Some preliminaries -- The abstract and introduction -- The objectives -- Descriptive studies -- Analytic studies -- Intervention studies -- The research setting -- Populations and samples -- Identifying and defining cases -- Controls and comparisons -- Identifying the characteristics of data -- Summarizing the characteristics of data -- Measuring the characteristics of subjects -- Measuring the characteristics of measures -- Measurement scales -- Fractions, proportions and rates -- Risk and odds -- Ratios of risks and odds -- Confidence intervals for means, proportions, and medians -- Confidence intervals for ratios -- Testing hypotheses - the p-value -- Measuring association -- Measuring agreement -- The linear regression model -- The logistic regression model -- Systematic review and meta-analysis -- Measuring survival -- Results in text and tables -- Results in pictures -- The discussion and the conclusions.