Searching the Literature: Critical Appraisal Methods

Use these bullet points as prompts when critically appraising your studies

• The checklists provide detailed explanation with each question on what part of the study you should be appraising.
• Once you have evaluated your article using a checklist guide, add up the number of times you selected Yes/No/Not Applicable.
• If overall you have selected YES this will provide a stronger positive appraisal of the study. 
• If overall you selected NO or NOT SURE this paper may not be suitable for inclusion in your assignment or policy update. 
•  Still not sure? Ask a colleague to do the same process and see how their checklists adds up!

The questions to consider when evaluating JOURNAL ARTICLES are based on the following areas.

•  What is the Research Question
•  What is the Design of the Study   E.g. a Systematic review article will require a systematic review appraisal checklist to be used. 
•  Assess the Study's validity
•  Assess the Study's results
•  Assess the Study's application to clinical practice or your area of interest.

The questions to consider when evaluating GUIDELINES are based on the following areas.

• Availability. Is the guideline available in fulltext and easily accessible?
• Dates. Is the guideline current?
• Underlying evidence. Did they search the literature? Does it provide a list of references?
• Guideline developers. Who developed it and what's the purpose?
• Guideline purposes and users. Are the purpose and target users of the guideline stated?
• Ease of use. Easy to follow and recommendations clearly marked?

The term Grey Literature has been given many definitions

• Everything published outside of books and journal articles
• publications that are not acquired or located through commercial vendors
• documents that cannot be identified using an index or electronic database

Also refer to the Grey Literature LibGuide for more information on searching grey literature sources,

Evaluate websites for the following criteria, when incorporating this type of medium into your research findings.

•  What can the URL tell us?
•  Who wrote the page? Is he, she, or the authoring institution a qualified authority?
•  Is it dated? Current, timely?
•  Is information cited authentic?
•  Does the page have overall integrity and reliability as a source?
•  What's the bias?
• Are there references listed to support the website's information?