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) approximately 1 week 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 2022-2023.

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

"It was really great: Comprehensive and well organised.  You changed me from zero to hero about meta analysis".
Course feedback, June 2023

"I think everything was really well formatted. It was easy to follow and the practicals allowed for us to understand how to actually put what was learned in the lecture into a real scenario".
Course feedback, June 2023

"Nice mix of live and recorded sessions, plenty of time for questions, breaks and practice using software, support during software practice sessions".
Course feedback, June 2023

"The range of tutors were engaging and very attentive. The support offered was impressive".
Course feedback, June 2023

"Very comprehensive and detailed course on systematic reviews and meta analysis".
Course feedback, June 2023

"The live sessions were incredible and worked very well. I also found the practical sessions in R really useful".
Course feedback, June 2023

"Excellent explanations by course lecturers and leaders. Supported by detailed examples and well designed practicals that helped to explore the topics further".
Course feedback, June 2023

"The polls helped me to think through the concepts. The lecturers were well knowledgeable and willing to stop in between sessions for questions. Very clear answers and guidelines. Provision of R for practical for anyone who does not use stata".
Course feedback, June 2023