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Training package for critical appraisal

Critical appraisal is the process of systematically questioning and critiquing the quality of evidence to assess its credibility and relevance to the context. This training package covers content on how to approach critical appraisal, as well as a selection of tools from different sources to support critical appraisal in practice. The supplementary materials at the end are for optional further reading.

Key learning objectives include:

undertaking critical appraisal of intervention studies;

undertaking critical appraisal of systematic reviews;

undertaking critical appraisal of qualitative studies;

applying the appropriate checklist tool to critically appraise different types of study designs.

Critical appraisal skills

The modules presented by this online course provide guidance and hands-on practice for critically appraising 3 different types of evidence – intervention studies, systematic reviews and qualitative studies.

Topic	Source	Title	Format	Duration	Cost and access
Critical appraisal of intervention studies, systematic reviews and qualitative studies	National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools/McMaster University	How NCCMT’s Learning Centre Supports Evidence-Informed Public Health Please review all content in modules: 4. Critical appraisal of intervention studies 5. Critical appraisal of systematic reviews 7. Critical appraisal of qualitative studies	Online course	9–12 hours	Free with registration and login
Practical ways to critically appraise scientific literature	edX MOOC by MDAnderson Center	CERTaIN: Knowledge Synthesis: Systematic Reviews and Clinical Decision Making	Online course	3-4 weeks	Free for a limited amount of time
Seven modules that address critical appraisal concepts and methods for six different research designs	Cochrane Mental Health	Critical appraisal modules	Videos	2 hours	Free, no login required
How to critically appraise rapid reviews	Cochrane	Evidence Essentials Module 6: Critical appraisal of rapid reviews	Course	45 mins	Free, login required

Checklists for critical appraisal

The below tools offer a variety of checklists to apply when undertaking critical appraisal. Each source offers different checklists for different study designs.

Topic	Source	Title	Format	Cost and access
Systematic reviews	AMSTAR	AMSTAR Checklist	Tool	Free, no login required
Systematic reviews, diagnostics; prognosis, RCTs, qualitative studies, and Individual Patient Data (IPD) reviews	Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine/University of Oxford	Critical Appraisal tools	Tool	Free, no login required
Systematic reviews, RCTs, cohort studies, case control studies, economic evaluations, diagnostic studies, qualitative studies and Clinical Prediction Rule	Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP)	CASP Checklists	Tool	Free, no login required
Systematic reviews, RCTs, cohort studies, case control studies, economic evaluations, qualitative research, analytical cross sectional studies, case reports, case series, diagnostic test accuracy studies, prevalence studies, quasi-experimental studies and text and opinion	Joanna Briggs Institute	Critical appraisal tools of published studies	Tool	Free, no login required
Case control and cohort studies	The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute	The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses	Tool	Free, no login required