EBVM Toolkit 14: narrative review checklist

Introduction

Critical appraisal is a process which is used to help you identify the strengths and weakness of a research paper.  Understanding how appropriate the study design is for the question you are seeking to answer, how well the study was carried out, and how good the reporting in the paper is helps you to assess whether the paper is likely to provide reliable evidence.  

This page is designed to help you appraise a narrative review. While a narrative review is not an explicit form of evidence review it is still important to critically appraise the content to ensure that it is accurate and applicable to your local circumstances. Answering the following questions will help you to reflect on how valid the content might be, whether there is any important information missing and any limitations.

Narrative review checklist

For each question think about whether the answer is yes, no or not sure and what your reasoning is for that answer.

1. Was the scope and purpose of the review clearly defined?

[text needed here]

2. Do the authors have appropriate knowledge and expertise to write this review?

e.g. specialist status or appropriate postgraduate qualifications.

3. Is the subject matter relevant to your practice?

[text needed here]

4. Was a review of the literature carried out?

If so was the methodology explicit?
Look for search methods, databases used, reference list use, inclusion of unpublished studies etc.

5. How recent was the search?

Is there likely to be more recent evidence that has not been included?

6. Did the authors include a range of suitable evidence?

Did the papers included address relevant questions and have an appropriate study design?

7. Have the authors critically appraised the evidence?

[text needed here]

8. Did the authors discuss areas of uncertainty and controversy?

Have differing viewpoints and knowledge gaps been discussed?

9. Is there any evidence of bias in the evidence included or its interpretation?

[text needed here]

10. Are all the important aspects of the subject considered?

Are there any questions that you would consider important that were not addressed in the review?

11. What are the main take home messages from the review?

[text needed here]

12. Having read the review, are there any papers that you want to read?

[text needed here]

13. Can information from the review be applied to your practice?

Is the review relevant to your patient population? Are there aspects of the review which could be used to change your clinical practice?

14. What steps would need to be taken to implement these changes?

e.g. staff training, new equipment or protocols.

15. Would there be any problems in implementing these changes?

Are there any potential adverse effects of the change? What costs would the change incur?

Try it out yourself

You could use the following paper to try out the questions:

Ison, S.H. et al (2016) A Review of pain assessment in pigs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 3 (108) DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2016.00108