Cochrane Standard Author Training Course

Alberta SPOR Knowledge Translation Platform and Cochrane Child Health will be jointly hosting a Cochrane standard author training course in Edmonton, Alberta - a 2.5-day session to learn the basic skills of conducting a Cochrane review. This course is open to review authors in all disciplines.  Although Cochrane Child Health is coordinating this course, the material covered will not be specific to paediatrics.

Topics include protocols, setting your question, literature searching, study selection, assessing bias, data and analysis, formulating conclusions, and a hands-on session with the Review Manager software.

This workshop is suitable for participants who:

  • Have registered a review title about interventions, and are ready to begin writing a protocol
  • Have little or no experience in systematic reviews

OR

  • Participants who are experiencing difficulty defining the scope of their review. 

WHAT WILL BE COVERED?

Program

  1. Overview of the Cochrane Collaboration and Systematic Reviews
  2. Defining the Research Question and Developing a Protocol
  3. Systematic Searching of the Literature
  4. Study Selection
  5. Critical Appraisal and Risk of Bias tool
  6. Data extraction
  7. Analysis and Interpretation
  8. GRADE, Summary of Findings tables & Completing Your Review
  9. RevMan

A mixture of teaching styles will be used, but this workshop is based mainly around small group discussions to develop and refine the background and objectives sections of participants' protocol.

While the course is being co-organised and delivered by Cochrane Child Health, the course is not specific to child health topics.

WHAT WILL I ACHIEVE?

By the end of the workshop, participants should:

  • Be confident of the question their review is addressing and the implications for the review methods they will use
  • Understand the scope of their review
  • Have entered the criteria for selecting studies and objectives sections of the protocol into RevMan

The course will be held from approximately 9am to 4:30 pm from Wednesday November 23 to Friday November 25 at the Lister Centre on the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton, Canada.

REGISTRATION

Registration is available here.  A registration fee of $350 CAD ($333 + GST) includes instruction, all course materials, breakfast, lunch and refreshments. Please note that the registration fee is charged solely to cover our training costs and no profit is accruing to us. 

PLEASE NOTE:

  • Participants are required to bring their own laptop for course work. Free, wireless internet access will be provided.
  • Accommodation is not included in the cost of registration. Information about nearby hotels will be posted on their website shortly.
  • Transportation.  Parking is available for $14/day on campus.  The University of Alberta is well-served by local transit, including bus and the LRT (metro).  Edmonton International Airport (YEG) has direct flights from many major centres in Canada and the US.  
  • Cancellation policy.  Cancellations received up to two weeks before the conference will be refunded 100% of the registration fee, whereas a 50% refund will be given for cancellations received up until a week before the conference. There will be no refunds for cancellations received after that point.

Please email Devonne Brandys with any questions or concerns at devonne.brandys@ualberta.ca.

More information is available at: http://childhealth.cochrane.org/training