Dre comments on Googling is the first step. Consider adding scholarly searches to your arsenal. - Less Wrong

19 Post author: Tenoke 07 May 2013 01:30PM

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Comment author: Dre 09 May 2013 12:59:42AM 6 points [-]

Professionals read the Methods section.

Ok, but I am not a professional in the vast majority of fields I want to find studies in. I would go so far as to say I'm a dilettante in many of them.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 09 May 2013 05:06:43AM 2 points [-]

even as a dilettante you can often dismiss the conclusions of a paper based on really obvious problems in the methodology (especially in nutrition/exercise/longevity research).

Comment author: Tenoke 09 May 2013 10:25:07AM *  1 point [-]

You often don't have access to the full paper.

Also:

if you are unsure about the quality of the study, then you should also look at the method section to identify it's limitations.3

and

3. If you want to get a better and more accurate view on the topic in question you should read the full paper. The heuristic of mainly focusing on abstracts is cost-effective but it invariably results in a loss of information.

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