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Systematic Review, Scoping Review and Met-Analysis: Systemic Review Software

Navigating Literature Reviews: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction to Systematic Review Software

Systematic reviews involve managing a large volume of literature, and specialized software tools are designed to streamline this process. These tools assist with importing, screening, organizing, and analyzing research articles, ultimately saving time and reducing human error.

Key Objectives of Systematic Review Software:

  • Efficiently manage and organize large datasets of research articles.
  • Support collaboration among multiple reviewers.
  • Facilitate reproducible and transparent research workflows.

Announcement

Special Note:  NISA - Institute for Corporate Citizenship is excited to open its licence to a full pilot Institutional licence (till 16th May 2025) for all UNISA researchers, staff and students to access Covidence

Please note - reviews started in the institutional licence will have an additional 12 months of access after the 16th May 2025 for the reviewers to finish and complete their work.

Recommended Software for Systematic Reviews at UNISA

UNISA recommends and supports the following tools for systematic reviews:

  1. Covidence
    Covidence is a powerful, user-friendly software designed for streamlining the review process. It assists with title and abstract screening, full-text review, risk of bias assessment, and data extraction.

  2. Rayyan
    Rayyan is a free, web-based systematic review tool that helps researchers with screening and selecting studies. It features a user-friendly interface, support for collaboration, and robust filtering tools.

Other Software Packages

Software packages for postgraduate students

  • Unlimited access.
  • Available to all staff and all students.
  • NB: Alumni access included if the account was created while still a Unisa student.