This 4-day course will be online and consist of a mixture of live and pre-recorded lectures, with exercises for participants to complete themselves and tutor-facilitated small group sessions. It is full time over the four days.

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

1. explain the need for systematic reviews and meta-analyses;
2. list the important aspects of a systematic review;
3. perform a comprehensive search for relevant literature;
4. appreciate the role of tools to assess risk of bias, including their application to randomised controlled trials;
5. explain the basic methods of meta-analysis;
6. use Stata or R software to perform a basic meta-analysis;
7. describe issues in conducting systematic reviews of observational studies;
8. summarise the findings of a systematic review or meta-analysis; and
9. evaluate the quality of a systematic review.

This course is designed for clinicians, researchers, public health specialists and other health care professionals who want to perform and/or evaluate systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The course predominantly focuses on systematic reviews of healthcare interventions, although much of the material translates to systematic reviews in other areas. Sessions examine issues in systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies.

This course will cover:

1. why we need systematic reviews and meta-analyses;
2. the systematic review process;
3. identifying relevant studies;
4. selecting studies and data extraction;
5. types of data and effect sizes;
6. assessing risk of bias in primary studies;
7. statistical methods for meta-analysis of dichotomous and numerical (continuous) outcomes;
8. explaining heterogeneity: subgroup analysis and meta-regression;
9. meta-analysis and meta-regression in R or Stata;
10. synthesis without meta-analysis;
11. brief introduction to network meta-analysis;
12. understanding, investigating and dealing with bias in systematic reviews;
13. systematic reviews and meta-analysis of observational studies;
14. assessing certainty of the evidence in a systematic review;
15. reporting a systematic review; and
16. critical appraisal of a systematic review.

The course is co-organised by Dr Jelena Savovic, Dr Clare French and Dr Annabel Davies.

Course teaching staff are drawn largely from the Bristol Review and Appraisal of Research (BARR) group at the University of Bristol. The group, led by Professor Julian Higgins, has extensive experience and expertise in all aspects of systematic reviews and comprises systematic reviewers, research synthesis methodologists, information retrieval specialists and statisticians.

To make sure the course is suitable for you and you will benefit from attending, please ensure you meet the following prerequisites before booking:

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience and prerequisites. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms & conditions, which can be read in full here.

For help and support with booking a course refer to our booking information page, FAQs or feel free to contact us directly. For available payment options please see: How to pay your short course fees.

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.

To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.

All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 3 months after the course. 

University of Bristol staff and postgraduate students who do not wish to attend the full course may instead register for access to the 'Materials & Recordings' version of this course: Further information and bookings.

100% of attendees recommend this course*.
*Attendee feedback from 2024.

Here is a sample of feedback from the last run of the course:

“Very well explained and approachable tutors” – course feedback, January 2024

“Sessions very comprehensive and I now feel more confident to undertake a meta-analysis. Pre-course R course was very helpful for conducting the R sessions. Good exposure to relevant tools for assessing bias and quality. Good combination of different session types” – course feedback, January 2024

“Good balance of lectures and practical tasks. I also appreciated the number of lecturers and tutors that were there to help and conducted lectures tailored to their specific area of expertise” – course feedback, January 2024

“The course was very well structured and organised. I think you used the online format to its maximum potential and the mix of synchronous, asynchronous, individual and group tasks was excellent. I found a lot of benefit from tasks that I attempted by myself, then met with a group AND course tutor to discuss the results in small groups. The course felt very coherent, there was almost no unneccesary overlap between respective lectures. The opportunities to attempt to utilise new knowledge then receive feedback on it was v helpful” – course feedback, January 2024

“It provided a good overview of different areas to consider and be aware of. The R tutorial worksheets were explained clearly and gave me confidence in being able to implement them. I also liked that content was reiterated through various topics allowing for recollection and building on knowledge” – course feedback, January 2024

“The varied methods of delivery were really helpful (e.g. live lectures, group work, practicals)” – course feedback, January 2024

“It was a high level course and gave a truly comprehensive overview” – course feedback, January 2024

“It was well organised. Topics were covered comprehensively with the ability to read further for more specific queries” – course feedback, January 2024

“Instructors were clear, learning objectives clearly laid out and met” – course feedback, January 2024

“I especially found the sessions on literature searching helpful, with dedicated time to practice what we had learned. I think the ordering was good and gave a useful overview of all the key steps in conducting a systematic review/ meta-analysis” – course feedback, January 2024

“This course will be really helpful going forward as I conduct my first systematic review. I feel more confident in knowing how to get started and the approaches I should take” – course feedback, January 2024