LibGuides: Systematic Reviews for the Health Sciences: Critical Appraisal

Critical Appraisal and Risk of Bias Tools

AXIS from Downes, Brennan, and Dean
Source: Downes MJ, Brennan ML, Williams HC, Dean RS. Development of a critical appraisal tool to assess the quality of cross-sectional studies (AXIS). BMJ Open. 2016 Dec 8;6(12):e011458. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-011458. PMID: 27932337; PMCID: PMC5168618.
Centre for Evidence-Based Management (CEBMa)a
Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tools
LEGEND Evidence Evaluation Tools
Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS)
ROBINS-I
STROBE Checklist

Centre for Evidence-Based Management (CEBMa)a
Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM)
Critical Appraisals Skills Programme (CASP)
Evidence Evaluation Tools & Resources (LEGEND)
Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tools
NIH Study Quality Assessment Tools
NTACT Quality Checklists
PROBAST
Source: Wolff RF, Moons KGM, Riley RD, Whiting PF, Westwood M, Collins GS, Reitsma JB, Kleijnen J, Mallett S; PROBAST Group†. PROBAST: A Tool to Assess the Risk of Bias and Applicability of Prediction Model Studies. Ann Intern Med. 2019 Jan 1;170(1):51-58. doi: 10.7326/M18-1376. PMID: 30596875.
SANRA-a Scale
Source: Baethge C, Goldbeck-Wood S, Mertens S. SANRA-a scale for the quality assessment of narrative review articles. Res Integr Peer Rev. 2019 Mar 26;4:5. doi: 10.1186/s41073-019-0064-8. PMID: 30962953; PMCID: PMC6434870.
STROBE (STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology)

CASP- Qualitative Studies
Centre for Evidence-Based Management (CEBMa)a
Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM)
Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tools
LEGEND Evidence Evaluation Tools
Methods for assessing methodological limitations, data extraction and synthesis, and confidence in synthesized qualitative findings
Source: Noyes J, Booth A, Flemming K, Garside R, Harden A, Lewin S, Pantoja T, Hannes K, Cargo M, Thomas J. Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group guidance series-paper 3: methods for assessing methodological limitations, data extraction and synthesis, and confidence in synthesized qualitative findings. J Clin Epidemiol. 2018 May;97:49-58. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.06.020. Epub 2017 Dec 13. PMID: 29247700.
Quality of qualitative research in the health sciences: Analysis of the common criteria present in 58 assessment guidelines by expert users
Source: Santiago-Delefosse M, Gavin A, Bruchez C, Roux P, Stephen SL. Quality of qualitative research in the health sciences: Analysis of the common criteria present in 58 assessment guidelines by expert users. Soc Sci Med. 2016 Jan;148:142-51. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.11.007. Epub 2015 Nov 22. PMID: 26698197.

Can be represented in table format

Bias can include:

Quality Assessment and Risk of Bias Tool Repository
Contributors: Leila Ledbetter Steph Hendren
Identifier: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/WS824
Category: Project
Description: A resource for finding and selecting a risk of bias or quality assessment tool for evidence synthesis projects. This project was created and is maintained by Duke University's Medical Center Library & Archives.

robvis
Create publication quality risk-of-bias assessment figures
Source: McGuinness, LA, Higgins, JPT. Risk-of-bias VISualization (robvis): An R package and Shiny web app for visualizing risk-of-bias assessments. Res Syn Meth. 2020; 1- 7. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1411
Avoiding Bias in Selecting Studies (AHRQ)
Chapter from "Methods Guide for Effectiveness and Comparative Effectiveness Reviews."
Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE)
A guide to critical appraisal that develops and presents summaries of evidence and is used for making systematic clinical practice recommendations; includes 4 levels of Certainty (high, moderate, low, very low)
Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies (PRESS)
Guideline statement for systematic reviews, health technology assessments, and other evidence syntheses
RobotReviewer
A machine learning system which allows users to upload RCT articles and see automatically determined information concerning the trial conduct (the 'PICO', study design, and whether there is a risk of bias).
Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR+)
A free tool for data extraction, management and archival during systematic reviews