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Systematic Reviews

A type of literature review that uses a systematic and rigorous approach to identify, select, appraise, and synthesize all available evidence on a particular topic.

Systematic Review Tools

The systematic review process can be lengthy and tedious. We have compiled some resources and tools to help guide and speed up the process. Additionally these tools can also be used for other types of reviews if what you are working on does not meet the specific criteria for a systematic review. This page describes various tools available to help conduct a systematic review. Please note that the UTHealth School of Public Health does not have access to all of these tools and cannot provide technical support. 

Covidence

Covidence is an online systematic review program developed by, and for, systematic reviewers. It can import citations from reference managers like EndNote, facilitate the screening of abstracts and full-text, populate risk of bias tables, assist with data extraction, and export to all common formats.

Covidence is a core component of Cochrane's review production toolkit and has recently also been endorsed by JBI.

Which version of Covidence is best for you?

  • Free trial version: for anyone wanting to try Covidence and find out whether it is suitable for their project. Gives you 1 free review for 2 reviewers
  • Free for Cochrane authors: Covidence is free to use for those authoring Cochrane reviews.

SR Tools

The Systematic Review Toolbox is a community-driven, searchable, web-based catalogue of tools that support the systematic review process across multiple domains. The resource aims to help reviewers find appropriate tools based on how they provide support for the systematic review process. Users can perform a simple keyword search (i.e. Quick Search) to locate tools, a more detailed search (i.e. Advanced Search) allowing users to select various criteria to find specific types of tools and submit new tools to the database.

Rayyan

Rayyan is a free online tool that can be used for screening and coding of studies in a systematic review. It uses tagging and filtering to code and organise references.