Screening:
After deduplication, the screening process is next. It is recommended that two people screen each study to avoid careless errors and decrease bias. If there are a large number of records to be screened, additional screeners are beneficial.
EndNote and Excel are sometimes used for screening, but screening tools that are specifically geared toward systematic and scoping reviews are also available to make the screening process easier.
Screening Tools:
Rayyan is an easy to use, AI-powered research collaboration platform that accelerates systematic reviews and enables researchers to freely collaborate on reviews of any size with anyone, anywhere, anytime via the web or Rayyan app. Free version available.
A web-based software platform that streamlines the production of systematic reviews, including Citation screening, Full text review, Risk of Bias assessment, Extraction of study characteristics and other study data. Nonprofit organization, open source software. Payment required.
An online tool for the task of citation screening for systematic reviews. Free version available.
A web based reference screening, data extraction and reporting solution for systematic reviews. Payment required.
A web-based tool for citation screening, full text review, data extraction and quality assessment that facilitates an efficient systematic review. PICO Portal aspires to combine the strengths of a modern user interface and cutting-edge machine learning functionality. Free version available.
Keep careful records during the screening process of how many articles are eliminated at each stage of the screening. These numbers will need to be reported in a PRISMA Flow diagram.
Test Phase:
It is recommended that screeners test a few articles and come to at least 75% agreement before continuing.
Title and Abstract Screening Phase:
In this phase, articles that clearly do not meet the criteria, based on looking at the title and abstract, are quickly excluded. If unsure, the article should be included at this phase.
Discrepancies between screeners can be resolved by a third screener, or by discussion and consensus between screeners.
Full Text Screening Phase:
The full text of all articles that are still included after the first phase need to be obtained and uploaded into your screening tool. If full text is not available, it can be requested through our Interlibrary Loan Service
During full text screening, reasons for elimination are recorded for the Flow chart in addition to numbers. Discrepancies between screeners again need to be resolved.
Forward and Backward Citation Screening (Snowballing) Phase:
Forward citation searching identifies studies which cite a source study. Backwards citation searching identifies studies cited by the source study.
It is good practice to carry out forward citation searching on reports of studies that meet the eligibility criteria of a systematic review. Citation indexes such as Web of Science are used for forwards citation searching. Google Scholar can also be used.
Backwards citation searching can be conducted by reviewing the reference lists of included studies.
Screening tutorial from Rayyan
Screening Workshop from University of Manitoba Libraries
Library Administration: 631.632.7100
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