In an effort to improve the quality of academic research, Universitas Brawijaya (UB) Library provided e-Resources Optimization Training to support Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and Bibliometrics for Masters and Doctoral students of the Civil Engineering Department on (3/19/2025). This activity presented speakers from UB Library’s Scholarly Team, namely Ir. Heri Prayitno and Pitoyo Widhi Atmoko, S.Si., M.Si.,
In the first session, Pitoyo Widhi Atmoko discussed the concept of Bibliometrics, a method used to analyze research trends based on scientific publications. This material covers steps from downloading bibliometric data from international journal databases in applying it to research. Participants were guided to understand how to use bibliometric software, such as VOSviewer and Biblioshiny, to map research trends and determine more strategic research directions.
Next, Ir. Heri Prayitno provided systematic guidance in compiling a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). In his material, he explained that the Research Question (RQ) is the most crucial part of the SLR, since it functions as the main guide in the process of searching and extracting literature.
Some important points taught in this session are compiling research questions (RQ) using the PICOC (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Context) method to ensure accuracy in literature searches, creating mind maps using Whimsical to make it easier to understand the relationship between concepts in research, compiling effective keyword strings with the help of ChatGPT or Claude AI to get more relevant literature search results, conducting literature searches in scientific databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and ScienceDirect, as well as techniques for storing metadata in BibTeX format for better reference management, screening articles with tools such as Parsif.al, Rayyan.ai, or Covidence.com to help the process of selecting and filtering literature based on its relevance and credibility, and Quality Assessment (QA) with the MMAT, CASP, or JBI methods, to ensure that the articles used in research are of high quality.
UB Civil Engineering Masters and Doctoral students welcomed this training since it provided practical insights that could be directly applied in their research. With SLR and Bibliometric techniques, students can more easily compile their state-of-the-art research, speed up the literature screening process, and improve the quality of their scientific publications.
“This training really helps us in compiling systematic literature reviews. With the methods taught, we can be more selective in choosing references and optimizing the search for relevant journals,” said Ruby, one of the participants.
This training is part of UB Library’s e-Resources optimization program, which aims to support students and lecturers in producing quality publications in reputable journals. In the future, UB Library will continue to hold similar training to improve the academic competence of UB community in research and scientific publications.
For students and lecturers who want to get further training, UB Library provides consultation services at the Scholar’s Lounge, as well as various other research support facilities such as co-working space and digital research tools. (IHWN/UB PR/ Trans. Iir).
