How to read and write a scientific paper

Dr Laurence Sullivan MB BS FRANZCO
Melbourne
Australia
Dr Laurie Sullivan 2013
laurence.sullivan@gmail.com

 Lifelong learning and development.
 Evidence to support or modify current
practice
 New techniques / drugs / treatments

 Not a newspaper
 Not an advertisement
 Not company-produced marketing material

 Peer reviewed
 Reliable
 Truthful

 Title / table of contents
◦ Is the title of interest?
 Abstract (conclusion)
◦ Does this relate to your field?
 Methods
◦ Are they relevant to your local practice?

Statistics
P<0.05
Means that the chance of the findings not being
due to random variation is 0.95 or 95%

 Randomised
◦ Participants are randomly assigned to treatment
and control groups
 Blinded
◦ Participants and/or testers are unaware of which
group they are in
 Controlled
◦ Groups are matched
 demographically – age, sex
 Co-morbidities

 Share new knowledge
 Qualifications
 Assess outcomes of current practice Eg
surgical outcomes (easy) or medical
interventions (harder – placebo effect)

 The abstract is divided into 5 separate
sections (ie, structured) in agreement with the
presentation of information in the article.
 Guides/reflects the structure of the study

Background
Objective
Methods
Results
Conclusions

 Brief (2-3 sentences) description of why the
study is needed and its contribution to the
field.

 Concise (1-2 sentences) statement of the
objective or hypothesis to be addressed.
 Primary objective identified and stated first,
followed by any key secondary objectives.

Design: Clear statement of the study's design,
including all aspects (eg, parallel group,
randomized, blinded).
 Participants and setting: The most pertinent
inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the setting
within which the study was conducted.
 Interventions: Complete details on treatment (eg,
drug dose, route of administration, and duration
of administration) and, if pertinent, control
interventions.
 Outcome: Primary and secondary outcome
measures, identified as such.

Conclusions (not summary) of the study, based
only on the results shown, with balance of
benefits and harms.
 Clinical application of the findings, again
based only on the data obtained (ie, avoid
over-generalization) and whether more study
is needed before findings should be
implemented into clinical practice.

How to read and write a scientific paper

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