MEDS 411 Researching the Criminal Mind: 1.Frame your search

The best type of scholarly peer reviewed literature is a journal article that has been published in a scholarly journal which contains the original research (primary article) which then has been evaluated again by other experts not connected to the journal (systematically reviewed journal article, meta-analysis journal article. )

Clarification:

1. Health/medical scholarly journal articles go through 1-2 level review processes to ensure data accuracy and no bias.
2. A scholarly journal content and format is the opposite of what you find in magazines and newspapers.
3. A scholarly peer reviewed journal article has been reviewed by the editors/review committee of a journal publisher
4. The data of a systematically reviewed journal article has gone through a second review by experts who are not connected to the Journal publisher in order to avoid bias and to confirm data accuracy
5. A meta-analysis journal article is a systematically reviewed journal article with a statistical focus.
6. Depending on your research topic,  you may not always find an a systematic reviewed or meta analysis journal article because the additional review process takes longer or your topic has not been selected for a systematic review/meta analysis. 

Evidence Based Method (EBM) refers to filtering out bias, incomplete or inaccurate research in journal articles using PICO .

What is PICO?  PICO is a process used to search for answer that address questions about a::

• (P ) roblem or (P)opulation or (P)patient 
• (I) ntervention
• (C) omparison, and
• (O)utcome(s)

When Evaluating Jounal Articles' title, abstract, methods, results and discussion :

• Are the results of the review valid?
• Does the study address a clearly focused question?
• Did the study use valid methods to address this question?
• Are the results of this study important?
• Are these results applicable to the patient/population?, etc.