Research Guides

THL Evidence-Based Practice

Guides, Tutorials and Presentations offered by Taubman Health Sciences Library on Evidence-Based Practice

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What is Critical Appraisal?  

Provides a brief introduction to critical appraisal.

Tools for Appraising the Evidence  

Provides links to a curated set of critical appraisal tools.

Pre-Appraised Evidence

Provides links to several sources of pre-appraised evidence.

What is Critical Appraisal?

Critical appraisal of health sciences literature typically focuses on study methods, results, and application to the research question. 

Study methods

This part of critical appraisal focuses on ways that bias can be introduced into a study and affect the study's outcomes and conclusions. Different study types, such as randomized trials or observational studies have different risks of introducing bias. While bias can never be completely eliminated, there are study procedures designed to remove as many sources of bias as possible, and to lessen the effects of any remaining bias on study outcomes and conclusions. Critical appraisal tools described in the box below, provide questions to consider when reading a study to help determine the risk of bias and your ability to have confidence in the study's results.

Results

The next step in critical appraisal is to look at the study's results. Research studies focus on answering a question and demonstrating that the results are beyond mere chance. The type of results will depend on whether the study is about an intervention (therapy or treatment); understanding the relationship between an exposure and an outcome; the diagnostic accuracy of a test; or the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases. The Users' Guides to the Medical Literature (find it by searching in the library catalog) is an excellent resource and one example for understanding the results of literature by study type. 

Application

Some critical appraisal tools include questions about applicability to the research question. For more detail about application of study findings see 4. Apply the Information step of the EBP Process. 

Tools for Appraising the Evidence

There are many tools for critical appraisal designed for specific disciplines or types of questions. Below are a few of the tools used in critical appraisal of health sciences literature:

Users' Guides to the Medical Literature provides questions by study design, including

  • Risk of bias for randomized controlled trials
  • Credibility of the process for systematic reviews

GRADE provides an approach for rating confidence in evidence and is primarily used for systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines 

AMSTAR-2 provides a method for critically appraising systematic reviews of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)

Critically Appraising for Antiracism is a tool that can help assess underrepresentation and interpretation

You can contact an informationist to find additional tools for critical appraisal. Contact us at THSLibrary@umich.edu.

Pre-Appraised Evidence

Arranged in order below starting with the highest level of evidence, these selections of pre-appraised evidence can offer efficiency in your search for evidence. There are fewer topics offered at the top levels than at the Synopses of Single Studies level because of the time and resources it takes to produces summaries and synopses. 

Summaries

Clinical Practice Guidelines

Evidence-based Point-of-Care Resources

Synopses of Syntheses: Abstracts of Syntheses

Syntheses: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Synopses of Single Studies: Abstracts of Single Studies

Though these resources can offer efficient and useful evidence to answer clinical questions, it's important to consider:

  • The trustworthiness of the methods used to assemble and appraise the evidence that comprises them.
  • You may need to find evidence that's more specific to your patient's characteristics, circumstances, and values.
  • You may need to complete an initial critical appraisal of a recently published systematic review or trial, since it takes time for these to be incorporated into Summaries. 
Last Updated: Oct 9, 2025 12:01 PM
Subjects: Health Sciences