Learn about evidence synthesis of animal study data through systematic review and meta-analysis.
After completing this module, you should be able to:
- Draft a comprehensive search
- Under expert supervision, as member of a review team, perform the basic steps of a systematic review of animal studies
- Assess the quality of an existing systematic review, using an appropriate tool
Core materials
Material 1 – SYRCLE’s Videoscribe on systematic review of animal studies
Study this material to learn about:
- The purpose of systematic reviews of animal studies
- The 6 main steps of a systematic review of animal studies
Type: Videoscribe
Duration: 5 minutes
Created by: SYRCLE
Material 2 – SYRCLE’s E-learning on systematic review of animal studies
Study this material to learn about:
- Formulating a PICO systematic review question
- Building a comprehensive search strategy
- Selecting studies using inclusion and exclusion criteria
- Extracting study characteristics
- Assessing bias in primary studies
- The basics of meta-analysis
- Interpreting systematic review results
Type: interactive E-learning
(N.B. use “SYRCLE” as your registration code to create an account!)
Duration: 60 – 90 minutes
Created by: SYRCLE
Material 3 – Spotlight on Methods and Tools: ROBIS
Study this material to learn about:
- Assessing the quality of a systematic review using the Risk Of Bias In Systematic reviews (ROBIS) tool
Type: webinar
Duration: 60 minutes
Speakers: Penny Withing and Robert Wolff
Created by: National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools @
McMaster University
Bonus materials
Bonus 1 – Systematic reviews of preclinical animal research: who are the potential knowledge users?
Study this material to learn about:
- Idenfitying potential knowledge users of systematic reviews of preclinical animal research
- Understanding the importance of systematic reviews of preclinical research findings
- Understanding where preclinical systematic reviews fit from bench to bedside
- Distinguishing between exploratory and confirmatory preclinical research
Type: webinar
Speaker: Mark Avey, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Created by: Cochrane training
Bonus 2 – Module “Systematic review and meta-analysis” in evidence-based toxicology
Study this material to learn about:
- How to perform systematic reviews and meta-analyses in toxicology
- The history of systematic review and meta-analysis
- Step-by-step instructions on how to perform systematic reviews and meta-analyses using examples from the research activities of the instructors.
Type: Cousera course (N.B. select week 3!)
Speakers: Thomas Hartung and Lena Smirnova, Johns Hopkins University
Additional resources
- website: SYstematic Review Centre for Laboratory Experimentation (SYRCLE)
- website: Collaborative Approach to Meta-Analysis and Review of Animal Data from Experimental Studies (CAMARADES)
- website: PROSPERO, the prospective register of systematic review protocols
- key publication: The usefulness of systematic reviews of animal experiments for the design of preclinical and clinical studies. de Vries RB, Wever KE, Avey MT, Stephens ML, Sena ES, Leenaars M. ILAR J. 2014;55(3):427-37. doi: 10.1093/ilar/ilu043.
- key publication: Systematic reviews and meta-analysis of preclinical studies: why perform them and how to appraise them critically. Sena ES, Currie GL, McCann SK, Macleod MR, Howells DW. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2014 May;34(5):737-42. doi: 10.1038/jcbfm.2014.28.
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