Advanced Search Strategy Design for Complex Topics

Description:

This is a re-designed advanced course on search strategy design for complex topics and complements our course on advanced search techniques. As the volume of published research grows it is becoming more challenging to identify efficiently studies performed according to specific methods or relating to broad topics. As well as increasing volumes of research, many research topics are complex to capture in search strategies. Examples of complex topics may include, but are not limited to, reviews of complex interventions, reviews requiring the identification of study designs other than RCTs, public health and social care topics, veterinary literature, food and feed safety research.

Information professionals and others wishing to develop search strategies for complex topics face challenges in designing strategies which retrieve relevant material but are also efficient in numbers of records retrieved. As well as approaches to developing strategies to run in traditional bibliographic databases, increasingly text analytical software and text mining techniques are being used to interrogate large literatures. These techniques can be used to identify concepts in complex topics and assist with developing strategies to capture complex topics.
This training event will address the challenges of developing search strategies to capture complex topics in large bibliographic databases using different conceptual combinations and search techniques. The training event will also introduce textual analytic and text mining techniques to demonstrate their potential for strategy design and testing. Participants will undertake exercises using open source visualisation tools to investigate terms within sets of records.

Course Trainers

The training course presenters will be Julie Glanville, Carol Lefebvre, Steven Brewer and Hannah Wood. Julie Glanville is an Associate Director and Hannah Wood is an Information Specialist at York Health Economics Consortium, University of York. Carol Lefebvre is an Independent Information Consultant and Director of Lefebvre Associates Ltd. Steven Brewer is the Managing Director of Text Mining Solutions Limited.
Julie and Carol are long-term collaborators who have developed and published search filters to identify RCTs and systematic reviews. They are also editors of the InterTASC Information Specialists’ (ISSG) Search Filter Resource website and co-convenors of the Cochrane Information Retrieval Methods Group. Steven Brewer offers text mining services to a range of clients in many subject fields. Julie, Hannah and Steven have collaborated on the use of textual analytics and text mining for developing systematic review searches.

By the end of the training day, participants will have:

• An awareness of how to approach complex search strategy design;
• An awareness of the approaches typically used in textual analytics and text mining applications;
• An understanding of the opportunities for using textual analytics and text mining approaches to develop strategies in complex or hard to define questions.

Who should attend?

This study day would be of interest to librarians, information specialists, other information professionals and researchers seeking more insight into search strategy design for complex topics. Whilst the focus of the day will be searching in health, social care, food safety and feed safety, the key principles covered will be generalisable to other fields.

Cost:

£225 + VAT

Website and registration:

http://www.yhec.co.uk/training/advanced-search-strategy-design/

Region:

Yorkshire and Humberside

Keywords:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs, ICT and Software, Consultancy Skills, Research Skills, Communication and Dissemination

Related publications and presentations:

Frameworks for Research and Research Designs
ICT and Software
Consultancy Skills
Research Skills, Communication and Dissemination

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