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EBM and EBP: Gathering and Appraise the evidence

Gathering and Appraising the Evidence 1

Now that you have formulated your question, and have your search strategy, where do you go to find your information?

Refer to our guides on Literature searching and Databases at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne. For Grey literature help please see the Grey Literature guide

Need assistance in doing a literature search?
Ask a Librarian to do a search for you.
Fill out a Literature Search request form and a Librarian will carry out a search in the relevant databases on your behalf.
Your search results will be sent to you as an EndNote file, learn about using EndNote to organise your references.

Need some training in searching the literature?
Please book in a tutorial or meeting session online or onsite in the Library. See our online tutorial pages at: Online tutorials and book a tutorial at
Book a tutorial or consultation

Gathering and Appraising the Evidence 2

Critical appraisal uses intrinsic (e.g. research design) not extrinsic (e.g.author, journal, institution) factors which is more commonly used in evaluating web sites.

When appraising an article, it should aim to meet the following requirements:

  • Quality (the methodology should include trials that are randomised and double blind to avoid selection and observer bias)
  • Validity (trials need to mimic clinical practice, or used in clinical practice, with outcomes that make sense)
  • Reliability (trials are credible and repeatable)

  • There are a number of checklists / tools available on the Internet to assist you in undertaking critical appraisal of evidence. 

  • Appraise the evidence - BMJ Best Practice research series

  • What is Critical Appraisal? (La Trobe University)

  • Understanding Health Research A tool for making sense of health studies
    (What is the Understanding Health Research tool? Understanding Health Research is a tool designed to help people understand and review published health research to decide how dependable and relevant a piece of research is. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow) 

See below for further appraisal tools & checklist examples.

Tutorials & resources