title: Critically reviewing the ophthalmic literature.
abstract: In the current era, where optometry's scope and very definition are evolving, the practitioner's ability to evaluate critically the profession's clinical and basic science literature is crucial. This paper reviews the components of a scientific paper both in theory and by specific example. Emphasis is placed on reading the literature without accepting it at face value, including the description of the study designs frequently encountered in clinical research, the features of a study design that make it appropriate or inappropriate to answer the central hypothesis, and a brief introduction to the common pitfalls of routinely used statistical analysis.
authors.affiliation: School of Optometry, University of California at Berkeley.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zadnik
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009885:Ophthalmology; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards*; D012107:Research Design; D013223:Statistics as Topic