STEP 3 - QUALITATIVE CRITICAL APPRAISAL TOOLS

A PROCESS INSTRUCTION CHART FOR SPECIALISTS AND MANAGERS

Introduction

This process chart for Qualitative Critical Appraisal Tools has been designed to assist Specialists and Managers within Peel Public Health in choosing the appropriate critical appraisal tool to assess qualitative research literature.

This document describes the hierarchy of evidence, provides recommended critical appraisal tools and describes the process for starting your critical appraisal of the evidence. This document does not describe how to critically appraise literature that has not been peer-reviewed. Critical appraisal of quantitative literature is described under the “Quantitative Critical Appraisal Tools – A Process Instruction Chart for Specialists and Managers”.

There are many levels of evidence as shown in figure below entitled the “Hierarchy of Evidence”. Ideally, it is best to obtain evidence from summaries, synopses of syntheses, and syntheses. Sometimes, however; there is only evidence available from either single studies or from synopses of single studies. Searching through the literature for this type of evidence can be time consuming. The stop sign shown in this hierarchy of evidence means that staff should consult with their Manager/Supervisor and Librarian to discuss whether it is appropriate to conduct a search and evaluate the research evidence at this level.

It should be noted that research may be published in peer reviewed journals or it may be found on websites; some of which have very strong methodological requirements for document review and some which do not.

Haynes, 2007

CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

What kind of qualitative study do I have?

Refer to the following article:
Guidelines for Critical Review Form: Qualitative Studies (Version 2.0)

How do I critically appraise qualitative literature?

These articles will help you with your critical appraisal of qualitative literature.

Jenny Ploeg. Indentifying the best research design to fit the question. Part 2: qualitative design. Evidence-Based Nursing, April 1999, Vol 2 No 2 p36-37

Thompson, Carl. If you could just provide me with a sample: examining sampling in qualitative and quantitative research papers. Evidence Based Nursing. 1999;2;68-70

Thorne, Sally. Data analysis in qualitative research. Evidence Based Nursing. 2000;3;68-70.

Jack SM. Utility of Qualitative Research Findings in Evidence-Based Public Health Practice. Public Health Nursing Vol 23 No 3, 2006, pp 277-283.

Russell CK; Gregory DM. Evaluation of qualitative research studies. Evidence Based Nursing 2003;6;36-40.

What do I use to critically appraise?

Recommended Tool

McMaster (tool): Critical Review Form - Qualitative Studies (Version 2.0)

Other tools:

CASP:

What is the process for critical appraisal?

  • Using the literature search you conducted in the Step 2 – Searching the Evidence,obtain the full text articles from your search.
  • Discuss the result of the literature search with your Manager/Supervisor to determine whether you have the right number of studies.
  • Critically appraise the research studies starting with the most recent article by following the instructions in this document – Step 3.Please note, after you critically appraise your studies, you will be required to provide the completed critical appraisal documents to your Manager/Supervisor along with the other documents described in Steps 4 to 6.
  • Create a data extraction table highlighting key themes emerging from the data as outlined in Step 4 – Data Extraction for Systematic Reviews using RefWorks or other software. This table is required for the final 1,2,20 Report : Step 6 – Literature Review Report Template.

Note to Managers/Supervisors: Critical appraisal requires reading the article at least twice. Please ensure enough time is allowed for this process.

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