2. Appraising the relevance of results

2.1 Introduction

Reading literature is a process of selection and evaluation. This involves the concept of "critical reading". The principle behind it is based on an assessment of the value of an article, be it in terms of quality of the research that has been carried out, or the relevance of published results:

  • How credible is the article (internal validity) ? Do the author’s results actually correspond to reality? Can the author’s conclusions be trusted? To recognize the validity of the study, the reviewer must be able to quickly identify the various steps of the underlying protocol and its components, and evaluate them in terms of their credibility and of the quality of the information provided.
  • To what extent is the information given in the article applicable? If, after a critical review, the conclusions appear to be valid, to what extent are they applicable to the reviewer’s medical practice or to the researcher’s future project?