Screening
Screening is the process of deciding which references from your literature search are relevant to your review question. ActiveSLR structures screening into distinct phases, each with optional quality assurance steps.
Screening workflow
The full screening workflow proceeds as follows:
- Upload references - Import RIS/NBIB files containing your search results.
- Deduplication - Remove duplicate records using the Medusa algorithm.
- Title/abstract screening - Each study is reviewed based on its title and abstract. Reviewers make include or exclude decisions, providing an exclusion reason when excluding.
- QC or reconciliation - After title/abstract screening, a quality assurance step runs:
- QC (single-screening projects) - a QC reviewer audits a sample of decisions.
- Reconciliation (double-screening projects) - a reconciler resolves disagreements between the two screeners.
- Full-text screening - Studies included after title/abstract screening are reviewed with their full text (PDF). Final include/exclude decisions are made here.
- QC or reconciliation - The same quality assurance step repeats for full-text screening decisions.
- Included studies - Studies that pass full-text screening form the final included set for data extraction.
The QC step applies to single-screening projects. The reconciliation step applies to double-screening projects. Which one you use is determined by the screening type you chose when creating the project.
Guides in this section
Title/Abstract Screening
Make include and exclude decisions for individual studies based on title and abstract.
Bulk Screening
Screen multiple studies at once from a list view for faster decision-making.
Full-Text Screening
Upload PDFs and screen studies using the built-in PDF viewer.
Quality Check
Audit screening decisions in single-screening projects.
Reconciliation
Resolve disagreements between reviewers in double-screening projects.
Auto-Reconciliation
How agreed decisions are automatically accepted without manual review.