Systematic Review Elective- Lincoln University 2nd-3rd
June 2016.
This elective appealed to me when I first read about it at
the DTA Autumn School. I knew I planned to complete a Systematic Review and
Meta-analysis as part of my PhD and had at that point very little experience or
training on these methods. By the time the course came around I had actually
completed the majority of the systematic review, and was preparing to start the
meta-analysis. I did question the usefulness of the course for me personally, as
a result of the timings, but as my PhD is not based on lab work, some of the
other electives would not be relevant for my study area and so this one was the
most relevant one available at the time.
I approached the elective with some scepticism, not sure of
how useful it would be and wondering whether my time would be better spent
carrying on with my review. Despite the course mainly outlining how to complete
a systematic review from the very beginning, things like designing a research
question, setting out search terms and similar (things I had already done), I
found it a really useful experience in reflecting back on what I had done, and
confirming some of the decisions I had made were appropriate ones. It also gave
me some really good tips for writing up the review.
The Meta-analysis session was extremely useful for me, as I
was preparing to conduct my own at that time. This was something completely new
(and somewhat mystifying) to me, so the course made the purpose and process
much clearer to me. I came away reassured that I needed to complete a
meta-analysis, and much more confident in how I was going to go about it. It also
gave me hands on experience in software that I needed to use for some elements
of my analysis.
The main thing the course provided me with was some answers
to questions that had been troubling me for some time. The course leaders were very
patient with my numerous questions, and were able to assist with several
queries which were really holding up my progress. This alone was more than
worth attending the course for!
I think ideally this course would suit those at the
beginning of their systematic review journey, with a research question or topic
in mind. It was very interesting and informative, and I think if I had to do
another review, I would be in a much more informed position, and much more
confident about doing it (I would almost say I would look forward to doing another
review, and that is certainly not something I thought I would ever hear myself
say!)
Jo Parsons
Coventry University
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