Systematic Review Support software system: web-based solution for managing duplicates and screening eligible studies

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe the main functions of the "Systematic Review Support" web-based system for removing duplicate articles and aiding eligibility analysis during the process of conducting systematic review studies. METHODS: The system was developed based on the incremental build model using the Agile methodology. The software is proprietary source code and was published on a proprietary platform. The architecture of the production environment allows the infrastructure used to increase or decrease according to demand. The system functions are presented with insertion of screenshots of the interfaces of the version for personal computers during the simulation of a systematic review. RESULTS: After importing the files containing the abstracts retrieved from the Pubmed, Embase, and Web of Science databases, the system identifies and removes duplicates for later reading and analysis of title and abstract, a stage which can be performed by one or more reviewers independently. After unblinding of reviewers, the decisions on the eligibility of the studies are compared automatically to help the researchers reach a consensus on any disagreements. Results can be filtered and a PDF produced containing the eligible studies. CONCLUSION: Version 1.0 of the system is available on the web (sysrev.azurewebsites.net) to assist researchers in the initial stages of systematic reviews.

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