Systematic Review Methods: A Two-Session Workshop Guide

This two-session workshop guide splits systematic review methods training into a first session covering question structuring, protocol development, and search strategy, and a second session (held after participants have had time to practice) covering screening, data extraction, risk-of-bias assessment, and synthesis.

Session one: research question and search strategy

Session one covers structuring the research question (PICO or a variant appropriate to the study design), writing the eligibility criteria and planned analysis approach for the protocol, registering the protocol (commonly via PROSPERO), and building a reproducible search strategy that combines controlled vocabulary and free-text terms, documented for each database. At the end of the session, each participant or team has a draft protocol and a preliminary search strategy to refine.

The practice interval between sessions

Between the two sessions, participants register their protocol, finalise and run their search strategy, and begin initial title and abstract screening on a subset of results. This interval, commonly one to three weeks depending on the group’s pace, brings genuine questions to light (such as ambiguous eligibility criteria or search results that do not match expectations), which session two is structured to address.

Session two: screening and synthesis

Session two covers the completion of title/abstract and full-text screening against the finalised eligibility criteria, the design and piloting of a data-extraction form, the assessment of risk of bias for each included study, and the selection and application of a synthesis approach (narrative synthesis, and meta-analysis where appropriate), working with participants’ actual reviews in progress rather than a hypothetical example.

Session recording

Recordings of a live run of both sessions, and the accompanying materials, will be added above once a cohort has run.

Key points

Practical application

Frequently asked questions

@misc{systematic_review_methods_workshop_2026,
  author       = {{Pubrica Academy}},
  title        = {Systematic Review Methods: A Two-Session Workshop Guide},
  howpublished = {Pubrica},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {oct},
  url          = {https://pubrica.com/academy/workshop-guides/systematic-review-methods-workshop/},
  note         = {Accessed: <span data-cite-acc="iso">2026-10-15</span>}
}

Session 1: question structuring, protocol/eligibility criteria, PROSPERO registration, search strategy build
— Practice gap: register protocol, finalise and run search, begin screening a subset —
Session 2: complete screening, extraction form design/piloting, risk-of-bias assessment, synthesis approach