ABSTRACT
A lecture is a presentation where participants listen to an account by a speaker and then may or may not have an opportunity to ask questions. Lectures are a useful way of conveying factual knowledge or research findings and tend to be used for large audiences, example conferences, meetings or undergraduate teaching. Primary research commonly reports clinical trials, surveys and experiments. Secondary research tends to consist of overviews, guidelines and meta-analysis. In critiquing a paper it is also useful to be familiar with the background work to which the research relates and to be familiar with the authors and the place where they work. It is important to see whether the authors have drawn relevant conclusions from the data and whether there is interesting and useful discussion. Journal clubs involve a small group discussion generally lasting about an hour, which is focused on specific scientific papers.
