Clinical Guides: Covidence User Guide: User Guide

Covidence

Covidence is a web‐based tool that will help you through the process of screening your references, data extraction and keeping track of your work. It is particularly useful for researchers conducting a systematic review, meta‐analysis or clinical guideline.

What can I do in Covidence?

Import references
- Covidence works in conjunction with your favourite reference managers like EndNote, Zotero, Refworks, Mendeley or any tool that support RIS, CSV or PubMed XML formats. Covidence can automatically remove duplicates for you.
- Find out more.
Screen title & abstract
- Screening is aided by keyword highlighting & a fast interface. Covidence keeps full records of who voted and supports single or dual screeners.
- Find out more.
Bulk PDF import
- Transfer PDFs stored in your reference manager to Covidence in a few clicks.
- Find out more.
Screen full text
- Decide quickly on studies in full text. Capture reasons for exclusion and any notes so you can resolve any disagreements quickly, with a click of a button.
- Find out more.
Create forms
- Be in control and stay focused on your PICO question.
- Customizable extraction forms means you only spend time extracting what you need.
Customize risk of bias
- Automatically populate your risk of bias tables by highlighting and commenting on text directly in your PDF.
- Find out more.
Conduct data extraction
- Extract data efficiently with a side‐by‐side view of your customized form and PDF. Then, when you are done, easily compare your form with other reviewers.
- Find out more.
Export
- Covidence exports to all the common formats so you can continue your review in your preferred software.
- Find out more.
Collaborate
- You can invite other reviewers (including external colleagues) to work with you on the project.
- Find out more.

How to join Monash Health's Covidence institutional license

There are 2 ways to join Monash Health’s Covidence institutional licence:

1. Request the Library set up a Covidence workspace for you using our form. You will receive an email invite to your workspace; or
2. Create an individual account yourself and join the institutional subscription.

Creating an individual account yourself:

Go to https://app.covidence.org/organizations/ajzGQ/signup to join Covidence with Monash Health Access. You must use your current Monash Health email address (@monashhealth.org). Click on Request Invitation.
Check your emails for an invitation to Covidence, and click on the Accept this invitation link.
Check your spam folder if the invitation doesn’t arrive in a few minutes. The invitation link is a one‐time use and will expire in approximately 30 days.
Log in to your existing Covidence account or sign up for a new account. This will automatically link you to Monash Health.

This video provides more information on how to join an institutional licence.

This video explains how to sign in to your Covidence account and how to change your password.

Creating a new review and importing references into Covidence

1. Click on the link ‘Start a new review’
2. Complete the new review form, including selecting which account you want to use: your own personal account licence or select the Monash Health account.

Name your Covidence review

3. Click on ‘Create review’.

Reviews created under the institutional license will be visible to the administrators of the Monash Health Covidence account. Your personal account review(s) will only be seen by you.

This video explains how to create a new review in Covidence and invite a co-reviewer.

Viewing your reviews

Once you have created a review or accepted an invitation to another organisation account review, the title will appear in a separate section on your account homepage:

4. Importing references into Covidence

You can import references into Covidence by clicking on the Import Studies tool from your Review Summary page. Covidence currently supports three formats for file imports:

EndNote XML
PubMed text format
RIS text format

The video below guides you through the process of importing directly from a research database such as Medline & from EndNote.

Working with reviewers from other institutions

Once a review is created, you are able to invite others to be co‐reviewers.

From the homepage (Your reviews), select the review you wish to add co‐reviewers to and click on 'Settings'.

In the 'Reviewers' tab, click on 'Invite another reviewer'.

Enter the new reviewer's first name and email address and click on 'Invite.'

Covidence training webinars

Covidence hosts regular free training webinars for anyone to attend. Check for any upcoming Covidence webinars.

Covidence Knowledge base

You can also search or browse videos, articles, 'how to' pages in the Covidence Knowledge Base.

Covidence eBook

Covidence has an eBook A Practical Guide: Data Extraction for Intervention Systematic Reviews to support data extraction in research.

Need help within Covidence

Click on the 'Need help?' icon at the bottom right of any page and search for help.

Covidence help

Librarian support with Covidence

Librarians at Monash Health can also assist and guide you with using Covidence. Contact us by email at library@monashhealth.org.

monash health library logo

Monash Health Library provides educational resources, group training, webinars and individual consultations on evidence based practice including guidance on literature searching, appraising and managing search results.

Can’t attend our live webinars?

The library has a selection of recorded webinars available in Latte.
Consider requesting group training for your team at a time that suits you.

Custom training sessions can be arranged to fit with a team meeting or existing professional development schedule. Email library@monashhealth.org for more information.