In addition to the Users' Guide to Medical Literature, be sure to check out the JAMA series on step-by-step critical appraisal! Johns Hopkins has posted this series freely on their website.
Dr. Trisha Greenhalgh is a British physician and professor of medicine that wrote a series of excellent articles in the mid to late 1990's as the idea of finding, analyzing, and using the best evidence from the literature. Although over 10 years old, her "How to Read a Paper" series of articles, published in the BMJ, still offer valid insight into increasing critical appraisal skills. Note: Some of the articles begin on page two or three of the linked PDF file.
Greenhalgh, T. (1997). How to read a paper. getting your bearings (deciding what the paper is about). BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 315(7102), 243-246.
Greenhalgh, T. (1997). How to read a paper. papers that report diagnostic or screening tests. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 315(7107), 540-543.
Greenhalgh, T. (1997). How to read a paper. papers that report drug trials. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 315(7106), 480-483.
Greenhalgh, T. (1997). How to read a paper. statistics for the non-statistician. I: Different types of data need different statistical tests. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 315(7104), 364-366.
Greenhalgh, T. (1997). How to read a paper. statistics for the non-statistician. II: "significant" relations and their pitfalls. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 315(7105), 422-425.
Greenhalgh, T. (1997). How to read a paper. the medline database. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 315(7101), 180-183.
In addition to the two articles on the left from Dr. Greenhalgh, the following resources will help you in understanding common statistics found in medical journal articles.
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