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Scoping + Systematic Reviews

Review Tools

The tools linked to below are just some of the software packages and applications that are available to help you manage and/or complete your review. This is a list of the tools that we felt were the most useful and usable. Most of these are free. If any of them have a cost to use, this will be indicated in the description. To search for more tools not listed here, check out the Systematic Review Toolbox, linked below. If you need advice choosing a tool or help using one, please Ask a Librarian.

Systematic Review Toolbox
The Systematic Review Toolbox is a web-based catalogue of tools that support various tasks within the systematic review and wider evidence synthesis process. It was orignally developed by Dr Christopher Marshall and Anthea Sutton, launching in 2014.

Tools for the Whole Process

Tools for the Whole Process

On the following tabs, we'll share some information about recommended tools to help you throughout the scoping or systematic review process. If you don't have an IHP email address or would like to explore options other than Covidence, take a look a these tools. Many of these tools have been reviewed for their usefulness (Blaizot, et al, 2022; Khalil, 2022).

Covidence

The tool we most often recommend at Bellack Library is Covidence. It's user-friendly and will save you an immense amount of time. It will help with the steps from search deduplication through screening and review all the way to data extraction. It also tracks all of your numbers during the process so that creating your PRISMA flow diagram is a snap.

Covidence is available through a subscription paid for by the library. You will need to sign up for an account with your IHP email address using the link below.

Create Your Covidence Account

Once you have an account, you can head straight to the Covidence website to login, and you're ready to start creating reviews.

Watch the short video below to preview some of its features

Colandr

Colandr is a web-based, open access platform for conducting evidence reviews. At each stage, machine learning and natural language processing algorithms work in the background to learn what is relevant to each review and suggest more relevant citations and likely classifications, respectively.

Colandr

Watch the short video below to preview some of its features

DistillerSR

DistillerSR is similar to Covidence in that it is a review management tool. DistillerSR "automates the management of literature collection, screening, and assessment using AI and intelligent workflows."

DistillerSR

Watch the short video below to preview some of its features

The Evidence Review Accelerator (TERA)

There is both a free and subscription version available. Like in the previous SR-Accelerator, there are several tools built into TERA, including Scoping Wizard (walks you through setting up a scoping review), Word Freq (analyzes frequencies of words in provided articles), searchrefiner (which helps you refine your search string to only relevant terms), and more.

The Evidence Review Accelerator (TERA)

Watch the short video below to preview some of its features

JBI SUMARI

If you want to publish your review in JBI, you need to use their review management tool, Sumari.

JBI Sumari

Watch the short video below to preview some of its features

Rayyan

A free and flexible review management tool. Designed for systematic reviews but some of our faculty/students have successfully used it for scoping reviews as well.

Rayyan

Watch the video below for an overview of how to use Rayyan to do a systematic review.

RevMan

A review management tool for Cochrane review teams.

RevMan

Watch the video below for an overview of how to get started using RevMan.

Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR+)

The Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR+) is a collaborative, Web-based repository of systematic review data. This resource serves as both an archive and data extraction tool and is shared among organizations and individuals producing systematic reviews worldwide, enabling the creation of a central database of systematic review data which may be critiqued, updated, and augmented on an ongoing basis. This database is freely accessible to facilitate evidence reviews and thus improve and speed up policy-making with regards to healthcare.

SRDR+

Watch the video below for an overview of how to get started using SRDR+.

Tools for the Search and Methods Sections

Tools for the Search & Methods Sections

The following tabs cover tech tools that can help you smooth or speed up the search and methods sections. However, as with all AI products, please always verify the results-it is not a substitute for human reviewers.

Find Relevant Medical Subject Headings

Article-based PubMed Search Engine (APSE)
If any of your work was indexed by PubMed, then we can help you to discover recent publications relevant to your article. All you need to do is provide the PubMed ID (PMID) or the title and you will receive six (or more if you wish) recommendations of relevant studies. By confirming the degree of relevance using just a few clicks, you will be contributing to the construction of a community-wide benchmark for relevant literature search along the way.
MeSH On Demand
Paste text like an article abstract into MeSH On Demand and it will suggest relevant MeSH terms to use in your search query.
Yale MeSH Analyzer
Compare MeSH terms assigned to PubMed articles to find more MeSH terms you may be missing.

"Translate" Your Search for Other Databases & Review Your Search

MEDLINE Transpose
MEDLINE Transpose was developed to mitigate a common problem among information specialists: converting search syntax between PubMed and Ovid MEDLINE interfaces. We recommend using this in consultation with a librarian because the tool is still in beta testing.
Medsyntax
Medsyntax is a great tool that reviews your search query and checks for any issues. This is particularly helpful when working on long search queries to make sure you have appropriate Boolean operators, quotations, and parentheses being used.
Translating Your Search for Each Database/Search Engine
Find more information about additional tools to help automate translating your search.

