Any time you search in multiple databases, you will get duplicate results. De-duplicating your results will be your next step. Keeping track of your numbers before and after deduplication is something you will want to note in your PRISMA diagram. There are many different tools that can help you with this step, but they all have their pros and cons.
Once results have been deduplicated, you will begin the screening process. The purpose of screening is to remove studies that are not ultimately related to your topic. Researchers use their pre-defined inclusion/exclusion criteria to screen the titles/abstracts. You may opt to use a screening tool to help with this process.
Article screening generally takes place in two stages
Start with a title and abstract screening to exclude those studies that are obviously outside of your parameters
The final stage will be full text screening. This is best performed by at least two screeners, screening independently from one another.
If reviewers disagree on whether studies should be included, at any stage in the process, disagreements can be resolved by consensus or via an expert third party (though this should be laid out ahead of time in the protocol).
*See below for info about the screening tool Rayyan or the Citation Management and Other tools tab for software suggestions to help with review process.
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. See a list of other options on the Citation Management & Other Tools tab.
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 Rayyan is designed for screening, not for citation management or citing while writing!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 Zotero.
Rayyan allows you to:
To create your account, choose the Sign-Up link at the top of the page.
To test it out, select the Free account option and complete the sign-up process. Rayyan does offer subscriptions, but a free account may be sufficient for some people's needs. The library doesn't pay for institutional access.
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.
Rayyan claims to be compatible with the following text formats: EndNote Export (.enw), RIS, CIW, CSV and PubMed XML. Upload RIS files if possible.
Some have found that exports from a number of databases fail to import successfully into Rayyan. They are constantly updating their product however. If you still experience this issue, to get around this problem, and to follow best practices for systematic and scoping reviews, we advise the following steps:
In your preferred citation management tool (such as Zotero):
In Rayyan:
Content on page has been adapted from University of Texas Arlington Libraries, Scoping Reviews Guide, and UCONN, Systematic Searching for Evidence Synthesis, CC BY-NC 4.0