Systematic Review and Evidence Mapping: Strategies for Critically Assessing and Summarizing Research Findings

This course prepares participants to critically analyze and summarize findings of research studies designed by using a conceptual framework, and to evaluate the quality of published reviews. Faculty allow time for individual consultation on participants’ own projects. Course content includes

• How to use effective and efficient search techniques for identifying relevant literature.
• How to conduct a systematic literature review.
• How to assess and summarize reviews.
• How to perform meta-analysis and calculate effect sizes.
• How to construct and use evidence tables to identify patterns across studies.
• How to use the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Guide to Community Preventive Services and Guide to Clinical Preventive Services and the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations.
• How to construct and use evidence mapping.

Audience
The course is designed for clinicians, researchers, graduate students, and public health practitioners. Participants should have completed an introductory statistics course, should bring a literature review that is relevant to their interests, and should bring studies for a review or synthesis as well.

Duration
3 days (8 hours per day).