ORIGINAL ARTICLE The quality of research in sports journals

Medicine and Physical Fitness, and Physical Therapy) was examined using assessment criteria taken from the READER method. Results: Randomised controlled trials comprised 10 % or less of all original research articles. Observational/descriptive studies were the most commonly published study design. There was a highly significant difference (p<0.0001) in the contents of the four journals but when they were compared by categorising the better quality methods together (randomised control trial, case-control, and cohort studies), the difference was not significant (p = 0.09). Conclusions: The overall pattern of publication type seems remarkably stable over medical journals, indicating that the quality of sports medicine research is comparable to that in other specialities. Much of sports medicine has developed empirically, andcurrent practice often reflects practitioner experiencerather than evidence from research findings. There is, however, considerable emphasis on evidence based medicine in other specialties. Few of us would argue with the importance of practising evidence based sports medicine, but to develop such a culture we must have quality research literature. Furthermore, as sports medicine develops and doc