CRITICAL EVALUATION OF SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES

Despite the increasing number of scientific publications, many physicians have less and less time to read what others have written. However, selecting, reading, and critically evaluating publications is necessary to stay current in one's field. The rules of evidence-based medicine also require this. In addition to the medical content of a publication and its interpreting and evaluating, an understanding of statistical methodology is also required. The purpose of this article is to present the basic principles for evaluating medical scientific publications, which have almost the same specific features for experimental, clinical, and epidemiological studies.