Topic: Systematic Searching for Evidence Synthesis

Screening results is a stage of the evidence synthesis process that comes after your systematic searching is complete. There are lots of tools available, both free and paid, for title/abstract and full text screening. This page highlights just one option, Rayyan, as an example. Rayyan does have paid plans, but the basic options are available for free.

Rayyan is a user-friendly tool which enables a single person or a team to perform masked screening of references for evidence synthesis projects. It has some excellent features, especially if you're working with a large set of results. Rayyan is designed for screening, not for citation management or citing while writing! This is an optional tool which may speed up your screening process, and you would use it in conjunction with a citation management tool like RefWorks or Zotero.

Rayyan allows you to:

• Highlight keywords to help you quickly identify important information in references.
• Rapidly mark references for inclusion or exclusion, including labeling them with custom reasons.
• Use machine learning and your existing screening decisions to sort unscreened items based on likely relevance.

To create your account, choose the Sign-Up link at the top of the page.

Select the Free account option and complete the sign-up process. Rayyan does offer subscriptions, but a free account is sufficient for many people's needs.

The video below demonstrates how to create a new Rayyan project, import references from a citation manager, use Rayyan to screen those references, and finally export them back into a citation manager.

If you're not yet sure if you'd like to use Rayyan, you can test drive it using the RIS file in this box, below the video.

A recommended workflow for using Rayyan for your screening process is as follows:

In your preferred citation management tool (such as RefWorks or Zotero):

1. Collect all references.
2. Record necessary numbers for your PRISMA diagram.
3. Perform deduplication of references. 
4. Record number of references in deduplicated set.
5. Import the deduplicated set into a new Rayyan project.

In Rayyan:

1. Complete all title/abstract screening.
2. Record number of references in included set (if you found additional duplicates during title/abstract screening, be sure your numbers reflect this).
3. Export included items to a new Rayyan project.
4. Obtain full text of references and make available to screeners (a shared cloud storage folder outside of Rayyan is a good place to store full text for the team).
5. Complete full text screening.
6. Record final number of references included.
7. Export included records into your preferred citation manager as a separate project library (RefWorks) or a Group Library (Zotero) to ensure they remain walled off from your original set of references and any other projects you're working on.

Have questions about using Rayyan? Check out their help documentation! If you like to reduce your reliance on your mouse and speed up some processes, check out the list of keyboard shortcuts, too.