Instructor
Scott Jasechko (jasechko at ucsb dot edu)
Links
Code of conduct (links to A. Horst’s Github)
Course description
Synthesis tools in environmental science are rapidly evolving and becoming standard, formalized tools for review and assessment. Synthesis can include data aggregation, narrative reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis. Meta-analyses in particular are often viewed as the gold-standard methodology to quantitatively estimate the state-of-the-art of a research domain. The analytics and assumptions have changed significantly within the last 5 years. Key topics covered in this course include effect sizes, scope of inference, and statistical analyses using weighted measures.
Day 1
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 9:00-10:00 | Lecture. Introduction to meta-analyses and systematic reviews: definitions, best practices, why do one |
| 10:00-10:10 | Break |
| 10:10-11:00 | Assignment. Review and present a systematic review |
| 11:00-11:10 | Break |
| 11:10-12:00 | Interactive. PICO/PECO, literature search techniques; derive potential PICO questions for your project |
| 12:00-1:15 | Break |
| 1:15-2:15 | Flex. Citation management with Zotero (UCSB Librarian) |
| 2:15-2:25 | Break |
| 2:25-3:15 | Flex. Citation management with Zotero (UCSB Librarian; continued) |
| 3:15-3:25 | Break |
| 3:25-5:00 | Project. Primary research question; identifying a benchmark publication; PICO/PECO components and synonyms; topic background |
Day 2
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 9:00-10:00 | Lecture. Overview of protocols for systematic reviews |
| 10:00-10:10 | Break |
| 10:10-11:00 | Project. Completing search string (with Boolean operators), testing for comprehensiveness (benchmark publication), assembled literature database, screening articles for inclusion/exclusion |
| 11:00-11:10 | Break |
| 11:10-12:00 | Project. Completing search string (with Boolean operators), testing for comprehensiveness (benchmark publication), assembled literature database, screening articles for inclusion/exclusion (continued); Flex. Extracting data (e.g., webplot digitizer) |
| 12:00-1:15 | Break |
| 1:15-2:15 | Flex. NCEAS scientists panel |
| 2:15-2:25 | Break |
| 2:25-3:15 | Lecture. Biases in literature, PRISMA; Assignment. SysRev Exercise |
| 3:15-3:25 | Break |
| 3:25-5:00 | Assignment. SysRev Exercise |
Day 3
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 9:00-10:00 | Break (late start today) |
| 10:00-10:10 | Break |
| 10:10-11:00 | Lecture. Data extraction, critical appraisal, meta-analyses, effect sizes |
| 11:00-11:10 | Break |
| 11:10-12:00 | Assignment. Standardized mean differences (Cohen’s d, Hedge’s h), weighting effect sizes, uncertainty propagation, forest plots, funnel plots |
| 12:00-1:15 | Break |
| 1:15-2:15 | Project. Data coding and extraction, PRISMA |
| 2:15-2:25 | Break |
| 2:25-3:15 | Project. Data coding and extraction, PRISMA; Flex. Prepare final presentations |
| 3:15-3:25 | Break |
| 3:25-5:00 | Flex. Prepare final presentations |
Day 4
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 9:00-10:00 | Project. Final presentations |
| 10:00-10:10 | Break |
| 10:10-11:00 | Project. Final presentations |
| 11:00-11:10 | Break |
| 11:10-12:00 | Project. Final presentations; Flex. LaTeX formatting |
| 12:00-1:15 | Break |
| 1:15-2:15 | Flex. LaTeX formatting |
| 2:15-2:25 | Break |
| 2:25-3:15 | Project. Finalize written systematic review protocol |
| 3:15-3:25 | Break |
| 3:25-5:00 | Project. Finalize written systematic review protocol |
Thank you
This webpage was designed following a template put together by Dr. Allison Horst (and please see the ‘About this website’ section on Dr. Horst’s webpage here https://allisonhorst.github.io/EDS_212_essential-math/ for further acknowledgements)
