Systematic Reviews & Evidence Synthesis Methods

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:

• Search Strategy Development
• Citation Management, Deduplication, and Screening
• Data Management
• Evidence Synthesis Workflow

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

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)

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)

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

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

• Collects, organizes, and manages research materials and references.
• Automatically generates citations and bibliographies in multiple styles.
• Built-in deduplication feature auto-detects duplicate references.
• Offers robust PDF annotation tools (e.g., highlighting, adding notes directly on PDFs).
• Ideal for large teams needing a citation manager with robust PDF annotation and collaboration tools.
• Mendeley Help Guide
• Mendeley YouTube Channel

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.

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

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 review stages: planning, screening, data extraction, and appraisal.
• Enables collaborative project management with customizable roles and access levels.
• 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.
• Supports customizable workflows and collaboration.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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

Articles

• Comparison of Covidence vs. Rayyan.

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

• Assessment of data extraction tools for systematic reviews.

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

• Evaluation of title and abstract screening tools for systematic reviews in healthcare.

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

• Case study on CADIMA and review of existing tools.

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

• Video: Systematic Review Automation Tools (27:38 minutes)

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