The 2023 Institute will follow a weekly schedule during two weeks in July. The first week, July 1-7, requires participants to spend about 4-5 hours per day reviewing materials at their own pace, with two virtual lectures, allowing participants to fit the Institute around existing commitments. The second week is July 16 – 20 and will take place in-person at Cornell University Ithaca campus. 

Institute Week 1: July 1 – 7, 2023, participants should plan on spending about 4-5 hours/day actively engaged in learning. The plan for week 1 is briefly described below: 

• Cochrane Interactive Learning Modules (CIL): Access to these modules is provided through the Institute registration, and each day participants will be assigned a CIL to complete. This work is online and completed asynchronously and each module will require from 45-120 minutes to complete but may in some instances benefit from completing complementary reading assignments. 
• Plenary sessions: During the first week of the Institute there will be two virtual plenary sessions; for these sessions, which are 45-60 minutes duration, all participants are encouraged to join synchronously

Institute Week 2: July 16 – 20, 2023. Participants should plan for in-person sessions at Cornell University Ithaca campus. The plan for week 2 is briefly described below:

• Plenary sessions: Daily sessions where all participants come together to discuss the work plan
• Lectures: One-hour sessions daily to hear about systematic review methods and special topics in nutrition reviews provided by Institute faculty and invited experts
• Workshops: 90-minute interactive synchronous sessions where participants practice systematic review methods and concepts under the guidance of Institute faculty
• Other activities: During this week the review teams will present the plan for the systematic review they are working on to the full group. There will be opportunities to meet with the systematic review team and with the faculty mentors throughout the week, as well as opportunities for teams and participants to work with librarians and statisticians. 

Participants are encouraged to secure release time from their work commitments to be fully available to engage with the Summer Institute activities during these two weeks. There will be informal opportunities for networking as well as an opening reception and a closing dinner.

Topics to be covered in the Institute will provide opportunities for hands-on, small-group, interactive learning directly relevant to each review topic. The sessions are flexible to meet needs of the participants. Session topics include the following:

Weekly agenda across Phase I (8 weeks) and Phase II (5 weeks)
Phase I begins April 12, 2021 (week 1 to week 8)

Week 1: Introduction to conducting systematic review
[review stage background and review/protocol development]

• Cochrane history, WHO guideline development and interaction with Cochrane review groups
• Methods focus: Protocol development, including development of the question and PICO

Week 2: Protocol development/registration
[review stage: background and review/protocol development]

• The basics of the review protocol; logic models, including logic models to support public health reviews (process oriented) and reviews of infectious disease (biologically oriented), etc.
• Groups present their review topics in pre-recorded short videos that will be discussed by faculty and participants in synchronous sessions
• Methods focus: Protocol development and registration for different review types; Logic models to support all steps in the review; Building a strong foundation for the review

Week 3: Critical role of library support and searching for studies
[review stage: selecting studies and collecting data]

• The basics of searching for studies and working with information specialists 
• Group presentations of review topics in pre-recorded short videos that will be discussed by faculty and participants in synchronous sessions

• Methods focus: constructing a search, practice applying a search strategy and working with online databases, working with Cochrane groups to complete a search

Week 4: Criteria for including studies in the reviews and introduction to study quality and risk of bias
[review stage: selecting studies and collecting data]

• Selecting studies to include in the review, and extracting data from studies
• Group presentations of review topics in pre-recorded short videos that will be discussed by faculty and participants in synchronous sessions
• Methods focus: screening studies, extracting data

Week 5: Study quality and the risk of bias
[review stage: selecting studies and collecting data]

• Understanding bias and how to assess risk of bias in included studies, focused on randomized trial study design
• Group presentations of review topics in pre-recorded short videos that will be discussed by faculty and participants in synchronous sessions

• Methods focus: understanding sources of bias in randomized controlled trials

Week 6: Analyzing data extracted from the studies
[review stage: analyzing extracted data and undertaking the meta-analysis]

• Effect measures, analyzing different data types, introduction to meta-analysis, heterogeneity among included studies
• Group presentations of review topics in pre-recorded short videos that will be discussed by faculty and participants in synchronous sessions

• Methods focus: constructing a search, practice applying a search strategy and working with online databases, working with Cochrane groups to complete a search, introduction to GRADE

Week 7: Interpreting the findings of the analysis and the summary of findings table
[review stage: selecting studies and collecting data]

• Interpreting the review findings, and introduction to using GRADE to report certainty of the evidence
• Group presentations of review topics in pre-recorded short videos that will be discussed by faculty and participants in synchronous sessions
• Methods focus: constructing a search, practice applying a search strategy and working with online databases, working with Cochrane groups to complete a search, introduction to GRADE

Week 8: Reporting the review findings
[review stage: selecting studies and collecting data]

• Creating the Summary of Findings table, writing a review, different summary formats used in Cochrane reviews
• Group presentations of review topics in pre-recorded short videos that will be discussed by faculty and participants in synchronous sessions
• Methods focus: constructing a search, practice applying a search strategy and working with online databases, working with Cochrane groups to complete a search, introduction to GRADE

Phase II, begins week of July 5, 2021 (week 9 to week 13)

Week 9: Criteria for including studies in the review
[review stage: selecting studies and collecting data]

• Plenary session on integration of equity into Cochrane reviews of nutrition and nutrition-sensitive interventions
• Methods focus: Data extraction forms and applying inclusion criteria; data extraction by comparison and outcome; Search syntax and translating searches from PubMed to other databases
• Group presentations on progress/plans forward with input and guidance from faculty

Week 10: Collecting data from published studies, including extraction and risk of bias tools
[review stage: selecting studies and collecting data]

• Plenary sessions on models and methods available for nutrition evidence
• Methods focus: Searching for clinical trials; Tackling the gray literature; Introduction to RevMan for data entry, the characteristics of studies table, and the excluded studies table; Statistical approaches–effect sizes and summary statistics for categorical and continuous outcomes
• Group presentations on progress/plans forward with input and guidance from faculty

Week 11: Statistical support for review success
[review stage: analyzing extracted data and undertaking the meta-analysis]

• Plenary session on understanding sources of bias in individual studies
• Methods focus: definitions of bias, assessing risk of bias in included studies, library and statistical topics
• Group presentations on progress/plans forward with input and guidance from faculty

Week 12: Analyzing extracted data
[review stage: analyzing extracted data and undertaking the meta-analysis]

• Plenary session on plain language communications
• Methods focus: creating risk of bias tables and figures. Understanding assessment of overall risk of bias; Statistics topic—fixed and random effect models, heterogeneity and subgroup analysis
• Group presentations on progress/plans forward with input and guidance from faculty

Week 13: Presenting results
[review stage: presenting results, summary of findings table, interpreting results and drawing conclusions]

• Plenary sessions: Using GRADE; GRADE and the Summary of Findings Table
• Methods focus: data analysis and construction and interpretation of forest plots; risk of bias tools; how to use non-randomized studies in a review; RevMan advanced methods, getting to the finish line with your review; the publication process in Cochrane reviews; applying GRADE to your review
• Group presentations on progress/plans forward with input and guidance from faculty