Evidence Syntheses (Scoping, systematic, & other types of reviews)

Advanced Literature Searching in the Health Sciences MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)

• Covers fundamental components of advanced literature searching for projects such as systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and clinical practice guidelines
• 9 weeks of content with approximately 2-4 hours of effort per week
• Free with verified certificate available for a fee
• Designed by ​Informationists at the University of Michigan Taubman Health Sciences Library

Introduction to Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis MOOC

• Introduces methods and processes for systematic reviews and meta-analyses
• 6 weeks of content with approximately 1-3 hours of effort per week
• Free with certificate available for a fee
• Offered by Johns Hopkins University

The figure¹ below gives a high-level overview of the stages of the meta-analysis process. Related evidence synthesis methods may omit steps in the meta-analysis process; for example, systematic reviews will not include Step 14 meta-analyze.

Note the iterative nature of the process as search updates are conducted later in the project at Step 13 (an arrow on the left connects to Step 6 de-duplicate).

While this figure highlights appraisal of relevance in Steps 7 (screen abstracts) and 9 (screen full text), guidelines recommend critical appraisal of the individual study's validity and results once it is selected for inclusion.

¹Tsafnet, G., Glasziou, P., Choong, M.K., et al. Systematic review automation technologies. Systematic Reviews 2014; 3:74;  http://www.systematicreviewsjournal.com/content/3/1/74. (adaptation of original image)