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PSYC 269 - Experimental Psychology

Provides an examination of the research methods of psychology and the philosophy behind their use, as well as opportunities to apply these skills in research.

Assignment Documents

Worksheet for developing your research question

Worksheets to use when developing your search protocol and recording search results

Templates for extracting and evaluating data from included research studies.

The purpose of a systematic review is to locate and synthesize all the scholarly research studies on a specific topic. A systematic review uses systematic processes and procedures to find, evaluate, and synthesize the results of the research. Systematic procedures are carefully followed to ensure that the research is transparent and can be replicated. This also minimizes bias.

A systematic review has: 

  • Clear inclusion/ exclusion criteria
  • An explicit search strategy

  • Systematic analysis of included studies

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What Is a Systematic Review?

Steps in a Systematic Review

  1. Determine your question
  2. Create a review protocol
    • Search strategy (exhaustive)
      • Inclusion and exclusion criteria
      • Data organization
  3. Conduct a thorough search
    • Use core and specialized databases
      • Inclusion and exclusion criteria
      • Reference management (e.g. Zotero)
  4. Assess the quality of the studies
  5. Summarize evidence
  6. Interpret findings.

 

Exhaustive searching for a systematic review requires using a variety of search techniques. 

Searching Medline

Searching PubMed using MeSH headings

Watch this short video produced by Duke University Medical Center to learn how to search using MeSH headings in PubMed.

 

 

If you have a result list, use the Yale MeSH analyzer to see the common MeSH headings.