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5 literature review tools to ace your research (+2 bonus tools)

Table of Contents

Your literature review is the lore behind your research paper . It comes in two forms, systematic and scoping , both serving the purpose of rounding up previously published works in your research area that led you to write and finish your own.

A literature review is vital as it provides the reader with a critical overview of the existing body of knowledge, your methodology, and an opportunity for research applications.

Some steps to follow while writing your review:

• Pick an accessible topic for your paper
• Do thorough research and gather evidence surrounding your topic
• Read and take notes diligently
• Create a rough structure for your review
• Synthesis your notes and write the first draft
• Edit and proofread your literature review

To make your workload a little lighter, there are many literature review AI tools. These tools can help you find academic articles through AI and answer questions about a research paper.  

Best literature review tools to improve research workflow

A literature review is one of the most critical yet tedious stages in composing a research paper. Many students find it an uphill task since it requires extensive reading and careful organization .

Using some of the best literature review tools listed here, you can make your life easier by overcoming some of the existing challenges in literature reviews. From collecting and classifying to analyzing and publishing research outputs, these tools help you with your literature review and improve your productivity without additional effort or expenses.

1. SciSpace

SciSpace is an AI for academic research that will help find research papers and answer questions about a research paper. You can discover, read, and understand research papers with SciSpace making it an excellent platform for literature review. Featuring a repository with over 270 million research papers, it comes with your AI research assistant called Copilot that offers explanations, summaries , and answers as you read.

Get started now:

Find academic articles through AI

SciSpace has a dedicated literature review tool that finds scientific articles when you search for a question. Based on semantic search, it shows all the research papers relevant for your subject. You can then gather quick insights for all the papers displayed in your search results like methodology, dataset, etc., and figure out all the papers relevant for your research.

Identify relevant articles faster

Abstracts are not always enough to determine whether a paper is relevant to your research question. For starters, you can ask questions to your AI research assistant, SciSpace Copilot to explore the content and better understand the article. Additionally, use the summarize feature to quickly review the methodology and results of a paper and decide if it is worth reading in detail.

Learn in your preferred language

A big barrier non-native English speakers face while conducting a literature review is that a significant portion of scientific literature is published in English. But with SciSpace Copilot, you can review, interact, and learn from research papers in any language you prefer — presently, it supports 75+ languages. The AI will answer questions about a research paper in your mother tongue.

Integrates with Zotero

Many researchers use Zotero to create a library and manage research papers. SciSpace lets you import your scientific articles directly from Zotero into your SciSpace library and use Copilot to comprehend your research papers. You can also highlight key sections, add notes to the PDF as you read, and even turn helpful explanations and answers from Copilot into notes for future review.

Understand math and complex concepts quickly

Come across complex mathematical equations or difficult concepts? Simply highlight the text or select the formula or table, and Copilot will provide an explanation or breakdown of the same in an easy-to-understand manner. You can ask follow-up questions if you need further clarification.

Discover new papers to read without leaving

Highlight phrases or sentences in your research paper to get suggestions for related papers in the field and save time on literature reviews. You can also use the 'Trace' feature to move across and discover connected papers, authors, topics, and more.

SciSpace Copilot is now available as a Chrome extension , allowing you to access its features directly while you browse scientific literature anywhere across the web.

Get citation-backed answers

When you're conducting a literature review, you want credible information with proper references.  Copilot ensures that every piece of information provided by SciSpace Copilot is backed by a direct reference, boosting transparency, accuracy, and trustworthiness.

Ask a question related to the paper you're delving into. Every response from Copilot comes with a clickable citation. This citation leads you straight to the section of the PDF from which the answer was extracted.

By seamlessly integrating answers with citations, SciSpace Copilot assures you of the authenticity and relevance of the information you receive.

2. Mendeley

Mendeley Citation Manager is a free web and desktop application. It helps simplify your citation management workflow significantly. Here are some ways you can speed up your referencing game with Mendeley.

Generate citations and bibliographies

Easily add references from your Mendeley library to your Word document, change your citation style, and create a bibliography, all without leaving your document.

Retrieve references

It allows you to access your references quickly. Search for a term, and it will return results by referencing the year, author, or source.

Add sources to your Mendeley library by dragging PDF to Mendeley Reference Manager. Mendeley will automatically remove the PDF(s) metadata and create a library entry.‌

Read and annotate documents

It helps you highlight and comment across multiple PDFs while keep them all in one place using Mendeley Notebook . Notebook pages are not tied to a reference and let you quote from many PDFs.

A big part of many literature review workflows, Zotero is a free, open-source tool for managing citations that works as a plug-in on your browser. It helps you gather the information you need, cite your sources, lets you attach PDFs, notes, and images to your citations, and create bibliographies.

Import research articles to your database

Search for research articles on a keyword, and add relevant results to your database. Then, select the articles you are most interested in, and import them into Zotero.

Add bibliography in a variety of formats

With Zotero, you don’t have to scramble for different bibliography formats. Simply use the Zotero-Word plug-in to insert in-text citations and generate a bibliography.

Share your research

You can save a paper and sync it with an online library to easily share your research for group projects. Zotero can be used to create your database and decrease the time you spend formatting citations.

Sysrev is an AI too for article review that facilitates screening, collaboration, and data extraction from academic publications, abstracts, and PDF documents using machine learning. The platform is free and supports public and Open Access projects only.

Some of the features of Sysrev include:

Group labels

Group labels can be a powerful concept for creating database tables from documents. When exported and re-imported, each group label creates a new table. To make labels for a project, go into the manage -> labels section of the project.

Group labels enable project managers to pull table information from documents. It makes it easier to communicate review results for specific articles.

Track reviewer performance

Sysrev's label counting tool provides filtering and visualization options for keeping track of the distribution of labels throughout the project's progress. Project managers can check their projects at any point to track progress and the reviewer's performance.

Tool for concordance

The Sysrev tool for concordance allows project administrators and reviewers to perform analysis on their labels. Concordance is measured by calculating the number of times users agree on the labels they have extracted.

Colandr is a free, open-source, internet-based analysis and screening software used as an AI for academic research. It was designed to ease collaboration across various stages of the systematic review procedure. The tool can be a little complex to use. So, here are the steps involved in working with Colandr.

Create a review

The first step to using Colandr is setting up an organized review project. This is helpful to librarians who are assisting researchers with systematic reviews.

The planning stage is setting the review's objectives along with research queries. Any reviewer can review the details of the planning stage. However, they can only be modified by the author for the review.

Citation screening/import

In this phase, users can upload their results from database searches. Colandr also offers an automated deduplication system.

Full-text screening

The system in Colandr will discover the combination of terms and expressions that are most useful for the reader. If an article is selected, it will be moved to the final step.

Data extraction/export

Colandr data extraction is more efficient than the manual method. It creates the form fields for data extraction during the planning stage of the review procedure. Users can decide to revisit or modify the form for data extraction after completing the initial screening.

Bonus literature review tools

SRDR+ is a web-based tool for extracting and managing systematic review or meta-analysis data. It is open and has a searchable archive of systematic reviews and their data.

7. Plot Digitizer

Plot Digitizer is an efficient tool for extracting information from graphs and images, equipped with many features that facilitate data extraction. The program comes with a free online application, which is adequate to extract data quickly.

Final thoughts

Writing a literature review is not easy. It’s a time-consuming process, which can become tiring at times. The literature review tools mentioned in this blog do an excellent job of maximizing your efforts and helping you write literature reviews much more efficiently. With them, you can breathe a sigh of relief and give more time to your research.

As you dive into your literature review, don’t forget to use SciSpace ResearchGPT to streamline the process. It facilitates your research and helps you explore key findings, summary, and other components of the paper easily.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. what is rrl in research.

RRL stands for Review of Related Literature and sometimes interchanged with ‘Literature Review.’ RRL is a body of studies relevant to the topic being researched. These studies may be in the form of journal articles, books, reports, and other similar documents. Review of related literature is used to support an argument or theory being made by the researcher, as well as to provide information on how others have approached the same topic.

2. What are few softwares and tools available for literature review?

• SciSpace Discover

• Mendeley

• Zotero

• Sysrev

• Colandr

• SRDR+

3. How to generate an online literature review?

The Scispace Discover tool, which offers an excellent repository of millions of peer-reviewed articles and resources, will help you generate or create a literature review easily. You may find relevant information by utilizing the filter option, checking its credibility, tracing related topics and articles, and citing in widely accepted formats with a single click.

4. What does it mean to synthesize literature?

To synthesize literature is to take the main points and ideas from a number of sources and present them in a new way. The goal is to create a new piece of writing that pulls together the most important elements of all the sources you read. Make recommendations based on them, and connect them to the research.

5. Should we write abstract for literature review?

Abstracts, particularly for the literature review section, are not required. However, an abstract for the research paper, on the whole, is useful for summarizing the paper and letting readers know what to expect from it. It can also be used to summarize the main points of the paper so that readers have a better understanding of the paper's content before they read it.

6. How do you evaluate the quality of a literature review?

• Whether it is clear and well-written.

• Whether Information is current and up to date.

• Does it cover all of the relevant sources on the topic.

• Does it provide enough evidence to support its conclusions.

7. Is literature review mandatory?

Yes. Literature review is a mandatory part of any research project. It is a critical step in the process that allows you to establish the scope of your research and provide a background for the rest of your work.

8. What are the sources for a literature review?

• Reports

• Theses

• Conference proceedings

• Company reports

• Some government publications

• Journals

• Books

• Newspapers

• Articles by professional associations

• Indexes

• Databases

• Catalogues

• Encyclopaedias

• Dictionaries

• Bibliographies

• Citation indexes

• Statistical data from government websites

9. What is the difference between a systematic review and a literature review?

A systematic review is a form of research that uses a rigorous method to generate knowledge from both published and unpublished data. A literature review, on the other hand, is a critical summary of an area of research within the context of what has already been published.

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LITERATURE REVIEW SOFTWARE FOR BETTER RESEARCH

“This tool really helped me to create good bibtex references for my research papers”

Ali Mohammed-Djafari

Director of Research at LSS-CNRS, France

“Any researcher could use it! The paper recommendations are great for anyone and everyone”

Swansea University, Wales

“As a student just venturing into the world of lit reviews, this is a tool that is outstanding and helping me find deeper results for my work.”

Franklin Jeffers

South Oregon University, USA

“One of the 3 most promising tools that (1) do not solely rely on keywords, (2) does nice visualizations, (3) is easy to use”

Singapore Management University

“Incredibly useful tool to get to know more literature, and to gain insight in existing research”

KU Leuven, Belgium

“Seeing my literature list as a network enhances my thinking process!”

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

“I can’t live without you anymore! I also recommend you to my students.”

Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

“This has helped me so much in researching the literature. Currently, I am beginning to investigate new fields and this has helped me hugely”

Aran Warren

Canterbury University, NZ

“It's nice to get a quick overview of related literature. Really easy to use, and it helps getting on top of the often complicated structures of referencing”

Christoph Ludwig

Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

“Litmaps is extremely helpful with my research. It helps me organize each one of my projects and see how they relate to each other, as well as to keep up to date on publications done in my field”

Daniel Fuller

Clarkson University, USA

“Litmaps is a game changer for finding novel literature... it has been invaluable for my productivity.... I also got my PhD student to use it and they also found it invaluable, finding several gaps they missed”

Varun Venkatesh

Austin Health, Australia

10 Best Literature Review Tools for Researchers

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Boost your research game with these Best Literature Review Tools for Researchers! Uncover hidden gems, organize your findings, and ace your next research paper!

Conducting literature reviews poses challenges for researchers due to the overwhelming volume of information available and the lack of efficient methods to manage and analyze it.

Researchers struggle to identify key sources, extract relevant information, and maintain accuracy while manually conducting literature reviews. This leads to inefficiency, errors, and difficulty in identifying gaps or trends in existing literature.

Advancements in technology have resulted in a variety of literature review tools. These tools streamline the process, offering features like automated searching, filtering, citation management, and research data extraction. They save time, improve accuracy, and provide valuable insights for researchers. 

In this article, we present a curated list of the 10 best literature review tools, empowering researchers to make informed choices and revolutionize their systematic literature review process.

Table of Contents

Top 10 Literature Review Tools for Researchers: In A Nutshell (2023)

#1. semantic scholar – a free, ai-powered research tool for scientific literature.

Semantic Scholar is a cutting-edge literature review tool that researchers rely on for its comprehensive access to academic publications. With its advanced AI algorithms and extensive database, it simplifies the discovery of relevant research papers. 

By employing semantic analysis, users can explore scholarly articles based on context and meaning, making it a go-to resource for scholars across disciplines. 

Additionally, Semantic Scholar offers personalized recommendations and alerts, ensuring researchers stay updated with the latest developments. However, users should be cautious of potential limitations. 

Not all scholarly content may be indexed, and occasional false positives or inaccurate associations can occur. Furthermore, the tool primarily focuses on computer science and related fields, potentially limiting coverage in other disciplines. 

Researchers should be mindful of these considerations and supplement Semantic Scholar with other reputable resources for a comprehensive literature review. Despite these caveats, Semantic Scholar remains a valuable tool for streamlining research and staying informed.

#2. Elicit – Research assistant using language models like GPT-3

Elicit is a game-changing literature review tool that has gained popularity among researchers worldwide. With its user-friendly interface and extensive database of scholarly articles, it streamlines the research process, saving time and effort. 

The tool employs advanced algorithms to provide personalized recommendations, ensuring researchers discover the most relevant studies for their field. Elicit also promotes collaboration by enabling users to create shared folders and annotate articles.

However, users should be cautious when using Elicit. It is important to verify the credibility and accuracy of the sources found through the tool, as the database encompasses a wide range of publications. 

