title: A practitioner's guide to developing critical appraisal skills: reviews of research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  and overview. This article describes the different types of reviews of research that are available in the literature: systematic reviews and traditional reviews. Systematic reviews have become the reference standard for evidence to inform clinical practice. In this article, the authors set out guidance on appraising the quality and relevance of systematic reviews to help readers make decisions about their clinical practice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  and practical implications. Systematic reviews are of variable quality, although evaluations of reviews by the Cochrane Collaboration generally are of the highest quality. An assessment tool described in this article appears currently to be the most useful tool to guide clinicians to assess systematic reviews and therefore to decide whether the evidence is appropriate to change practice.
authors: Unit of Periodontology, International Centre for Evidence-Based Oral Health, University College London Eastman Dental Institute, London, England. i.needleman@ucl.ac.uk
authors: Ian
authors: I
authors: Needleman
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Clarkson
authors: Helen
authors: H
authors: Worthington
mesh_terms: D057189:Checklist; D018865:Dental Research; D055094:Evidence-Based Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D058980:Information Literacy; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists'; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D012196:Review Literature as Topic
keywords: Systematic review; critical appraisal; meta-analysis; review literature as topic