How to Read a Paper: The Basics of Evidence Based Medicine.
By Trisha Greenhalgh. (Pp 184; £14.95 paperback.) BMJ Publishing Group, 1997. ISBN 0-7279-1139-2.
It may appear odd for an editor to review a book with this title. But after reading it I was convinced it was appropriate for me to do so and I have even resolved to review in a later issue a companion text, How to Write a Paper. One justification for urging you to read this book is that knowing what others look for when reading a paper should have a strong influence on what you do, if and when you decide to write a paper. And we, like all other journals, are in a constant quest for more and better papers.
I confess that the subtitle “The basics of evidence based medicine” almost put me off. I'm one of those who, as David Weatherall describes in the foreword, is “slightly hurt by the concept”. I bristle at the phrase because it suggests that those of use who work in areas not dominated by randomized trials are “frivolous”. But the author, …