Additionally, occasional glitches in the search function have been reported, leading to incomplete or inaccurate results. While Elicit offers tremendous benefits, researchers should remain vigilant and cross-reference information to ensure a comprehensive literature review.

#3. Scite.Ai – Your personal research assistant

Scite.Ai is a popular literature review tool that revolutionizes the research process for scholars. With its innovative citation analysis feature, researchers can evaluate the credibility and impact of scientific articles, making informed decisions about their inclusion in their own work. 

By assessing the context in which citations are used, Scite.Ai ensures that the sources selected are reliable and of high quality, enabling researchers to establish a strong foundation for their research.

However, while Scite.Ai offers numerous advantages, there are a few aspects to be cautious about. As with any data-driven tool, occasional errors or inaccuracies may arise, necessitating researchers to cross-reference and verify results with other reputable sources. 

Moreover, Scite.Ai’s coverage may be limited in certain subject areas and languages, with a possibility of missing relevant studies, especially in niche fields or non-English publications. 

Therefore, researchers should supplement the use of Scite.Ai with additional resources to ensure comprehensive literature coverage and avoid any potential gaps in their research.

Rayyan offers the following paid plans:

• Monthly Plan: $20
• Yearly Plan: $12

#4. DistillerSR – Literature Review Software

DistillerSR is a powerful literature review tool trusted by researchers for its user-friendly interface and robust features. With its advanced search capabilities, researchers can quickly find relevant studies from multiple databases, saving time and effort. 

The tool offers comprehensive screening and data extraction functionalities, streamlining the review process and improving the reliability of findings. Real-time collaboration features also facilitate seamless teamwork among researchers.

While DistillerSR offers numerous advantages, there are a few considerations. Users should invest time in understanding the tool’s features and functionalities to maximize its potential. Additionally, the pricing structure may be a factor for individual researchers or small teams with limited budgets.

Despite occasional technical glitches reported by some users, the developers actively address these issues through updates and improvements, ensuring a better user experience. 

Overall, DistillerSR empowers researchers to navigate the vast sea of information, enhancing the quality and efficiency of literature reviews while fostering collaboration among research teams.

#5. Rayyan – AI Powered Tool for Systematic Literature Reviews

Rayyan is a powerful literature review tool that simplifies the research process for scholars and academics. With its user-friendly interface and efficient management features, Rayyan is highly regarded by researchers worldwide. 

It allows users to import and organize large volumes of scholarly articles, making it easier to identify relevant studies for their research projects. The tool also facilitates seamless collaboration among team members, enhancing productivity and streamlining the research workflow. 

However, it’s important to be aware of a few aspects. The free version of Rayyan has limitations, and upgrading to a premium subscription may be necessary for additional functionalities. 

Users should also be mindful of occasional technical glitches and compatibility issues, promptly reporting any problems. Despite these considerations, Rayyan remains a valuable asset for researchers, providing an effective solution for literature review tasks.

Rayyan offers both free and paid plans:

• Professional: $8.25/month
• Student: $4/month
• Pro Team: $8.25/month
• Team+: $24.99/month

#6. Consensus – Use AI to find you answers in scientific research

Consensus is a cutting-edge literature review tool that has become a go-to choice for researchers worldwide. Its intuitive interface and powerful capabilities make it a preferred tool for navigating and analyzing scholarly articles. 

With Consensus, researchers can save significant time by efficiently organizing and accessing relevant research material.People consider Consensus for several reasons. 

Its advanced search algorithms and filters help researchers sift through vast amounts of information, ensuring they focus on the most relevant articles. By streamlining the literature review process, Consensus allows researchers to extract valuable insights and accelerate their research progress.

However, there are a few factors to watch out for when using Consensus. As with any automated tool, researchers should exercise caution and independently verify the accuracy and relevance of the generated results. Complex or niche topics may present challenges, resulting in limited search results. Researchers should also supplement Consensus with manual searches to ensure comprehensive coverage of the literature.

Overall, Consensus is a valuable resource for researchers seeking to optimize their literature review process. By leveraging its features alongside critical thinking and manual searches, researchers can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their work, advancing their research endeavors to new heights.

Consensus offers both free and paid plans:

• Premium: $9.99/month
• Enterprise: Custom

#7. RAx – AI-powered reading assistant

Consensus is a revolutionary literature review tool that has transformed the research process for scholars worldwide. With its user-friendly interface and advanced features, it offers a vast database of academic publications across various disciplines, providing access to relevant and up-to-date literature. 

Using advanced algorithms and machine learning, Consensus delivers personalized recommendations, saving researchers time and effort in their literature search. 

However, researchers should be cautious of potential biases in the recommendation system and supplement their search with manual verification to ensure a comprehensive review. 

Additionally, occasional inaccuracies in metadata have been reported, making it essential for users to cross-reference information with reliable sources. Despite these considerations, Consensus remains an invaluable tool for enhancing the efficiency and quality of literature reviews.

RAx offers both free and paid plans. Currently offering 50% discounts as of July 2023:

• Premium: $6/month $3/month
• Premium with Copilot: $8/month $4/month

#8. Lateral – Advance your research with AI

“Lateral” is a revolutionary literature review tool trusted by researchers worldwide. With its user-friendly interface and powerful search capabilities, it simplifies the process of gathering and analyzing scholarly articles. 

By leveraging advanced algorithms and machine learning, Lateral saves researchers precious time by retrieving relevant articles and uncovering new connections between them, fostering interdisciplinary exploration.

While Lateral provides numerous benefits, users should exercise caution. It is advisable to cross-reference its findings with other sources to ensure a comprehensive review. 

Additionally, researchers must be mindful of potential biases introduced by the tool’s algorithms and should critically evaluate and interpret the results. 

Despite these considerations, Lateral remains an indispensable resource, empowering researchers to delve deeper into their fields of study and make valuable contributions to the academic community.

RAx offers both free and paid plans:

• Premium: $10.98
• Pro: $27.46

#9. Iris AI – Introducing the researcher workspace

Iris AI is an innovative literature review tool that has transformed the research process for academics and scholars. With its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities, Iris AI offers a seamless and efficient way to navigate through a vast array of academic papers and publications. 

Researchers are drawn to this tool because it saves valuable time by automating the tedious task of literature review and provides comprehensive coverage across multiple disciplines. 

Its intelligent recommendation system suggests related articles, enabling researchers to discover hidden connections and broaden their knowledge base. However, caution should be exercised while using Iris AI. 

While the tool excels at surfacing relevant papers, researchers should independently evaluate the quality and validity of the sources to ensure the reliability of their work. 

It’s important to note that Iris AI may occasionally miss niche or lesser-known publications, necessitating a supplementary search using traditional methods. 

Additionally, being an algorithm-based tool, there is a possibility of false positives or missed relevant articles due to the inherent limitations of automated text analysis. Nevertheless, Iris AI remains an invaluable asset for researchers, enhancing the quality and efficiency of their research endeavors.

Iris AI offers different pricing plans to cater to various user needs:

• Basic: Free
• Premium: Monthly ($82.41), Quarterly ($222.49), and Annual ($791.07)

#10. Scholarcy – Summarize your literature through AI

Scholarcy is a powerful literature review tool that helps researchers streamline their work. By employing advanced algorithms and natural language processing, it efficiently analyzes and summarizes academic papers, saving researchers valuable time. 

Scholarcy’s ability to extract key information and generate concise summaries makes it an attractive option for scholars looking to quickly grasp the main concepts and findings of multiple papers.

However, it is important to exercise caution when relying solely on Scholarcy. While it provides a useful starting point, engaging with the original research papers is crucial to ensure a comprehensive understanding. 

Scholarcy’s automated summarization may not capture the nuanced interpretations or contextual information presented in the full text. 

Researchers should also be aware that certain types of documents, particularly those with heavy mathematical or technical content, may pose challenges for the tool. 

Despite these considerations, Scholarcy remains a valuable resource for researchers seeking to enhance their literature review process and improve overall efficiency.

Scholarcy offer the following pricing plans:

• Browser Extension and Flashcards: Free 
• Personal Library: $9.99
• Academic Institution License: $8K+

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, conducting a comprehensive literature review is a crucial aspect of any research project, and the availability of reliable and efficient tools can greatly facilitate this process for researchers. This article has explored the top 10 literature review tools that have gained popularity among researchers.

Moreover, the rise of AI-powered tools like Iris.ai and Sci.ai promises to revolutionize the literature review process by automating various tasks and enhancing research efficiency. 

Ultimately, the choice of literature review tool depends on individual preferences and research needs, but the tools presented in this article serve as valuable resources to enhance the quality and productivity of research endeavors. 

Researchers are encouraged to explore and utilize these tools to stay at the forefront of knowledge in their respective fields and contribute to the advancement of science and academia.

Q1. What are literature review tools for researchers?

Literature review tools for researchers are software or online platforms designed to assist researchers in efficiently conducting literature reviews. These tools help researchers find, organize, analyze, and synthesize relevant academic papers and other sources of information.

Q2. What criteria should researchers consider when choosing literature review tools?

When choosing literature review tools, researchers should consider factors such as the tool’s search capabilities, database coverage, user interface, collaboration features, citation management, annotation and highlighting options, integration with reference management software, and data extraction capabilities. 

It’s also essential to consider the tool’s accessibility, cost, and technical support.

Q3. Are there any literature review tools specifically designed for systematic reviews or meta-analyses?

Yes, there are literature review tools that cater specifically to systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which involve a rigorous and structured approach to reviewing existing literature. These tools often provide features tailored to the specific needs of these methodologies, such as:

Screening and eligibility assessment: Systematic review tools typically offer functionalities for screening and assessing the eligibility of studies based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. This streamlines the process of selecting relevant studies for analysis.

Data extraction and quality assessment: These tools often include templates and forms to facilitate data extraction from selected studies. Additionally, they may provide features for assessing the quality and risk of bias in individual studies.

Meta-analysis support: Some literature review tools include statistical analysis features that assist in conducting meta-analyses. These features can help calculate effect sizes, perform statistical tests, and generate forest plots or other visual representations of the meta-analytic results.

Reporting assistance: Many tools provide templates or frameworks for generating systematic review reports, ensuring compliance with established guidelines such as PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses).

Q4. Can literature review tools help with organizing and annotating collected references?

Yes, literature review tools often come equipped with features to help researchers organize and annotate collected references. Some common functionalities include:

Reference management: These tools enable researchers to import references from various sources, such as databases or PDF files, and store them in a central library. They typically allow you to create folders or tags to organize references based on themes or categories.

Annotation capabilities: Many tools provide options for adding annotations, comments, or tags to individual references or specific sections of research articles. This helps researchers keep track of important information, highlight key findings, or note potential connections between different sources.

Full-text search: Literature review tools often offer full-text search functionality, allowing you to search within the content of imported articles or documents. This can be particularly useful when you need to locate specific information or keywords across multiple references.

Integration with citation managers: Some literature review tools integrate with popular citation managers like Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote, allowing seamless transfer of references and annotations between platforms.

By leveraging these features, researchers can streamline the organization and annotation of their collected references, making it easier to retrieve relevant information during the literature review process.

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Accelerate your research with the best systematic literature review tools

The ideal literature review tool helps you make sense of the most important insights in your research field. ATLAS.ti empowers researchers to perform powerful and collaborative analysis using the leading software for literature review.

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Import and analyze any type of text content – ATLAS.ti supports all standard text and transcription files such as Word and PDF.

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The faster way to make sense of your literature review. Try it for free, today.

A literature review analyzes the most current research within a research area. A literature review consists of published studies from many sources:

• Peer-reviewed academic publications
• Full-length books
• University bulletins
• Conference proceedings
• Dissertations and theses

Literature reviews allow researchers to:

• Summarize the state of the research
• Identify unexplored research inquiries
• Recommend practical applications
• Critique currently published research

Literature reviews are either standalone publications or part of a paper as background for an original research project. A literature review, as a section of a more extensive research article, summarizes the current state of the research to justify the primary research described in the paper.

For example, a researcher may have reviewed the literature on a new supplement's health benefits and concluded that more research needs to be conducted on those with a particular condition. This research gap warrants a study examining how this understudied population reacted to the supplement. Researchers need to establish this research gap through a literature review to persuade journal editors and reviewers of the value of their research.

Consider a literature review as a typical research publication presenting a study, its results, and the salient points scholars can infer from the study. The only significant difference with a literature review treats existing literature as the research data to collect and analyze. From that analysis, a literature review can suggest new inquiries to pursue.

Identify a focus

Similar to a typical study, a literature review should have a research question or questions that analysis can answer. This sort of inquiry typically targets a particular phenomenon, population, or even research method to examine how different studies have looked at the same thing differently. A literature review, then, should center the literature collection around that focus.

Collect and analyze the literature

With a focus in mind, a researcher can collect studies that provide relevant information for that focus. They can then analyze the collected studies by finding and identifying patterns or themes that occur frequently. This analysis allows the researcher to point out what the field has frequently explored or, on the other hand, overlooked.

Suggest implications

The literature review allows the researcher to argue a particular point through the evidence provided by the analysis. For example, suppose the analysis makes it apparent that the published research on people's sleep patterns has not adequately explored the connection between sleep and a particular factor (e.g., television-watching habits, indoor air quality). In that case, the researcher can argue that further study can address this research gap.

External requirements aside (e.g., many academic journals have a word limit of 6,000-8,000 words), a literature review as a standalone publication is as long as necessary to allow readers to understand the current state of the field. Even if it is just a section in a larger paper, a literature review is long enough to allow the researcher to justify the study that is the paper's focus.

