Quality assurance using critical appraisal enables the identification of research articles which are sufficiently well-designed to inform practice. The technique consists of the identification of studies which cross a quality threshold followed by the extraction of their most important points. This page includes a critical appraisal skills programme CASP checklist, CASP elearning modules, and practical exercises.
Critical appraisal enables the identification of research articles which are sufficiently well-designed to inform practice. The technique consists of the identification of studies which cross a quality threshold followed by the extraction of their most important points.
The process involves :
The application of the critical appraisal process results in the removal of barriers between research and practice and thus, supports the development of evidence based practice.
Retrieved research articles need to be assessed before a decision is made about their re-use. The three key principles in critically appraising research articles are :
Refine
Condense the knowledge into concise and relevant ‘nuggets’ that represent the key insights, lessons learned and practices of the knowledge sources. If multiple sources of knowledge are harvested, identify common and opposing knowledge and highlight these.
CASP critical appraisal checklists
Collection of critical appraisal tools designed by the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) to be used when reading research. Includes checklists for: Systematic Reviews, Randomised Controlled Trials, Cohort Studies, Case Control Studies, Economic Evaluations, Diagnostic Studies, Qualitative studies and Clinical Prediction Rule
Open University PROMPT checklist
PROMPT: Presentation, Relevance, Objectivity, Method, Provenance, Timeliness provideS a structured approach to critical evaluation of information
Understanding health research
This tool will guide you through a series of questions to help you to review and interpret a published health research paper
RGU Critical Appraisal guide
Guides you through questions to consider with links to more help
CEBM: Which study design?
Short article from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) to help you identify what type of study a paper is
NHS GGC Library Network: Critical Appraisal Tools pathway
Collection of links to checklists and other useful tools to help with critical appraisal
Full fact
Independant fact checker website, evaluating we claims made by politicians, public institutions and journalists, as well as viral content online
NHS Inform
Reliable health information for patients and service users
Ideally your audience will choose an article of interest to them. Below are some sources which can provide ideas