Keeping up with the latest developments is not easy, but neither is reading articles on research. There are too many medical journals that contain information that is irrelevant to clinical practice. From this mass of articles you have to decide which are important for your own clinical practice and which are not. Most articles naturally fall into the latter category as spectacular findings with important consequences for medical practice do not occur every week. The most important thing in a research article is the research question. If you begin with this, then you can put aside much scientific literature. The methodology section is essential; reading this can save you a lot of time. In this article we take you step-by-step through the process of reading research articles. The articles in our Methodology series can be used as background information. These articles have been combined in a tablet app, which is available via www.ntvg.nl/methodologie.