Covidence streamlines evidence synthesis with a gold standard process for creating high-quality systematic reviews and evidence syntheses. The whole review team can collaborate on a platform that enables easy citation import, screening, data extraction, risk of bias, and export. The University of Michigan's Taubman Health Sciences Library provides organizational access to Covidence for teams working on a variety of evidence synthesis projects, including systematic reviews, scoping reviews, rapid reviews, and practice guidelines.
All active U-M affiliates (students, staff, faculty at Ann Arbor, Flint, and Dearborn campuses) are eligible for organizational access to Covidence.
For more information about registering for access through the U-M organizational account, please see the U-M Subscriber Information Sheet available from Covidence
Covidence provides extensive video training materials in their Covidence Academy and a support Knowledgebase that includes questions, answers, and recommendations for use. With our organizational subscription, U-M users will also enjoy priority-level support from Covidence's 24-hour email service, available within the Covidence site.
Informationists from the Taubman Health Sciences Library recommend using the Covidence Planning Worksheet to make setup a breeze and to avoid trying to tackle logistical and workflow questions mid-review. The following short tutorials will walk you through the basics of using Covidence for your project:
To access Covidence Support, click on the "Need help?" button in the lower right corner of the page when you are logged in to Covidence. From there, you can search the Covidence Knowledgebase or send Covidence Support an email through a form.
If you are unable to answer your question using Covidence support resources, please reach out to your Librarian or Informationist:
Data extraction is a step in the review process that requires careful consideration and planning. Covidence provides a number of options to customize data extraction for your project, and provides helpful guidance in their "Practice guide: Data Extraction for Intervention Systematic Reviews". While this guide is specific to intervention systematic review, aspects of it may be applicable to data extraction for other review types.
Q: Can I invite people from other institutions to my review in Covidence?
A: Yes! Members of your review team do not need to be U-M Affiliates.
Q: What if I've already paid for an individual subscription to Covidence?
A: You can migrate your project to U-M's organizational license. To start the migration process, contact Chase Masters (mastersc@umich.edu) with the review titles and primary authors of the projects to be migrated.
Q: I'm working with a U-M Librarian or Informationist on my review project. Will they manage my review in Covidence?
A: Many U-M Librarians and Informationists have experience working with teams in Covidence, including uploading references, adjusting settings, exporting data, uploading full text and more. What support we can provide is dependent on individual experience and resourcing, so please address Covidence in your discussions about project roles and responsibilities with your Librarian/Informationist. You should have at least one non-Librarian/Informationist member of your team learn the software and take responsibility for managing your review.
Q: Where can I get help with using Covidence?
A: Please refer to the resources above, including the Covidence Knowledgebase, the Covidence YouTube channel, and the "Need help?" option within Covidence. If you still have questions, contact your Librarian or Informationist: