PRM223 - Systematic Review Toolbox

Background

Systematic reviews facilitate the rigorous identification and synthesis of evidence in healthcare. However, they can be time consuming, logistically challenging and labour intensive to undertake. Such challenges have led to the development of various software tools to support the systematic review process. It has remained difficult, however, for researchers to easily discover what tools are currently available to support their reviews. In response, a free, online resource of tools to support systematic reviews has been developed.

Concept

Systematic Review (SR) Toolbox [1] is a community-driven, searchable, web-based catalogue of tools to support the systematic review process. The resource aims to help reviewers find appropriate tools based on the stage(s) of the systematic review process. Users can perform a simple keyword search (i.e. Quick Search) to locate tools, or a more detailed search (i.e. Advanced Search) allowing users to select various criteria to find specific types of tools. Users are also able to submit new tools they have found, used or developed, to the SR Toolbox. The resource was developed using PHP, SQL and JavaScript and uses Twitter [2] to manage its community.

Results

The SR Toolbox stores information on over 100 software tools (June 2016) to support the systematic review process. These include freely-available tools based on data visualisation, text mining and machine learning approaches. The SR toolbox also catalogues a number of more substantial commercial and not-for-profit software packages that manage substantial portions of the systematic review process. Paper-based tools, such as guidelines, checklists and reporting standards, are also included.

Recommendations

The SR Toolbox is a useful way to keep up to date with new software tools which have potential to make the SR process more efficient. We recommend researchers consider using the SR Toolbox as a resource for finding tools, and encourage software developers to catalogue any new tools. [1] http://systematicreviewtools.com/ [2] http://twitter.com/SRToolbox