UWM Libraries Research and Course Guides: Evidence Synthesis Reviews: Tools & Software

Choosing a Citation Manager
This Library Research guide walks users through choosing the right citation management tool for their preferences and discipline.
Zotero
Zotero is an open source, freely available desktop and web-based citation management tool that allows you to manage citations, create bibliographies, and import references from databases. It can convert stored citations into formatted bibliographies. Formatting styles include APA, Chicago, and MLA (among others). To store your citations, you are required to register with the site. Creating an account is free.
EndNote Web
EndNote Web is a freely available web-based citation management tool. It allows you to store up to 50,000 references and up to 2 GB of pdfs. it allows you to Collect references by searching online databases or importing your existing collection; Organize and group references in any way that works for you. Then share your groups with colleagues; and Use a plugin to format bibliographies and cite references while you write.
Mendeley
Mendeley is a citation management tool that allows you to Add papers directly from your browser with a few clicks or import any documents from your desktop. Access your library from anywhere. Windows, Mac, Linux and all browsers. It also allows you to Generate references, citations and bibliographies in a whole range of journal styles with just a few clicks.

Rayyan
(FREE) Free to use Systematic Review tool. Import references, deduplicate, record decisions for include/exclude, and more!

Covidence
($$$ - subscription options) A rich suite of Systematic Review functions including protocol development, search assistance, de-duplication, endNote integration, data extraction, and more. Covidence is considered the top-tier systematic review tool.

Abstrackr
(Free) Software for Semi-Automatic Citation Screening. abstrackR is a web-application that makes citation-screening process of systematic reviews easier (or, we hope it does, anyway). It is a collaborative tool that facilitates screening of citations by multiple reviewers in tandem.
Abstrackr Help & Training Tutorials

SRDR+
(FREE) SRDR+ is a free, open source, online, collaborative platform for extracting systematic review data, archiving the data after the review is complete, and then sharing the data with others (including reviewers, clinical guideline specialists, healthcare professionals, and decision makers).
Help & Training Tutorials

DistillerSR
($$$ Cost Varies) DistillerSR is a Systematic Review management tool available in a few different subscription package levels. Excellent for importing references, de-duplicating, and recording decisions in a Systematic Review.

PICOPortal
(Free limited plan) Free Systematic Review tool that uses AI to assist with reference import, deduplication, data extraction, and more facets of systematic review protocol.
PICOPortal Tutorials
Learn, step by step, how to start a systematic review project in PICOPortal, import references, deduplicate, extract data, and more.

SR Tool Box
Developed and edited by Dr. Chris Marshall, The Systematic Review Toolbox is a community-driven, searchable, web-based catalogue of tools that support the systematic review process across multiple domains. The resource aims to help reviewers find appropriate tools based on how they provide support for the systematic review process. Users can perform a simple keyword search (i.e. Quick Search) to locate tools, a more detailed search (i.e. Advanced Search) allowing users to select various criteria to find specific types of tools and submit new tools to the database. [Archived from the Wayback Machine].
Systematic Review Accelerator
The Systematic Review Accelerator (SRA) is free software developed at Bond University which includes a validated deduplication tool for faster deduplication of search results, a word frequency analyser to help with search strategy development, a search translator to speed up translation of searches from PubMed/Ovid MEDLINE to other major databases, and a hotkey tool to make screening articles in EndNote easier.
Inciteful
Inciteful offers two tools--the paper suggestor tool and the Literature connector which can be used for finding literature that might be missing or locating connections between known articles.