Dr Andrew Booth is a Reader in the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield. He is a Research Associate of Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland and a co-convenor of the Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group. Andrew is a Chartered Information Professional (UK CILIP). He obtained his PhD by Publications from the University of Sheffield (2013) and his MSc (1996) and Diploma in Librarianship with Distinction (1983) from the University of Wales (Aberystwyth), having previously gained a BA with First Class Honours from the University of Reading (1982). Andrew has collaborated extensively with Evidence Synthesis Ireland, having delivered webinars and face-to-face training, contributed to priority setting projects and co-presented at the UK and Ireland Cochrane Contributors Conference. Andrew has been teaching and conducting systematic reviews for over 25 years, latterly specialising in qualitative evidence synthesis and realist synthesis although also teaching and researching on reviews more generally. Between 2015 and 2021 he has been the world’s most prolific author/co-author of the methodology and published examples of qualitative evidence synthesis. In 2020 he collaborated with Evidence Synthesis Ireland to provide methodological support to the first ever Cochrane Rapid Qualitative Evidence Synthesis.
Andrew’s research primarily focuses on methods of information retrieval and/or qualitative synthesis. He is responsible for many research and teaching acronyms and mnemonics used in everyday reviewing practice (e.g. SPICE, SPIDER, PerSPE©TiFand RETREAT) and contributes to numerous review modules and short courses including his own annual ESQUIRE course on Qualitative Evidence Synthesis. He has specific expertise in evidence synthesis and critical appraisal, implementation science/knowledge translation, and typologies of reviews. Andrew was awarded the prestigious Cyril Barnard Award for outstanding contribution to health librarianship in 2011. Andrew is a member of the National Institute of Health Research (UK) Health Services & Delivery Research Funding Board and is currently in his eighth (of ten) year of co-directing one of their Evidence Synthesis Centres. He is a longstanding member of the Editorial Boards of Research Synthesis Methods, Implementation Science and Health Information & Libraries Journal and, previously, for Systematic Reviews.
