This concise guide to the assessment of medical research is designed to accompany every library visit. The first section of the book introduces the rationale behind critical appraisal, discusses the questions to be asked of each section of paper and identifies the common pitfalls ion published research.

The second section tackles the five main genres of medical research in detail:
surveys
clinical trials
cohort studies
case control studies
review papers

Each method is given a comprehensive one page checklist to aid the reader in assessing the methodological quality and clinical relevance of published studies. Experiences researchers will be able to rely on the checklists alone as an aide-memoire, but all of the checklists questions are expanded and discussed in the accompanying text.

This highly practical guide is written in a lively and jargon-free style and will be an indispensable companion to all health professionals and students.

This volume provides health care professionals with a comprehensive but readable guide to the design, conduct and interpretation of health services research. It strips the research process of its technical jargon, illuminating the methods of research by an extensive use of real examples. The common pitfalls of the design and interpretation of studies are reviewed, together with guidance on how to avoid them. The result is a user-friendly text which will enable all health care professionals to carry out research with confidence and success.