Pharmacy : Critical Appraisal

This Pharmacy Research Guide brings together information resources relevant to Pharmacy and Pharmacology.

Value of Critical Appraisal

Critical appraisal explores the quality and reporting of clinical practice guidelines, observational studies, RCTs, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.

The use of critical appraisal tools requires more than simply checking off a box on a checklist! Critical appraisal requires that you have the skills to:

Critically evaluate a paper, such as a cohort study
Determine if a study's methodology is valid
Determine if a study's valid results are important and applicable to your patient/population
Observe the presence of bias and determine what this means

You can then apply the above skills to the critical appraisal tools highlighted on this page. Each of these critical appraisal tools is freely available online.

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)

CONSORT 2010 Checklist
A checklist of 25 items that should be included when reporting a RCT
JADAD scale
For rating the quality of randomized controlled trials.
RoB2 - Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomized trials

Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses

PRISMA 2020 Checklist
A checklist of items that should be included in a systematic review or meta-analysis.
AMSTAR - Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Consists of 11 items each with Yes, No, Can't Answer or Not Applicable options.

Evaluating Information

In your work, you will encounter many types of information, such as journal articles, books, and websites, and knowing how to evaluate information is key!

RADAR Test
The RADAR Test is a common tool used to evaluate sources in a more general way by considering: relevance, authority, date, accuracy, and reason for writing.

Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs)

AGREE II-GRS Instrument
A 5 item rating scale used to evaluate the quality and reporting of clinical practice guidelines. While the AGREE II remains the recommended appraisal tool for clinical practice guidelines, the AGREE II-GRS Instrument is a practical alternative, especially when time and resources are limited
AGREE II
This tool consists of 23 items organized within 6 domains followed by 2 global rating items (“Overall Assessment”) to assess the quality of a clinical practice guideline.

Observational Studies

STROBE Checklist for Cohort, Case-Control, and Cross-Sectional Studies
A checklist of 22 items that should be included in reports of observational studies, including cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies.
ROBINS-I Tool - Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies of Interventions
The tool has seven domains for appraising non-randomized observational studies such as cohort studies and case-control studies.
CLARITY - Tool to Assess Risk of Bias in Cohort Studies
Newcastle - Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale for Case Control Studies

Other Quality Assessment Checklists

SIGN Checklists
Checklists for evaluating systematic reviews & meta-analyses; randomized controlled trials; cohort studies; case-control studies.
Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries - Evidence-based medicine worksheets
Appraisal checklists for randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, etc.
Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives - Appraisal checklists
Appraisal checklists for systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, practice guidelines, economic analysis.
Joanna Briggs Critical Appraisal Tools
Checklists for systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, qualitative research, cohort studies, case-control studies, case reports, etc.