Screening the Search Results for Systematic Reviews: An Evolution of Semi-Automation Methods

We follow a sensitive approach to searching during systematic reviews to avoid missing relevant results. Since the searches are sensitive, it is expected that the majority of the search results will be irrelevant. After removing the duplicate records, it is time to separate the relevant results from the irrelevant results; it is inevitable to ‘screen’ them. Screening has two-three stages: 1. Title and abstract screening 2. Full-text screening. Some reviewers prefer to consider the title and abstract screening as two separate stages.

Screening in any of these stages involves two steps: 1. Decision: Finding the relevant or irrelevant record 2. Action: Assigning the relevant or irrelevant record to their folder/group/label.

For decades, the only way to identify the relevancy of the records was to read the titles and abstract one by one. As a result, the librarians and information specialists tried to use the following semi-automation methods to help the reviewers to identify the records much fasters:

Method A: Find and Replace in Notepad Using CAPITAL Letters

When people did not have any other word processors such as Microsoft Word, Open Office, Libre Office, or Pages or could…