Screening Tools for Streamlining Systematic Literature Review Process: Reviewers' Perspective

OBJECTIVES: The robust and well-defined methodology of systematic literature reviews (SLRs) helps generate high quality evidence. A growing number of tools are available to support the screening of records identified through literature search. The aim of this study was to compare practical use of three screening tools based on user experience.

METHODS: Rayyan, Covidence and PICO Portal were compared by reviewers with a minimum of 30 hours of experience using these tools. A total of 40 features were evaluated, covering six major themes: ease-of-use; SLR stages supported; team review settings; record management (including importing/ exporting, searching, and filtering options); screening features; and review management. Only the free version of Rayyan was evaluated.

RESULTS: Each tool fully supports reference screening for SLRs. The free version of Rayyan offers key features (importing/ exporting records; searching and filtering records; conducting single and double independent screening; adding tags and notes, highlights for keywords; inclusion/ exclusion reasons; and conflict resolution) required for a well-organized screening. PICO portal and Covidence offer all key functionalities, and enable screening supported by machine learning, automatic duplicate detection, full text upload, automatic progress of relevant references from title/ abstract to full text screening, and generation of a PRISMA 2020 compliant diagram. Both tools provide detailed user and project analytics. These features may improve productivity and support project management. In addition, PICO portal offers open-access full text acquisition and Covidence offers bulk pdf upload for full text review, the ability to link records from the same study, data extraction and quality assessment support.

CONCLUSIONS: While all three tools can be used in a robust SLR, additional features offered by PICO portal and Covidence might be valuable in larger reviews involving multiple reviewers. The free version of Rayyan is a cost-effective tool and might be more suitable for a student project or small reviews.