Systematic Reviews in the Health Sciences: Tools
Screening Tools
EndNote
This citation management software is a multipurpose tool for systematic reviews: import references from multiple databases, organize and manage references and ultimately format bibliographies and manuscripts. Free for current UB students, faculty and staff.
Rayyan
This screening tool has free and paid options. It offers some machine learning capabilities. At this time, the Libraries can only provide very limited support on this tool.
Covidence
Projects on which Health Sciences Librarians are active authors may have the option of using Covidence, fee-based software designed for systematic reviews.
Distiller SR
Fee-based systematic review software with some machine learning capability. The Libraries does not subscribe to this product and can only provide very limited support.
Literature Search Tools
- Yale MeSH AnalyzerList up to 20 PMIDs for target articles for analysis of the keywords, MeSH terms and other associated data to help you build a better search
- SR AcceleratorThe IEBH Systematic Review Accelerator from Bond University is a suite of useful tools
- CoCitesRun a search on target articles to help build a more comprehensive search through mapping co-citations, articles that are often cited together in the reference lists of other articles
- Balance BracesCheck your parentheses in your search string
Multipurpose SR Tools
- SR Tool BoxLaunched in 2014, SR Tool Box offers an evolving catalog of tools for systematic reviews and wider evidence synthesis processes.
- JBI Critical Appraisal ToolsTools that assist in assessing the results of papers in your SR
- Systematic Review Data RepositorySRDR+ is a free tool for data extraction, management and archival during systematic reviews
Meta-Analysis Tools
- UBIT Software by TitleFor current UB members, UBIT has a number of free programs including statistics software that may be of use in this process.
Minimizing Bias
The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions provides a definition of non-reporting biases can be minimized by identifying all relevant literature on a research topic (see Table 7.2a).
- ROBIS (Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews)ROBIS is a new tool "for assessing the risk of bias in systematic reviews (rather than in primary studies)"
- AMSTAR 2 (A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews)A 16 item checklist to help assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews.
- Systematic Review Toolbox"A web-based catalogue of tools that support various tasks within the systematic review and wider evidence synthesis process."