title: The critical appraisal of the papers published in the "iranian journal of psychiatry and behavioral sciences", 2007-2010.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study has been done in order to evaluate the papers published in the "Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences" from 2007 to 2010.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was developed according to the design, evidence level, and recommendations to write scientific papers. Validity was achieved by consulting experts. Reliability was tested by re-evaluation of 7 randomly selected papers, one month after the first evaluation by Pearson correlation coefficient (r = 0.8). Different parts of the paper, including title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, and references, were evaluated by a total of 47 questions. Each required item was judged as: appropriate, partially appropriate, not appropriate, and not applicable. SPSS software was used for descriptive analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From spring 2007 to summer 2010, 7 issues with 72 papers were published. The most frequent problem in the title was that one could not understand the design of the research by reading it. In the abstract part, in 90% of papers, time and setting of research were not mentioned. Statistical test was not mentioned in 70%, and reliability of the questionnaires was not mentioned in 70% of papers. The discussion part was the hardest part to judge and had few inappropriate issues, such as unnecessary repetition of introduction and/or results; in 20% of papers the conclusion was not appropriate based on the research design.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The evaluated papers had strong points, yet more effort is needed for them to approach excellence.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  None.
authors.affiliation: Professor, Department of Pediatrics AND Thalassemia Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehrnoosh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kosaryan
authors.affiliation: General Practitioner, Traditional and Complementary Medicine Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Khadijeh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rabiei
keywords: Critical Appraisal; Evidance Base Medicine; Research Methodology