Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is required from the PI to start a new project?
- 1. A brief description of the systematic
review (abstract).
- 2. Prospero registration link (if
available).
- 3. CSV document containing two columns
(title of citation, and abstract), with
one row per citation. Both title and
abstract should be on same line.
- 4. Identify how many levels of screenings
are involved (1-3).
- 5. Screening criteria for each level:
preferably with 1-2 words highlighting the
criteria first (ie: INTERVENTIONAL: study
was interventional, and not observational
...). Having a highlighted first word has
shown to help students identify the
correct criteria.
Is there a way to test reviewers' capacity before starting their review?
- You can provide a list of citations that
would be used as demo (5-10 are usually
enough). Similar to the previous CSV of
citations, the file should contain
citation title, abstract, screening level,
whether it is to be retained or excluded
and if excluded the numerical
identification of the non satisfied
eligibility criteria.
- This list is preferably provided from a
previous version of the SR (if this is an
update). If not, you can chose to use some
citations of the project and provided them
with the answers. However, in this case
these citations should be removed from the
list of citations to be assessed, as
students have already been provided with
the correct answer in the demo version.
How can I provide the PDF documents for the citations?
- The website is designed to support two
methods of PDFs attachment:
- 1. By the PI: Using the PDF tab in the PI
page, you can attach the PDFs files to the
citations one by one. Your entries will be
instantly visible to students.
- 2. By the Students: Using the PDF tab in
the Students page, they can do the same.
However, unlike the PI entries, the
students entry are not final and they
require verification that the attached PDF
is accurately representing the citation.
This could be done by a fellow student, or
by the PI.
- Papers that were retained at Level 1 would
not be shown in Level 2 or further until a
PDF has been attached.
- f your SR does not involve an abstract
level, you can let the admin knows and all
of your papers would be automatically
moved to Level 2, where full text
elegibility can be assessed.
Using the advanced assessment methods, what do the different numbers mean?
- 1. Numbers of assessments per citation:
Numbers of assessments to be obtained by
students for each citation.
- 2. Numbers needed to retain: Number of
students assessments indicating that the
citation is to be retained before it is
allowed to move to the next level. PIs
might lower this numbers to allow their SR
to be more sensitive to eligible trials,
however this might increase the amount of
work required in the next level.
- 3. Numbers needed to exclude: Similar to
previous, but indicates exclusion
assessments. PIs might increase this
number to increase their sensitivity, by
ensuring only citations where most
students have agreed on exclusion to be
removed.
- 4. Numbers of allowable unclear: This
indicates the number of assessments
choosing unclear before a citation is
moved to the PI for decision. Usually,
citations with several unclear assessments
are more difficult for students to assess.
Removing them from the students list,
after they have reached this number would
allow the students to focus on the rest.
- 5. Full assessment checkbox: Validating
this checkbox indicates that each citation
needs to obtain the total number of
assessments before moving to the next
level or being excluded, even though it
has already qualified by exceeding one of
the numbers needed to retain/to exclude.