Note that a literature review needs only to incorporate a representative number of studies relevant to the research inquiry. For term papers in university courses, 10 to 20 references might be appropriate for demonstrating analytical skills. Published literature reviews in peer-reviewed journals might have 40 to 50 references. One of the essential goals of a literature review is to persuade readers that you have analyzed a representative segment of the research you are reviewing.

Researchers can find published research from various online sources:

• Journal websites
• Research databases
• Search engines (Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar)
• Research repositories
• Social networking sites (Academia, ResearchGate)

Many journals make articles freely available under the term "open access," meaning that there are no restrictions to viewing and downloading such articles. Otherwise, collecting research articles from restricted journals usually requires access from an institution such as a university or a library.

Evidence of a rigorous literature review is more important than the word count or the number of articles that undergo data analysis. Especially when writing for a peer-reviewed journal, it is essential to consider how to demonstrate research rigor in your literature review to persuade reviewers of its scholarly value.

Select field-specific journals

The most significant research relevant to your field focuses on a narrow set of journals similar in aims and scope. Consider who the most prominent scholars in your field are and determine which journals publish their research or have them as editors or reviewers. Journals tend to look favorably on systematic reviews that include articles they have published.

Incorporate recent research

Recently published studies have greater value in determining the gaps in the current state of research. Older research is likely to have encountered challenges and critiques that may render their findings outdated or refuted. What counts as recent differs by field; start by looking for research published within the last three years and gradually expand to older research when you need to collect more articles for your review.

Consider the quality of the research

Literature reviews are only as strong as the quality of the studies that the researcher collects. You can judge any particular study by many factors, including:

• the quality of the article's journal
• the article's research rigor
• the timeliness of the research

The critical point here is that you should consider more than just a study's findings or research outputs when including research in your literature review.

Narrow your research focus

Ideally, the articles you collect for your literature review have something in common, such as a research method or research context. For example, if you are conducting a literature review about teaching practices in high school contexts, it is best to narrow your literature search to studies focusing on high school. You should consider expanding your search to junior high school and university contexts only when there are not enough studies that match your focus.

You can create a project in ATLAS.ti for keeping track of your collected literature. ATLAS.ti allows you to view and analyze full text articles and PDF files in a single project. Within projects, you can use document groups to separate studies into different categories for easier and faster analysis.

For example, a researcher with a literature review that examines studies across different countries can create document groups labeled "United Kingdom," "Germany," and "United States," among others. A researcher can also use ATLAS.ti's global filters to narrow analysis to a particular set of studies and gain insights about a smaller set of literature.

ATLAS.ti allows you to search, code, and analyze text documents and PDF files. You can treat a set of research articles like other forms of qualitative data. The codes you apply to your literature collection allow for analysis through many powerful tools in ATLAS.ti:

• Code Co-Occurrence Explorer
• Code Co-Occurrence Table
• Code-Document Table

Other tools in ATLAS.ti employ machine learning to facilitate parts of the coding process for you. Some of our software tools that are effective for analyzing literature include:

• Named Entity Recognition
• Opinion Mining
• Sentiment Analysis

As long as your documents are text documents or text-enable PDF files, ATLAS.ti's automated tools can provide essential assistance in the data analysis process.

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• Knowledge Base

Methodology

• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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7 open source tools to make literature reviews easy

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A good literature review is critical for academic research in any field, whether it is for a research article, a critical review for coursework, or a dissertation. In a recent article, I presented detailed steps for doing  a literature review using open source software .

The following is a brief summary of seven free and open source software tools described in that article that will make your next literature review much easier.

1. GNU Linux

Most literature reviews are accomplished by graduate students working in research labs in universities. For absurd reasons, graduate students often have the worst computers on campus. They are often old, slow, and clunky Windows machines that have been discarded and recycled from the undergraduate computer labs. Installing a flavor of GNU Linux will breathe new life into these outdated PCs. There are more than 100 distributions , all of which can be downloaded and installed for free on computers. Most popular Linux distributions come with a "try-before-you-buy" feature. For example, with Ubuntu you can make a bootable USB stick that allows you to test-run the Ubuntu desktop experience without interfering in any way with your PC configuration. If you like the experience, you can use the stick to install Ubuntu on your machine permanently.

Linux distributions generally come with a free web browser, and the most popular is Firefox . Two Firefox plugins that are particularly useful for literature reviews are Unpaywall and Zotero. Keep reading to learn why.

3. Unpaywall

Often one of the hardest parts of a literature review is gaining access to the papers you want to read for your review. The unintended consequence of copyright restrictions and paywalls is it has narrowed access to the peer-reviewed literature to the point that even Harvard University is challenged to pay for it. Fortunately, there are a lot of open access articles—about a third of the literature is free (and the percentage is growing). Unpaywall is a Firefox plugin that enables researchers to click a green tab on the side of the browser and skip the paywall on millions of peer-reviewed journal articles. This makes finding accessible copies of articles much faster that searching each database individually. Unpaywall is fast, free, and legal, as it accesses many of the open access sites that I covered in my paper on using open source in lit reviews .

Formatting references is the most tedious of academic tasks. Zotero can save you from ever doing it again. It operates as an Android app, desktop program, and a Firefox plugin (which I recommend). It is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research. It replaces the functionality of proprietary packages such as RefWorks, Endnote, and Papers for zero cost. Zotero can auto-add bibliographic information directly from websites. In addition, it can scrape bibliographic data from PDF files. Notes can be easily added on each reference. Finally, and most importantly, it can import and export the bibliography databases in all publishers' various formats. With this feature, you can export bibliographic information to paste into a document editor for a paper or thesis—or even to a wiki for dynamic collaborative literature reviews (see tool #7 for more on the value of wikis in lit reviews).

5. LibreOffice

Your thesis or academic article can be written conventionally with the free office suite LibreOffice , which operates similarly to Microsoft's Office products but respects your freedom. Zotero has a word processor plugin to integrate directly with LibreOffice. LibreOffice is more than adequate for the vast majority of academic paper writing.

If LibreOffice is not enough for your layout needs, you can take your paper writing one step further with LaTeX , a high-quality typesetting system specifically designed for producing technical and scientific documentation. LaTeX is particularly useful if your writing has a lot of equations in it. Also, Zotero libraries can be directly exported to BibTeX files for use with LaTeX.

7. MediaWiki

If you want to leverage the open source way to get help with your literature review, you can facilitate a dynamic collaborative literature review . A wiki is a website that allows anyone to add, delete, or revise content directly using a web browser. MediaWiki is free software that enables you to set up your own wikis.

Researchers can (in decreasing order of complexity): 1) set up their own research group wiki with MediaWiki, 2) utilize wikis already established at their universities (e.g., Aalto University ), or 3) use wikis dedicated to areas that they research. For example, several university research groups that focus on sustainability (including mine ) use Appropedia , which is set up for collaborative solutions on sustainability, appropriate technology, poverty reduction, and permaculture.

Using a wiki makes it easy for anyone in the group to keep track of the status of and update literature reviews (both current and older or from other researchers). It also enables multiple members of the group to easily collaborate on a literature review asynchronously. Most importantly, it enables people outside the research group to help make a literature review more complete, accurate, and up-to-date.

Wrapping up

Free and open source software can cover the entire lit review toolchain, meaning there's no need for anyone to use proprietary solutions. Do you use other libre tools for making literature reviews or other academic work easier? Please let us know your favorites in the comments.

Related Content

Literature Review Tips & Tools

• Tips & Examples

Organizational Tools

Tools for systematic reviews.

• Bubbl.us Free online brainstorming/mindmapping tool that also has a free iPad app.
• Coggle Another free online mindmapping tool.
• Organization & Structure tips from Purdue University Online Writing Lab
• Literature Reviews from The Writing Center at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gives several suggestions and descriptions of ways to organize your lit review.
• Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions "The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions is the official guide that describes in detail the process of preparing and maintaining Cochrane systematic reviews on the effects of healthcare interventions. "
• Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) website "PRISMA is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PRISMA focuses on the reporting of reviews evaluating randomized trials, but can also be used as a basis for reporting systematic reviews of other types of research, particularly evaluations of interventions."
• PRISMA Flow Diagram Generator Free tool that will generate a PRISMA flow diagram from a CSV file (sample CSV template provided) more... less... Please cite as: Haddaway, N. R., Page, M. J., Pritchard, C. C., & McGuinness, L. A. (2022). PRISMA2020: An R package and Shiny app for producing PRISMA 2020-compliant flow diagrams, with interactivity for optimised digital transparency and Open Synthesis Campbell Systematic Reviews, 18, e1230. https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1230
• Rayyan "Rayyan is a 100% FREE web application to help systematic review authors perform their job in a quick, easy and enjoyable fashion. Authors create systematic reviews, collaborate on them, maintain them over time and get suggestions for article inclusion."
• Covidence Covidence is a tool to help manage systematic reviews (and create PRISMA flow diagrams). **UMass Amherst doesn't subscribe, but Covidence offers a free trial for 1 review of no more than 500 records. It is also set up for researchers to pay for each review.
• PROSPERO - Systematic Review Protocol Registry "PROSPERO accepts registrations for systematic reviews, rapid reviews and umbrella reviews. PROSPERO does not accept scoping reviews or literature scans. Sibling PROSPERO sites registers systematic reviews of human studies and systematic reviews of animal studies."
• Critical Appraisal Tools from JBI Joanna Briggs Institute at the University of Adelaide provides these checklists to help evaluate different types of publications that could be included in a review.
• Systematic Review Toolbox "The Systematic Review Toolbox is a community-driven, searchable, web-based catalogue of tools that support the systematic review process across multiple domains. The resource aims to help reviewers find appropriate tools based on how they provide support for the systematic review process. Users can perform a simple keyword search (i.e. Quick Search) to locate tools, a more detailed search (i.e. Advanced Search) allowing users to select various criteria to find specific types of tools and submit new tools to the database. Although the focus of the Toolbox is on identifying software tools to support systematic reviews, other tools or support mechanisms (such as checklists, guidelines and reporting standards) can also be found."
• Abstrackr Free, open-source tool that "helps you upload and organize the results of a literature search for a systematic review. It also makes it possible for your team to screen, organize, and manipulate all of your abstracts in one place." -From Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health
• SRDR Plus (Systematic Review Data Repository: Plus) An open-source tool for extracting, managing,, and archiving data developed by the Center for Evidence Synthesis in Health at Brown University
• RoB 2 Tool (Risk of Bias for Randomized Trials) A revised Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomized trials
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MAXQDA is the best choice for a comprehensive literature review. It works with a wide range of data types and offers powerful tools for literature review, such as reference management, qualitative, vocabulary, text analysis tools, and more.

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As your all-in-one literature review software, MAXQDA can be used to manage your entire research project. Easily import data from texts, interviews, focus groups, PDFs, web pages, spreadsheets, articles, e-books, and even social media data. Connect the reference management system of your choice with MAXQDA to easily import bibliographic data. Organize your data in groups, link relevant quotes to each other, keep track of your literature summaries, and share and compare work with your team members. Your project file stays flexible and you can expand and refine your category system as you go to suit your research.

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Having used several qualitative data analysis software programs, there is no doubt in my mind that MAXQDA has advantages over all the others. In addition to its remarkable analytical features for harnessing data, MAXQDA’s stellar customer service, online tutorials, and global learning community make it a user friendly and top-notch product.

Sally S. Cohen – NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

Literature Review is Faster and Smarter with MAXQDA

Easily import your literature review data

With a literature review software like MAXQDA, you can easily import bibliographic data from reference management programs for your literature review. MAXQDA can work with all reference management programs that can export their databases in RIS-format which is a standard format for bibliographic information. Like MAXQDA, these reference managers use project files, containing all collected bibliographic information, such as author, title, links to websites, keywords, abstracts, and other information. In addition, you can easily import the corresponding full texts. Upon import, all documents will be automatically pre-coded to facilitate your literature review at a later stage.

Capture your ideas while analyzing your literature

Great ideas will often occur to you while you’re doing your literature review. Using MAXQDA as your literature review software, you can create memos to store your ideas, such as research questions and objectives, or you can use memos for paraphrasing passages into your own words. By attaching memos like post-it notes to text passages, texts, document groups, images, audio/video clips, and of course codes, you can easily retrieve them at a later stage. Particularly useful for literature reviews are free memos written during the course of work from which passages can be copied and inserted into the final text.

Find concepts important to your generated literature review

When generating a literature review you might need to analyze a large amount of text. Luckily MAXQDA as the #1 literature review software offers Text Search tools that allow you to explore your documents without reading or coding them first. Automatically search for keywords (or dictionaries of keywords), such as important concepts for your literature review, and automatically code them with just a few clicks. Document variables that were automatically created during the import of your bibliographic information can be used for searching and retrieving certain text segments. MAXQDA’s powerful Coding Query allows you to analyze the combination of activated codes in different ways.

Aggregate your literature review

When conducting a literature review you can easily get lost. But with MAXQDA as your literature review software, you will never lose track of the bigger picture. Among other tools, MAXQDA’s overview and summary tables are especially useful for aggregating your literature review results. MAXQDA offers overview tables for almost everything, codes, memos, coded segments, links, and so on. With MAXQDA literature review tools you can create compressed summaries of sources that can be effectively compared and represented, and with just one click you can easily export your overview and summary tables and integrate them into your literature review report.

Powerful and easy-to-use literature review tools

Quantitative aspects can also be relevant when conducting a literature review analysis. Using MAXQDA as your literature review software enables you to employ a vast range of procedures for the quantitative evaluation of your material. You can sort sources according to document variables, compare amounts with frequency tables and charts, and much more. Make sure you don’t miss the word frequency tools of MAXQDA’s add-on module for quantitative content analysis. Included are tools for visual text exploration, content analysis, vocabulary analysis, dictionary-based analysis, and more that facilitate the quantitative analysis of terms and their semantic contexts.

