Critical appraisal

Key critical appraisal tools

CASP - Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. Here you will find a number of toolkits that can be used to help you to critically appraise a range of different types of research.

CASP Glossary - links to definitions for the jargon words often used in research and the numbers and statistics used to describe it

Evaluate your search results - video explaining the CRAAP checklist you can use as a simple evaluation tool

Evaluating information on the Internet - presentation taking you through this simple check list

Critical Appraisal Tools - complete this tutorial to learn more about critical appraisal tools to evaluate articles

Tools and checklists

Agree II - Appraisal Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (Agree II); international tool for the assessment of practice guidelines. Online tutorials available to explain the tool and how to use it.

BestBets Critical Appraisal Worksheets - downloadable PDF worksheets for a range of study types.

CEBM - Centre for Evidence Based Medicine. Major resource for tools, aids and documentation for evidence based teaching and practice.

CONSORT - Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (Consort); the CONSORT Statement is an evidence-based, minimum set of recommendations for reporting randomized trials.

Discern - questionnaire / tool to help you to assess the quality of information about treatments, please follow the instructions of the website.

EMCDDA best practice portal - EU drugs agency portal to a range of resources covering drug related prevention, treatment, harm reduction and social re-integration. Split into four sections looking at intervention efficacy, tools for evaluating practice, standards and guidelines and examples of evaluated practices.

Evidence-based practice checklists - downloadable checklists, developed by Glasgow University, General Practice and Primary Care Department. These are designed to help you ask the appropriate questions when examining different research methodologies.

GATE frame - critical appraisal with pictures - article from BMJ introducing the GATE frame to help researches critically appraise the validity of research papers - NHS Athens or Keele username / password required for full-text.

NNT - Numbers Needed to Treat can be used to help identify whether a treatment is effective. This website includes a tutorial, video and quiz as well as summaries of research.

PRISMA Statement - Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA); guidance on reporting a systematic review and meta-analysis.

RAMMbo - mnemonic to help you to remember the elements to consider when critically appraising information. See the Evidence-based Practice Workbook, check the index for references where this is discussed or start at page 76.

Strobe - STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (Strobe); includes checklists of recommended requirements for a range of study types.

Systematic Reviews: CRD's guidance for undertaking reviews in healthcare - from the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination. Free electronic version and downloadable PDF. Guidance on the steps required to conduct a systematic review.

Tutorials from other institutions

A number of institutions have produced online tutorials to help students and healthcare professionals to develop their critical appraisal skills. The tutorials consist of text-based guides, slide shows and videos.

Agree II - how to use the Agree II tool to appraise practice guidelines; video and practical exercise.

Critical Appraisal of an RCT using CASP checklist - video tutorials, from Barts Health Knowledge and Library Services, discussing the CASP RCT checklist for an example article. Read the article before completing the video tutorial: Uchio Y, Enomoto H, Alev L, Kato Y, Ishihara H, Tsuji T, Ochiai T, Konno S. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III trial of duloxetine in Japanese patients with knee pain due to osteoarthritis. J Pain Res. 2018 Apr 18;11:809-821. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S164128. PMID: 29713194; PMCID: PMC5912377

Critical Appraisal for medical and health sciences - tutorial from the University of Manachester Library

Finding and Appraising the Evidence - from Healthknowledge; 6 modules on how to find the evidence and assess its validity and reliability, includes specific study types. The course consists of text-based guides and video presentations.

Further reading and help

CHAIN - Contact Help Advice Information Network for Effective Health Care. Contact database for health care professionals interested in clinical effectiveness and evidence based health care. Aimed at health care professionals, teachers, managers, librarians, specialists, researchers and other professionals.

Cochrane Journal Club - "Cochrane Journal Club is a free, monthly publication that introduces a recent Cochrane review, together with relevant background information, a podcast explaining the key points of the review, discussion questions to help you to explore the review methods and findings in more detail, and downloadable PowerPoint slides containing key figures and tables."

Students for Best Evidence - blog publishing useful articles explaining many of the terms used within research and critical appraisal.

Books & ebooks at the Health Library, try searching for the following keywords:

• Critical Appraisal
• Evidence-based Medicine
• Evidence-based Practice