Book excerpt: This book is written for trainees in all subjects related to health. Research-orientated questions are incorporated into the majority of Royal College membership examinations; for example, in the OSCE station a research study or paper has to be criticised. Because of the nature of the editors' posts and their contacts there is naturally an emphasis on the specialist registrar trainee in obstetrics and gynaecology and many of the writers and thus the examples in the text are obstetric and gynaecological, however physicians, surgeons, midwives and nurses could readily use the book.