Advanced Searching for Systematic Reviews: Methods of Search Strategy Design

Dates of Live Instructor-Led Sessions: September 26 & October 2, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m., central time.

Searchers, even expert searchers, always have more to learn! In this iteration of the popular MLA course Julie Glanville and Carol Lefebvre have taught most years since 2017, you’ll learn the latest advanced techniques for building search strategies for systematic reviews and other major search projects, including strategies that employ machine learning tools. 

You’ll gain skills in search term identification and search structuring for a range of review types, insights into the benefits of text mining, knowledge of AI tools you can use to identify studies, and a greater appreciation of the value of peer review of search strategies. 

You’ll begin the course with readings and reflection questions available upon registration, and you’ll have homework and discussion questions between sessions and opportunities for discussion and questions with the instructors at the end of the second session. 

You’ll learn through presentations, question and answer opportunities, and general discussion. There will also be time to discuss best approaches and to share insights. 

This course is an approved elective for Level I of the Systematic Review Services Specialization.

Attendance maximum: 20

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Explain the principles of search strategy design for systematic and other reviews
• Identify techniques for designing strategies, including multi-stranded search strategies, strategies involving machine learning tools, and citation analysis and combined search approaches
• Build advanced search strategies
• Explain how text mining and AI can inform strategy design
• Identify, choose, and use search filters 
• Identify options for developing search strategies for complex and hard-to- define topics
• Describe the purpose of and options for peer review of search strategies

Audience

Health sciences librarians and information specialists who search or teach searching. This is an advanced course best-suited to experienced searchers, though all searchers will gain from the course. You should have at least a basic knowledge of database features (Boolean operators, thesaurus (MeSH) terms and search syntax) and experience in searching databases, such as MEDLINE/PubMed.

Instructors

Julie Glanville, MCLIP, is an independent information consultant focusing on advice, training, and research in information retrieval and search strategy design. She is also co-manager of the SuRe Info resource and the ISSG Search Filters Resource. Julie was previously an Associate Director of the York Health Economics Consortium. She is a qualified librarian and has worked in the field of systematic reviews for over 30 years. She is a co-author of the Cochrane Handbook chapter on searching for and selecting studies. She has contributed to the development of systematic review guidance for several organizations, including the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York, UK and the European Food Safety Authority.

Carol Lefebvre, HonFCLIP, is an independent information consultant, focusing on training, consultancy, and research since setting up her company in 2012. Before that she was the Senior Information Specialist at the UK Cochrane Centre based in Oxford, UK, where she was involved in the founding of Cochrane in 1992. She is a qualified librarian and worked for 7 years as the Deputy Librarian at the University of Oxford Medical School Library before joining Cochrane. She is Lead Convenor of the Cochrane Information Retrieval Methods Group and lead author of the searching for and selecting studies chapter of the Cochrane Handbook. She is a member of the SuRe Info Steering Group and co-manager of the ISSG Search Filters Resource.

Carol and Julie have been teaching together since the mid-1990s, focusing on information retrieval to support systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses. They have taught continuing education courses for MLA at annual meetings since 2014 and online since 2020.

Registration Information

• Length: Two part course that includes (2) 3-hour live instructor-led sessions + practice lessons
• Dates of Instructor-Led Sessions: Sept 26 & Oct 2, 2024, 10:00am–1:00pm, Central Time
• Technical information: Go to MY Learning in MEDLIB-ED to access the course, live sessions, resources, evaluation and certificate.
• Register, participate, and earn 6 MLA continuing education (CE) contact hours.

MLA CE Credits: 6