Checklist for Evaluating Scientific Journal Articles

I have a confession. I am a life long learner. I've often been referred to as a huge lab nerd. What that means is that it literally just takes the right question and you will get more information than you bargained for in a conversation.

With that background in mind, I wanted to use this blog to do a virtual "Journal Club" with articles that are interesting to me or articles that generate healthy discussion. To set the ground rules, I wanted to clarify the evaluation tools that I am using. Here's a list of questions I will use for my blog posts

https://plos.org/resource/peer-review-checklist/

-Identify the research question and key claims

-Think about context and related literature

-Look at the figures and tables. Are they clear? Do they represent what the study is about?

-Examine the results. Are they supported by the data?

-Read the conclusions. Do they make sense?

-Check the methods. Are they appropriate and reproducible? (1)

A more extensive guide with good criteria is explained by Vishwanathan et al (2022)(2), this article has a great list by section (Introduction, Methods, Results, etc) of criteria to look at for a journal article review. There's also satisfactory and unsatisfactory guidance.

References:

1. PLOS.org. Retrieved on 6 Jan 2025 from https://plos.org/resource/peer-review-checklist/

2. Vishwanathan K, Kambhampati SBS, Maini L. Reviewer's Checklists for Evaluating Scientific Manuscripts. Indian J Orthop. 2022 Jan 25;56(2):175-182. doi: 10.1007/s43465-022-00602-x. PMID: 35140849; PMCID: PMC8789980.

Amy Fuller, MS, ASCP(MLS)CM SMCM

Owner, Clinical Insights LLC