This pyramid provides a basic methodology to help you become familiar with some of the information resources that are available.
The resources at the top of the pyramid are considered the “best evidence.” However, you will not always find your topic addressed in one of these resources and you will need to use a resource lower on the pyramid.
Summaries of the Evidence: Systematic Reviews, Meta-Analyses, Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines, Evidence Summaries.
Critically Appraised Research Studies: Evidence Summaries and Reviews, Critical Research Critiques, Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials, Cohort and Case Control Studies which have been appraised by a peer-review process and published in an evidence-based journal.
Individual Research Studies: Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials, Cohort and Case Control Studies, Case Reports, Case Studies. If you use one of these resources, please see the page on levels of evidence and also critically appraise the article as described in Step 3 of the tutorial.
Textbooks: Textbooks provide another level of evidence albeit a lower level of evidence and can be helpful when updating policies. Electronic textbooks tend to be more current and are evidence-based to varying degrees.
