Rating System for the Hierarchy of Levels of Evidence
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2011). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Finding sources is only the first part of the research process. Once you locate sources, you need to be able to evaluate them to see if they're appropriate.
After finding information in resources, the next step is to apply critical thinking skills and evaluate the information in relation to your health question.
Evaluation Tools:
Critical Appraisal Worksheets - from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, interactive forms for evaluating articles on diagnosis, harm, therapy, eprognosis and systematic reviews.
Study Designs (Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine) -A brief guide to the different study types and a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of study.
SUNY Downstate Medical Research Library of Brooklyn
MEDLINE and the other online medical literature databases try to be as comprehensive as possible in their coverage. As a result, indexed material may have little direct application to present-day medical practice.
The different types of material indexed in MEDLINE are labeled in the pyramid diagram, with the least clinically relevant at the bottom and the most clinically relevant at the top. The four layers above case reports and case series represent actual clinical research; the layers below are least clinically relevant and can be useful as background resources.
The links below provide basic definitions and examples of clinical research designs to help the medical student or new clinician understand how the design of a research study may affect whether or not to accept its findings in caring for a patient.
More detail on each level is available by reading the pages in sequential order or by selecting from the topics below:
Use the Medical Library Association's guidelines to help you decide whether information is credible, timely, and useful.
1. Sponsorship
2. Currency
3. Factual information
4. Audience
NAU Librarians are available and can assist you by chat or email. You can schedule an individual research appointment. We will reply to emails within 24 hours, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays or other closures). View all hours.
Currency:
Relevance:
Authority:
Accuracy:
Purpose:
Adapted from a handout developed by librarians at Meriam Library, California State University, Chico, 2004