The evidence type (study design) is almost always identified in the article abstract or in other cases the methods section of the article. Read through the description of how the study was conducted in the methods section to determine the evidence type.
Level and Type of Evidence: *(For your synthesis Only use Level I, II, OR III Evidence).
I – Experimental (RCT, Systematic review of RCTs with or without meta-analysis)
II – Quasi-experimental (some cohort studies, time series, systematic review of a combination of RCTs and quasi-experimental, or quasi-experimental studies only with or without meta-analysis
III – Non-experimental (mostly: Correlation, cross-sectional, observational studies, case-control, case series, prospective cohort, psychometric instrument testing), systematic review of a combination of RCTs, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental, or non-experimental studies only with or without meta-analysis; Qualitative study or systematic review with or without a meta-synthesis; many higher level qualitative studies include the type of qualitative study that was conducted in the title of the article (phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, heuristic study, etc.).
IV- Expert opinion, nationally recognized expert committees/panels based on scientific evidence (clinical practice guidelines and consensus panels
V – Non-research based (experiential) (Literature reviews, Integrative reviews, quality improvement (program or financial evaluation), case reports, opinion of nationally recognized experts based on experiential evidence.
The evidence level:
The evidence level for Level I, II, and III can quickly be determined by asking a few key questions as illustrated on the following website: https://libguides.ohsu.edu/ebptoolkit/levelsofevidence.
Level IV and V are much easier to distinguish. Level IV articles are not very common with the search strategies you should be using.
Level IV involves publications about clinical practice guidelines or position statements from consensus panels.
For Level V evidence articles, the lower level qualitative studies often have the type of project in their title, including narrative model, case study model, case report, and historical model. Literature reviews and Integrative reviews (also Level V) are also easily identified.
Please review your literature appraisal contained in the Johns Hopkins Table for accuracy, and remember, there should be no clinical guidelines, sets of clinical recommendations, nor position statements, placed in your JH Table. Please let me know if you have any questions about how to appraise your evidence sources (articles).