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Research: Appraising the Evidence

Appraising the Evidence

"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)

Critical appraisal skills and tools enable you to assess the reliability of studies, interpret their results, and understand their relevance to informed decision-making.  

Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP)

Critically Appraising Evidence for Healthcare - JBI eBook

Synthesizing Qualitative Evidence - JBI eBook

Critical Appraisal in Medicine (Deakin University)

 

Popular Critical Appraisal Checklists 

CASP Critical Appraisal Checklists

JBI Critical Appraisal Tools 

AMSTAR 2 Checklist (for systematic reviews)

AACODS Checklist (for grey literature)

Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Critical Appraisal Tools (some LOTE resources also available)

Critical Appraisal Worksheets (Duke University)

BMJ Best Practice Critical Appraisal Checklists

 

Choosing the right checklist ultimately depends on selecting an appraisal tool that:

  • Best fits the type of study

  • Is reliable, well-known or otherwise validated

  • Aligns with your evaluation goals

Appraising Journals and Publishers / Predatory Journals

Over the last decade there has been an increase in new publishers and journals attracting authors who wish to publish Open Access (OA). It is important to evaluate the scholarly credibility of the publisher and the journal if you decide to publish in an OA journal.

Think. Check. Submit provides guidance on choosing the right journal for your research.

Keep the following questions in mind when evaluating OA publishers and journals:

  • Are articles from the journal indexed in databases relevant to your field such as Medline, Embase, Emcare or PsycInfo? 
  • Or are they included in citation databases such as Web of Science?
  • What is the quality of the articles? See appraising the evidence for help.
    If an article is clearly written by a novice this may indicate the publication is a predatory journal.
  • Does the publisher have a clear peer review process and provide details about their peer review panel?
  • Is the publisher listed in or a member of the OA publishers or Associations listed below?

 

Predatory Journals

The World Association of Medical Editors provides guidance on identifying predatory or pseudo-journals.

The folllowing lists have compiled 'potential, possible or probable predatory journals':

Note: These lists are not comprehensive or authoritative. They are designed to help authors, however, please conduct your own due diligence to reach your own conclusion.