Use our referencing guidance to help you reference correctly for your course or work.
We have guidance for:
Harvard Referencing - Cite Them Right Harvard guide
Use RefWorks to help manage your search output and records and also to create your reference lists in a variety of styles including CTR Harvard.
Usually provide an overview of key theory/theorists for your subject or in-depth coverage on a specific topic.
Want to borrow a book ARU Library doesn't have? Use the Interlibrary Loan service or Recommend a book for purchase.
Use Contact Us for general library queries.
If you need guidance on finding information and using resources in this guide you will be directed to your subject librarians - Jane Shelley, Karen Ready and Peter Stokes.
You can also use our Book a Librarian service to book a 30 minute appointment.
It is important to assess the quality and critically evaluate and appraise what you read and the studies, research and literature (evidence) you find and use. Critical appraisal is an important part of evidence based medicine (EBM) and evidence based health care (EBHC).
It involves careful, systematic and methodical examination and evaluation of the studies and literature selected for inclusion in your work. It looks at the quality, validity, trustworthiness of the results, strengths, weaknesses, risk of bias and value and relevance.
There are lots of books on critical appraisal. Use our Critical Appraisal reading list for full list of relevant books, articles and websites about critical appraisal.
There are variety of frameworks or tools - critical appraisal or risk of bias tools.
Examples of critical appraisal in action - systematic reviews
In undertaking systematic reviews the authors should have included critical appraisal. You can find examples of systematic reviews in a variety of resources. Many systematic reviews are published as journal articles and can be found via the databases for your subject. Check your subject guide for the key databases relevant to your subject. In health and medicine key databases are Medline, Embase, Pubmed and CINAHL plus.
The open access journal Systematic Reviews publishes systematic reviews, protocols and a variety of articles about undertaking systematic reviews.
The Cochrane Library and the Campbell Collaboration produce systematic reviews on a variety of topics.
