The purpose of article screening to remove studies that are clearly not related to your topic.
It is highly recommended that two independent reviewers screen all studies, resolving areas of disagreement by consensus or by a third party who is an expert in the field. The box below lists tools that can be used for article screening.
For most evidence synthesis projects, article screening will occur in two phases: title and abstract screening and full text review.
Review the title and abstract for each record retrieved to determine whether it should be excluded based on the eligibility (inclusion/exclusion) criteria. If the relevance is unclear from the title and abstract, it is best to move the record forward for full text review.
During title and abstract screening, reviewers will document their overall decision (for example, include in full text review, exclude from project, or maybe). The title and abstract screening form can also include sub-questions related to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Responses to these prompts are useful reminders when discussing conflicts.
Retrieve and review the full text of all records advanced from the title and abstract screening process. Use the pre-defined eligibility (inclusion/exclusion) criteria to select studies for inclusion in the review.
During full text review, document the overall decision and exclusion reason for each excluded study.
Include tools for mining abstracts/titles
Excel is the most basic tool for the management of article screening. Lists of references can be exported from citation managers into Excel format for screening. Because it is easy to accidentally overwrite cells in Excel, it is recommended that you keep a clean copy of your exported articles and work only on a copy.