Journal Clubs: Evaluation and Critique

Once you have found your article, the next step in preparing for a journal club is analyzing the study’s methodology, data gathering, and statistical analysis. Use the resources below to help you in your critical review. Basically, you will be looking at these general areas:

• The introduction and background information: is the problem statement/introduction clearly described. What are the objectives or aims of the research article?
• The presentation of the article: Is the research question or hypothesis clear. In the literature review: is it informative, is it research-based and does it support the purpose/problem? Are the references current and from respected sources?
• What study design and methods are used to collect the data? What is the sample size and characteristics, what statistics are utilized – are they appropriate?
• What are the results & conclusions drawn by the author? Any implications for clinical practice, policy development or education? Can the conclusions be generalized to various settings and populations of people?

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

Tutorial- Purdue University: How to Read a Scientific Paper

This article from the American Journal of Critical Care include guidelines on critiquing research.

The library has electronic access to these articles. Simply copy and paste the article and author into the noted database and you will see a link to the article.

Atzema C. Presenting a journal club: a guide. Ann Emerg Med 2004;44:169-174. PubMed

Bigby M, Gadenne AS. Understanding and evaluating clinical trials. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1996;34:550-590.  PubMed

Khan KS, Gee H. A new approach to teaching and learning in journal club. Med Teach. 1999;21(3):289-293.   ProQuest Central

Yancey JM. Ten rules for reading clinical research reports. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop. 1996 May;109(5):558-64.   PubMed   

This list of Critical Appraisal Tools compiled by the University of South Australia, arranged by type of study, links to the websites where they were developed.
The website of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine contains useful tools and downloads for the critical appraisal of medical evidence. Example appraisal sheets are provided together with several helpful examples.

The following checklists are from the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) developed by the NHS and can be accessed here.

• Randomised Controlled Trials
• Systematic Reviews
• Cohort Studies
• Case-Control Studies
• Qualitative Studies
• Economic Evaluations
• Diagnostic Studies
• Clinical Prediction Rule

Templates from BestBETS to assist with critical appraisal of different types of research designs:

• Case-control checklist (including harm)
• Cohort
• Decision rule
• Diagnosis
• Economic
• Educational intervention
• Guideline
• Prognosis
• Qualitative
• Randomised control trial
• Review or meta-analysis
• Screening
• Survey (including pre-test probabilities)