Systematic Reviews: Risk of Bias/Quality Assessment

At this point you have carefully examined the articles selected from those you discovered by your sensitive search. You have recorded the information from each that you will use to write your paper. So far you have not attempted to critically appraise each article for how quality or believability. Now it is time to assess quality/Risk of Bias (ROB) of each of your included articles.

Depending on the publication type of the articles you will  include in your analysis, select one or more existing "tools" and assess each article. You will report this information to your readers and discuss the implications in your paper.

Appraisal tools for experimental studies:

• Randomized Controlled Trials:
• Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool see the Cochrane Handbook. https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current See Part 2, Section 8.
• SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) See Methodology see Checklist 2 https://www.sign.ac.uk/what-we-do/methodology/checklists/
• CEBM (Center for Evidence-Based Medicine) https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/resources/ebm-tools/critical-appraisal-tools
• CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) https://casp-uk.net/casp-tools-checklists/
• Non-randomized studies https://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i4919

Appraisal tools for the three primary types of observational studies - cohort, case control, and cross sectional:

• Joanna Briggs Institute
• AXIS
• Observational Ottawa Newcastle