How to evaluate and interpret a scientific article about therapy or therapeutic procedures?

Abstract

Regardless of the subject area and design used, it has been verified that between 40% and 60% of the studies published in biomedical journals are articles about therapy or therapeutic procedures (TP). Anyone writing a manuscript related to therapy or TP or reading an article of this type must demand at the very least a clear, precise and concise objective with respect to the research conducted, explicit mention of the design used with the respective inherent methodological details, and the mention and execution of statistical tools and the measures of association, or at least the numbers needed to calculate these values. The aim of this manuscript is to present a synthesis of the fundamental elements for the correct writing, reading and assessment of such articles, regardless of the disciplinary area in which the research originated.