Systematic reviews with AIPRA

A chapter-by-chapter guide to conducting a systematic review and how AIPRA supports each stage.

Chapter 4 of 8

Screening

The next major workflow step is screening. Screening always starts with clear inclusion and exclusion criteria—the rules that define which studies belong in your review. Those criteria are the benchmark every retrieved record is judged against.

AIPRA guides you through tailored questions about your topic so the platform can help shape eligibility rules that match your research question and protocol. Your answers inform how strict or broad the review should be and what study designs and populations are in scope.

AIPRA asking structured questions to tailor screening criteria to the review topic
AIPRA uses topic-relevant questions to help define screening criteria.

Once captured, the criteria are stated explicitly so the whole team applies the same standard. Every title, abstract, and full text is compared against that benchmark to decide whether the work should move forward in the project.

Generated inclusion and exclusion screening criteria in AIPRA
Screening criteria as generated and organized for your review.

Assisted screening in AIPRA

During screening, AIPRA can surface recommendations for each article: suggested include or exclude decisions grounded in your stated criteria, together with a short rationale. Reviewers remain in control—recommendations support consistency and speed, but final decisions should follow your protocol and, where needed, librarian or methods oversight.

Two screening phases

The goal is to retain only studies that meet your inclusion rules. That usually happens in two phases:

  1. Phase 1 — Title and abstract. For most records, reviewers decide inclusion, exclusion, or “unclear” using title and abstract alone. This step filters out the bulk of irrelevant citations efficiently.
  2. Phase 2 — Full text. Any record marked included or unclear after phase 1 proceeds to full-text screening, where the complete article is read against the same criteria.
Title and abstract screening workflow in AIPRA
Screening records in AIPRA (for example at title and abstract).
AIPRA recommendation for include or exclude based on abstract and screening criteria
AIPRA can suggest include or exclude with reasoning tied to your criteria and the abstract.

In phase 2, reviewers open the full text in AIPRA and apply the same eligibility rules to the complete article.

Full-text article screening in AIPRA
Full-text screening: reviewing the complete article against your criteria in AIPRA.

Resolving disagreements between reviewers

In projects with multiple reviewers, it is common for some articles to receive conflicting votes—for example one reviewer includes and another excludes. Good practice is to resolve those conflicts with a predefined rule, often by involving a third, senior reviewer who adjudicates without having been part of the initial pair. That keeps decisions transparent and reduces bias from repeated discussion alone.

AIPRA’s screening workflow is built to record who decided what, so adjudication and final outcomes stay traceable for the protocol and the published review.