Introduction to Meta-analyses and Systematic reviews

FRB-CESAB, UMS PatriNat & Cirad HortSys Training course

Joseph Langridge https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joseph-Langridge (FRB)https://www.fondationbiodiversite.fr , Damien Beillouin https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Damien-Beillouin (Cirad HortSys)https://ur-hortsys.cirad.fr/ , Jonathan Bonfanti https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jonathan-Bonfanti (INRAe Eco&Sols)https://www.umr-ecosols.fr/ , C. Sylvie Campagne https://csylviecampagne.com/ (Sorbonne University)https://www.sorbonne-universite.fr/ , Nicolas Casajus https://nicolascasajus.fr (FRB-CESAB)https://www.fondationbiodiversite.fr/la-fondation/le-cesab/ , Frédéric Gosselin https://cv.archives-ouvertes.fr/frederic-gosselin (INRAe)https://www.inrae.fr/ , Dakis-Yaoba Ouédraogo https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dakis-Yaoba-Ouedraogo-2 (Independent expert)# , Cathleen Petit https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rcyli4QAAAAJ&hl=fr (FRB-CESAB)https://www.fondationbiodiversite.fr/la-fondation/le-cesab/ , Romain Sordello https://www.biodiversite.romain-sordello.fr/ (UMS PatriNat)https://www.patrinat.fr/fr , Devi Veytia https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KG2HtuUAAAAJ&hl=en (ENS-PSL)https://www.ens.psl.eu/
10-04-2026

  Pre-registration opens each spring and training course is provided each fall. Subscribe to the FRB-CESAB newsletter to stay informed. More information is available on the FRB-CESAB website.


The objective of this five-day training course, co-organized by the FRB-CESAB, the UMS PatriNat and the Cirad HortSys is to train young researchers on the methods and techniques of meta-analyses and systematic reviews/maps applied to the field of biodiversity.

N.B. This training course is in French, but slides are available in English.


Program

Monday

Session Trainer Material
9:00 Welcome and icebreaker All
9:30 Introduction to evidence synthesis DB slides
10:30 Stakeholder engagement in systematic reviews JL slides
11:15 Planning a systematic review: the protocol JL slides
14:00 Literature search: databases and search equations SC slides
15:00 Corpus organisation and reference management NC slides
15:45 Screening: title, abstract and full text SC slides
16:30 Retrieving full-texts NC slides
17:00 Reporting standards (ROSES) JL slides

Tuesday

Session Trainer Material
9:00 Corpus visualisation approaches JL slides
9:20 Workshop: from hypotheses to a systematic map JL/DV slides
10:30 Codebook construction and testing JL/DV slides
14:00 R practical: mapping the evidence (a) DV/DB slides
14:45 Automated techniques: introduction to machine learning DV slides
16:15 Applying the RAISE guidelines DV slides

(a) Material for practice available here

Wednesday

Session Trainer Material
9:00 Effect sizes (b) DB slides
10:00 Critical appraisal and study validity JL slides
11:15 Quantitative data extraction: methods and tools (c) JL slides
14:00 Fixed, random and multilevel models (d) DB slides
15:00 Publication bias and sensitivity (e) DB slides
16:15 Why does the effect vary? Moderators and missing data (f) DB slides
17:00 Group work: discussion and constitution of groups All

(b) Cheatsheet on effect sizes formula available here
(c) Sample papers available here
(d) Material for practice available here
(e) Material for practice available here
(f) Material for practice available here

Thursday

Session Trainer Material
9:00 Group projects (meta-analysis or systematic review plan) All

Friday (morning)

Session Trainer Material
9:00 Final presentations and feedback All


Prerequisites

Please follow this tutorial to install your working environment before attending the training course. Note: for this course only R and RStudio Desktop are required.


See also

Discover the other training courses provided by the FRB-CESAB and its partners: https://frbcesab.github.io/content/courses.html

Citation

Langridge J, Beillouin D, Bonfanti J, Campagne CS, Casajus N, Gosselin F, Ouédraogo D-Y, Petit C, Sordello R & Veytia D (2026) FRB-CESAB, UMS PatriNat & Cirad HortSys training course: Introduction to meta-analyses and systematic reviews.

Corrections

If you see mistakes or want to suggest changes, please create an issue on the source repository.

Reuse

Text and figures are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0. Source code is available at https://github.com/literaturesynthesis/literaturesynthesis.github.io, unless otherwise noted. The figures that have been reused from other sources don't fall under this license and can be recognized by a note in their caption: "Figure from ...".