Join us for our Winter School at Riddel Hall, Queen’s University Belfast, on 26th and 27th January 2027, for a hands-on two-day winter school on “Introduction to Systematic Reviews.” Run by Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland, it is designed for those at the beginning of the systematic review process. Through short presentations, worked examples, live demonstrations and interactive polls, you’ll learn how systematic reviews are planned and conducted, from developing a protocol and searching for studies through to data extraction, risk of bias assessment, meta-analysis, interpretation and reporting.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the two days, participants will be able to:
- Describe the basic principles of a systematic review.
- Formulate a review question using PICO and identify the scope of their review.
- Describe the key sections of a systematic review protocol and why it should be registered.
- Explain search methods and how a search strategy is built.
- Apply the eligibility criteria for selecting studies.
- Explain the principles of creating a data collection form and of data extraction.
- Explain the principles of risk of bias assessment.
- Explain the concept of heterogeneity and describe the methods for assessing and addressing it.
- Describe the basic principles of meta-analysis and interpret a forest plot.
- Describe how the certainty of evidence is assessed with GRADE and presented in a summary of findings table.
- Outline what needs to be reported in a systematic review, using PRISMA.
Audience:
Healthcare professionals, academics, students, researchers, decision makers and Evidence Synthesis Ireland Fellows who are planning, or about to start, a systematic review.
To read more see the ESI Ireland website and to register click here.