Journal Clubs: Evaluation and Critique

Guidance for participating in this activity, from how to find articles to discuss to how to lead a journal club.

• Home
• Where to Find Articles
• Searching the Literature for Research Articles
• Evaluation and Critique
• Leading a Journal Club
• Being a Participant

How to Critique a Journal Article

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:

• T h e i n t r o du cti o n a n d b ack g r o un d i n f o r m at i o n : is t h e p r o b l e m st a t e me n t / i n t r o du cti o n c l e arly d e scri b e d . W h at are t h e o b j e ct i ve s o r a i m s o f t h e r e s e arch ar t icl e ?
• T h e p re s e n tat i o n o f t h e ar t icle: Is t h e r esea r ch qu est i o n o r h y p o t h e sis c l ear. In t h e liter a t u re r ev i e w: is it i n f o r m at i ve , is i t r e s e arch- b as e d a n d d oe s it s upp o rt t h e pu r po s e / p r ob l em ? A re t h e refere n c es c u r r e n t a n d f r o m r e s p ec t ed s o u rce s ?
• W h at st u d y d e si g n a n d m et h o d s are u s e d t o c o ll e ct t h e data? W h at is t h e s a m p le si z e a n d c h aract e ri s tics, w h at s tati s t ics are u tili z e d – a r e t h e y a pp r o p riat e ?
• W h at are t h e r e s u lts & c o n cl u si o n s d ra w n b y t h e a u t h o r? A n y i m p licat i o n s f o r cl i n ical p ractic e , p o licy d e v e l o p me n t o r e d u cati o n ? Can t h e c o n cl u si o n s b e g e n e r ali z e d t o v ari o u s s e tti ng s a n d p o pu lati o n s o f p eo p l e ?

Tips for Reading Scholarly Journal Articles

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

Articles on Reading and Critical Appraisal

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

Critical Appraisal Tools

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 example s.

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

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