E-DRUG: How to read a paper
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Dear e-druggers,
Recently, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) started a series of
articles introducing non-experts to finding medical articles and
assessing their value. The first in the series was published in
BMJ's issue dated July 19, 1997. I am reproducing below the
summary. The full article can be accessed by those with online
internet access (URL: http://www.bmj.com). I think this series
of articles will be useful for E-drug subscribers and I intend
to post the summary of each article, if the group shows
sufficient interest.
Please let us know what you think. Thanks.
Syed Rizwanuddin Ahmad
Email: srahmad@essential.org
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BMJ No 7101 Volume 315
Education and debate Saturday 19 June 1997
How to read a paper
The Medline database
Trisha Greenhalgh
In 1928,in his introduction to Sceptical Essays, Bertrand Russell wrote: "The extent to which beliefs are
based on evidence is very
much less than believers suppose." Medical beliefs, and the clinical
practices that are based on them, are a case in point. Debate
continues as to whether scientific evidence alone is sufficient to
guide medical decision making, but few doctors would dispute that finding and understanding relevant
research based evidence is
increasingly necessary in clinical practice. This article is the
first in a series that introduces the non-expert to searching the medical literature and assessing the
value of medical articles.
Summary points
Not all medical articles are indexed on Medline, and many that
are have been misclassified
Searching by textword can supplement a search by MeSH headings
To increase the sensitivity of a search, use the "explode"
command and avoid using subheadings
Scan titles on screen rather than relying on the software to
find the most valid or relevant ones
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