Visualize your literature review

As an all-in-one literature review software, MAXQDA offers a variety of visual tools that are tailor-made for qualitative research and literature reviews. Create stunning visualizations to analyze your material. Of course, you can export your visualizations in various formats to enrich your literature review analysis report. Work with word clouds to explore the central themes of a text and key terms that are used, create charts to easily compare the occurrences of concepts and important keywords, or make use of the graphical representation possibilities of MAXMaps, which in particular permit the creation of concept maps. Thanks to the interactive connection between your visualizations with your MAXQDA data, you’ll never lose sight of the big picture.

AI Assist: literature review software meets AI

AI Assist – your virtual research assistant – supports your literature review with various tools. AI Assist simplifies your work by automatically analyzing and summarizing elements of your research project and by generating suggestions for subcodes. No matter which AI tool you use – you can customize your results to suit your needs.

Free tutorials and guides on literature review

MAXQDA offers a variety of free learning resources for literature review, making it easy for both beginners and advanced users to learn how to use the software. From free video tutorials and webinars to step-by-step guides and sample projects, these resources provide a wealth of information to help you understand the features and functionality of MAXQDA for literature review. For beginners, the software’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive help center make it easy to get started with your data analysis, while advanced users will appreciate the detailed guides and tutorials that cover more complex features and techniques. Whether you’re just starting out or are an experienced researcher, MAXQDA’s free learning resources will help you get the most out of your literature review.

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Get your maxqda license, compare the features of maxqda and maxqda analytics pro, faq: literature review software.

Literature review software is a tool designed to help researchers efficiently manage and analyze the existing body of literature relevant to their research topic. MAXQDA, a versatile qualitative data analysis tool, can be instrumental in this process.

Literature review software, like MAXQDA, typically includes features such as data import and organization, coding and categorization, advanced search capabilities, data visualization tools, and collaboration features. These features facilitate the systematic review and analysis of relevant literature.

Literature review software, including MAXQDA, can assist in qualitative data interpretation by enabling researchers to organize, code, and categorize relevant literature. This organized data can then be analyzed to identify trends, patterns, and themes, helping researchers draw meaningful insights from the literature they’ve reviewed.

Yes, literature review software like MAXQDA is suitable for researchers of all levels of experience. It offers user-friendly interfaces and extensive support resources, making it accessible to beginners while providing advanced features that cater to the needs of experienced researchers.

Getting started with literature review software, such as MAXQDA, typically involves downloading and installing the software, importing your relevant literature, and exploring the available features. Many software providers offer tutorials and documentation to help users get started quickly.

For students, MAXQDA can be an excellent literature review software choice. Its user-friendly interface, comprehensive feature set, and educational discounts make it a valuable tool for students conducting literature reviews as part of their academic research.

MAXQDA is available for both Windows and Mac users, making it a suitable choice for Mac users looking for literature review software. It offers a consistent and feature-rich experience on Mac operating systems.

When it comes to literature review software, MAXQDA is widely regarded as one of the best choices. Its robust feature set, user-friendly interface, and versatility make it a top pick for researchers conducting literature reviews.

Yes, literature reviews can be conducted without software. However, using literature review software like MAXQDA can significantly streamline and enhance the process by providing tools for efficient data management, analysis, and visualization.

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• Identify the papers that matter in less time
• Jump straight to the most important information
• Compare a collection of articles more easily

With Scholarcy Library, you can import all your papers and search results, and quickly screen them with the automatically generated ‘key takeaway’ headline.

Take the stress out of your literature review

While there are lots of tools that help you discover articles for your research, how do you analyse and synthesise the information from all of those papers?

3 easy ways to import articles

Scholarcy lets you quickly import your articles for screening and analysing.

Import papers in PDF, Word, HTML and LaTeX format

Import search results from PubMed or any service that provides results in RIS or BibTeX format

Import publisher RSS feeds

Build your literature matrix in minutes

Our Excel export feature generates a literature synthesis matrix for you, so you can

Compare papers side by side for their study sizes, key contributions, limitations, and more.

Export literature-review ready data in Excel, Word, RIS or Markdown format

Integrates with your reference manager and ‘second brain’ tools such as Roam, Notion and Obsidian

Carrying out a systematic review?

Scholarcy breaks papers down into our unique summary flashcard format.

The Study subjects and analysis tab shows you study population, intervention, outcome, and statistical analyses from the paper.

And the Excel synthesis matrix generated shows the key methods and quantitative findings of each paper, side by side.

Build a knowledge graph from your papers

If you’re a fan of the latest generation of knowledge management tools such as  Roam  or  Obsidian , you’ll love our  Markdown  export.

This creates a knowledge graph of all the papers in your library by connecting them via key terms, methods, and shared citations.

What People Are Saying

“Quick processing time, successfully summarized important points.”

“It’s really good for case study analysis, thank you for this too.”

“I love this website so much it has made my research a lot easier thanks!”

“The instant feedback I get from this tool is amazing.”

“Thank you for making my life easier.”

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RAxter is now Enago Read! Enjoy the same licensing and pricing with enhanced capabilities. No action required for existing customers.

Your all in one AI-powered Reading Assistant

A Reading Space to Ideate, Create Knowledge, and Collaborate on Your Research

• Smartly organize your research
• Receive recommendations that cannot be ignored
• Collaborate with your team to read, discuss, and share knowledge

From Surface-Level Exploration to Critical Reading - All in one Place!

Fine-tune your literature search.

Our AI-powered reading assistant saves time spent on the exploration of relevant resources and allows you to focus more on reading.

Select phrases or specific sections and explore more research papers related to the core aspects of your selections. Pin the useful ones for future references.

Our platform brings you the latest research related to your and project work.

Speed up your literature review

Quickly generate a summary of key sections of any paper with our summarizer.

Make informed decisions about which papers are relevant, and where to invest your time in further reading.

Get key insights from the paper, quickly comprehend the paper’s unique approach, and recall the key points.

Bring order to your research projects

Organize your reading lists into different projects and maintain the context of your research.

Quickly sort items into collections and tag or filter them according to keywords and color codes.

Experience the power of sharing by finding all the shared literature at one place.

Decode papers effortlessly for faster comprehension

Highlight what is important so that you can retrieve it faster next time.

Select any text in the paper and ask Copilot to explain it to help you get a deeper understanding.

Ask questions and follow-ups from AI-powered Copilot.

Collaborate to read with your team, professors, or students

Share and discuss literature and drafts with your study group, colleagues, experts, and advisors. Recommend valuable resources and help each other for better understanding.

Work in shared projects efficiently and improve visibility within your study group or lab members.

Keep track of your team's progress by being constantly connected and engaging in active knowledge transfer by requesting full access to relevant papers and drafts.

Find papers from across the world's largest repositories

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Privacy and security of your research data are integral to our mission..

Everything you add or create on Enago Read is private by default. It is visible if and when you share it with other users.

You can put Creative Commons license on original drafts to protect your IP. For shared files, Enago Read always maintains a copy in case of deletion by collaborators or revoked access.

We use state-of-the-art security protocols and algorithms including MD5 Encryption, SSL, and HTTPS to secure your data.

A free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature

• Jeremy Freese
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New & Improved API for Developers

Introducing semantic reader in beta.

Stay Connected With Semantic Scholar Sign Up What Is Semantic Scholar? Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI.

We generate robust evidence fast

What is silvi.ai    .

Silvi is an end-to-end screening and data extraction tool supporting Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis.

Silvi helps create systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses that follow Cochrane guidelines in a highly reduced time frame, giving a fast and easy overview. It supports the user through the full process, from literature search to data analyses. Silvi is directly connected with databases such as PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov and is always updated with the latest published research. It also supports RIS files, making it possible to upload a search string from your favorite search engine (i.e., Ovid). Silvi has a tagging system that can be tailored to any project.

Silvi is transparent, meaning it documents and stores the choices (and the reasons behind them) the user makes. Whether publishing the results from the project in a journal, sending them to an authority, or collaborating on the project with several colleagues, transparency is optimal to create robust evidence.

Silvi is developed with the user experience in mind. The design is intuitive and easily available to new users. There is no need to become a super-user. However, if any questions should arise anyway, we have a series of super short, instructional videos to get back on track.

To see Silvi in use, watch our short introduction video.

  Short introduction video  

Learn more about Silvi’s specifications here.

"I like that I can highlight key inclusions and exclusions which makes the screening process really quick - I went through 2000+ titles and abstracts in just a few hours"

Eishaan Kamta Bhargava 

Consultant Paediatric ENT Surgeon, Sheffield Children's Hospital

"I really like how intuitive it is working with Silvi. I instantly felt like a superuser."

Henriette Kristensen

Senior Director, Ferring Pharmaceuticals

"The idea behind Silvi is great. Normally, I really dislike doing literature reviews, as they take up huge amounts of time. Silvi has made it so much easier! Thanks."

Claus Rehfeld

Senior Consultant, Nordic Healthcare Group

"AI has emerged as an indispensable tool for compiling evidence and conducting meta-analyses. Silvi.ai has proven to be the most comprehensive option I have explored, seamlessly integrating automated processes with the indispensable attributes of clarity and reproducibility essential for rigorous research practices."

Martin Södermark

M.Sc. Specialist in clinical adult psychology

Silvi.ai was founded in 2018 by Professor in Health Economic Evidence, Tove Holm-Larsen, and expert in Machine Learning, Rasmus Hvingelby. The idea for Silvi stemmed from their own research, and the need to conduct systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses faster.

The ideas behind Silvi were originally a component of a larger project. In 2016, Tove founded the group “Evidensbaseret Medicin 2.0” in collaboration with researchers from Ghent University, Technical University of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, and other experts. EBM 2.0  wanted to optimize evidence-based medicine to its highest potential using Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, but needed a highly skilled person within AI.

Around this time, Tove met Rasmus, who shared the same visions. Tove teamed up with Rasmus, and Silvi.ai was created.

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Advanced Literature Review Software

Synthesis provides advanced literature review software with analytical and automation functionality for delivering timely evidence-based information in hours, not months, for better decisions.

Strategic Analysis

Perform Scoping and Systematic Reviews quickly and accurately using the latest automation and information management algorithms.

Reference Management

Synthesis organizes and manages all your references and PDFs. You can then quickly search the Abstract and Full-Text PDFs for keywords and phrases.

Advanced Analytics

Quickly summarize the reference by searching and tagging for keywords, preform topic clustering or word clouds on the literature, and then graph all your data.

Multiple Databases

PubMed, PubMed Central, IEEE, US Patents, Ovid (Medline, Embase, Global Health), Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, and many others..

Distribution

Export capabilities for sharing the Knowledge that you have just created as either CSV files or for importing into Cite and Write managers.

Internationally Recognized

Synthesis is used in academic research universities, hospitals, government agencies, private corporations and non-governmental organziations throughout the world.

Synthesis applies the latest in automation and enhanced analytic functionality for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of conducting literature reviews...

How to get started

Explore the features of Synthesis to see what truly sets it apart from other approaches for managing and analyzing the academic and business literature.

Synthesis provides online embedded searching on major bibliographical databases, validated automated de-duplication of references, automated importing of PDFs, methods to analyze the literature, and many more features.

Synthesis is available for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and as a Java application that can be run on any platform.

Find out more

I want to have Access to the latest Literature in the Fastest Possible way and Quickly Assess it. Physician

We need Systems with Automation and Artificial Intelligence that Allows Literature Reviews to be conducted quickly and efficiently. Academic Researcher

We need a Computer System for Healthcare that Puts the Information at My Finger Tips and Tells Me Everything I Need to Know. Hospital Administrator

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Keep Up to Date about Synthesis

Synthesis research inc..

Synthesis Research Inc is a software development company focused on improving the way that literature is managed and analyzed. This desire is based around the goal of providing the best synthesized knowledge for supporting evidence-based decision making.

Synthesis Research Inc applies the latest computer science algorithms based around automation and information retrieval and management for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of conducting literature reviews through automating manual processes and enhancing the workflow.

7 tools to start building your literature review

Updated on May 3, 2021 By Amber Brown Ruiz 1 Comment

Starting a new literature review? Get started with these tools to build an intuitive reference library

A great literature base or reference library is vital to help with writing and developing ideas; however, getting started in a new area or developing interdisciplinary / transdisciplinary work can be challenging. A literature base is the first step in achieving a comprehensive review, systematic review, or meta-analysis. Literature reviews are essential for constructing an introduction section of a manuscript, discussion section, or covering information within a book chapter. Sometimes finding the various sources and filtering out articles to synthesize can be a daunting task. Now there are several tools to build a solid literature base. The first step is to get started with a comprehensive literature review or even a systematic literature review and meta-analysis.

There are many bibliographic research tools available out there. Many use simple co-citation analysis to identify a network of relevant articles, while others use more powerful algorithms to generate and visualize their networks. Below, is a selection of some of the more unique tools, representing a slice of tools available. These can be used to build a base reference library. They are user-friendly and many have re-occurring updates. You can play around with these features to figure out which tool works best for you.

*This list is in alphabetical order, not by ranking. All videos provided by websites cited.

CoCites: www.cocites.com CoCites uses a browser-based extension for Chrome and Firefox which adds an information box for papers in PubMed. It provides information about the numbers of times a paper is cited and its co-citated articles. The tool uses a co-citation similarity network to rank relevant papers, currently limited to 100 most recently published. This has been found to be effective in evaluation studies of the tool.

