What is critical appraisal?
Critical Appraisal [krit-i-kuhl uh-prey-zuhl]
Critical Appraisal is the process of carefully and systematically examining research to judge its trustworthiness, and its value and relevance in a particular context. It is an essential skill for evidence-based medicine because it allows people to find and use research evidence reliably and efficiently.
Source: CASP
Critical appraisal is a crucial part of evidence-based medicine. At first reading and critiquing a journal article can seem like a daunting and complex task. Breaking the process down into steps helps recognise the skills required. These include:
- Skimming the article to look for the author's main points and conclusions
- Familiarity with the way many journal articles are structured. For example; abstract, method, results, discussion
- Reflecting on and being critical of what you are reading.
Checklist and toolkits are available to guide you through this process in a structured way. In addition to these, this guide links you to articles, guides and books to help you develop your skills in effectively appraising scientific articles.
If you have any suggestions for helpful books, links, or resources about critical appraisal please email library@kcl.ac.uk.
Toolkits and checklists
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Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP)Critical appraisal tools to be used when reading research. Checklists are available for: systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, case control studies, economic evaluations, diagnostic studies, qualitative studies, clinical prediction rule.
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JBI’s critical appraisal toolsJBI provide checklists for analytical cross sectional studies, case control studies, case reports, case series, cohort studies, diagnostic test accuracy studies, economic evaluations, prevalence studies, qualitative research, quasi-experimental studies, randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews and text and opinion.
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Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT)Appraisal tool used for qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed methods studies. Helpful for those working on a mixed methods review.
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CONSORT StatementSet of recommendations for reporting randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Use the checklist to help you assess the different aspects of an RCT paper you are reading.
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PRISMA StatementAims to help authors improve the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses by providing a minimum set of items to be included. Use the checklist to help you check for any gaps in a review you are reading. Please note this is not designed explicitly to be a critical appraisal tool as it focuses on the minimum to be expected.
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Quality assessment with diverse studies (QuADS)An appraisal tool for methodological and reporting quality in systematic reviews of mixed- or multi-method studies
Books
A selection of titles related to critical appraisal of medical literature.
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A Beginner's Guide to Critical Thinking and Writing in Health and Social Care
by
Publication Date: 2015 -
Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics (International Student Edition)
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ISBN: 9781506361161Publication Date: 2016 -
Statistics resources
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Medical Statistics Made Easy
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ISBN: 9781904842552Publication Date: 2014Includes explanations of confidence intervals, p-values, risk and odds. -
Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics
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Publication Date: 2010 -
Discovering Statistics Using SPSS
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Publication Date: 2009 (3rd ed.), 2013 (4th ed.)Focuses on using SPSS but Chapter 2 gives explanations of concepts such as p-values and confidence intervals. 3rd edition available as an ebook. -
Fast Facts: Medical Statistics
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ISBN: 1912776685Publication Date: 2020-06-03Using real examples from oncology trials, but keeping it simple, this concise resource explains the basic principles of medical statistics so that you can better appraise clinical trial results.
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KEATS course: Maths & Stats at UniversityOften, when students arrive at university, they find that they have forgotten much of the maths they learnt at school. The resources provided by King's Academic Skills and Learning (KASL) are designed to help students gain skill and confidence in mathematics and statistics in a variety of contexts.
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Unit for Medical StatisticsThe Unit for Medical Statistics (UMS) is a group of medical statisticians with a broad range of collective expertise who undertake research, consultancy, training and teaching at King’s and beyond. The Unit
provides 1-hr consultation appointments to KCL and GSTT staff.
Please note that this service is not available to KCH staff (unless they are affiliated with KCL). -
IoPPN Biostatistics and Health Informatics Advisory ServiceThis service is intended to provide advice to staff and students from IoPPN departments on statistical aspects of a research project including PhD thesis and MSc dissertations, technical support with informatics related projects and qualitative research advice. Note This is only available to staff and students based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience KCL.
Support
Information for staff
KCL Libraries and Collections often receive requests from undergraduate and taught postgraduate students for support with reviews. We are very happy to support these requests and have developed this guide aimed at staff outlining our service offer.
Information for students
The document below gives a concise overview of how Libraries & Collections can help you when undertaking a review with links to key information and support. It also details aspects of undertaking a review which are beyond the scope of our service offer.
Workshops
Check the Calendar for a complete schedule of critical appraisal workshops.
1-1 Appointments
Book a 45-minute 1-1 appointment with a senior library assistant for help with searching databases using a structured search, advanced search techniques, and advice on improving search strategies.
Please note: our 1-1 service is only for current students and staff at King's College London and/or our partnered NHS Trusts.
Glossary
There is a lot of specialist vocabulary around critical appraisal. We have developed these glossaries to define important terms you may encounter.
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Qualitative Research GlossaryPDF, 220 KB
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Quantitative Research GlossaryPDF, 220 KB
Links
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BMJ - How to read a paper article seriesSeries of articles written for BMJ by Trisha Greenhalgh. Login with King's IT account required.
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Critical appraisal - NHSOur critical appraisal guide for NHS staff.
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'How to critically appraise an articleArticle published in Nature by by Jane M Young and Michael J Solomon. Login with King's IT account required.