Mount Carmel LibGuides: EBP Guide for Students: Appraisal tools

Critical Appraisal

Critical Appraisal is a very important step in understanding how to apply EBP in clinical settings. Below are resources to help you determine how to appraise the literature that you find, including how to read original (primary) research studies.

CASP Checklist: The following free downloadable checklists are designed to be easy to understand, and to help you accurately perform critical appraisals.

NYU Libraries: Appraising the Evidence-Getting Started

Note: Some resources on this site are only accessible to NYU library users

A presentation by Dr. Kimberly Souffront, Associate Director of the Mount Sinai Center for Nursing Research and Innovation (CNRI), on how and why to perform a critical appraisal of published research when conducting your nursing research or evidence-based practice project.

Critical Appaisal Tutorial

Critical Appraisal Tools

Below is a brief video that describes some useful strategies for critically appraising the literature:

AGREE II AGREE II is the international tool to assess the quality and reporting of practice guidelines.
AGREE II Training Tools The AGREE A3 Research Team has developed two training tools to assist AGREE II users to effectively apply the tool. The purpose of the AGREE II, is to provide a framework to: 1. assess the quality of guidelines; 2. provide a methodological strategy for the development of guidelines; and 3. inform what information and how information ought to be reported in guidelines.
AMSTAR Checklist
CEBM Critical Appraisal Tools
Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Intervention The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions is the official guide that describes in detail the process of preparing and maintaining Cochrane systematic reviews on the effects of healthcare interventions. The current version of the Handbook is 5.1.0 (updated March 2011), edited by Julian Higgins and Sally Green. All authors should consult the Handbook for guidance on the methods used in Cochrane systematic reviews. The Handbook includes guidance on the standard methods applicable to every review (planning a review, searching and selecting studies, data collection, risk of bias assessment, statistical analysis, GRADE and intepreting results), as well as more specialised topics (non-randomized studies, adverse effects, economics, patient-reported outcomes, individual patient data, prospective meta-analysis, qualitative research, reviews in public health and overviews of reviews).
Consort-Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials CONSORT is part of a broader effort, to improve the reporting of different types of health research, and indeed, to improve the quality of research used in decision-making in healthcare. This website contains the current definitive version of the CONSORT 2010 Statement and up-to-date information on extensions.
Critical Appraisal tools - Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Critical appraisal is the systematic evaluation of clinical research papers in order to establish: 1.Does this study address a clearly focused question? 2.Did the study use valid methods to address this question? 3.Are the valid results of this study important? 4.Are these valid, important results applicable to my patient or population?
Grade Working Group The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (short GRADE) Working Group began in the year 2000 as an informal collaboration of people with an interest in addressing the shortcomings of present grading systems in health care. The working group has developed a common, sensible and transparent approach to grading quality of evidence and strength of recommendations.
Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing The Johns Hopkins Nursing EBP (JHNEBP) model is a powerful problem-solving approach to clinical decision making, and is accompanied by user-friendly tools to guide individual or group use. It is designed specifically to meet the needs of the practicing nurse and uses a three-step process called PET: Practice question, Evidence, and Translation. The goal of the model is to ensure that the latest research findings and best practices are quickly and appropriately incorporated into patient care.
The PRISMA Statement PRISMA is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PRISMA focuses on the reporting of reviews evaluating randomized trials, but can also be used as a basis for reporting systematic reviews of other types of research, particularly evaluations of interventions.

How to Read Scientific Articles

This video discusses how to read a scientific article, how to find the main points of the article, and how to take effective notes.