Systematic Literature Review: A Practical Guide for African Researchers
Course Overview
This mini-course provides early-career researchers, graduate students, and academics across African institutions with a practical, step-by-step guide to designing, conducting, and reporting a rigorous systematic literature review (SLR). Moving beyond the traditional narrative review, participants will master the PRISMA 2020 framework, formulate answerable research questions, develop reproducible search strategies, and learn screening, data extraction, and synthesis techniques tailored to the realities of African scholarship — including limited database access, grey literature challenges, and context-relevant quality appraisal. By the end of the course, learners will have a completed protocol and a clear roadmap toward producing a publication-ready systematic review.
What You'll Learn
Learning Outcomes
Differentiate between narrative, scoping, and systematic reviews and justify when an SLR is the appropriate methodology for a given research question.
Formulate a focused, answerable research question using the PICO(S) framework (or an appropriate adaptation for non-clinical fields).
Develop and document a reproducible search strategy including Boolean logic, controlled vocabulary, database selection (including African databases), and grey literature sources.
Construct a PRISMA 2020-compliant flow diagram showing the screening and selection process with clear exclusion rationale.
Apply at least two standard quality appraisal tools (e.g., ROB-2, CASP, or JBI checklists) to assess risk of bias in included studies.
Select and execute an appropriate synthesis method (narrative or meta-analytic) and report findings transparently using PRISMA 2020 checklist items.
Syllabus Overview
This mini-course provides early-career researchers, graduate students, and academics across African institutions with a practical, step-by-step guide to designing, conducting, and reporting a rigorous systematic literature review (SLR). Moving beyond the traditional narrative review, participants will master the PRISMA 2020 framework, formulate answerable research questions, develop reproducible search strategies, and learn screening, data extraction, and synthesis techniques tailored to the realities of African scholarship — including limited database access, grey literature challenges, and context-relevant quality appraisal.
Course Structure
Modules & Lessons
2 modules · 6 lessons
Module 1 lays the intellectual and procedural groundwork for conducting a systematic review. Learners first explore what distinguishes a systematic review from other review types, then master turning vague research interests into precise questions using PICO(S), document plans in a formal protocol, and design reproducible search strategies addressing both international and African-indexed literature.
- 01What Makes a Review Systematic? — Foundations, Review Types, and When to Use an SLR
- 02Framing the Question & Writing the Protocol — PICO(S), PROSPERO Registration, PRISMA-P
- 03Search Strategy Design — Boolean Operators, MeSH Terms, African Databases, and Grey Literature
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This Course
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