Table 1 Examples of tools used for the automation of evidence synthesis tasks
Step | Example application | Description | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
Search | Quick Clinical | Federated meta-search engine | Limited source databases not optimized for systematic reviews |
Search | Sherlock | Search engine for trial registries | Limited to clinicaltrials.gov |
Search | Metta | Federated meta-search engine for SR | Not available publicly |
Snowballing | ParsCit | Reference string extraction from published papers | Does not fetch nor recursively pursue citations |
Screen titles and abstracts | Abstrackr | Machine learning -based abstract screening tool | May reduce review recall by up to 5% |
Extract data | ExaCT | PICO and other information element extraction from abstracts | No association (e.g. of outcome with trial arm), results only available in HTML |
Extract data | WebPlotDigitizer | Re-digitization of data from graphs and plots. | No support for survival curves, no optical character recognition |
Meta-analyze | Meta-analyst | Create a meta-analysis from extracted data | Limited integration with data-extraction and conversion programs |
Write-up | RevMan-HAL | Automatic summary write-up from extracted data. | Only works with RevMan files |
Write-up | PRISMA Flow Diagram Generator | Automatic generation of PRISMA diagrams | Does not support some complex diagrams |