Nature Research Academies – Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Academy in Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are crucial in synthesizing clinical research to determine the efficacy of an intervention. However, conducting high-quality systematic reviews and meta-analyses that have clinical impact on the field takes time and expertise.

Nature Research Academies has developed this workshop in ‘Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses’ for clinical researchers, to explain how to conduct a systematic review or a meta-analysis.

• 1-day workshops
• Available to institutions globally, to host on-site
• For up to 50 clinical researchers

Feedback from participants

“Your workshop was very helpful for all Chinese students. I previously wrote a meta-analysis with my colleague, but it was rejected. I never understood why we failed until you made such a wonderful speech! Thank you so much!”

Academy content

• Types of reviews
  • Differences between literature review, systematic review and meta-analysis
  • Strengths and weaknesses of systematic reviews and meta-analysis
  • Ethical consideration: prior registration
• Searching and selecting studies
  • Searching the white and grey literature
  • The importance of exploring multiple databases
  • Deciding the inclusion and exclusion criteria
  • Duplicate publications
• Extracting data
  • Using a standardized format
  • Effect sizes and precision of estimates
• Presenting data
  • Summarizing data using a forest plot
  • Estimating publication bias using a funnel plot
  • Alternatives to forest plot and funnel plot
• Analyzing data
  • Random effect vs. fixed effect analysis models
  • Evaluating heterogeneity between studies
  • Rating the quality of evidence

Read more about Nature Research Academies