“I don’t know what to believe…” Making sense of science stories

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How the peer review process works, its pros and cons, and the questions you can ask when presented with scientific and medical information.  Available in English and Chinese.

• Format Texts
• Language/s 中文, English
• Target Audience Self-directed learning
• EBM Stage 3 - Appraising evidence
• Duration 5-15 mins, >15 mins
• Difficulty Intermediate

Key Concepts addressed

• Beware of claims like these

Details

This guide is for people who follow debates about science and medicine in the news. It explains how scientists present and judge research – and the questions you can ask when presented with scientific and medical information.

• The research community has a system for assessing the quality of research before it is published. This system is called peer review
• Many of the research claims you read in newspapers and magazines, find on the Internet, or hear on television and the radio are not published in peer reviewed journals and therefore have not been checked by other researchers in the field.
• Some of this research may turn out to be good but much of it is flawed or incomplete. Many reported findings of “wonder cures” and “new dangers” never come to anything.

Read more.…