PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: How to Critically Read a Surgical Scientific Article

Reading a scientific paper is very different from reading a novel or newspaper. The content is denser and its full understanding may require more than one reading or sometimes even referral to other publications cited in the article to be clearly understood There are also different degrees of commitment that the reader gives when reading a scientific paper. Generally there are two grades of reading; relaxed and critical reading. Although, they differ totally in technique, a reader tends to shift from one to other. Relaxed reading is frequent and aims at increasing ones knowledge, on the other hand, critical reading is less frequent and aims at assessing the importance and validity of the results and conclusions mentioned in the scientific paper