Critical Appraisal for Health Students

• The appraisal shouldn't be a description of the research paper, however, you may need to do a short summary of the paper before appraising it

• Use a framework to help you appraise. You may be recommended one to use or you can use the CASP frameworks (see Useful Resources page)

• Generally, you won't have the word count to discuss every element in a framework, so you may want to choose the elements that are particularly strong or weak

• Each point should be backed up by evidence from a research methodology source. 
  • Check you reading list for research methodology textbooks which you can use to do this

• Don't waste words by repeating yourself when using evidence e.g.
  • 'The sample was flawed as it was not representative of the population group (Smith, 2022)'

is better, more concise and less repetitive than

• 'The sample was flawed as it was not representative of the population group. Smith (2022) discusses the importance of having a representative sample from the population in question.'

• Once you have cited the paper you are appraising, there is no need to keep citing it throughout. 

• Have you been asked to say whether the paper is good enough to be used in practice and how? If so, don't forget to do this, so you need to decide if the methodology is strong enough for the results to be valid