Article screening
Once the full search has been completed and the results deduplicated, the items from the search results move through the screening process. Screening is done in two stages, and you will use the inclusion and exclusion criteria written out in your protocol for each stage. First, you screen each item based on the title and abstract. This lets you remove materials that are not obviously related to your topic. The majority of records are excluded at this stage, and the items that are not excluded move to the second stage: the full-text screening. In the full-text screening stage each item will be screened based on the content of the full text of the report and reasons for exclusion will be documented for reporting in the PRISMA diagram.
For each stage of the screening process each item must be reviewed by at least two people. Where there are disagreements about including or excluding an item, conflicts can be resolved either by a third tie-breaking vote or a consensus discussion. This independent, blinded screening reduces potential bias and is a hallmark of the evidence synthesis process.
Before beginning the screening process you should screen a sample for training to make sure all screening criteria are clear. Then a subset should be independently screened by each person and then discussed for consensus. This pilot screening process is typically not done in the screening software but in a shadow system.
Because it can be difficult to keep track of each individual’s votes for large numbers of records it can be helpful to use tools and software created for this purpose, such as:
Other tools can be found at the Systematic Review Toolbox.