Inciteful: inciteful.xyz Inciteful.xyz is an academic article network finder with a fast, user friendly interface. It features various ways to engage with the “seed papers” users’ input. The tool’s powerful seeding mechanism allows for further refining the network of papers that are most relevant in multiple rounds. It also allows for filtering of the network by keywords, by distance and by year. As well, for adding additional papers to the network manually. The tool provides a range of metrics useful in analyzing the publication landscape including: i. Similar papers ii. Most important papers in the network as identified by pagerank iii. Recent papers by the top 100 authors iv. Most important recent paper with a ranking v. Top authors in the area for the papers identified vi. Institutions most published in the network vii. Top journals for the research area

JSTOR Labs Text Analyzer: jstor.org/analyze JSTOR Text Analyzer is a program that extracts and analyzes text in an article. It can help build better key terms for a systematic review and papers related to the example article analyzed. Following submission, the tool analyzes terms that are explicit or implied in the text and highlights relevant topics. It then generates a list of recommended topics that can be filtered by year, type, and accessibility.

Litmaps: www.litmaps.co Litmaps website develops maps based on key terms and articles, which can be selected on the site or uploaded from a citation manager. There are multiple ways to create a map based on the articles selected or key terms, which shows the selected articles’ relatedness. The maps tab features allow users to develop their maps. The explore tab allows users to find articles based on the original map. The systematic tab is a new feature coming soon to develop a systematic search process.

Open Knowledge Maps: www.openknowledgemaps.org Open Knowledge Maps promotes research discoverability by showing an overview of topics and relevant concepts using the 100 relevant papers. Retrieving literature with high meta-data quality, the maps cluster papers based on key terms used in the field.

Vosviewer: www.vosviewer.com VOSViewer is a text mining and article network software that must be downloaded. The software allows users to build various maps based on authors, journals, universities, conferences, and key terms. These maps also have functions for customized clustering, how the maps can be visualized, and an analysis function. The tool has been extensively reviewed , validated, and is highly cited in literature. It features: i. Rich range of data sourcesfrom Web of Science and Pubmed to OpenCitations and WikiData ii. Mapping tool and visualization network with labeling iii. Clustering of networks based on co-authorship, co-citations, and bibliographic coupling iv.

Researchrabbit: www.researchrabbit.ai ResearchRabbit is a newly-developed literature discovery tool which provides a personalized experience for users. Currently early access is available by request. The features include: i. Finding earlier, latest, and similar works based on key article(s) provided to build a collection that can be saved if you need to come back to it ii. A literature map based on the data provided iii. A list of references from selected papers can also be added to the collection iv. Ability to export the collection to a reference manager v. Email updates based on your collections about articles that may be of interest

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Amber Brown Ruiz ( @AmberBrownRuiz ) is a doctoral candidate in the Special Education and Disability Policy Program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She has a growing scholarship agenda aimed at improving post-secondary transition outcomes for students of color with disabilities through collaborative and culturally responsive transition service delivery models. Her research is derived from her practitioner experience as a former vocational rehabilitation counselor. Amber is currently a Research to Policy grant recipient, on the editorial board of Inclusion, and a VCU Holmes Scholar.

Here as another tool, that is not a literature review tool but a tool to keep up-to-date with it. It is based on PubMed and it will only show you what is new this week. It is meant for experts looking at the literature every week. It does not use links between papers and neither does it use searches. It is based entirely on examples you feed to it. If you are intrigued well, have a look at http://biomed.news .

Your all in one AI-powered Reading Assistant

A Reading Space to Ideate, Create Knowledge, & Collaborate on Your Research

• Smartly organize your research
• Receive recommendations that can not be ignored
• Collaborate with your team to read, discuss, and share knowledge

From Surface-Level Exploration to Critical Reading - All at One Place!

Fine-tune your literature search.

Our AI-powered reading assistant saves time spent on the exploration of relevant resources and allows you to focus more on reading.

Select phrases or specific sections and explore more research papers related to the core aspects of your selections. Pin the useful ones for future references.

Our platform brings you the latest research news, online courses, and articles from magazines/blogs related to your research interests and project work.

Speed up your literature review

Quickly generate a summary of key sections of any paper with our summarizer.

Make informed decisions about which papers are relevant, and where to invest your time in further reading.

Get key insights from the paper, quickly comprehend the paper’s unique approach, and recall the key points.

Bring order to your research projects

Organize your reading lists into different projects and maintain the context of your research.

Quickly sort items into collections and tag or filter them according to keywords and color codes.

Experience the power of sharing by finding all the shared literature at one place

Decode papers effortlessly for faster comprehension

Highlight what is important so that you can retrieve it faster next time

Find Wikipedia explanations for any selected word or phrase

Save time in finding similar ideas across your projects

Collaborate to read with your team, professors, or students

Share and discuss literature and drafts with your study group, colleagues, experts, and advisors. Recommend valuable resources and help each other for better understanding.

Work in shared projects efficiently and improve visibility within your study group or lab members.

Keep track of your team's progress by being constantly connected and engaging in active knowledge transfer by requesting full access to relevant papers and drafts.

Find Papers From Across the World's Largest Repositories

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Privacy and security of your research data are integral to our mission..

Everything you add or create on Enago Read is private by default. It is visible only if and when you share it with other users.

You can put Creative Commons license on original drafts to protect your IP. For shared files, Enago Read always maintains a copy in case of deletion by collaborators or revoked access.

We use state-of-the-art security protocols and algorithms including MD5 Encryption, SSL, and HTTPS to secure your data.

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AI Literature Review Generator

Automated literature review creation tool.

• Academic Research: Create a literature review for your thesis, dissertation, or research paper.
• Professional Research: Conduct a literature review for a project, report, or proposal at work.
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• Personal Research: Conduct a literature review to deepen your understanding of a topic of interest.

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Revolutionize Your Research with Jenni AI

Literature Review Generator

Welcome to Jenni AI, the ultimate tool for researchers and students. Our AI Literature Review Generator is designed to assist you in creating comprehensive, high-quality literature reviews, enhancing your academic and research endeavors. Say goodbye to writer's block and hello to seamless, efficient literature review creation.

Loved by over 1 million academics

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Discover the Game-Changing Features of Jenni AI for Literature Reviews

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Jenni AI utilizes cutting-edge AI technology to analyze and suggest relevant literature, helping you stay on top of current research trends.

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Idea Generation

Overcome writer's block with AI-generated prompts and ideas that align with your research topic, helping to expand and deepen your review.

Built-In Plagiarism Checker

Ensure the originality of your work with an integrated plagiarism checker, minimizing the risk of accidental plagiarism.

Citation Assistance

Get help with proper citation formats to maintain academic integrity and attribute sources correctly.

Our Pledge to Academic Integrity

At Jenni AI, we are deeply committed to the principles of academic integrity. We understand the importance of honesty, transparency, and ethical conduct in the academic community. Our tool is designed not just to assist in your research, but to do so in a way that respects and upholds these fundamental values.

How it Works

Start by creating your account on Jenni AI. The sign-up process is quick and user-friendly.

Define Your Research Scope

Enter the topic of your literature review to guide Jenni AI’s focus.

Interact with AI-Powered Suggestions

Use Jenni AI’s suggestions to structure your literature review, organizing it into coherent sections.

Plagiarism Verification

Employ the integrated plagiarism checker to ensure the uniqueness of your work.

Citation Guidance

Receive assistance in citing sources correctly, maintaining the academic standard.

Easy Export

Export your literature review to LaTeX, HTML, or .docx formats

What Our Users Say

Discover how Jenni AI has made a difference in the lives of academics just like you

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Love this use of AI to assist with, not replace, writing! Keep crushing it @Davidjpark96 💪

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4/9 Jenni AI's Outline Builder is a game-changer for organizing your thoughts and structuring your content. Create detailed outlines effortlessly, ensuring your writing is clear and coherent. #OutlineBuilder #WritingTools #JenniAI

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Jenni AI: Standing Out From the Competition

In a sea of online proofreaders, Jenni AI stands out. Here’s how we compare to other tools on the market:

Feature Featire

COMPETITORS

Advanced AI-Powered Assistance

Uses state-of-the-art AI technology to provide relevant literature suggestions and structural guidance.

May rely on simpler algorithms, resulting in less dynamic or comprehensive support.

Commitment to Academic Integrity

Strong focus on maintaining academic standards with built-in plagiarism checks and citation assistance.

Not all provide integrated plagiarism tools or may have less emphasis on citation guidelines.

User-Friendly Interface

Designed for ease of use, making it accessible for users with varying levels of tech proficiency.

Interfaces can be complex or less intuitive, posing a challenge for some users.

Transparent and Flexible Pricing

Offers a free trial and clear, flexible pricing plans suitable for different needs.

Pricing structures can be opaque or inflexible, with fewer user options.

Unparalleled Customization

Offers highly personalized suggestions and adapts to your specific research needs over time.

Often provide generic suggestions that may not align closely with individual research topics.

Comprehensive Literature Access

Provides access to a vast and up-to-date range of academic literature, ensuring comprehensive research coverage.

Some may have limited access to current or diverse research materials, restricting the scope of literature reviews.

Ready to Transform Your Research Process?

Don't wait to elevate your research. Sign up for Jenni AI today and discover a smarter, more efficient way to handle your academic literature reviews.

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COLLABORATE ON YOUR REVIEWS WITH ANYONE, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME

Save precious time and maximize your productivity with a Rayyan membership. Receive training, priority support, and access features to complete your systematic reviews efficiently.

Rayyan Teams+ makes your job easier. It includes VIP Support, AI-powered in-app help, and powerful tools to create, share and organize systematic reviews, review teams, searches, and full-texts.

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Rayyan makes collaborative systematic reviews faster, easier, and more convenient. Training, VIP support, and access to new features maximize your productivity. Get started now!

Over 1 billion reference articles reviewed by research teams, and counting...

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Rayyan understands language, learns from your decisions and helps you work quickly through even your largest systematic literature reviews.

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Rayyan Enterprise and Rayyan Teams+ make it faster, easier and more convenient for you to manage your research process across your organization.

• Accelerate your research across your team or organization and save valuable researcher time.
• Build and preserve institutional assets, including literature searches, systematic reviews, and full-text articles.
• Onboard team members quickly with access to group trainings for beginners and experts.
• Receive priority support to stay productive when questions arise.
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RAYYAN SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OVERVIEW

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• Monitor & Manage Users, Searches, Reviews, Full Texts
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For researchers who want more tools for research acceleration.

Per month billed annually

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For students who want more tools to accelerate their research.

Per month billed annually

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Per-user, per month, billed annually

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Great usability and functionality. Rayyan has saved me countless hours. I even received timely feedback from staff when I did not understand the capabilities of the system, and was pleasantly surprised with the time they dedicated to my problem. Thanks again!

This is a great piece of software. It has made the independent viewing process so much quicker. The whole thing is very intuitive.

Rayyan makes ordering articles and extracting data very easy. A great tool for undertaking literature and systematic reviews!

Excellent interface to do title and abstract screening. Also helps to keep a track on the the reasons for exclusion from the review. That too in a blinded manner.

Rayyan is a fantastic tool to save time and improve systematic reviews!!! It has changed my life as a researcher!!! thanks

Easy to use, friendly, has everything you need for cooperative work on the systematic review.

Rayyan makes life easy in every way when conducting a systematic review and it is easy to use.

AI-Based Research Tools

Your librarian.

Introduction: Conducting AI Powered Research

AI tools for research can help you to discover new sources for your research assignment or literature review! These tools will synthesize information from large databases of scholarly output with the aim of finding the most relevant articles, thereby saving researchers' time. As with our research databases or any other search tool, however, it's important to:

1) always evaluate results/output;

2) not rely on any one tool for all of your research,

as you will risk missing important information on your topic of interest. 

As always, if you have questions about using these tools for your research, please contact your friendly Rider librarian!

Disclaimer:  Rider University Libraries do not have subscription access to the AI-powered tools listed below. The guide serves solely as an informational resource. It is recommended that you assess these tools and their usage methodologies independently. 

• ELICIT IS AN "AI-POWERED RESEARCH ASSISTANT" - useful for finding papers, filtering study types, automating research flow, brainstorming, summarizing and more.
• Elicit is a research assistant using language models like GPT-3 to automate parts of researchers' workflows.
• Currently, the main workflow in Elicit is Literature Review--if you ask a question, Elicit will show relevant papers and summaries of key information about those papers in an easy-to-use table. 
• Access the Elicit FAQ here.

Research Rabbit

• RESEARCH RABBIT IS A CITATION-BASED MAPPING TOOL that focuses on the relationships between research works. 
• Bills itself as the "Spotify for Papers" !
• It uses visualizations to help researchers find similar papers and locate other researchers in their field. 
• Research Rabbit uses multiple databases, but does not name them (more information can be found on the FAQ page).
• Keep up with the latest research related to your collections using the "Personalized Digests" feature.

