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Evidence Synthesis: Finding, appraising and synthesizing research

This guide provides an overview of evidence syntheses methods and points to resources to learn more about conducting the different steps of an evidence synthesis project.

Tools for Managing an Evidence Synthesis Project

There are a number of tools available to help you manage the various stages of an evidence synthesis project--in particular, the process of title/abstract screening, full text screening, data extraction and quality assessment. Below are a few such tools.

SysRev: Sysrev is a document review platform designed to help individuals and teams manage the steps in a systematic review, or other type of systematized document or literature review process. It includes features such as the ability to collaborate with large groups, import bibliographic data from .bib, .ris and json lines files, import and annotate PDFs and create flexible labeling processes to extract data and information from many documents. To create an account and access the premium features through CMU's institutional license, simply go to the link above and enter your CMU Andrew email address. See this Sysrev guide for more information and to learn about the features and functions of this tool. To use the large language model auto-labeler feature, please fill out this form to request funds for your project.

Rayyan: Rayyan is a freemium online tool that can be used for independent screening and coding of studies in a systematic review. Rayyan uses tagging and filtering to code and organize references.

Covidence: Covidence is an online systematic review management tool that allows for independent title/abstract screening, full text screening, data extraction and risk of bias assessment.  The free version is limited but individuals can pay per review projects with a reasonable annual fee.

Citation Management

Citation management help

Citation management can be very useful in any evidence synthesis project. There are a number of citation management tools available that are compatible with many of the databases and resources you'll use.  Zotero is a great choice for this. To learn more about Zotero and to get up and running, visit the Libraries' Zotero guide.