Artificial Intelligence For Evidence Synthesis (ArtIFIS)

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About the course

The Artificial Intelligence For Evidence Synthesis (ArtIFIS) course offers you a broad, critical way to explore how to integrate AI within systematic review workflows, balancing efficiency with methodological rigour. Drawing on the latest evidence, the course provides hands-on, practical guidance on when and how to deploy AI for such tasks as scoping, search strategy development, screening, data extraction, quality assessment, along with planning, managing and writing up your review. The course will explore how to use AI responsibly, teaching you how to manage the critical risks of algorithmic bias, data privacy, reproducibility, and the "black box" problem, ensuring all AI-assisted processes adhere to human-led validation and transparent reporting standards.

Who will benefit from the course?

The ArtIFIS course is designed to benefit researchers, professionals and students involved in conducting systematic reviews and evidence synthesis who wish to integrate AI and automation within their work. The course assumes that participants are already familiar with systematic review methodologies and manual processes, so previous knowledge and/or experience in systematic reviews is essential. For a conventional overview of systematic reviews and meta-analysis, please see our short course Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis.

Learning outcomes / objectives

By the end of this course participants should be able to:

• Understand how AI can be used in evidence synthesis by assessing current evidence for its use, identifying where AI can assist, and critically evaluating the risks versus benefits of AI integration.

• Identify automation opportunities by mapping each stage of the systematic review process to where AI tools can save time and reduce human error while maintaining methodological rigour.

• Overcome practical obstacles in automating tasks and know when human judgement should override built-in algorithmic assessments.

• Facilitate review planning by exploring how AI tools can help to develop realistic timelines, estimate time requirements, and allocate team resources effectively.

• Perform core review tasks using AI assistance, covering the practical application of scoping, searching, selecting studies, data extraction, and quality assessment/risk of bias.

• Harness AI-assisted reporting by learning how tools can automatically generate PRISMA-compliant flow diagrams and navigate checklists, ensuring accurate reporting and adherence to reporting requirements.

• Document AI use transparently to meet methodological rigour and guidelines for responsible use, including reporting tool versions, settings, prompts, training data characteristics, and limitations.

• Maintain critical human oversight by implementing practical strategies for validating AI-generated outputs, establishing acceptable error thresholds, and determining substantive review decisions.

• Address ethical and methodological challenges by assessing and mitigating algorithmic bias, ensuring reproducibility through audit trails, and navigating issues related to data privacy and intellectual property

Dates and times

TBC

Fees

The fee for this course has not been set.

Current University of Sheffield staff and students are eligible to book at a reduced rate. An active @sheffield.ac.uk email address is required to book at this reduced rate.

Please see Booking and payment section for further details.

All fees are VAT exempt.

Booking and Payment

Payment can be made via credit / debit card or PayPal. Please visit the Online Store to make your booking.  

Non-University of Sheffield applicants - If your employer is paying your fees and they require an invoice, please ensure you have your purchase order details before making your booking. 

Current University of Sheffield staff and students – If you would prefer to be invoiced or to pay via an internal transfer, a purchase order will be required before you make your booking.  Please contact your department administrator or finance team for help with this.

Difficulties making your booking?

If you are having difficulties making your booking, please contact the Online Store directly at onlinestore@sheffield.ac.uk

Course Delivery and Requirements

This course will be delivered using the University's 'Blackboard' platform.

* NHS staff - important note: We are aware of issues caused by NHS firewalls.  We recommend registering with an alternative/non-NHS email and using a non-NHS device when attending the course if possible. Thank you *

Requirements:

• Reliable and stable internet connection.
• A PC or laptop
• Webcam and microphone (preferably a USB headset)
• Preferably a quiet room where there will be no/minimal disruption.
• Ability to access Google applications (e.g. Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Sheets).

Contact

For further information please do not hesitate to contact us:

Email at smph-shortcourses@sheffield.ac.uk