Conducting a systematic review using Elicit's guided flow

This workflow in Elicit guides you through the process of creating a complete systematic review, step by step.

Right now, this workflow focuses primarily on the Data Extraction step. Coming soon, Elicit will also integrate Screening, Report Writing, and Search steps.

The guided systematic review workflow is designed specifically for users who want to complete a systematic review with a large amount of papers and data extraction questions/columns. It allows you to:

• Iterate quickly on data extraction columns by testing them on a smaller, randomized "pilot" set of papers first

• Add 20 columns in a data extraction table, using high accuracy

• Extract data from 1,000 papers at once in a single table (subject to the limitations of your Elicit plan)

• Write extraction columns faster with automated suggestions

• Write precise research questions to help Elicit improve column suggestions

• Work on other tasks while large extraction jobs are processing in the background

• Navigate more easily through large data extraction tables, with new sorting functions and the ability to find extracted data within your columns more quickly

If you already feel confident about your columns, are working with a smaller set of papers and columns, and need a less rigorous literature review process, you can always go directly to the Extract data from PDF workflow.

Start by choosing "Conduct systematic review" on the home page and entering your research question.

You can use Elicit's suggestions to improve your research question. The more precise your question, the better Elicit's column suggestions will be in Step 2.

Next, Elicit will take you to a view of your Library.

Select all of the papers you'd like to be included in your systematic review. You can choose as many as 1,000 papers (subject to the limitations of your Elicit plan)!

You can also add new papers into your Library for inclusion by clicking the Upload button above the paper list.

If you would like to use papers imported from Zotero, you can navigate to your Library to import them first. Those papers will then be available to when you choose "Select from Library."

Once you've finished selecting the papers for your review, click "Next" in the upper right corner to move to the next step.

Elicit will now randomly select 10 papers as a "pilot" set for faster column iteration and create a data extraction table for them.

Use the sliders to add suggested columns to your table, or type in the name of any new custom column you want to add in the text field above.

Click open any column's details to add or edit instructions.

You can duplicate columns and fine-tune their instructions in order to quickly compare which instructions produce the best results.

Save any columns you'd like for future reuse by choosing "Save as preset."

To view the supporting quotes for any extraction, simply click on any cell or use your arrow keys to quickly navigate through the table:

When you're happy with the performance of your columns, click "Next" in the upper right corner to run the full extraction.

This will apply your columns to the full set of papers. If your review includes a large number of papers, this can take some time. Elicit will continue working, even if you leave the page.

Once complete, you can export the table to CSV if you'd like.

You can also navigate back through any previous steps if you want to make any changes.

Your main toolbar at the top of the screen now has a new Reviews section. You can click here any time to find previous and in-progress Reviews you've created:

If you have many Reviews in your history, you can rename them to make them easier to identify. Open the review and click the dropdown that appears when you hover over the review title: