How to read a paper

Fiona Godlee, editor, BMJ
Someone who has done as much as anyone to demystify the evidence base and promote evidence based medicine is Trish Greenhalgh. Her 10 part series on "How to read a paper" (www.bmj.com/content/315/7101/180), which led to her best selling BMJ book by the same name, are consistently among the most accessed articles on bmj.com. This week, after 21 years as a BMJ columnist, she is signing off (doi:10.1136/bmj.e1620). Her columns have personified for me the unique mix of voices that is the BMJ: good writing based on sound science that puts patients first. Over the years I have agreed with much of what she has written, and one thing in particular: that "the pen is, in some instances, mightier than the randomised controlled trial at effecting change" (BMJ 1994;308:142).
Cite this as: BMJ 2012;344:e1715