Critical appraissalinmedicaleducationresearch

Introduction:Critical reading of medical research reports is the essence of evidence-basedmedicine. In order to simplify the approach to the numerous published articles, various gui-delines have been used for each study design, resulting in the creation of CONSORT, STROBE,QUORUM, and PRISMA.Research in medical education is underdeveloped, and although there are several guideli-nes focusing on the approach to these articles, they are not widespread, thus limiting theirevaluation with methodological rigour.The most frequently analysed designs used in medical education in our field are brieflyreviewed: instrument validation, educational interventions, and surveys.The most relevant characteristics of each design are referred to, including: the author?s posi-tion, the use of valid and dependable instruments and their validation process, the dependentvariable, educational strategies, non-parametric statistics, results and discussion.Three guidelines relating to the previously referred designs are also briefly presented, unders-coring their methodological aspects.Comments:Knowledge of the theoretical aspects of educational research is irreplaceable whenappraising medical education research reports. However, guidelines may initially support thecritical analysis of published articles.All Rights Reserved © 2016 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Facultad de Medicina.This is an open access item distributed under the Creative Commons CC License BY-NC-ND 4.0.