Tools like R and Python are becoming increasingly useful in the conduct of systematic reviews and evidence synthesis. In R specifically, many tools have been developed specifically to facilitate the systematic review process. Some of these tools provide vignettes and examples to help novice coders make use of the tools in a coding environment like RStudio, and others have graphical user interfaces that make them accessible to users without coding experience. One such tool is litsearchr, an R package that supports term harvesting, Boolean search construction, and search strategy testing, among other steps. This workshop will introduce learners to the basics of the R coding language and the RStudio coding environment, in the context of litsearchr and evidence synthesis work. We will draw from recently developed Library Carpentry curriculum. This workshop is geared towards participants with no coding experience. Participants will learn basic concepts of working with files, folders and objects in R and RStudio, will understand different data structures, and will be introduced to litsearchr as a tool that can be incorporated into their systematic review workflows.
Library Carpentry is a software and data skills training programme for people working in library- and information-related roles. It builds on the work of Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry. Library Carpentry is an official Lesson Program of The Carpentries.
All Software, Data, and Library Carpentry instructional material is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution license. Licensed under CC-BY 4.0 2016–2020 by Library Carpentry.
It is distributed under a https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
The original Library Carpentry lesson on which this content is based was authored by:
We would also like to acknowledge and thank Clarke Lakovakis for allowing us to use his Introduction to R guide while developing this course.