• PERPLEXITY   IS A SEARCH ENGINE THAT SEARCHES  Large Language Models (LLMs) to provide AI-generated answers (much like ChatGPT)
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• It has a conversational interface, "contextual awareness" and "personalization" to learn your interests and preferences over time. 
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• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0157-5319 Ahtisham Younas 1 , 2 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7839-8130 Parveen Ali 3 , 4
• 1 Memorial University of Newfoundland , St John's , Newfoundland , Canada
• 2 Swat College of Nursing , Pakistan
• 3 School of Nursing and Midwifery , University of Sheffield , Sheffield , South Yorkshire , UK
• 4 Sheffield University Interpersonal Violence Research Group , Sheffield University , Sheffield , UK
• Correspondence to Ahtisham Younas, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, NL A1C 5C4, Canada; ay6133{at}mun.ca

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2021-103417

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Introduction

Literature reviews offer a critical synthesis of empirical and theoretical literature to assess the strength of evidence, develop guidelines for practice and policymaking, and identify areas for future research. 1 It is often essential and usually the first task in any research endeavour, particularly in masters or doctoral level education. For effective data extraction and rigorous synthesis in reviews, the use of literature summary tables is of utmost importance. A literature summary table provides a synopsis of an included article. It succinctly presents its purpose, methods, findings and other relevant information pertinent to the review. The aim of developing these literature summary tables is to provide the reader with the information at one glance. Since there are multiple types of reviews (eg, systematic, integrative, scoping, critical and mixed methods) with distinct purposes and techniques, 2 there could be various approaches for developing literature summary tables making it a complex task specialty for the novice researchers or reviewers. Here, we offer five tips for authors of the review articles, relevant to all types of reviews, for creating useful and relevant literature summary tables. We also provide examples from our published reviews to illustrate how useful literature summary tables can be developed and what sort of information should be provided.

Tip 1: provide detailed information about frameworks and methods

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Tabular literature summaries from a scoping review. Source: Rasheed et al . 3

The provision of information about conceptual and theoretical frameworks and methods is useful for several reasons. First, in quantitative (reviews synthesising the results of quantitative studies) and mixed reviews (reviews synthesising the results of both qualitative and quantitative studies to address a mixed review question), it allows the readers to assess the congruence of the core findings and methods with the adapted framework and tested assumptions. In qualitative reviews (reviews synthesising results of qualitative studies), this information is beneficial for readers to recognise the underlying philosophical and paradigmatic stance of the authors of the included articles. For example, imagine the authors of an article, included in a review, used phenomenological inquiry for their research. In that case, the review authors and the readers of the review need to know what kind of (transcendental or hermeneutic) philosophical stance guided the inquiry. Review authors should, therefore, include the philosophical stance in their literature summary for the particular article. Second, information about frameworks and methods enables review authors and readers to judge the quality of the research, which allows for discerning the strengths and limitations of the article. For example, if authors of an included article intended to develop a new scale and test its psychometric properties. To achieve this aim, they used a convenience sample of 150 participants and performed exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the same sample. Such an approach would indicate a flawed methodology because EFA and CFA should not be conducted on the same sample. The review authors must include this information in their summary table. Omitting this information from a summary could lead to the inclusion of a flawed article in the review, thereby jeopardising the review’s rigour.

Tip 2: include strengths and limitations for each article

Critical appraisal of individual articles included in a review is crucial for increasing the rigour of the review. Despite using various templates for critical appraisal, authors often do not provide detailed information about each reviewed article’s strengths and limitations. Merely noting the quality score based on standardised critical appraisal templates is not adequate because the readers should be able to identify the reasons for assigning a weak or moderate rating. Many recent critical appraisal checklists (eg, Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool) discourage review authors from assigning a quality score and recommend noting the main strengths and limitations of included studies. It is also vital that methodological and conceptual limitations and strengths of the articles included in the review are provided because not all review articles include empirical research papers. Rather some review synthesises the theoretical aspects of articles. Providing information about conceptual limitations is also important for readers to judge the quality of foundations of the research. For example, if you included a mixed-methods study in the review, reporting the methodological and conceptual limitations about ‘integration’ is critical for evaluating the study’s strength. Suppose the authors only collected qualitative and quantitative data and did not state the intent and timing of integration. In that case, the strength of the study is weak. Integration only occurred at the levels of data collection. However, integration may not have occurred at the analysis, interpretation and reporting levels.

Tip 3: write conceptual contribution of each reviewed article

While reading and evaluating review papers, we have observed that many review authors only provide core results of the article included in a review and do not explain the conceptual contribution offered by the included article. We refer to conceptual contribution as a description of how the article’s key results contribute towards the development of potential codes, themes or subthemes, or emerging patterns that are reported as the review findings. For example, the authors of a review article noted that one of the research articles included in their review demonstrated the usefulness of case studies and reflective logs as strategies for fostering compassion in nursing students. The conceptual contribution of this research article could be that experiential learning is one way to teach compassion to nursing students, as supported by case studies and reflective logs. This conceptual contribution of the article should be mentioned in the literature summary table. Delineating each reviewed article’s conceptual contribution is particularly beneficial in qualitative reviews, mixed-methods reviews, and critical reviews that often focus on developing models and describing or explaining various phenomena. Figure 2 offers an example of a literature summary table. 4

Tabular literature summaries from a critical review. Source: Younas and Maddigan. 4

Tip 4: compose potential themes from each article during summary writing

While developing literature summary tables, many authors use themes or subthemes reported in the given articles as the key results of their own review. Such an approach prevents the review authors from understanding the article’s conceptual contribution, developing rigorous synthesis and drawing reasonable interpretations of results from an individual article. Ultimately, it affects the generation of novel review findings. For example, one of the articles about women’s healthcare-seeking behaviours in developing countries reported a theme ‘social-cultural determinants of health as precursors of delays’. Instead of using this theme as one of the review findings, the reviewers should read and interpret beyond the given description in an article, compare and contrast themes, findings from one article with findings and themes from another article to find similarities and differences and to understand and explain bigger picture for their readers. Therefore, while developing literature summary tables, think twice before using the predeveloped themes. Including your themes in the summary tables (see figure 1 ) demonstrates to the readers that a robust method of data extraction and synthesis has been followed.

Tip 5: create your personalised template for literature summaries

Often templates are available for data extraction and development of literature summary tables. The available templates may be in the form of a table, chart or a structured framework that extracts some essential information about every article. The commonly used information may include authors, purpose, methods, key results and quality scores. While extracting all relevant information is important, such templates should be tailored to meet the needs of the individuals’ review. For example, for a review about the effectiveness of healthcare interventions, a literature summary table must include information about the intervention, its type, content timing, duration, setting, effectiveness, negative consequences, and receivers and implementers’ experiences of its usage. Similarly, literature summary tables for articles included in a meta-synthesis must include information about the participants’ characteristics, research context and conceptual contribution of each reviewed article so as to help the reader make an informed decision about the usefulness or lack of usefulness of the individual article in the review and the whole review.

In conclusion, narrative or systematic reviews are almost always conducted as a part of any educational project (thesis or dissertation) or academic or clinical research. Literature reviews are the foundation of research on a given topic. Robust and high-quality reviews play an instrumental role in guiding research, practice and policymaking. However, the quality of reviews is also contingent on rigorous data extraction and synthesis, which require developing literature summaries. We have outlined five tips that could enhance the quality of the data extraction and synthesis process by developing useful literature summaries.

• Aromataris E ,
• Rasheed SP ,

Twitter @Ahtisham04, @parveenazamali

Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Competing interests None declared.

Patient consent for publication Not required.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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• Open access
• Published: 06 December 2022

What improves access to primary healthcare services in rural communities? A systematic review

• Zemichael Gizaw 1 ,
• Tigist Astale 2 &
• Getnet Mitike Kassie 2  

BMC Primary Care volume  23 , Article number:  313 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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To compile key strategies from the international experiences to improve access to primary healthcare (PHC) services in rural communities. Different innovative approaches have been practiced in different parts of the world to improve access to essential healthcare services in rural communities. Systematically collecting and combining best experiences all over the world is important to suggest effective strategies to improve access to healthcare in developing countries. Accordingly, this systematic review of literature was undertaken to identify key approaches from international experiences to enhance access to PHC services in rural communities.

All published and unpublished qualitative and/or mixed method studies conducted to improvement access to PHC services were searched from MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, WHO Global Health Library, and Google Scholar. Articles published other than English language, citations with no abstracts and/or full texts, and duplicate studies were excluded. We included all articles available in different electronic databases regardless of their publication years. We assessed the methodological quality of the included studies using mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT) version 2018 to minimize the risk of bias. Data were extracted using JBI mixed methods data extraction form. Data were qualitatively analyzed using emergent thematic analysis approach to identify key concepts and coded them into related non-mutually exclusive themes.

Our analysis of 110 full-text articles resulted in ten key strategies to improve access to PHC services. Community health programs or community-directed interventions, school-based healthcare services, student-led healthcare services, outreach services or mobile clinics, family health program, empanelment, community health funding schemes, telemedicine, working with traditional healers, working with non-profit private sectors and non-governmental organizations including faith-based organizations are the key strategies identified from international experiences.

This review identified key strategies from international experiences to improve access to PHC services in rural communities. These strategies can play roles in achieving universal health coverage and reducing disparities in health outcomes among rural communities and enabling them to get healthcare when and where they want.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Universal health coverage (UHC) is used to provide expanding services to eliminate access barriers. Universal health coverage is defined by the world health organization (WHO) as access to key promotional, preventive, curative and rehabilitative health services for all at an affordable rate and ensuring equity in access. The term universal has been described as the State's legal obligation to provide healthcare to all its citizens, with particular attention to ensuring that all poor and excluded groups are included [ 1 , 2 , 3 ].

Strengthening primary healthcare (PHC) is the most comprehensive, reliable and productive approach to improving people's physical and mental wellbeing and social well-being, and that PHC is a pillar of a sustainable health system for UHC and health-related sustainable development goals [ 4 , 5 ]. Despite tremendous progress over the last decades, there are still unaddressed health needs of people in all parts of the world [ 6 , 7 ]. Many people, particularly the poor and people living in rural areas and those who are in vulnerable circumstances, face challenges to remain healthy [ 8 ].

Geographical and financial inaccessibility, inadequate funding, inconsistent medication supply and equipment and personnel shortages have left the reach, availability and effect of PHC services in many countries disappointingly limited [ 9 , 10 ]. A recent Astana Declaration recognized those aspects of PHC need to be changed to adapt adequately to current and emerging threats to the healthcare system. This declaration discussed that implementation of a need-based, comprehensive, cost-effective, accessible, efficient and sustainable healthcare system is needed for disadvantaged and rural populations in more local and convenient settings to provide care when and where they want it [ 8 ].

Different innovative approaches have been practiced in different parts of the world to improve access to essential healthcare services in rural communities. Systematically collecting and combining best experiences all over the world is important to suggest effective strategies to improve access to healthcare in developing countries. Accordingly, this systematic review of literature was undertaken to identify key approaches from international experiences to enhance access to PHC services in rural communities. The findings of this systematic literature review can be used by healthcare professionals, researchers and policy makers to improve healthcare service delivery in rural communities.

Methodology

Research question.

What improves access to PHC services in rural communities? We used the PICO (population, issue/intervention, comparison/contrast, and outcome) construct to develop the search question [ 11 ]. The population is rural communities or remote communities in developing countries who have limited access to healthcare services. Moreover, we extended the population to developed countries to capture experiences of both developing and developed countries. The issue/intervention is implementation of different community-based health interventions to access to essential healthcare services. In this systematic review, we focused on PHC health services, mainly essential or basic healthcare services, community or public health services, and health promotion or health education. Primary healthcare is “a health care system that addressed social, economic, and political causes of poor health promotes health though health services at the primary care level enhances health of the community” [ 12 ]. Comparison/contrast is not appropriate for this review. The outcome is improved access to essential healthcare services.

Outcome measures

The outcome of this review is access to PHC services, such as preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative health services which are affordable, convenient or acceptable, and available to all who need care.

Criteria for considering studies for this review

All published and unpublished qualitative and/or mixed method studies conducted to improve access to PHC services were included. Government and international or national organizations reports were also included. Different organizations whose primary mission is health or promotion of community health were selected. We included articles based on these eligibility criteria: context or scope of studies (access to PHC services), article type (primary studies), and publication language (English). Articles published other than English language, citations with no abstracts and/or full texts, reviews, and duplicate studies were excluded. We included all articles available in different electronic databases regardless of their publication years. We didn’t use time of publication for screening.

Information sources and search strategy

We searched relevant articles from MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, WHO Global Health Library, and Google Scholar to access all forms of evidence. An initial search of MEDLINE was undertaken followed by analysis of the text words contained in the title and abstract, and of the index terms used to describe articles. We used the aforementioned performance indicators of PHC delivery and the PICO as we described above to choose keywords. A second search using all identified keywords and index terms was undertaken across all included databases. Thirdly, references of all identified articles were searched to get additional studies. The full electronic search strategy for MEDLINE, a major database we used for this review is included as a supplementary file (Additional file 1 : Appendix 1).

Study selection and assessment of methodological quality

Search results from different electronic databases were exported to Endnote reference manager version 7 to remove duplication. Two independent reviewers (ZG and BA) screened out records. An initial screening of titles and abstracts was done based on the PICO criteria and language of publication. Secondary screening of full-text papers was done for studies we included at the initial screening phase. We further investigated and assessed records included in the full-text articles against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. We sat together and discussed the eligibility assessment. The interrater agreement was 90%. We resolved disagreements by consensus for points we had different rating. We used the PRISMA flow diagram to summarize the study selection processes.

Methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT) version 2018 [ 13 ]. As it is clearly indicated in the user guide of the MMAT tool, it is discouraged to calculate an overall score from the ratings of each criterion. Instead, it is advised to provide a more detailed presentation of the ratings of each criterion to better inform quality of the included studies. The rating of each criterion was, therefore, done as per the detail explanations included in the guideline. Almost all the included full text articles fulfilled the criteria and all the included full text articles were found to be better quality.

Data extraction

We independently extracted data from papers included in the review using JBI mixed methods data extraction form. This form is only used for reviews that follow a convergent integrated approach, i.e. integration of qualitative data and qualitative data [ 14 ]. The data extraction form was piloted on randomly selected papers and modified accordingly. One reviewer extracted the data from the included studies and the second reviewer checked the extracted data. Disagreements were resolved by discussion between the two reviewers. Information was extracted from each included study on: list of authors, year of publication, study area, population of interest, study type, methods, focus of the studies, main findings, authors’ conclusion, and limitations of the study.

