Evidence mapPaperPMID 41316952Full record

ArticleInquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financing

A Pilot Study on Generative Artificial Intelligence's Reliability in Qualitative Research Quality Appraisal Using CASP and JBI Checklists.

Hisba Shereefdeen, Abhinand Thaivalappil, Ian Young, Melissa MacKay

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Article in Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financing. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Hisba ShereefdeenUniversity of Guelph, ON, Canada.
Abhinand ThaivalappilPublic Health Agency of Canada, Guelph, ON, Canada.
Ian YoungToronto Metropolitan University, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-5575-5174
Melissa MacKayUniversity of Guelph, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-6682-1528

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) tools are transforming workflows, with growing interest in their potential applications in qualitative research. While the use of genAI in facilitating the systematic review process has been explored, its application in the quality appraisal of qualitative research remains to be understood. This pilot study aims to evaluate the degree to which ChatGPT appraises qualitative research using popular appraisal tools compared to human assessments. Two reviewers applied the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) and Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklists for qualitative research to studies identified through a previously published review (n = 21). Next, iteratively developed prompts along with a copy of each study were uploaded to ChatGPT to instruct it to appraise each article. Interrater reliability measures and crude agreements were conducted to estimate the level of agreement between human and genAI assessments. Interrater reliability assessments between human and ChatGPT (GPT-5) revealed no agreement to moderate agreement for CASP checklist items (kappa: <.00-.46; crude agreement: 23.8%-100%) and from none to substantial for JBI items (kappa: <.00-.83; crude agreement: 4.8%-95.2%). Agreement was highest for reporting-based elements such as study aims, ethics approval, value of research (CASP), and participant voices and conclusions (JBI). Disagreements were greatest for interpretive and context-dependent items such as research design, researcher-participant relationships, and worldview-methodology congruity. Findings demonstrate that ChatGPT (GPT-5) can reliably identify objective components yet performs inconsistently when assessing items requiring nuance and contextual understanding across both checklists. Currently, any adoption of genAI for quality appraisal of qualitative research must be carefully applied only alongside human assessments and uphold principles of transparency and data privacy.

Indexed as

Artificial IntelligenceChecklistQualitative ResearchGenerative Artificial IntelligenceHumansPilot ProjectsReproducibility of Resultscritical appraisalevidence synthesisgenerative artificial intelligencequalitative researchquality assessmentsystematic reviews

Identifiers

PMID41316952
PMCPMC12665031

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.