An analysis is presented of what master’s students perceive as the most challenging aspects of primary literature before and after instruction in critical reading of scientific articles. After instruction, students increasingly focus on challenges requiring critical thinking.
Structured analysis of primary literature, including one flawed and two conflicting papers, highly increased students’ self-efficacy, but a significant increase in performance was observed only for some aspects of science-process skills.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.