Surgical Residents ’ Club University of South Florida

Reading the medical literature requires some sophistication. This scoring sheet points out some important issues to consider when reading medical papers. Considerations raised herein are not to be taken as absolute, but instead as strong guidelines. Furthermore, this scoring sheet can be used in preparing manuscripts as it is a valuable “checksheet” to ensure all bases are covered. The more points a manuscript gets, the better written. However, how interesting it is, how meaningful it is, or how important it is may be another issue. It is impossible to write a strong paper from a bad data set. A poor paper can be written from a great data set. A great paper can only be written from a well designed study and a great data set.