Conducting the Systematic Literature Search: A Free Practical Workshop

A well-designed literature search is one of the foundations of a rigorous systematic review.

This practical workshop is designed to help researchers understand how to develop, run, and document systematic literature searches in a clear and reproducible way.

The workshop combines short lectures with guided group activities, giving participants an opportunity to apply what they learn during each session.

What the Workshop Covers

• - Fundamentals of systematic literature searching

• - Developing effective search approaches

• - Searching PubMed systematically

• - Running and documenting search strategies for reproducibility

Workshop Structure

Format: Online | Hands-on | Interactive
Time: 3:00–5:00 PM WAT
Each session includes 1 hour of lecture and 1 hour of group activity.

Session 1: Fundamentals of Systematic Literature Search
Date: 3 October 2026
Facilitator: Dr Alison Kinengyere

Session 2: PubMed: Building, Running and Documenting the Search
Date: 24 October 2026
Facilitator: Adrine Nyamwiza

Register here: https://bit.ly/srnoctober26

About the Facilitators

Dr Alison Kinengyere:

Associate Professor Alison Annet Kinengyere is an Academic Librarian and Head of the Sir Albert Cook Medical Library at Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Uganda. She has extensive expertise in systematic literature searching, information retrieval, evidence synthesis, and research information management, with more than a decade of experience supporting researchers, health professionals, postgraduate students, librarians, and multidisciplinary teams conducting systematic reviews and related evidence syntheses.

Her specialist expertise includes developing and peer-reviewing systematic search strategies, searching bibliographic and grey-literature sources, translating searches across databases, and ensuring that searches are transparent, reproducible, and appropriately documented. She is experienced in the use of tools and approaches including PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, PRISMA, PRESS, EndNote, Rayyan, and Covidence.

Since 2013, Prof. Kinengyere has trained and mentored medical and postgraduate students, researchers, health professionals, and academic librarians in systematic searching, evidence synthesis, database searching, and search-strategy development. She has also contributed to strengthening institutional capacity for systematic reviews and evidence synthesis at Makerere University and across other academic and health institutions in Africa.

She has served as an Information Retrieval Specialist with the Africa Centre for Systematic Reviews and Knowledge Translation, an Information Retrieval Consultant with the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), and a trainer and facilitator in evidence-based healthcare and systematic review methods.

Adrine Nyamwiza

Adrine Nyamwiza is a Medical Librarian and Information Retrieval Specialist at the Sir Albert Cook Medical Library, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Uganda. She supports researchers, students, and multidisciplinary research teams in identifying and retrieving evidence, developing and conducting literature searches, and managing references using tools such as EndNote and Zotero. She is also actively involved in evidence synthesis, contributing methodological expertise and capacity-building to strengthen the quality and reproducibility of systematic reviews and related research.

Her academic and professional interests centre on information retrieval, systematic reviews, evidence synthesis, research support, and the role of medical librarians in strengthening evidence-informed healthcare.

Adrine is also a co-author of the 2026 book Supporting Systematic Reviews and Other Evidence Synthesis Methodologies: A Librarian’s Toolkit, a practical resource designed to strengthen the capacity of librarians and researchers to conduct transparent, reproducible evidence syntheses.

She is a champion of the Better Evidence programme, supporting access to and uptake of the UpToDate clinical decision-support resource in African medical schools, and has contributed to research on its utilisation in Ugandan medical schools. She is a member of the Medical Library Association (MLA) and the African Health Information and Libraries Association (AHILA).

Adrine is currently pursuing doctoral research focused on medical librarians as information mediators for health equity in Africa, further extending her work at the intersection of health information, evidence access, and equity.