Subject Guides: Systematic Reviews: Evaluating Included Studies

Checklists for evaluating studies

Links are to checklists to evaluate various types of studies. There may be other discipline or subject-specific appraisal tools available. One way to search for those is to find existing systematic reviews related to your topic and see what appraisal tool was used.

Amstar Checklist
AMSTAR stands for A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews.
CASP Checklists
Critical Appraisal Skills Programme, appraisal tools for systematic reviews, qualitative studies, randomized controlled trials, case-control studies, diagnostic studies, cohort studies, economic evaluations, clinical prediction rules.
CEBM Critical Appraisal Tools
Critical Appraisal Sheets for Systematic Reviews, Diagnostics, Prognosis, Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT), Qualitative Studies
Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool (CCAT, v1.4)
Includes a form and user guide. Can be used for any type of study.
EBP Checklists
Designed to help you ask the appropriate questions of different types of research design. Checklists for appraising the following types of articles: treatment or prevention, qualitative research, decision analysis, educational intervention, prognosis, harm or causation, guidelines, diagnosis or screening, systematic review, economic evaluation.
Joanna Briggs Critical Appraisal Tools
Checklists for Analytical Cross Sectional Studies, Case Control Studies, Case Reports, Case Series, Cohort Studies, Diagnostic Test Accuracy Studies, Economic Evaluations, Prevalence Studies, Qualitative Research, Quasi-Experimental Studies (non-randomized experimental studies), Randomized Controlled Trials, Systematic Reviews, Text and Opinion
MMAT (Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool)
The MMAT is intended to be used as a single checklist for appraising studies in systematic reviews which include multiple study designs (qualitative, quantitative and/or mixed methods studies).
The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS)
Scale for assessing the quality of nonrandomized studies, including case-control and cohort studies.
Risk of Bias tools
Tools for risk of bias in RCTS, non-randomized exposure studies, and non-randomized intervention studies
RoB 2 tool
A revised Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomized trials.
ROBINS-I tool
Risk of bias in non-randomized studies of interventions
SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) Checklists
Methodology checklists with a balance between methodological rigour and practicality of use. Checklists for systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, case-control studies, diagnostic studies, economic studies
Study Quality Assessment Tools
Assessment tools for Controlled Intervention Studies, Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies, Case-Control Studies, Before-After (Pre-Post) Studies With No Control Group, Case Series Studies