Synthesis of findings

The included full-text articles were qualitatively analyzed using emergent thematic analysis approach to identify key concepts and coded them into related non-mutually exclusive themes. Themes are strategies mentioned or discussed in the included records to improve access to PHC services. Themes were identified manually by reading the included records again and again. We then synthesized each theme by comparing the discussion and conclusion of the included articles.

Systematic review registration number

The protocol of this review is registered in PROSPERO (the registration number is: CRD42019132592) to avoid unplanned duplication and to enable comparison of reported review methods with what was planned in the protocol. It is available at https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42019132592 .

Schematic of the systematic review and reporting of the search

We used PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) 2009 checklist [ 15 ] for reporting of this systematic review.

Study selection

The search strategy identified 1148 titles and abstracts [914 from PubMed (Table 1 ) and 234 from other sources] as of 10 March 2022. We obtained 900 after we removed duplicated articles. Following assessment by title and abstract, 485 records were excluded because these records did not meet the criteria as mentioned in the method section. Additional 256 records were discarded because the records did not discuss the outcome of interest well and some records were systematic reviews. The full text of the remaining 159 records was examined in more detail. It appeared that 49 studies did not meet the inclusion criteria as described in the method section. One hundred ten records met the inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review or synthesis (Fig.  1 ).

Study selection flow diagram

Of 900 articles resulting from the search term, 110 (12.2%) met the inclusion criteria. The included full-text articles were published between 1993 and 2021. Ninety-two (83.6%) of the included full-text articles were research articles, 5(4.5%) were technical reports, 3 (2.7%) were perspective, 4 (3.6%) was discussion paper, 3(2.7%) were dissertation or thesis, 2 (1.8%) were commentary, and 1 (0.9) was a book. Thirty-six (33%) and 29 (26%) of the included full-text articles were conducted in Africa and North America, respectively (Fig.  2 ).

Regions where the included full-test articles conducted

Key strategies identified

The analysis of 110 full-text articles resulted in 10 themes. The themes are key strategies to improve access to PHC services in rural communities. The key strategies identified are community health programs or community-directed healthcare interventions, school-based healthcare services, student-led healthcare services, outreach services or mobile clinics, family health program, empanelment, community health funding schemes, telemedicine, promoting the role of traditional medicine, working with non-profit private sectors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including faith-based organizations (Table 2 ).

Description of strategies

a. Community health programs or community-directed healthcare interventions

Twenty-four (21.8%) of the full-text articles included in this review discussed that community health programs (CHPs) or community-directed healthcare interventions are best strategies to provide basic health and medical care close to the community to increase access and coverage of essential health services. Community health programs are locally based health promotion, disease prevention, and treatment programs available typically to communities in need and community-directed intervention strategy is an approach in which communities themselves direct the planning and implementation of intervention delivery. Rural communities, especially, in developing countries have no access to healthcare facilities in the near distance and have less chance to receive healthcare from doctors, health officers, nurses or midwives. In response to this critical problems, many countries have been investing heavily in community based primary health care to bring services to rural and remote areas where most of the population lives. Community health programs include construction of health posts or community health centers close to the community and deployment of community health workers (CHWs), such as health extension workers, to reach-out every village, who play a prominent role as the gatekeepers of healthcare in rural communities. Community-directed healthcare intervention is an approach in which communities themselves direct the planning and implementation of healthcare interventions. Community participation remains crucial in the identification of health problems, planning or designing of health interventions and implementation of the interventions, which enhances need-based and demand-driven provision of health services while promoting sustainability and ownership (Additional file 2 : Appendix 2, Table A1).

b. School-based primary healthcare

In this review, 9 of 110 (8.2%) of the included full-text articles pointed out that school-based healthcare services can be effective to improve access to PHC services. School-based health services are health programs that offer health care to children and youth either in a school or on school grounds and usually staffed according to school community needs and resources. School-based health services provide a variety of healthcare services to underserved children, youth and vulnerable populations in a convenient and accessible environment. Access to comprehensive health services via schools leads to improved access to healthcare (Additional file 3 : Appendix 3, Table A2).

c. Student-led healthcare services

In this review, 5 of 110 (4.5%) of the full-text articles discussed that the use of medical and health science students as healthcare service providers can minimize problems related with shortage of health professionals in rural healthcare system and can play appreciable roles to minimize healthcare service access problems in rural communities. Student-led healthcare services are developed through consultation between universities and local health providers and are purposefully designed clinical placements with a focus on clinical educational activities for pre-registration students. Student-led clinics link students, healthcare professionals, community-based organizations, universities, and communities. In this approach, students can gain practical experience in an interdisciplinary setting and through exposure to a community with unique and severe needs (Additional file 4 : Appendix 4, Table A3).

d. Outreach services or mobile clinics

In this systematic literature review, 18 of 110 (16.4%) of the included studies discussed that outreach services or mobile clinics in primary care and rural hospital settings can improve access to PHC services in rural communities. Mobile outreach service is defined as healthcare services provided by a mobile team of trained providers, from a higher-level health facility to a lower-level health facilities or locally available community facilities that are not used for clinical services, such as schools, health posts, or other community structures. Outreach services improve access to specialists and hospital-based services, strengthen connections between specialists and PHC providers, and give the benefits of consultations in primary care settings. Specialist outreach services have the potential to overcome access barriers faced by disadvantaged rural and remote communities. Furthermore, a community-based mobile clinics can be effective in uncovering illness and in directing patients to a healthcare home (Additional file 5 : Appendix 5, Table A4).

e. Family health program

Four (3.6%) of the included full-text articles discussed that family health program (FHP) is highly cost-effective tool for improving access to healthcare services for deprived areas (such as rural communities). Family health program means the program is a program designed to provide primary care as well as the prevention and early treatment of communicable and non-communicable diseases in defined populations by deploying interdisciplinary healthcare teams include physicians, nurses, nurse assistants, and full-time community health agents. It has evolved into a robust approach to providing primary care for defined populations by deploying interdisciplinary healthcare teams. The nucleus of each team includes a physician, a nurse, a nurse assistant, and full-time community health agents. This approach is effective on improving access to healthcare and eliminating health disparities (Additional file 6 : Appendix 6, Table A5).

f. Empanelment

This systematic review of literature identified that empanelment (also known as rostering) is a best strategy to proactively provide coordinated primary healthcare towards achieving universal health coverage. Empanelment is a continuous, iterative set of processes that identify and assign populations to facilities, care teams, or primary care providers who have a responsibility to know their assigned population. It enables health systems to improve health outcomes and to reduce costs. Empanelment establishes a point of care for individuals and simultaneously holds primary healthcare providers and care teams accountable for actively managing care for a specific group of individuals (Additional file 7 : Appendix 7, Table A6).

g. Community health funding schemes

In this systematic review of literature, 11 (10%) of the included articles discussed that community health funding schemes such as community-based health insurance (CBHI) increases access to healthcare services in low-income rural communities. Community-based health insurance schemes are usually voluntary and characterized by community members pooling funds to offset the cost of healthcare. Moreover, this approach is effective to mobilize domestic resources for health at low income levels. For low-income countries, community health financing has modest ability to increase the total amount of funds for healthcare. Properly structured community health financing system can significantly improve efficiency, reduce the cost of healthcare, improve quality and health outcomes, and pool risks. Community-financing schemes could improve preventive services and reduce the incidence of diseases. It could also improve people’s access to healthcare and the quality of services, thus improving their health status. Community health financing could also improve risk pooling and reduce health-induced impoverishment. Community health insurance has potential positive impacts on health and social security (Additional file 8 : Appendix 8, Table A7).

h. Telemedicine

In this review, 13 of 110 (11.8%) articles discussed that telemedicine is one of the solutions for rural subspecialty healthcare delivery. Telemedicine can be defined as the use of technology (computers, video, phone, messaging) by a medical professional to diagnose and treat patients in a remote location. The provision of subspecialty services using telemedicine to a remote and medically underserved population provides improved access to subspecialty care. Telemedicine brings sustainable healthcare to rural populations. Use of information and communication technologies in support of health and health-related fields, including healthcare services, health surveillance, health education, and health research has the potential to greatly improve health service efficiency, expand or scale up treatment delivery to thousands of patients in the rural populations (Additional file 9 : Appendix 9, Table A8).

i. Promoting the role of traditional medicine

Seven (6.4%) of the included articles showed that incorporating traditional healers into public health system addresses healthcare needs of people with limited access to allopathic medicine. Traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skill, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness. Knowledge about traditional medicine has a catalyzing effect in meeting health sector development objectives. Integrating traditional medicine into national health systems in combination with national policy and regulation for products, practices and providers can enhance access to PHC services in remote populations (Additional file 10 : Appendix 10, Table A9).

j. Working with non-profit private sectors and non-governmental organizations

In this systematic review, 15 of 110 (13.6%) of the included articles revealed that working with non-profit private sectors and NGOs strengthens the healthcare system. Involving the non-profit private sectors, faith-based organizations (FBOs), and NGOs for health system strengthening eventually contributes to create a healthcare system reflecting an increased efficiency, more equity and good governance in health. International and local NGOs have endeavored to fill the gaps in access to healthcare services, research and advocacy. Non-profit private sectors and NGOs have a key role in improving health in low- and middle-income countries. With networks that reach even the most remote communities, many FBOs are well positioned to promote demand and access for healthcare services. Partnership among FBOs is critical in increasing access to healthcare services, and ensuring sustainability by influencing behaviors at the community, family and individual level. Faith-based organizations play an integral role in the healthcare system by increasing health seeking behaviors and delivering supportive services that address common access and cultural barriers (Additional file 11 : Appendix 11, Table A10).

This systematic literature review found that community health programs or community-directed healthcare interventions, school-based healthcare services, student-led healthcare services, outreach services or mobile clinics, family health program, empanelment, community health funding schemes, telehealth, integrative medicine, and working with non-profit private sectors and NGOs are key strategies to improve access to PHC services in rural communities. The identified strategies address the four major pillars of primary healthcare (i.e., community participation, inter-sectoral coordination, appropriate technology, and support mechanism made available) [ 126 ]. Moreover, the identified strategies are effective to improve access to healthcare services to rural communities. Moreover, the identified strategies are effective to solve shortage of manpower and to build knowledge and skill of the local health workforces in rural healthcare system. The ability of a healthcare system to meet health needs of the population depends largely on the knowledge, skills, motivation and deployment of the people responsible for organizing and delivering health services. The results of this review can strengthen the health information system, which are core elements of the healthcare system that ensure community engagement through dissemination and use of timely and reliable health information to rural populations. This review also suggests strategies to narrow down the health disparities among rural populations, which is wide in most Least and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Healthcare services are usually disproportionately concentrated in major urban areas. As a result, rural communities face growing health disparities, largely attributed to weak policies, inefficiencies, poor leadership, and governance in healthcare system.

This review identified that community health programs or community-directed healthcare interventions address health disparities by ensuring equitable access to health resources in communities where health equity is limited by socioeconomic and geographical factors. Community health programs include identifying and prioritizing public health problems in a specific geographic area; designing and implementing public health interventions (such as establishing community health centers, mobile clinics, and outreach programs); providing services (such as health education, screenings, social support, and counseling), and deploying community health workers to promote healthy behaviors; advocating for improved care for populations at risk; and working with stakeholders to address community healthcare needs [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 130 ]. The community-oriented PHC model which is socially responsive medicine makes a healthcare system more rational, accountable, appropriate, and socially relevant to the public. Consequently, this model serves as a paradigm for reforming healthcare systems. Community-directed interventions can be considered as a realistic means to increase accessibility of interventions at community-level in rural areas [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. This approach is best in situations where there are cultural barriers to implement interventions because this strategy is effective to develop ownership in the community. In-service and on-the-job training for community health workers, close supervision and government support, and program evaluation is very important to strengthen the community health program [ 131 , 132 , 133 ].

This review identified that school-based PHC services are effective strategies to improve access to PHC services. School-based health services provide a variety of healthcare services to children, youth and vulnerable populations in a convenient and accessible environment which indirectly improve leadership and governance. Science teachers and home room teachers play important roles to implement this strategy. It impacts on delivering preventive care such as immunizations, managing chronic illnesses and providing reproductive health services for adolescents. Comprehensive health services via schools improve access to healthcare information [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. Access to school around the world increased drastically in the last century [ 134 ]. This high schooling rate is a good opportunity to provide healthcare services to school learners in accessible places and to disseminate health messages to families. Prior researches suggest that school-based healthcare services increase access to healthcare by increasing utilization of primary care, prevention services, and health maintenance visits [ 135 , 136 ]. Including science teachers, home room teachers, school principals, students, communities, community health workers, and other interested parties in the school-based healthcare system as main actors or promoters must be considered to sustain the impact. Health and education sectors should work in collaboration with the above-mentioned actors to plan, implement and monitor the progress. School-based healthcare services are preferable in situations when there is high schooling rate and limited access to healthcare institutions. This strategy is also an alternative way in areas where the health seeking behavior of the community is low.

The use of medical and health science students in rural healthcare system was identified as a key strategy to minimize health inequalities in rural communities due to shortages in health workforce and distribution of healthcare resources [ 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ]. Student-led health intervention is an alternative approach to provide essential healthcare services to the community where there is shortage of healthcare workers [ 137 , 138 ]. Students will have opportunities to learn professional skills and competencies while they are providing healthcare services to the community. Moreover, benefits for student learning include increased communication, collaboration, and leadership skills [ 53 , 139 ]. Student-led health intervention also enables increased access to services, more time for assessments and treatments, increased depth of health teaching, holistic and integrated healthcare, and free health supports [ 140 , 141 , 142 , 143 ]. However, the use of medical and health science students in the rural healthcare system may have ethical and competency issues. Supporting strategies such as close supervision, preparing clear protocols, and including senior experts in the team should be considered.

