Staff working in social care settings are likely to come many research studies relevant to their work. But how do they weigh up which research to use to support their decision-making? Critical appraisal skills are about making sense of research, and recognizing its strengths and weakness in order to decide whether it is trustworthy and relevant enough to use within practice.

Why should we critically appraise?

• Professionals should ensure that decision-making is based on good quality research. This means having the skills to judge the merits of what they read.
• Professionals should be able to understand some of the terminology in research papers. They will then be able to make appropriate judgements when using research to aid their decision-making.
• Professionals who have learnt to critically appraise research are more able to separate the 'wheat' from the 'chaff' and can, therefore, devote their time to reading good quality studies and bypass those of a more questionable nature.
• Professionals with critical appraisal skills will be empowered to judge how far conclusions reported by researchers are warranted, rather than having to rely on what the authors say.

It is important to note at this point that no research is perfect. However, through critically appraising what has been written in a paper, we can consider whether a study is good quality to use in our decision-making. Although it may be time-consuming, it is essential to be able to distinguish a good piece of research from a poor one. This should prevent practice decisions being based on unreliable information, which could result in a poor decision being taken on the basis of unreliable evidence.

Critical appraisal involves knowing what questions to ask to judge study's trustworthiness and relevance to practice. Basic knowledge about research methods is therefore a useful first step, as well as some understanding of the jargon used in research studies. The Centre for Evidence-Based Social Services has developed some 'tools' that can be used whilst reading different types pf research studies, each tool asking pertinent questions in relation to the study design used. These are adapted from those devised by the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) for use with health care or medical research. The tools have been modified by CEBSS for use with social care research. Currently three tools are available, each for use with different types of research. Click on the links below to download the appropriate tool. For definitions of what these different types of research design are, see the glossary of research terms in the links below:

Randomised Controlled Trial Tool

Quasi-Experimental Study Tool

Qualitative Research Tool

Glossary of Research Terms