Welcome!

University of Chester - Faculty of Health, Medicine & Society (FHMS UoC) now has a Covidence Licence and would like to invite applications from postgraduate research students (PGR) and staff to have access to their licence.

 

WHAT is Covidence?

Covidence is a web-based software platform that streamlines the production of systematic reviews. It supports reference/citation screening, full-text review, risk of bias assessment, extraction of study characteristics and outcomes, and the export of data and references.

The interface is intuitive and suitable for students and experienced reviewers. Covidence can save time on repetitive review tasks, enabling faster review production and more time for analysis and interpretation.

In Covidence you can:

  • Import references - Covidence works seamlessly with your favourite reference managers like EndNote, Zotero, RefWorks, Mendeley or any tool that support RIS, CSV or PubMed XML formats. Covidence can automatically remove duplicates for you.
  • Screen title & abstract - Breeze through screening with keyword highlighting & a lightning-quick interface. Covidence keeps full records of who voted and supports single or dual screeners.
  • Bulk PDF import - Transfer PDFs stored in your reference manager to Covidence in a few clicks. 
  • Screen full text - Decide quickly on studies in full text. Capture reasons for exclusion and any notes so you can resolve any disagreements quickly, with a click of a button.
  • Create forms - Be in control and stay focused on your PICO question. Customizable extraction forms mean you only spend time extracting what you need.
  • Customize risk of bias - Automatically populate your risk of bias tables by highlighting and commenting on the text directly in your PDF.
  • Conduct data extraction - Extract data efficiently with a side-by-side view of your customized form and PDF. Then, when you are done, easily compare your form with other reviewers.  
  • Export - Covidence exports to all the common formats so you can continue your review in your preferred software. 
  • Collaborate - You can invite other reviewers (including external colleagues) to work with you on the project.

 

WHY use the FHMS UoC's Covidence licence?

  • Unlimited reference/citation for each review
  • Unlimited number of reviewers for each review
  • Full access to all functions and features

 

HOW to get started using the FHMS UoC's licence account:

  1. If you would like to apply for access to the FHMS UoC’s licence account please complete a systematic review application form (either student or staff version, as appropriate) and have it signed by your principal supervisor (postgraduate research students) or line manager (staff). You should also attach evidence of registration of the protocol (e.g. with OFS, Prospero, Cochrane, etc.).  Any students who would like support with protocol registration please speak to your programme lead or supervisor.  The systematic review form and proof of registration should then be forwarded to the account administrators at hmsresearch.innovation@chester.ac.uk (make sure to use your university email address).
  2. Once approved, you will be added to the licence and will be sent an email with instructions from Covidence on how to set up an account.
  3. If you are requesting to join a review an email invitation will be sent to join the review (please check the spam folder too).
  4. When accepting the invite, follow the instructions to either sign in to your user Covidence account if you already have one with your university email OR sign up for a new account (make sure to use your university email address).

Once you have accepted an invitation to the review or another review, the title will appear in a separate section on your account homepage:

Working with review team members from other institutions?

With your review made through the FHMS UoC licence, you can invite UoC and non-UoC reviewers to work with you on the review.

 

SUPPORT from Covidence

Covidence offers a range of available resources and support to help you along the way with your systematic review process. 

To get familiar with how a Covidence workflow works, you can try our pre-set Demo review. This will allow you to gain hands-on experience and better understand the process. You will find it at the bottom of your dashboard once you have signed in. Give it a go and feel free to explore!

Getting started with Covidence - video tutorials that guide you through the initial area to get you started.

Covidence Knowledge Base - home to all of our comprehensive articles, instructions and advice to FAQs.

Covidence Academy - Learn and understand the essentials of systematic reviews and gain insight with expert-led training and content to guide you through every step of the review process.

Monthly Open Training Webinars - Join our Community Team for free webinars (registration required) or watch our recent recordings without delay.

Online Support Team- contact our team directly for support on your review by emailing support@covidence.org

When logged into your account, you can also easily contact the Support Team and the comprehensive articles from our Knowledge Base within Covidence by clicking the 'Need help?' button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.