This systematic review of literature found that outreach services or mobile clinics can improve access to PHC service delivery in rural populations [ 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 ]. In developing countries, the highest proportion of people lives in rural areas where doctor services are not available. Rural communities travel to major cities to get specialist services. This reflects a desire for closer integration between primary and secondary care. Specialist outreach services or mobile clinics have become one of the effective solution to solve health disparities, to improve access to healthcare services, and to build capacity of local healthcare workforces. This strategy is preferable in situations when there are high loads in tertiary or referral level hospitals and when there is high patient leakage in the referral system [ 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 ]. However, the implementation may not be easy. It needs well established healthcare system and budget. Moreover, the efficiency of care may be lower compared with hospital-based cares and the effect on patients’ health outcomes might be small [ 56 , 57 , 61 ] . Irregular specialist visits in rural areas may not have real impacts unless the services are sustainable with a strong commitment at national and local levels. Outreach activities should be included in health policies with strong leadership, healthcare financing, and private initiatives must be encouraged to maintain the activities over time.

This review revealed that FHP is highly effective tool for improving health for rural communities. The FHP has provided a new, more robust model of primary healthcare services designed to provide accessible, first contact, comprehensive, and whole person care that is coordinated with other healthcare services. It has positive results to improved availability, access to, and use of health services, and improved health indicators, such as reduced infant mortality, improved detection of cases of neglected diseases, and reduced health disparities [ 73 , 144 , 145 , 146 ]. The FHP deploys interdisciplinary healthcare teams. The team includes a physician, a nurse, a nurse assistant, and full-time community health agents. Family health teams are organized geographically. The teams are responsible for delivering public health interventions [ 72 , 74 ]. Family health program is an alternative strategy in rural healthcare system in situations when there are inequities in access to care; when there is high hospitalization rate; when there is low health seeking behavior in the community; and when there is poor case detecting and reporting system. Despite these remarkable achievements, the FHP has some challenges include difficulties in the recruitment and retention of doctors trained appropriately to deliver primary healthcare, large variations in quality of local care, patchy integration of primary care services with existing secondary and tertiary care, and slow adoption of FHP in large population [ 147 ].

In this review, empanelment has been identified as a best strategy to deliver coordinated primary healthcare towards achieving universal health coverage [ 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 ]. The goal of empanelment is provide people-centered healthcare services based on their needs to ensure that every established patient receives optimal care, whether he/she regularly visits healthcare centers. Major activities in this approach include assignment of all patients to a healthcare provider panel; update panel assignments on a regular basis; and use panel data to educate, and track patients [ 79 ]. Empanelment enables healthcare systems to improve patient experiences, reduce costs, and improve health outcomes. Empanelment is an effective strategy to deliver four key functions: first-contact accessibility, continuity, comprehensiveness, and coordination [ 148 ]. Effective empanelment requires responsibility for the health of a target population, including providing healthcare services based on their health status, which is an important step in moving towards people-centered integrated healthcare [ 79 ].

This review identified that community health funding schemes such as community-based health insurance (CBHI) increases access to healthcare in low-income rural communities. Moreover, this approach is effective to mobilize domestic resources for health at low income levels [ 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 ]. Community-based health insurance is an emerging strategy to provide financial protection against the cost of illness. It is an effective strategy to improve access to quality health services for low-income rural households [ 149 ]. Existence of social capital in the community is a determinant factor for the effectiveness of CBHI as social capital has a positive effect on the community's demand for insurance [ 150 , 151 ]. Moreover, solidarity and trust between the members are the key principles for the good functioning of a CBHI. Solidarity and trust stir-up members who are susceptible to risk to put together their resources for common use [ 149 , 152 , 153 ]. Affordability of premiums or contributions, technical arrangements made by the scheme management, timing of collecting the contributions, trust in the integrity and competence of the managers of the CBHI, The quality of care offered through the CBHI, accessible across different population groups are some of the determinant factors to be considered to increase people’s decision to join the CBHI schemes [ 154 , 155 ].

In this review, telemedicine has been identified as one of the many possible solutions for rural subspecialty healthcare delivery. Telemedicine is a vital technological tool to increase healthcare access, improve care delivery systems, engage in culturally competent outreach, health workforce development, and health information system [ 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 ]. Telemedicine can be a great alternative to the traditional healthcare system in situations like diagnoses of common medical problems; inquiries about various medical issues for home treatments; post-treatment check-ins or follow-up for chronic care; holidays, weekends, late night or any other situation when regular medical care is not possible; patient inability to leave the house; patients who lack regular access to relevant medical expertise in their geographic area ; and etc. However, technological issues are challenges when dealing with telemedicine, especially in developing countries. General problems of Internet connectivity and access to infrastructure can minimize benefits of this strategy. Costs associated with technology can also be a barrier. Furthermore, health technology requires human capacity to use it. Therefore, strengthening the information communication technologies (ICT) and human capacity building on ICT are important to address the health needs of the rural communities.

This systematic review of literature identified that promoting the role of TM solves problems of access to allopathic medicine. Integration of TM in health system will result in increased coverage and access to healthcare services. The role of complementary and alternative medicine for health is undisputed particularly in light of its role in health promotion and well-being. It also supports local health workforces [ 104 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 ]. Incorporating traditional healers into the public health system addresses healthcare needs [ 156 , 157 ]. However, integrating TM to the public healthcare system is challenging. It is a general belief that TM defies scientific procedures in terms of objectivity, measurement, codification and classification [ 157 ]. If integrated, who provides training to medical doctors on the ontology, epistemology and the efficacies of TM in modern medicine [ 157 ]. Due to these, some scholars suggest that both TM and modern medicine be allowed to operate and develop independent of one another [ 158 , 159 ]. Another fundamental challenge to TM is the widespread reported cases of fake healers and healings [ 157 ]. Generally, this strategy is more of feasible in areas where formal trainings on integrative medicine are available. Even though the integration is challenging, the health sector can use traditional healers as health educators or health promoters by providing training and continuous support. It can be also possible to use traditional healers as facilitators in the community-directed approaches. In general TM can be used in the primary healthcare system where no access to allopathic medicine and when conventional medicine is ineffective in treatment of disease [ 160 ].

Working with non-profit private sectors and NGOs has been identified as effective strategies to strengthen the healthcare system in developing countries [ 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 ]. Since governments in developing countries are challenged to meet the health needs of their populations because of financial constraints, limited human resources, and weak health infrastructure; the private sector (especially the non-profit private sectors) and non-governmental organizations can help expand access to healthcare services through its resources, expertise, and infrastructure. However, the presence of an NGO in the operation, may contribute to unrealistic expectations of health services, affecting perceptions of the latter negatively [ 113 ]. Moreover, reports have it that besides other issues in many instances NGOs allocated funds only to disease specific projects (vertical programming) rather than to broad based investments (horizontal programming) [ 161 ]. There are also concerns that donor expenditures in developing countries are not only unsustainable but may be considered as inadequate considering the enormous healthcare burden [ 161 , 162 , 163 , 164 ]. To avoid unrealistic expectations and dissatisfaction, and to increase and sustain the population’s trust in the organization, NGOs should operate in a manner that is as integrated as possible within the existing structure and should work close to the population it serves, with services anchored in the community. Moreover, faith-based organizations contribute in health such as disease prevention, health education or promotion, and community health development beyond psychological and spiritual care [ 119 , 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 , 124 ]. Religious organizations can reach all segments of rural populations. Therefore, integrating PHC services, especially health education and promotion, diseases prevention and community health development with religious organizations intensifies delivery of healthcare services. Working with FBOs is a best way in situations where cultural and faith-based barriers are common and in areas, where access problems are often related to lack of providers. However, religious organizations need intensive training on health promotion and health system to enable them to respond to local contexts within the framework of national policies. Moreover, there should be strong partnership with government agenesis to sustain the effort [ 165 , 166 , 167 , 168 ].

Contribution of this review

Various studies reported one or more strategies to improve access to primary healthcare services. However, the strategies reported by individual studies are not compiled together and there is lack of pooled evidence on effective strategies to improve access to healthcare system. This systematic literature review was, therefore, conducted to compile effective strategies to improve access to healthcare services in rural communities. The review suggests key strategies to improve access to PHC services in rural communities. These suggested strategies are implementable in countries that suffer from shortage of health workers and healthcare financing because all the strategies used locally available opportunities. The local healthcare system needs, therefore, scan the available opportunities in the locality for implementing the suggested strategies and needs to integrate the strategies in the healthcare system to sustain the impacts. Healthcare providers, researchers and policy makers could use the results of this systematic literature review to increase access to healthcare services in hard-to-reach areas. As the strategies are compiled from experiences of different countries (developed and least developed countries), there might be contextual differences like socio-economic, cultural, institutional, and geographical challenges to adopt the identified strategies. Moreover, some of the experiences only come from one or two countries. Therefore, strategy developers and implementers need to consider these contextual challenges or variation during adopting and implementing different strategies.

Strengths and limitations of the study

As a strength, this systematic review explores international (both developed and developing countries) best experiences on primary healthcare service delivery and identified ten key approaches to improve access to PHC services in rural communities. We also searched relevant published or unpublished articles, dissertations or theses, discussion papers, and perspectives from a wide range of sources, such as MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, WHO Global Health Library, and Google Scholar.

As a limitation, we entirely relied on electronic databases to search relevant articles. We didn’t include locally available printed out records. We also applied limits for language. We excluded articles published other than English language. We believed we could get more relevant articles if we had access to records available in prints and if we include articles published other than English language. Furthermore, since the strategies are compiled from experiences of different countries (developed and least developed countries), there might be contextual differences like socio-economic, cultural, institutional and geographical challenges to adopt the identified strategies. There was also limited evidence for some articles, especially reports to rate their methodological quality. Readers should also note that our review might missed some important work in improving access to PHC services and the identified strategies are not the only strategies to improve access to PHC services. There might be other effective strategies which are not included in this review. In addition generalizability might be affected since some of the experiences only come from one or two countries. Moreover, this review focuses on access not quality of care delivered.

This review identified key strategies from international experiences to improve access to PHC services in rural communities. These strategies are effective to improve access to healthcare services in rural or remote communities. They can also play roles in achieving UHC and reducing disparities in health outcomes and increase access to rural communities to get healthcare when and where they want. Therefore, incorporating these key strategies suggested by this review in to the healthcare system is useful to enhance PHC services and to minimize impacts of health disparity in rural communities. However, the identified strategies may not be easy to implement. Increasing number and capacity of human resource for health; strengthening the healthcare financing system; improving medicine and supplies; working in different partners and communities; establishing monitoring and evaluation system; strong and committed leadership; and encouraging private initiatives must be considered to implement and maintain these strategies over time. Moreover, policy makers, program planners and implementers who want to utilize findings of this review should be aware that these are not the only effective strategies to improve access to primary healthcare services.

Availability of data and materials

All the extracted data are included in the manuscript.

Abbreviations

Community-based health insurance

Faith-based organizations

Family health program

Information communication technologies

Mixed methods appraisal tool

Non-governmental organizations

• Primary healthcare

Primary Health Care Performance Initiative

Population, phenomena of interest and context)

Traditional medicine

Universal health coverage

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The author would like to thank IPHC- E for funding this review.

This review was funded by International Institute for Primary Health Care- Ethiopia (IPHC- E).

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Supplementary Information

Additional file 1: .

Searchstrategy. MEDLINE (PubMed).

Additional file 2: Appendix 2: Table A1.

Description of full-text articles which discussed community health programs or community-directed interventions as a strategy to improve PHC service delivery in ruralcommunities.

Additional file 3:

Appendix 3: Table A2. Description of full-text articles which discussed school-based healthcareservices as a strategy to improve PHCservice delivery in rural communities.

Additional file 4:

Appendix 4: Table A3. Description of full-text articles which discussed student-led healthcareservices as a strategy to improve PHC service delivery in ruralcommunities.

Additional file 5: Appendix 5: Table A4

. Descriptionof full-text articles which discussed outreach services or mobile clinics as astrategy to improve PHC service delivery in ruralcommunities.

Additional file 6:

  Appendix 6: Table A5. Description of full-text articles which discussed family health program as astrategy to improve PHC service delivery in rural,communities.

Additional file 7:

  Appendix 7: Table A6. Description of full-text articles whichdiscussed empanelment as a strategy to improve PHC service delivery in ruralcommunities.

Additional file 8:

  Appendix 9: Table A8. Description of full-text articles which discussed telemedicine or mobile healthas a strategy to improve PHC service delivery in ruralcommunities.

Additional file 9:

  Appendix 8: Table A7. Description of full-text articles which discussed community health funding schemes as a strategy to improve PHC service delivery in ruralcommunities.

Additional file 10:

  Appendix 10: Table A9. Description of full-text articles which discussed promoting the role of workingwith traditional healers as a strategy toimprove PHC service delivery in rural communities.

Additional file 11:

  Appendix 11: Table A10. Description of full-text articles which discussed working with non-profitprivate sectors and non-governmental organizations as a strategy to improve PHC service delivery in rural communities.

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Gizaw, Z., Astale, T. & Kassie, G.M. What improves access to primary healthcare services in rural communities? A systematic review. BMC Prim. Care 23 , 313 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-022-01919-0

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-022-01919-0

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