Textbooks vs. journal articles: How to appreciate and understand their limitations

Abstract

In this article, we examine the pros and cons of textbook vs. journal articles. We suggest that textbooks serve as an essential knowledge provider for colleagues, especially at their entry level, but to advance clinical and academic capability, journal articles remain an important and unreplaceable tool for continuous professional development. Currently multi-author review articles provide one of the best sources of information, providing recommendations that are authoritative yet balanced. We explored if there are options to combine the best of both these platforms of information.