Over the past 2 decades, surgical education literature has seen tremendous growth driven by changes in graduate medical education, such as work hour restrictions, a focus on competency-based education, the incorporation of simulation, and proper assessment. Some authors have criticized the quality of education research and indicated a need for improvement.1 Quality issues have been attributed to decreased funding for education research, limiting the ability to conduct rigorous, multicenter trials.2 The objective of this article is to describe common methodological flaws in surgical education research to help prospective authors avoid errors and to help reviewers better recognize them (Box).