Citation Searching

Citation Chaser
Citation Chaser will help you gather the reference list and cited by articles for all of your included articles. Simply paste in the doi's of your included articles, and it will let you download the list as a csv or ris ready to upload into Covidence.
SnowGlobe
SnowGlobe is a program that assists with literature searching, using a technique called snowballing. The process of snowballing takes all known relevant papers and searches through their references (which papers they cite) and citations (which papers cite them). Doing this by hand is an extremely time-consuming process, and until now, there was no way to do this process in bulk. SnowGlobe has several time-saving features such as automatic duplicate removal, as well as the ability to track which titles you have already screened so you don't have to screen them multiple times.

Abstract Screening

Abstrackr
"abstrackr is a web application designed to simplify the citation screening process for systematic reviews. It’s a collaborative tool that allows multiple reviewers to screen citations simultaneously, making your workflow more efficient. You can import citations, screen them, and export the screening decisions (labels) easily."
Research Screener
Research Screener helps speed up abstract screening with the use of machine learning.
Please note that there is a subscription fee required per project.
RobotReviewer
"RobotReviewer is a machine learning system aiming which aims to support evidence synthesis. Our demonstration website allows users to upload RCT articles and see automatically determined information concerning the trial conduct (the 'PICO', study design, and whether there is a risk of bias)."

Data Analysis & Extraction Tools

We talked about this more in the section about data extraction, but we've recapped the highlights below. Many of these tools have been reviewed for their usefulness (Blaizot, et al, 2022; Khalil, 2022).

DistillerSR
DistillerSR is similar to Covidence in that it is a review management tool. DistillerSR "automates the management of literature collection, screening, and assessment using AI and intelligent workflows."
MGH RedCap
Software application for electronic collection and management of research and clinical study data. More often used for surveys, but some of our faculty and students have used it to build data extraction forms.
SRDR+
The Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR+) is a collaborative, Web-based repository of systematic review data. This resource serves as both an archive and data extraction tool and is shared among organizations and individuals producing systematic reviews worldwide, enabling the creation of a central database of systematic review data which may be critiqued, updated, and augmented on an ongoing basis. This database is freely accessible to facilitate evidence reviews and thus improve and speed up policy-making with regards to healthcare.
Create Your Covidence Account
To access Covidence, request an invitation using the above link and entering your mgh.harvard.edu or mghihp.edu e-mail address. Do not use your partners.org address.

Quality Assessment Tools

If you are making critical appraisal/quality assessment part of your review, there are several tools and checklists out there to help make it easier.

CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Program) Checklist
Another set of checklists for different study types.
Cochrane Risk of Bias (RoB 2) Tool
Considered the gold standard for systematic reviews of randomized trials. This is built into Covidence.
JBI Critical Appraisal Tools
This is a great resource if your systematic/scoping reviews includes a wider array of study designs. There's a checklist for each type.
RobotReviewer
"RobotReviewer is a machine learning system aiming which aims to support evidence synthesis. Our demonstration website allows users to upload RCT articles and see automatically determined information concerning the trial conduct (the 'PICO', study design, and whether there is a risk of bias)."

More in the Literature

Blaizot, A., Veettil, S. K., Saidoung, P., Moreno-Garcia, C. F., Wiratunga, N., Aceves-Martins, M., Lai, N. M., & Chaiyakunapruk, N. (2022). Using artificial intelligence methods for systematic review in health sciences: A systematic review
Research Synthesis Methods, 13(3), 353–362. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1553
Cawley, M. A. (2022). Using Machine Learning to Locate Evidence More Efficiently: New Roles for Academic Research Librarians
In N. Mani & M. Cawley (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Academic Libraries as Partners in Data Science Ecosystems (pp. 144-168). IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-9702-6.ch008
Khalil, H., Ameen, D., & Zarnegar, A. (2022). Tools to support the automation of systematic reviews: A scoping review.
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 144, 22–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.12.005
King’s College London Libraries & Collections. (2025, March 25). AI tools in evidence synthesis.
Searching for Systematic Reviews & Evidence Synthesis. https://libguides.kcl.ac.uk/systematicreview/ai
Lu, J. (2025, April 23). AI tools for systematic reviews.
Purdue University - Purdue Libraries. https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/c.php?g=1371380&p=10619604

Last Updated: Sep 15, 2025 8:24 PM
URL: https://libguides.massgeneral.org/reviews
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