Literature Review Tools: The Complete List

A systematic review touches half a dozen distinct stages, and no single tool covers all of them well. Here's what to actually use at each stage, including free tools you can use right now without signing up for anything.

1. Search & database selection

Start with the databases themselves — see our guide to PubMed vs Embase vs Scopus for how many your search actually needs. Once you have a search strategy drafted, our free search strategy template walks through turning a PICO question into a working Boolean string.

2. Reference management

You'll need somewhere to store and organize everything your search returns. See our comparison of Zotero vs EndNote vs Mendeley to choose one.

3. Deduplication

The same record often gets exported from multiple databases with slightly different formatting. Our free reference deduplication tool flags exact and likely near-duplicate citations — paste your list, nothing uploaded.

4. Title/abstract and full-text screening

This is where dedicated screening software earns its keep — see our comparison of Rayyan vs Covidence. If you're screening solo, also see our guide on whether you need a second reviewer.

5. Data extraction

Our free data extraction template covers the standard fields to capture from each included study, ready to adapt to your specific review.

6. Quality / risk-of-bias assessment

Which tool you need depends on your included study designs — see our guide to RoB 2 vs ROBINS-I vs Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (and QUADAS-2 for diagnostic accuracy studies). Our free Newcastle-Ottawa Scale calculator scores cohort and case-control studies interactively, and our risk of bias templates cover RoB 2 and ROBINS-I summary tables.

7. Qualitative coding

If your review includes qualitative synthesis, see our comparison of NVivo vs manual coding.

8. Statistical synthesis

RevMan and Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) are the standard dedicated meta-analysis packages; R's meta and metafor packages are the standard free/open-source alternative. Before pooling, our free sample size calculator, median-to-mean/SD converter, and effect size calculator (Cohen's d, odds ratio, risk ratio) handle common pre-analysis calculations.

9. GRADE certainty assessment

GRADEpro GDT is the standard software for building Summary of Findings tables — see our guide to the GRADE approach and our free GRADE certainty checklist.

10. Reporting

Whatever else you use, a PRISMA 2020 flow diagram is close to universally required. Our free PRISMA flow diagram generator builds one instantly from your record counts.

What about AI tools specifically?

AI-assisted tools (Elicit, Consensus, Research Rabbit, and general tools like ChatGPT) have real uses across several of the stages above, and real limits for a systematic review specifically — see our dedicated guide to AI tools for literature reviews.