Tag Archives: systematic review

Choosing Between Extraction 1 and Extraction 2 in Covidence

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Here’s a tip for getting the most out of data extraction in Covidence.

For background, the MSK Library has an institutional account to Covidence, an online software platform used for systematic and other related reviews. Covidence offers teams a collaborative space to screen, appraise, and extract data from articles, and our institutional account means anyone at MSK can use this platform for their review projects.

Once you’re within the Covidence page for your review, you’ll see there are four stages below Review Summary, with Extraction at the end. When you click on Settings to the right of Review Summary, you’ll have the option of selecting between Extraction 1 and Extraction 2.

Both extraction options offer a customizable data extraction template, so which to choose?

Covidence offers the FAQ: How to decide when to use Extraction 1 vs Extraction 2.

  • Extraction 1 is designed for intervention reviews with a standardized PICO(T) structure, as it offers a structured format for organized data collection, which makes meta-analysis easier. This structure allows it to automatically fill in data extraction fields with suggestions you can review. Results can be exported to CSV, Excel, and RevMan.
  • Extraction 2 offers an unstructured format for flexible data collection and is fully customizable. It doesn’t offer automated extraction suggestions and only exports to CSV.

Learn more about data extraction and templates for these two options in the Covidence Knowledge Base. If you prefer to be hands-on, Covidence offers a demo review, and you can test both extraction options there before choosing which one is best for your project.

Learn more about reviews, Covidence, and the way MSK librarians can support you within the guide to our Systematic Review Service.

OpenAlex (free and open catalog of the global research system)

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A couple of years ago now – a free, openly-available bibliographic search tool called OpenAlex came onto the scholarly research scene and was quickly embraced by researchers worldwide who were upset by the news of Microsoft’s decision to discontinue Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG) at the end of 2021.

Find out more about OpenAlex by reviewing these resources:

Since 2022, OpenAlex has become harder and harder to ignore. In 2024, there’s been several papers exploring its usefulness in bibliometrics and how it compares to its proprietary/commercial competitors, Scopus (Elsevier) and Web of Science (Clarivate).

For example:

Interestingly, however, researchers are also beginning to explore its usefulness in systematic review literature searching methodology. Most notably, a free systematic review project management tool called EPPI-Reviewer “has integrated access to over 200 million OA bibliographic records of research articles, connected in a large network graph of concept & citation relationships: the OpenAlex dataset – updated regularly. See here for further information.” (From: https://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default.aspx?alias=eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/er4; EPPI-Reviewer is developed and maintained by the EPPI Centre – the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI Centre) – which is part of the Social Science Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London.) 

Not surprisingly, published systematic reviews that include OpenAlex as one of the sources searched are slowly beginning to appear. For example:

The MSK Library’s Systematic Review Service team keeps on top of new resources being used by authors across the globe – like OpenAlex – and other potentially relevant changes in evidence synthesis practice. Feel free to Ask Us whenever you come across a database or web resource that is unfamiliar to you when reading a systematic review!

New Systematic Review Service Guide

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A screenshot of the first half of the Introduction page of the Systematic Review Service guide.The MSK Library Reference Team has launched a new guide to our Systematic Review Service!

We approached this guide with our users in mind, building it with the questions we most frequently get about systematic and other related reviews.

You can use this resource to get a sense for what review type is right for you, request to work with an MSK librarian, or learn from our step-by-step breakdown of the systematic review process. Throughout the guide we’ve emphasized the support you can expect from the MSK Library while working on your research project.

If you’re thinking about embarking on a review, we encourage you to explore it! We look forward to partnering with you in the future.