Introduction to Systematic Reviews (Online)

*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@universityofgalway.ie

Date: 22nd,23rd, 29th & 30th January 2026

Time: 10.00am - 1.00pm each day

Places: 25 places for individuals who are resident on the island of Ireland

Background

Healthcare policy and practice decisions should be based on a synthesis of the global body of evidence rather than relying on individual studies. Cochrane Ireland and Evidence Synthesis Ireland promote evidence-based healthcare policy and practice by supporting high-quality, relevant systematic reviews of the effects of interventions and other synthesised research evidence.

Aim

This workshop provides authors, at the beginning of the systematic review process, with a clear understanding of how systematic reviews of the effects of interventions are planned and conducted. It offers an insight into the development of a protocol, introducing participants to methodology, search methods, data extraction, risk of bias assessment and meta-analysis. While the focus is on systematic reviews of the effects of interventions, the principles discussed are likely to be useful to inform steps and approaches in other types of reviews.

Learning outcomes

In this course participants will be enabled to:

• Understand the basic principles of a systematic review of the effects of interventions
• Identify the scope of their review
• Understand search methods and apply these methods to their search strategy
• Apply the criteria for selecting studies
• Understand the principles of creating a data collection form and data extraction
• Understand the principles of risk of bias assessment
• Understand principles of heterogeneity and understand the methods for assessing and addressing it
• Attain a basic understanding of principles of meta-analysis

Teaching strategies

The workshop will consist of a mixture of short presentations led by members of the Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland teaching faculty, covering each of the stages of developing a systematic review protocol, small group activities and plenary discussions, providing participants with the opportunity to develop and refine their protocol. Although focusing on systematic reviews of the effects of interventions, the principles are likely to apply to other review types. This course will include blended learning with two months free access to Cochrane Interactive Learning self-directed learning modules, a number of which will be required study prior to the workshop. The number of participants for the course is limited to 25.

Facilitators

Dr KM Saif-Ur-Rahman, Senior Methodologist, Evidence Synthesis Ireland & Research Fellow, Univeristy of Galway.

Ciara Gleeson, Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist, Respiratory Assessment Unit, St. James’s Hospital, Dublin.

Dr Elayne Ahern, Associate Professor, Departmant of Psychology, University of Limerick

Course content

Day 1 – Pre-learning: Have completed modules 1, 2 & 3 from Cochrane Interactive Learning

10:00 Welcome, introduction of presenters

10:15 Defining a review question – defining objectives and creating a PICO (population, interventions, comparators, outcomes)

10:45 Practical exercise with PICO development

11:00 Practical exercise feedback

11:15 Break

11:30 Writing a protocol

12:00 Identifying search terms and searching for relevant studies in a systematic way

12:30 Practical exercise: developing a search strategy

12:45 Practical exercise feedback

13:00 Close

Day 2 – Pre-learning: Have completed modules 4 & 5 from Cochrane Interactive Learning

10:00 Recap and questions on Day 1

10:30 Selecting studies

11.00 Break

11.15 Practical exercise: assessing eligibility

11:45 Practical exercise feedback

12.15 Assessing risk of bias (2.0)

13.00 Close

Day 3 – Pre-learning: Have completed module 5 from Cochrane Interactive Learning

10:00 Recap and questions on Day 2

10:30 Practical exercise on risk of bias

11:00 Break

11:15 Practical exercise feedback

11:45 Data extraction and management; different types and formats of outcome data

12:15 Practical exercise on data collection/extraction and management

12:35 Practical exercise feedback & open Q&A

13:00 Close

Day 4 – Pre-learning: Have completed module 6 from Cochrane Interactive Learning

10:00 Recap and questions on Day 3

10:30 Analysis methods for binary data (odds ratio, risk ratio)

11.00 Analysis methods for continuous data (mean difference, standardised mean difference)

11:30 Break

11:45 Introduction to meta-analysis

12:30 Exploring heterogeneity; subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis

13:00 Discussion and questions

13:30 Close