Covidence

Covidence is the primary screening and data extraction tool for Cochrane authors conducting standard intervention reviews. Covidence is designed to perform the following functions to make review production more efficient:

  • upload search results 
  • screen abstracts and full text study reports 
  • complete data collection 
  • conduct risk of bias assessment 
  • resolve disagreements
  • export data into RevMan or Excel

Before starting work in Covidence, please note the following:

  • Data extraction in Covidence is being improved following feedback from authors and Cochrane Review Group (CRG) staff, and new features are added regularly. Check for the latest news and updates. 
  • Covidence is not designed to support complex review types (diagnostic test accuracy, prognostic and qualitative reviews), for which EPPI-Reviewer is recommended. 
  • Covidence is not currently optimised for updates of existing reviews. If you are looking to use Covidence to update an existing review in RevMan, please contact support@covidence.org for more information on the most effective way to manage the process.
  • Customising quality assessment templates and data extraction forms in Covidence will affect your data export options (RevMan or Excel). If you wish to export your extracted data to RevMan, we recommend pilot-testing your form or template with a small number of studies. Do a test export to RevMan to review how the data appears. Please contact support@covidence.org for further guidance.
  • Exporting extracted data from Covidence to RevMan Web can be done via the study centric data function in RevMan Web. More information about this is available here. 

Helpful resources for using Covidence:

  • Support: direct all questions about Covidence to support@covidence.org, or click the “?” icon from within Covidence. CRGs are not expected to provide author support. If you receive any queries at the editorial base, please forward them to the Covidence support team.
  • Knowledge Base: demo videos, answers to frequently asked questions and more can be found in our online help centre.
  • Training: Covidence offers a monthly introductory webinar, Covidence 101, which includes a live demonstration of using the platform to manage the systematic review workflow, as well as the opportunity to ask questions. Register for the next session or access recordings of recent webinars. 
  • And what about EPPI-Reviewer? EPPI-Reviewer is an alternative software package for reviews that is also recommended for Cochrane authors. EPPI-Reviewer has more advanced functionality and may be useful for authors tackling complex reviews including narrative and qualitative synthesis.

Covidence is free to use for Cochrane Reviews. Log in to Covidence using your Cochrane Account.

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