Welcome! The University Library is excited to offer current faculty, instructors, staff, students, and residents an unlimited institutional license to Covidence.

What is Covidence?

Covidence is a web-based software platform that streamlines the conduct of knowledge synthesis projects, such as scoping and systematic reviews. It supports 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 is suitable for new and experienced reviewers. Covidence can save time on repetitive review tasks, enabling faster review production and more time for analysis and interpretation.

  • Import references - Covidence can import records from 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 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 means you only spend time extracting what you need.
  • Customize risk of bias - Automatically populate your risk of bias tables by highlighting and commenting on 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.


How to join the University of Saskatchewan Library’s Covidence institutional license

There are two sets of instructions below, one set for new users, and a second set for existing users.

New Users:

If you have not yet signed up to Covidence, you will need to create a new account. You can do this by simply signing in via Single Sign-On (SSO).

  1. Go to the Covidence sign in page, select “sign in with SSO” and enter your USask email address (@usask.ca).

 

  1. You will be redirected to the university's SSO login page - enter your NSID and password. If entered correctly, you will be redirected back to Covidence.

  2. You will be required to provide additional details and agree to the terms and conditions and privacy policies. Then click “Create account.”

  1. For future access, make sure to use the Covidence sign in page and select “sign in with SSO” to log in again.  

For account-related issues, please contact support@covidence.org.

 

Existing Users:

If you have an existing Covidence account and would like to continue to access your existing reviews while creating new reviews through the University Library’s subscription, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your existing account and click on your initials in the upper right-hand corner. Choose "profile."

  1. Enter your NSID email address (abc123@usask.ca - not your email alias) to your profile under "add new email address," and click "add."

  1. Click on your initials in the upper right-hand corner and click "sign out."

  1. Go to the Covidence sign in page, select “sign in with SSO” and enter your USask email address (can be NSID or alias format).

  2. You will be directed to the university's SSO login page - enter your NSID and password.  If entered correctly, you will be redirected back to Covidence.  Now you will see your existing reviews and will have the ability to create new reviews under the USask account.

  3. For future access, make sure to use the Covidence sign in page and select "sign in with SSO" to log in again.

Note: If you log into Covidence without using SSO, you will be unable to create new reviews using the USask institutional account. If this happens, please log in via SSO.

For account-related issues, please contact support@covidence.org. 

 

Creating a review using the University Library’s unlimited license

  1. After selecting “Start a new review” you will have the option to use your personal account license or select the University Library’s account:

  1. You will be asked to enter information about your new review and choose which account you would like to use:
  2. Once you have created a review or accepted an invitation to another USask account review, the title will appear in the "University of Saskatchewan" section on your account homepage:

 

Working with review team members from other institutions?

Once a review is created, you can add co-reviewers.

  1. From the homepage (Your reviews), select the review you wish to add co-reviewers to and click on “Settings”

  2. From the review Settings, navigate to “Add/remove reviewers”
  3. Click on “Invite another reviewer” and enter your reviewer’s first name and email addresses to invite them

Note: See Copyright and Licensed Material for more information related to working with individuals outside of USask.

Software Support

Covidence offers monthly training webinars (registration required), along with 24-hour methodological or technical support at support@covidence.org.  Covidence Academy is also a great resource containing useful ‘How to’ guides, step-by-step videos on Covidence features, and helpful links to additional resources. Their Knowledge Base can help you with Getting Started with Covidence, or you can refer to their online video tutorials for assistance. Logged into your Covidence account and need help? Click the question mark in the upper right-hand corner to access support.

 

Review Support

Librarians at the University Library can assist with planning, conducting, and reporting literature searches for knowledge synthesis projects, including scoping, systematic, realist, and rapid reviews. To learn more about knowledge synthesis and how the library can support your project visit the Knowledge Synthesis webpage or contact the liaison librarian for your subject area.

Covidence is available to answer any technical support questions related to the use of the Covidence software (see Software Support above).

Data Management and Privacy

For information on data management and privacy see Covidence’s Privacy Policy and the University Library’s Covidence Guide.