What is Systematic Literature Review? How Can We Use Them More Beyond Just a Dissertation Chapter?

What is a Systematic Literature Review (SLR)? We will introduce the concept, how-to, and the applications of SLRs to graduate students.

July 25, 2022, 11:00am Eastern Time – August 17, 2022, 2:30pm Eastern Time

Webinar Ended

Instructor

Debs GhoshDebs (Debarchana) Ghosh, University of Connecticut

Dr. Debs (Debarchana) Ghosh is the Associate Professor at the Department of Geography of the University of Connecticut. During her initial years as an Assistant Professor, she was introduced to Systematic Literature Reviews by her interdisciplinary collaborators. Since then, as a researcher, she has significantly benefited from learning and conducting SLRs as an approach to systematically formulate research questions for projects, has a deeper understanding of the background literature, identify research gaps, and all leading to well-designed research projects and grant proposals. With 12+ years of experience in teaching in general, recently teaching systematic reviews in graduate courses, published systematic reviews in peer-reviewed journal articles, and 10+ years of advising graduate students at UConn and volunteering for AAG’s sessions on graduate student mentoring, academic job seeking, and work-life balance.


Eligibility and capacity

We will select up to 20 graduate students to participate in this workshop. Selection will be based on your AAG membership status, your research needs, and time of registration. If you are selected, we will notify you ahead of the workshop and provide you all the workshop details and session links. If you are selected, the expectation is that you will participate in all sessions of the workshop.


Audience

This workshop is suitable for graduate students in Geography or related fields. It is open to all geographers with the following pre-requisites:

  1. Graduate students in the 1-2 years of their program;
  2. Graduate students who have a dissertation/research study topic;
  3. Graduate students who have research questions/objectives identified.

Participants with focused research questions/objectives will get the best out of this workshop.

Example 1: Topic and specific research question/objective for an SLR.

Heatwave effects on human health and wellbeing are a great public health concern, especially in the context of climate change. However, no universally consistent heatwave definition is available. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to assess the heatwave definitions used in the literature published up to 1st April 2015 by searching five databases (PubMed, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science).

Example 2: Topic and specific research question/objective for an SLR.

Racial discrimination is increasingly recognized as a determinant of racial and ethnic health inequalities, with growing evidence of strong associations between racial discrimination and adult health outcomes. There is a growing body of literature that considers the effects of racial discrimination on child and youth health. This paper aims to provide a systematic review of studies that examine relationships between reported racial discrimination and child and youth health.


Detailed schedule

This workshop will meet at the following times (Eastern Time):

  • Session 1: AAG Welcome Session, 11:00am – 12:30pm, Monday, July 25
  • Session 2: 1:00 – 3:00 pm, Tuesday, July 26
  • Session 3: 1:00 – 1:45pm, Wednesday, July 27
  • Session 4: (Optional), 1:45 – 2:15pm, Wednesday, July 27
  • Session 5: 1:00 – 2:15pm, Thursday, July 28
  • Session 6: 1:00 – 3:00pm, Friday, July 29

Throughout the week, expect to also spend a few hours working independently on readings or short assignments for the workshop.