Research Guides: Evidence-Based Practice: Appraise

Questions to Ask

When appraising the evidence that was found, ask these basic questions about your evidence:

1. What are the results?

2. Are the results valid?

3. Are the results applicable?

How useful or relevant is this to my clinical practice?
What will be the costs to apply the evidence?

Readings: Journal Article Series

EBN Users' Guide Series
Link to CINAHL records for articles in this Evidence-Based Nursing series
How to Read a Paper
From BMJ.
Unrestricted
Tips for Learners of Evidence-Based Medicine
Link to PubMed records for articles in this CMAJ series.
Link to Unrestricted PubMed records
Access to CMAJ articles is Unrestricted.
Users' Guides to the Medical Literature
Link to PubMed records for articles in this JAMA series.
Link to Unrestricted PubMed records
Access to JAMA articles requires a subscription or license.

Evidence Grading

GRADE
Grading quality of evidence and strength of recommendations. (2004). BMJ: British medical journal (International edition), 328(7454), 1490. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.328.7454.1490
PMID: 15205295
Unrestricted
Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT)
Ebell, M.H., Siwek, J., Weiss, B.D., Woolf, S.H., Susman, J., Ewigman, B., & Bowman, M. (2004). Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT): A patient-centered approach to grading evidence in the medical literature. American family physician, 69(3), 548-556.
PMID: 14971837
Unrestricted

Guides and Standards to Report Research

The following standards are intended to help researchers and authors give accurate and complete of reports of their studies.

EQUATOR Network
An international initiative seeking to improve the reliability and value of medical research literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting of research studies.
AGREE
Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE)
CARE
CAse REports
CONSORT
Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (i.e., parallell-group randomized controlled trials)
PRISMA
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
PRISMA-ScR
PRISMA for SCoping Reviews
SQUIRE
Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence
SRQR
Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research
Restricted
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O’Brien, B. C. , Harris, I. B. , Beckman, T. J. , Reed, D. A. & Cook, D. A. (2014). Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research. Academic Medicine, 89 (9), 1245-1251. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000388.
STARD 2015
STAndards for Reporting Diagnostic accuracy
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Bossuyt, P. M., Reitsma, J. B., Bruns, D. E., Gatsonis, C. A., Glasziou, P. P., Irwig, L., Lijmer, J. G., Moher, D., Rennie, D., de Vet, H. C., Kressel, H. Y., Rifai, N., Golub, R. M., Altman, D. G., Hooft, L., Korevaar, D. A., Cohen, J. F., & STARD Group (2015). STARD 2015: An updated list of essential items for reporting diagnostic accuracy studies. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 351, h5527. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h5527
STROBE
STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology
TREND
Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs

Readings: Selected Books at UH Manoa Library

Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews
Call Number: RA399.A3 I565 2011
Publication Date: 2011
Also available as an unrestricted e-book.
How to Read a Paper by Trisha Greenhalgh
Publication Date: 2014
5th ed.
An e-book.
The Library has a print copy of the 6th edition (2019).
Call number: R118.6 .G74 2019
Studying a Study and Testing a Test by Richard K. Riegelman
Call Number: R118.6 .R54 2021
ISBN: 9781975120894
Publication Date: 2021
7th ed.
Understanding Nursing Research by Susan K. Grove; Jennifer R. Gray
Call Number: RT81.5 .G768 2023
ISBN: 9780323826419
Publication Date: 2023
8th ed.

Web Resources

The resources below are unrestricted.

CASP Checklists
Includes appraisal checklists to identify valid, unbiased scientific studies. From Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (UK)
Critical Appraisal Worksheets
Worksheets to appraise research for diagnosis, etiology (harm), prognosis, and therapy questions. An appraisal worksheet for systematic reviews of therapy topics is also available. From the Knowledge Translation Program (Toronto).
EBM Calculators
Knowledge Translation Program (Toronto)
Evidence Based Medicine Toolkit
Collection of tools for identifying, assessing and applying relevant evidence for better health care decision-making. Adapted from the Users' Guides series originally published in JAMA. From the University of Alberta.

Need More Help?

Sci/Tech Librarians' Email:
sciref@hawaii.edu