Beyond the Basics: A Practical Guide to Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses [St Lucia]
Are you familiar with systematic reviews and meta-analyses and considering conducting one of your own? This hands-on workshop is designed for you! In this workshop, we will begin by reviewing the differences between systematic reviews and meta-analyses, before guiding you step-by-step in using data management software for study screening. You’ll learn how to assess study quality, develop a coding legend, and perform data extraction techniques—all with applied practice using a sample dataset and practical tips and tricks along the way. At the end of the session, we’ll begin a discussion on effect sizes. Participants will leave with the skills needed to prepare a systematic review of their own and will be primed for our advanced session in late 2025 focused on understanding statistical methods for meta-analysis.
To join in on the in-class exercises we ask that you please set up a Covidence account prior to the session. Covidence is an online software product designed to improve the efficiency and experience of creating and maintaining reviews – and it is now free with a UQ username. Pre-workshop preparation:
Go to the UQ Library Covidence page
Enter your name and email address (either @student.uq.edu.au or @uq.edu.au) and click the “Request Invitation” link
Accept the invitation in your email
Log in to your existing Covidence account or sign up for a new account
- Download this .XML file ahead of time. This is the format used to import studies into Covidence. You won’t be able to open this file directly, nor do you need to prior to the session.
Presented by Dr Sarah Coundouris, Research Fellow, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences and Dr Amy Rouse, Senior Lecturer, School of Education
You must attend at least 75% of the session otherwise you may be marked absent
About Writing skills
The ability to write well is critical to success in your research degree and a ‘top 10’ skill sought by employers. Learning the strategies for good writing will help you write efficiently. Knowing not only what to write, but how to write it for a particular audience, will help you communicate your research effectively.
Useful links
- UQ Academic Writing [online at UQ]
- Improving writing through corpora [online at UQ]
- Getting started with a literature review (Library)
- Getting started with a Systematic Review (Library)