Library Services: Critical Appraisal: Appraising your Literature

Additional Resources

How to Read a Paper, 6th ed. (2019) by Greenhalgh
How to Read a Paper is a clear and wide-ranging introduction to evidence-based medicine and healthcare, helping readers to understand its central principles, critically evaluate published data, and implement the results in practical settings.

Introducing Research and Evidence-Based Practice for Nursing and Healthcare Professionals (2020) by Jolley
This book is designed for all nursing and allied health professionals at any level but who find themselves studying research for the first time.

The included "How to Review the Literature" list is a great overview.

Fast Facts for Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing, 3rd ed. (2019) by Godshall
This reference serves as a succinct companion for students in EBP courses and provides practicing nurses with a resource for developing EBP on their units. It equips bedside nurses with fundamental concepts and explains basic research terms and how to conduct literature searches to "find the evidence."

There are numerous critical appraisal tools. In selecting a tool focus on:

Aligning the tool with WHY you are appraising the literature
Choosing a VALIDATED tool
Ensuring it is the most up-to-date version
Selecting a tool aligned with your field of study
Giving careful consideration to how it addresses bias relative to the type of studies you have selected for critical appraisal.

The list below represents some of the most extensively used appraisal tools:

LEGEND (Let Evidence Guide Every New Decision) supports evidence-based decision making in support of the best patient outcomes. It provides a suite of appraisal forms detailed in a summary matrix that cross references 'Type of Study/Study Design' by the 'Domain of the Clinical Question'.
MetaQAT (Meta Quality Appraisal Tool) supports appraising the quality of public health evidence using different tools and templates to support documentation and a guide for their use.
CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) offers skills training and a range of critical appraisal and checklist tools.
AMSTAR-2 (A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews) assesses systematic reviews that include randomized or non-randomized studies of healthcare, or both.
GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) provides guidelines for grading the quality of evidence in healthcare research and policy.
AACODS (Authority, Accuracy, Coverage Objectivity, Date, Significance) is a checklist for evaluating and critically appraising grey literature.
AGREE II (Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation Instrument II) assesses the quality of practice guidelines.