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Introduction Types of Mistakes Suggestions Resources Table of Contents About

Overarching Guideline: Look for sources of uncertainty.

Specific suggestions:

Do not just read the abstract. Abstracts sometimes focus on conclusions that are more speculative than the data warrant.
Identify the research question the researchers are asking. Decide if this is a question that you are interested in.
Determine the type of study: observational or experimental; exploratory or confirmatory. This will influence the strength of the conclusions that can be drawn.
Identify the measures the researchers are using. Decide how well they fit what you are looking for from the study. For example, if your interest is in how well a medication or lifestyle change will reduce your chances of having a hip fracture, a study with outcome based on hip fractures will be more informative that one with outcome bone density.
Pay attention to how the sample(s) were chosen. Think about any factors that might make the sample biased. Results from a biased sample are unreliable, although sometimes they might give some information about a smaller population than intended. Remember that voluntary response samples are usually biased.