Importing Results
After previewing your PubMed search results, you can import them directly into your project as a batch. ActiveSLR fetches the full records asynchronously in the background and shows you real-time progress as the import runs.
Starting an import
Run your search
Complete a PubMed search and preview the results. See Searching PubMed if you have not done this yet.
Click Import
Click the Import button below the results preview. A confirmation dialog shows the number of records to be imported.
Confirm the import
Review the record count and click Confirm Import. ActiveSLR begins fetching records from PubMed in the background.
Real-time progress tracking
Once the import starts, a progress indicator appears on the PubMed Search page. It shows:
- Records fetched - How many records have been retrieved so far
- Total records - The total number to be imported
- Status - Whether the import is running, completed, or encountered an error
Progress updates in real time via Supabase. You do not need to keep the page open - the import continues in the background. When you return to the project, the import status reflects the current state.
For large result sets (thousands of records), imports may take several minutes. You can continue working in other parts of the project while the import runs in the background.
The virtual file record
When an import completes, ActiveSLR creates a virtual file record in your project's file list. This record:
- Appears alongside any RIS or NBIB files you have manually uploaded
- Is labeled with the PubMed query that produced it and the import date
- Shows the number of records it contains
- Is treated identically to a manually uploaded file for the purposes of deduplication and screening
A virtual file does not correspond to a physical file on disk. It is a database record representing the batch of PubMed results. You cannot download it as a RIS or NBIB file, but all the underlying study records are available for screening and extraction.
After importing
Once the import completes, run deduplication to identify duplicates between the new PubMed records and any other files in your project. Then proceed to title/abstract screening.
If you import the same PubMed query twice, you will have duplicate records. Deduplication will catch most of these, but it is best practice to avoid re-importing the same search.