Choosing the Right Tool for the Job: Screening Tools for Systematic Reviews in Education

Abstract

In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence has enabled the launch of many new screening tools. This review aims to facilitate screening tool selection through a systematic narrative review and feature analysis. The current adoption rate of transparent tool reporting is low: by screening 191 studies published in the Review of Educational Research since 2015, we found that only eight studies reported screening tools. More research is needed to understand the reasons behind this phenomenon. After consulting various sources, 26 available screening tools in the market were found. Among them, we identified and evaluated 12 screening tools for educational reviewers and ranked them in descending order of feature score: Covidence (1), DistillerSR (2, tied), EPPI-Reviewer (2, tied), CADIMA (4), Swift-Active (5), Rayyan (6, tied), SysRev (6, tied), Abstrackr (8, tied), ReLiS (8, tied), RevMan (8, tied), ASReview (11), and Excel (12). In the discussion, we provide insights into the promise and bias in tools’ machine learning algorithms. Our results encourage researchers to report their tool usage in publications and select tools based on suitability instead of convenience.