Have you ever screened for studies in a systematic review, a scoping review, or other knowledge synthesis study? Did you find it challenging? Would you like to learn strategies to:  

• Improve your screening by reducing the number of screening conflicts, and the time spent resolving them? 

• Increase screening accuracy among your team?  

Workshop objectives: 

• Describe and understand the importance of inclusion and exclusion criteria.

• Define, and illustrate what clear and well-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria looks like.

• Identify issues with the study screening process.

• Discuss strategies to reduce study screening conflicts, and increase study screening accuracy for the first level of screening (title and abstract), and second level of screening (full text).

This workshop will NOT cover:

• Methods for different review types
• How to search for studies
• How to abstract data from studies
• How to synthesize studies

You will get the most out of this workshop if: 

• You understand what a focused research question is, and know how to develop a focused research question.

• You understand what inclusion and exclusion criteria means, what screening conflicts are, and what first and second level of screening is.

• You understand the methods for systematic reviews, scoping reviews, rapid reviews, and other knowledge syntheses.

• You understand what a protocol is, and have developed one, for a knowledge syntheses project.

Strategies learned in this workshop can be applied to any knowledge syntheses study in both the first level of screening (title and abstract) and second level of screening (full-text).

Instructors

Patricia Ayala, Research Services Librarian

Patricia has worked on the development of the Systematic and Scoping Review Service (SSRS) at Gerstein Science Information Centre, focused on collaborating with faculty and researchers engaged in systematic, scoping and other types of method-driven literature reviews. Patricia’s portfolio includes building and deepening relationships with faculty, staff, students and other researchers, on campus, within research institutes, teaching hospitals,  and national and international organizations.  She's part of the team developing of PRISMA-Search a guideline on how to report literature searches.  She has degrees in Biology and Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina, and Master in Information and Library Studies from the University of Toronto.

Sabine Calleja, MI

Sabine has worked in a variety of areas at Gerstein Science Information Centre, and is currently focusing in the Research Services Department. Among her duties, Sabine has co-authored research guides, worked on different types of reviews, and organized various library events. She has a bachelor’s degree in History and a Master of Information degree both from the University of Toronto.