gms | German Medical Science

Tools like R and Python are becoming increasingly useful in the conduct of systematic reviews and evidence synthesis. In R specifically, many tools have been developed specifically to facilitate the systematic review process. Some of these tools provide vignettes and examples to help novice coders make use of the tools in a coding environment like RStudio, and others have graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that make them accessible to users without coding experience. One such tool is litsearchr, an R package that supports term harvesting, Boolean search construction, and search strategy testing, among other steps. This workshop will introduce learners to the basics of the R coding language and the RStudio coding environment, in the context of litsearchr and evidence synthesis work. We will draw from a recently developed Library Carpentry lesson (https://carpentries-incubator.github.io/lc-litsearchr/). This workshop is geared towards participants with no coding experience. Participants will learn basic concepts of R and RStudio, providing a foundation for learning to code in R. They will get hands-on experience with the litsearchr GUI, as a tool that can be incorporated into their systematic review workflows.

Keywords: automation, coding, R, term harvesting