Why critical appraisal is so important these days

Excerpt

The paper by Donk et al. serves two purposes, none of which are intended by the authors themselves. It teaches us that (1) critical appraisal of studies is extremely important and (2) journals accepting randomized controlled trials should make a CONSORT checklist mandatory and refute studies like this initially without further review. The reason to publish this manuscript lies solely in the above, and by far not in its content, which would certainly not merit publication. This is especially true because this study here comes in the disguise of good clinical science, i.e., having the magic label of an RCT, luring the reader—or even the reviewer—into the belief of having reliable and valid data at his/her hands. In my opinion, the opposite is true here. …