This article provides advice to non-statisticians on how to interpret claims made in the peer-reviewed literature.

Sutherland WJ, Spiegelhalter D, Burgman M. Policy: Twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims. Nature. 2013;503(7476):335–337. doi:10.1038/503335a. Excerpt: “We suggest that the immediate priority is to improve policy-makers’ understanding of the imperfect nature of science. The essential skills are to be able to intelligently interrogate experts and advisers, and to understand the quality, limitations and biases of evidence. We term these interpretive scientific skills. These skills are more accessible than those required to understand the fundamental science itself, and can form part of the broad skill set of most politicians.” Available at http://www.nature.com/news/policy-twenty-tips-for-interpreting-scientific-claims-1.14183