Abstract
Evaluating a scientific paper entails several considerations and specific questions related to: YOU (the reader), Title/Author/Location, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion as well as the "Take Home Message" and "Positives: "what did you learn". YOU, needs to define specific personal selection criteria. The Abstract/Summary needs to identify issues of possible concern and an agenda of active reading. Questions under Title/Author/Location, assess the quality of the journal, and the track record of the authors. In the Introduction, the reader looks for a balanced framework of problem statements, the approach and whether the questions being asked relate directly to the hypothesis. Materials and Methods are designed to help the reader judge the validity of the results and whether the investigation could be repeated. In the Results section, readers need to judge the strength of the data underlying the conclusions. Scientific papers attempt to convince a reader into accepting the conclusions. The Conclusions should answer or at least make relevant points about the questions posed in the Introduction. The "Take-Home Message" is a statement in the readers own words of their own conclusions about the paper, and "Positives:" is what the reader actually learned. Recording the "Take-Home-Message" and the "Positives" enable the reader to rapidly review knowledge acquired from his/her reading.
