Use the Drama Method to evaluate potential research articles: DRAMA stands for Date, Relevance, Accuracy, Motivation and Authority
Date – When was this material published? Research in the medical field moves quickly, so an article that was published recently will usually be more beneficial.
Relevance – Is the article relevant to your research topic? Are the sources listed in the bibliography relevant?
Accuracy – Perform a lateral reading (Lateral reading is when you look outside of your source to seek additional information
about a source's credibility, reputation, funding sources, and biases) by looking up the article title or author(s) in a web browser. What if anything is being said about the author(s) or article? Try looking the article up in Retraction Watch or the Retraction Watch Database to see if it's been retracted.
Motivation – Who published the article? Is the publisher affiliated with a reputable institution? Did the researchers get paid for their research? If so, who paid them? Money can be a powerful motivation to misrepresent research.
Authority - Who wrote the article? What else has the author/authors written? Has the author been cited? What is the author's credentials?