Sirona Knowledge and Library Services: Critical appraisal

'Critical appraisal is the process of carefully and systematically examining research to judge its trustworthiness, and its value and relevance in a particular context'

CASP, https://casp-uk.net/what-is-critical-appraisal/, 2024

Critical appraisal is the process of assessing the reliability, importance, and applicability of evidence. It can be applied to a range of written work such as formal research projects, studies and professional development to check validity and determine value.

Reading a medical journal article or paper can seem daunting, but by breaking the process down into smaller steps will enable you to develop the skills to do this well. The resources and tools on this page will help you to do this and to build your confidence in appraising healthcare literature.

This article by the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) is a great introduction to the different types of studies that are published and how you can go about appraising them.

The tools and frameworks below will help you to critically appraise the literature. There are different ones depending on what type of study or research paper you want to appraise so be sure to select the right one for your needs.

• CASP checklists - Downloadable checklists for a range of different study types including RCTs, systematic reviews, cohort studies, case control studies as well as others. There is also this guide on how to use their checklists.
• JBI tools - Range of checklists provided for different study types as well as links to more information from the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis.

This critical appraisal eLearning programme has been designed to build confidence in the critical appraisal process when applying and evaluating research.

It aims to support healthcare staff with understanding the different methods and tools to carry out critical appraisal of research, through 8 bite-sized modules.

It states that, by the end of the programme, learners will be able to:

• describe the following terms; critical appraisal, bias, internal validity and external validity
• distinguish between different types of study designs and their strengths and limitations
• assess the appropriateness of methods used to conduct a randomised controlled trial, systematic review, diagnostic study and qualitative study
• interpret commonly reported results found in clinical papers
• identify different types of critical appraisal tools and their strengths and limitations

Applicable to health and care staff at all levels, this eLearning may be ‘dipped into’ for reference or completed as a whole.

The series of videos below have been produced by Library staff at Barts Health NHS Trust. They take you through the different steps of critically appraising an RCT using this paper:

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. https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S164128. PMID: 29713194; PMCID: PMC5912377.

Use the link above to view and download the Knowledge and Library Service leaflet which gives more information about our services and resources.

Literature Searches

The Sirona Knowledge and Library Service team undertake comprehensive literature searches across several databases to provide high quality, evidence-based information for clinical and non-clinical need, CPD, training, and work-related research.

If you would like to request a literature search, please fill out this online form.

Don't forget, the Library team can provide training, either one-to-one or in small groups, on literature searching.

Click here to visit the training page for more information or email us at sirona.library@nhs.net.

Free FutureLearn course on Critical Appraisal Techniques for Healthcare Literature developed by St George's, University of London.