This is a version of the LibGuide I started while employed at Temple University Health Sciences Library from July 2015-September 12, 2022. I plan to maintain it here going forward.
Systematic Review Tools
This guide focuses on free or open source tools.
Directories
- SR Toolbox Community driven directory of systematic review tools.
- Finding the Reporting Guidelines
General Tools
Helpful for multiple stages of the review process.
- DistillerSR Free student program available & discounted faculty program.
- Covidence Only the trial version is free. Helpful for screening through data abstraction.
- Review Manager or RevMan
- PICO Portal First review is free
Specific Tools for Planning the Review
Reporting Guidelines: Not sure what to report in your review, locate a reporting guideline.
- PRISMA Checklist
- PRISMA 2020 Checklist (ShinyApp) Generate a 2020 checklist and download in PDF or Word
- PRISMA Flow Diagram
- PRISMA Flow Diagram Generator
- PRISMA-S extension for search reporting
- JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis
- MOOSE-Reporting of Systematic Reviews of Observational studies
- Campbell Collaboration Equity Checklist for SR Authors A tool for authors who are considering equity or studying disadvantaged populations in their review.
Protocol Registration: A first step to organize the review and prevent bias is creating and registering a protocol.
- PRISMA-P extension Statement-Guidance for creating protocols
- PredicTER tool Predict how long your review will take.
- Methods Wizard A tool that helps with writing the systematic review protocol using semi-automation
- PROSPERO Designed as a registry for systematic reviews or meta-analysis and it is free to search what reviews have been registered and to register a protocol.
- OSF or Open Science Framework A free and open-source cloud based research management platform to researchers to store files and data & register preprints.
- SYREAF protocols/registration Systematic Reviews for Animals & Food
- Joanna Briggs Institute Systematic Review Register
- Campbell Collaboration-Register a protocol
Organizing & Collaborating with a Team: Teamwork is core to the systematic review.
- Trello
- Workep
- Conceptboard
- Google drive-Create a shared drive
- Loom Video Free for small teams, may require a subscription for larger teams. This is a team communication tool.
Tools for Literature Searching
Not interested in conducting your own search? Contact your librarian!
- PubMed Pub ReMiner Text mining for PubMed
- Yale MeSH Analyzer or Analyze MeSH
- MeSH on Demand Identifies MeSH terms in your submitted text (abstract or manuscript) and lists similar articles.
- Medline Transpose Translate a search query between Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed syntax
- Litsearchr Shinyapps version of Litsearchr (no coding)
- SWIFT-Review Text mining tool specific to systematic reviews.
- Polyglot Search Helps to translate search strategies to other database (excluding subject headings).
- SnowGlobe Assists with literature searching, using the snowballing (searching through reference lists) technique. OSF demonstration available in OSF at https://osf.io/jth83/.
- Voyant General text mining (this is the download) for the web version go to http://voyant-tools.org
- TERMINE General text mining
- JSTOR Text Analyzer Recommends journal articles in JSTOR relevant to text.
- Oxford English Dictionary May be useful to locate additional terms or synonyms.
- Visuwords A visual dictionary and thesaurus
- Citationchaser An R package for forward and backward citation chasing in academic searching.
- Scite Easily check how a scientific article has been cited and if its findings have been supported or contrasted by others.
- RCT Tagger Helps identify human randomized controlled trials
- Connected Papers Enter a paper and it will build a graph of similar papers in the field.
Citation Managers & Deduplication Software
- Mendeley
- Zotero
- Endnote OnlineNote: the desktop version is more robust for deduplication (subscription fees apply)
Tools for Screening
Did you know screening includes 2 or more reviewers and must be done independent and blinded from the other reviewer(s)?
- Rayyan
- Rayyan-a Guide for Researchers
- Abstrackr Semi-automated screening using machine learning.
- Sysrev Helps facilitate screening, collaborative extraction of data from academic articles and abstracts, PDF documents, and uses machine learning. The free platform supports open access/public projects only. Fee for privacy settings.
- RobotAnalyst RobotAnalyst is designed for searching and screening reference collections obtained from literature database queries. It combines search engine functionality with machine learning and text mining.
- ASReview Utilizes active learning
- Colandr Machine learning, natural language processing, and text-mining functions to partially automate screening.
- DistillerSR (free with student program) Includes AI feature to help rank screening. Predict screening time with time averages.
- SyRF Screening tool for in-vivo or preclinical studies from CAMARADES for systematic reviews of animal data from experimental studies
- revtools revtools is an R package to support researchers working on evidence synthesis projects.
Screening References using EndNote (requires a subscription)
Data Extraction
- Overview of data extraction tools-Chart
- What data to collect and tools (Cochrane Handbook 2019)
- SRDR+Free data extraction/management tool
- SRDR+ course module
- Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR) tool for the extraction and management of data for systematic review or meta-analysis. It is also an open and searchable archive of systematic reviews and their data
- REDCap (Requires a subscription)
- RAx (30 day free trial, discounted subscription for students) Smart assistant to explore, collate insights and organize research.
- AirTableThis is a cloud-based spreadsheet/database hybrid. It is free or by subscription for more advanced features. It has many uses beyond systematic reviews.
- DistillerSR (free with student program) Create customizable templates for data abstraction or choose from a template. Gives you full control of your data.
- Robot Reviewer It automatically extracts and synthesises data from Randomized Controlled Trials by dragging and dropping PDFs or by uploading the files.
- Plot Digitizer A java program that can extract data from graphs and is available as a free download.
- Grade Pro Helps create the SoF Summary of Findings Table and incorporating the GRADE Approach to help make recommendations of the level of evidence.
- Cochrane sample data collection form RCTs and non-RCTs
- Cochrane Data Collection Form for RCTs only
- Sample Data Collection Form for Non Randomized Studies only
Oops, if you find any broken links, please contact me!
Systematic Review (Evidence Synthesis) Librarian 