Evidence Synthesis 3: Systematic Review Research Project
Full course description
The Semester: Evidence Synthesis
There are a lot of scientific publications. It is estimated that 1.8 million articles are published each year. Even in any chosen specific field tens of thousands of articles are published each year. For example, during the COVID-19 outbreak 23,500 articles were published on the topic in just the first wave. Any researcher or research-based professional is expected to synthesize the results of scientific studies for evidence-based decision making, regulatory approval or to identify the gaps in literature that need further research. Research synthesis and systematic reviewing are rapidly evolving academic fields using dedicated study designs, software, and statistical tools with applications in all research domains. In this semester, containing two skill trainings (in periods 4 and 5) and a project (in period 6), we will discuss the full scope of principles, concepts and methods of systematic literature reviewing, including meta-analysis (statistical pooling of outcomes of included component studies). You will also gain hands-on coding experience with the statistical programme R. Having some experience with statistics or coding will thus help but is not a prerequisite. The semester will teach you how to read and write academic papers. It is, as such, a good preparation for your capstone project and possibly later in your educational and academic career.
The Project: Systematic Review
PRO3017 is a seamless continuation of SKI3011 where you finalise your meta-analysis and present it in a seminar and as a full academic paper. During the last 4 weeks of PRO3017 you will have dedicated time as there are no competing teaching modules running at the same time anymore.
Course objectives
After taking Evidence Synthesis 3, you can:
- Perform a systematic review with or without the statistical pooling of data
Prerequisites
SKI3010 Evidence Synthesis 1, SKI3011 Evidence Synthesis 2, SKI1004 Research Methods 1
Recommended
Skills trainings SKI1005 Research Methods 2, SKI2007 Presentation skills and having an idea about the type of research you are most interested in.
Recommended reading
- Self-selected