InfoGuides: Evidence Synthesis-Health Sciences: Critical Appraisal and Risk of Bias Tools

Risk of Bias Tool Repository

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.

Quality Assessment and Risk of Bias Tool Repository
Download the spreadsheet.

Systematic Review Checklists

AMSTAR Checklist
A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews (AMSTAR). AMSTAR is an instrument used in assessing the methodological quality of systematic reviews

Critical Appraisal Tools

Critical appraisal is the process of carefully and systematically assessing the outcome of scientific research (evidence) to judge its trustworthiness, value and relevance in a particular context. Critical appraisal looks at the way a study is conducted and examines factors such as internal validity, generalizability and relevance

Critical Appraisal Skills Programme
CASP has a series of easy to use checklists to help you read research, and also delivers training through face-to-face workshops, online learning, virtual workshops and train the trainer courses
JBI Critical Appraisal Tools
JBI’s critical appraisal tools assist in assessing the trustworthiness, relevance and results of published papers.
The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for assessing the quality of nonrandomised studies in meta-analyses
developed to assess the quality of nonrandomised studies with its design, content and ease of use directed to the task of incorporating the quality assessments in the interpretation of meta-analytic results
NHLBI Study Quality Assessment Tools
A set of tailored quality assessment tools to assist reviewers in focusing on concepts that are key to a study’s internal validity. The tools were specific to certain study designs and tested for potential flaws in study methods or implementation.
Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGNS)
Methodology checklists for SR&MA, RCTs, Case Control, Diagnostic and Economic studies
STROBE Checklists of observational research
For Cohort, case-control, cross-sectional studies and conference abstracts
Tool to Assess Risk of Bias in Case Control Studies
Contributed by the CLARITY Group at McMaster University
Appraisal tool for Cross-Sectional Studies (AXIS tool)
Download the tool in the Supplement section of the article, 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.
Public wiki 'Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool'
A checklist for concomitantly appraising and/or describing studies included in systematic mixed studies reviews (reviews including original qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies).

Clinical Evidence Tools

LEGEND Evidence Evaluation Tools & Resources
Tools and resources to guide work in Evidence-Based Decision Making. This system guides you in evaluating the evidence from critical appraisal of the individual study through development of the care recommendation statement.
Critical Appraisal tools
Centre for Evidence-based Medicine-produced critical appraisal worksheets to help you appraise the reliability, importance and applicability of clinical evidence.

Avoiding Bias

Avoiding Bias in Selecting Studies
AHRQ