Rayyan

To create a new review:

1. Select "New review..." from the dashboard (home screen)
2. Enter a title (required) and description (optional)
3. Click "Create"

There is no limit on the number of reviews one can create.

There is only one owner for each review, also called the creator of the review.

Only the creator of the review can invite collaborators and can change the blind setting (Blind OFF/ON). 

Importing records into Rayyan

Rayyan claims to be compatible with the following text formats: EndNote Export (.enw), RIS, CSV and PubMed XML. However, we have found that RIS exports from a number of databases fail to import successfully into Rayyan. We advise different approaches depending on your context:

• If you are conducting a systematic review, incorporating search results from more than one database, we advise exporting all of your results into Endnote or another citation manager first, thoroughly deduplicating your library, and then exporting from your citation manager in RIS format.
  • Rayyan's Endnote Migration Guide
  • Rayyan's Mendeley Migration Guide
  • Rayyan's Papers Migration Guide

Adding to an existing Rayyan project

To add new records to an existing Rayyan project (e.g. when performing a search update for a systematic review), open the project, and then click on "New Search" in the top right hand corner.

NOTE: We recommend completing all of your database searches, importing all records into a citation management package such Endnote, and deduplicating your records before importing into Rayyan.

Editing and deleting records

With the exception of duplicate records identified by Rayyan, it is not possible to edit or delete individual records which have been completely imported into a Rayyan project. However, it is possible to delete an entire import by clicking on the trash can icon next to the import in the "Search methods" box on the left hand side.

Managing Duplicates

Duplicate detection, resolution and reporting is still under development. We strongly recommend that you use a different software (such as EndNote) to removed the duplicated records before importing your library in Rayyan.

If you choose to use Rayyan for this purpose:

1. Upload all records to your Rayyan review. Note: Wait to deduplicate until all records have been uploaded. If you repeat the deduplicating process at a later date, all duplicate resolutions you previously made (except deleting records), will be cleared.
2. Click "Detect duplicates" at the top of the screen
3. After a few minutes, a new "Duplicates" box will appear in the filter column on the left. Click on these filters to review duplicates:
   • Unresolved: These are entries that have been detected as potential duplicates and have not been resolved by you
   • "n" exact matches: These are all the entries that have n identical duplicates. These are automatically reduced to one entry, so you do not need to review them.
   • Deleted: These are all duplicates that you deleted
   • Not duplicates: These are all entries that you decided are not duplicates
   • Resolved: These are all the entries that have been kept with no duplicates
4. Click on "Unresolved" in the Duplicates box
5. Select a record, and click "Resolve duplicate."

   

6. Scroll to review each record. In the top left, you will see the percent match between the duplicates. Review the records:
   • If the records are not, actually, duplicate entries, click "not duplicate" in the top left corner. Both records will remain in Rayyan for screening.
   • If the records are duplicates, click "delete" in the top right corner of whichever record(s) you wish to remove. You can view the deleted records by clicking "Deleted" in the "Duplicates" box in the left column. Deleted records can not be restored.

     

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for all unresolved duplicates.

Entering Reasons

As your team screens, they can assign exclusion reasons to each excluded record. Rayyan includes a default set of reasons, which cannot be deleted. However, your team can add custom reasons, if the defaults do not meet your needs. Unfortunately, reasons created by one reviewer will not be available to all reviewers, so each reviewer will need to enter reasons as they screen.

We suggest adding reasons that align with each of your exclusion criteria. To create a reason, you will need to assign it to a record. If a custom reason is not assigned to at least one record in your review, it will be deleted (a frustrating feature in Rayyan): 

1. Select a record.
2. Click on the Reason menu, immediately above the full record view. Type your exclusion criterion into this box.
3. The terms you have entered will appear in a drop-down menu immediately below the box. Click on this drop-down. Again, creating a reason while viewing a record assigns the newly created reason to the record and marks it as excluded.
4. Repeat this process to add your remaining exclusion criteria.

Utilizing Keywords

There are two types of keywords in Rayyan. Keywords appear in the left-hand column:

1. Keywords for include: When these terms appear in a record, they are highlighted in green
2. Keywords for exclude: When these terms appear in a record, they are highlighted in red

The highlighting feature will help your team more quickly identify whether records meet your inclusion criteria. Also, you can click on a keyword in the left column to view only those records which contain the selected keyword. All review collaborators see the same keywords.

Adding and Deleting Keywords

By default, your review includes predefined include and exclude keywords. Delete any irrelevant keywords by clicking the trash icon next to each term in the left-hand column.

To add a new keyword or key phrase, click "add new" in the appropriate box. Enter the desired terms, and click "OK."

Note: Rayyan will only highlight that exact term or phrase. For example, if you entered the keyword "foreign language," "foreign languages" will not be highlighted.