the literature to assessing methodological quality and appraising statistics. How to Read a Paper addresses the common criticisms of evidence-based healthcare, dispelling many of its myths and misconceptions, while providing a pragmatic framework for testing the validity of healthcare literature. Now in its sixth edition, this informative text includes new and expanded discussions of study bias, political interference in published reports, medical statistics, big data and more. Offers user-friendly guidance on evidence-based healthcare that is applicable to both experienced and novice readers Authored by an internationally recognised practitioner and researcher in evidence-based healthcare and primary care Includes updated references, additional figures, improved checklists and more How to Read a Paper is an ideal resource for healthcare students, practitioners and anyone seeking an accessible introduction to evidence-based healthcare.
When evaluating information sources you can consider the evidence pyramid. Information at the top of the pyramid is considered the most evidence-based because it has drawn from the widest pool of evidence in a systematic way. More information ...
When reviewing accounts of research you can consider:
