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Systematic Reviews & Evidence Synthesis Methods

Tools

Selecting Evidence Synthesis Tools

This page lists a sampling of commonly used tools to help with various stages of your evidence synthesis project. Tools are grouped by the following functions:

For more, search the Systematic Review Toolbox, a catalog of tools supporting the review process, or see the Additional Resources below.

 

 

This table summarizes the main functions of tools commonly used in evidence synthesis reviews.
  Search Strategy Citation Management Deduplication Screening Data Management
abstrackr No No No Yes No
CADIMA No No Yes Yes Yes
Catchii No No Yes Yes No
citationchaser Yes No No No No
Colandr No No Yes Yes Yes (extraction)
Covidence No No Yes Yes Yes (extraction)
DistillerSR No No Yes Yes Yes (extraction)
EndNote No Yes Yes No No
EPPI-Reviewer No Yes Yes Yes Yes
JBI SUMARI No No No Yes Yes
MeSH On Demand Yes No No No No
PubMed PubReMiner Yes No No No No
PubMed Search Tester Yes No No No No
Rayyan No No Yes Yes No
RevMan No No No No Yes
SR Accelerator Yes No Yes Yes No
SRDR+ No No No No Yes (extraction)
Yale MeSH Analyzer Yes No No No No
Zotero No Yes Yes No No

Search Strategy Development Tools

citationchaser (free, open source)

  • Automates citation chasing, saving time and effort in finding relevant studies.
  • Covers a wide range of scholarly records, including sources from PubMed, CrossRef, and CORE.
  • Web-based platform version with user-friendly interface. No coding knowledge required.
  • Open-source tool making the citation chasing process more transparent and reproducible.
  • citationchaser Tutorial (11:29 minutes)

MeSH On Demand (free)

  • Analyzes free-text input and suggests relevant MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms.
  • Leverages resources from the National Library of Medicine for reliable MeSH term suggestions.
  • Assists in identifying controlled vocabulary for search strategies, improving relevance.
  • MeSH On Demand Tutorial (4:49 minutes)

PubMed PubReMiner (free)

  • Identifies and analyzes patterns in PubMed search results.
  • Extracts key information like frequently used terms and co-occurring keywords.
  • Streamlines the analysis of large sets of PubMed search results.
  • Shows relationships between terms, authors, and journals to help refine research hypotheses.
  • PubMed PubReMiner Tutorial (2:44 minutes)

PubMed Search Tester (free)

  • Enables manual classification of search results into "good" (relevant) and "bad" (irrelevant) groups to create a validation set.
  • Tests multiple search strategies against the validation set to evaluate performance.
  • Provides feedback on sensitivity (ability to find relevant citations) and precision (ability to avoid irrelevant ones) for each strategy.
  • Supports iterative tweaking and testing of search strategies to optimize sensitivity and precision.

Yale MeSH Analyzer (free)

  • Analyzes and organizes MeSH terms into a grid for easy scanning.
  • Explores relationships between medical terms.
  • Identifies term variants and indexing patterns.
  • Improves literature searches by identifying relevant MeSH terms and their connections.
  • Yale MeSH Analyzer Tutorial (3:38 minutes)

Citation Management, Deduplication, and Screening Tools

abstrackr (free, open source)

  • Facilitates the abstract screening process for systematic reviews.
  • Multiple reviewers can assess and annotate citations, creating a digital record of all decisions.
  • Uses machine learning to prioritize relevant citations, reducing manual reviews.
  • Imports citation data from various sources like RefMan and PubMed.
  • abstrackr Tutorial (3:10 minutes)
  • abstrackr Guide

Catchii (free)

  • Imports references from databases (e.g., PubMed) or reference managers (e.g., Zotero).
  • Detects duplicate records for manual review and performs title/abstract and full-text screening.
  • Identifies inclusion/exclusion terms with customizable keyword highlighting.
  • Uses AI to screen records and provides AI-generated decisions with justifications.
  • Exports screened records to reference managers and generates PRISMA flowchart for reporting.
  • Catchii: Screening Walkthrough (10:00 minutes)

EndNote (free and paid options available)

  • Collects, organizes, and manages research materials and references.
  • Automatically generates citations, bibliographies, and reference lists in multiple styles.
  • Offers deduplication, advanced searching, filtering, and sorting options.
  • Supports collaboration through shared libraries and shared groups of references.
  • Ideal for researchers seeking advanced features (e.g., Online Search) for extensive research.
  • Free version: EndNote Basic / Online Guide: Getting Started
  • Paid version: EndNote Guide: Getting Started

Rayyan (free and paid options available)

  • Web-based tool designed for efficiently screening and reviewing articles.
  • Streamlines study selection by letting users tag and categorize articles.
  • Identifies duplicate references automatically; users manually review and resolve them.
  • Supports collaboration with team members and tracks decisions throughout the review process.
  • Rayyan Systematic Review Tutorial (14:01 minutes)

Zotero (free and paid options available based on storage needs)

  • Collects and organizes research materials, annotations, and references.
  • Automatically generates citations and bibliographies in multiple styles.
  • Supports tagging, advanced searching, and deduplication.
  • Allows export to screening tools like Rayyan but lacks built-in screening functionality.
  • Ideal for collaboration and sharing references with team members; free and user-friendly.
  • Zotero Guide: Getting Started

Need more information? Check out our guide on Citation Managers for Research Organization.

Data Management Tools

RevMan (paid subscription, free for authors working on Cochrane Reviews)

  • Provides tools for analyzing and reporting data; data extraction occurs separately.
  • Performs meta-analysis on imported and manually entered data.
  • Visualizes results in forest plots.
  • Input and visualize Risk of Bias assessments.
  • RevMan Tutorial (13:00 minutes)

Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR+) (free)

  • Platform for extracting and sharing data; analysis and synthesis are typically done externally.
  • Allows building electronic data extraction forms and customizing dataset exports.
  • Supports collaboration with team members.
  • Provides access to study data from published systematic reviews.
  • SRDR+ Tutorials

Evidence Synthesis Workflow Tools

Workflow tools streamline evidence synthesis by performing key tasks such as deduplication, screening, data extraction, analysis, synthesis, and project management. Some workflow tools require a fee.

CADIMA (free)

  • Supports systematic reviews and evidence maps in environmental and other sciences.
  • Guides users through screening, data extraction, and appraisal.
  • Facilitates the creation of PRISMA flow diagrams.
  • Offers tailored forms for screening, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment.
  • Provides data export options and documentation for transparency and reproducibility.
  • CADIMA Tutorials

Colandr (free, open access, open source)

  • Uses machine learning to assist in identifying relevant studies during screening.
  • Supports structured, manual data extraction using customizable forms.
  • Does not include a built-in feature to automatically generate PRISMA flow diagrams.
  • Assists in ranking studies by predicted relevance during screening; quality assessment is manual.
  • Colandr Webinar (1:28:13 minutes)

Covidence (paid subscription, free trial available)

  • User-friendly, web-based platform for deduplication, title/abstract and full text screening.
  • Includes data extraction and quality assessment features for standard Cochrane-type reviews.
  • Offers a built-in PRISMA flow diagram generator.
  • Ideal for teams working on large-scale reviews.
  • Integrates with citation management systems like EndNote and Zotero.
  • Covidence Tutorials

DistillerSR (paid subscription)

  • Cloud-based software for evidence syntheses.
  • Helps researchers manage citations, screen studies, and extract and appraise data.
  • Automates the generation of PRISMA flow diagrams.
  • Provides customizable workflows, collaborative features, and reporting capabilities.
  • Includes AI tools for screening and workflow optimization; external tools needed for data analysis.
  • DistillerSR Quickstart Tutorial (5:23 minutes)

EPPI-Reviewer (paid subscription, free for Cochrane and Campbell authors, free trial available)

  • Web-based tool that facilitates qualitative and quantitative analyses.
  • Uses machine learning for screening prioritization, classification, and updating living systematic reviews.
  • Offers capabilities for data extraction, coding, synthesis, reporting, and export.
  • Provides underlying data (e.g., code counts) which reviewers can export and use to build PRISMA diagrams elsewhere.
  • Includes tools for evidence mapping (EPPI-Mapper) and data visualizations (EPPI-Visualiser).
  • EPPI-Reviewer Tutorials

JBI SUMARI (paid subscription, free trial available)

  • Web-based tool for JBI systematic reviews in health, social sciences, and humanities fields.
  • Supports the entire review process from protocol development to report writing.
  • Imports citations from databases like PubMed or MEDLINE, or citation managers via RIS files.
  • Creates automatic PRISMA flow diagrams to document the screening process.
  • JBI SUMARI Tutorials

Systematic Review Accelerator (free)

  • Suite of tools designed to streamline the evidence synthesis process. Key tools include:
    • Polyglot Search: Translates PubMed or Ovid MEDLINE searches to run in other databases.
    • Deduplicator: Marks records considered to be duplicates.
    • Screenatron: Uses custom hotkeys and keyword highlighting to simplify screening.
    • Disputatron: Detects and resolves screening disagreements between reviewers.
    • SpiderCite: Facilitates forward and backward citation searching from a collection of articles.
  • Ideal for high-volume reviews and evidence syntheses requiring a fast turnaround time.
  • Systematic Review Accelerator Help Videos

Additional Resources

Articles

Couban, R. (2016). Covidence and Rayyan. Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association / Journal De l’Association Des bibliothèques De La Santé Du Canada, 37(3) 124-126. https://doi.org/10.5596/c16-025

Elamin, M. B., Flynn, D. N., Bassler, D., Briel, M., Alonso-Coello, P., Karanicolas, P. J., … Montori, V. M. (2009). Choice of data extraction tools for systematic reviews depends on resources and review complexity. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 62(5), 506-510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2008.10.016

Harrison, H., Griffin, S.J., Kuhn, I., & Usher-Smith, J.A. (2020). Software tools to support title and abstract screening for systematic reviews in healthcare: An evaluation. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 20(7). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-020-0897-3

Kohl, C., McIntosh, E.J., Unger, S., Haddaway, N.R., Kecke, S., Schiemann, J., & Wilhelm, R. (2018). Online tools supporting the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews and systematic maps: A case study on CADIMA and review of existing tools. Environmental Evidence, 7(8). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-018-0115-5

Videos

Features SR Accelerator's Polyglot Search Translator, Deduplicator, and SpiderCite; EndNote, and Rayyan.

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