How to Review a Paper

There are some key questions you should be asking yourself in your appraisal. This list is loosely adapted from Trisha Greenhalgh’s excellent series on evidence based medicine.

• Why was the study done? If the aims are unclear, irrelevant or unimportant to you, then you can stop here.
• What type of study did they do?
• What was the population in the study?
• Did randomisation work?
• How much blinding was there?
• Were any patients lost to follow up?
• Was the study big enough to address the study questions?
• Is it possible that competing interests may have influenced the study?
• What do the results mean? How many times would I have to apply this intervention to change one outcome?
• Is this study internally valid (do you accept the findings from the study)?
• Is this study externally valid (can I apply this to my own patients)?
• How much does this intervention cost?