Basics of Systematic Reviews

A guide to evidence synthesis

Step 4: Manage and Export Citations from Searched Databases

The literature search for a systematic or scoping review will result in a large number of articles, studies, and other report types. To manage the citations for these documents, it's important to use a citation manager for organization and de-duplication. This involves:

Exporting all search results discovered in each selected database.
Uploading the citations of these results to your citation manager.
Removing duplicates of articles located in multiple databases.
Moving your article citations from the citation manager to your systematic review screening tool.

If you're not sure how to start this process, a librarian can help.

Step 4a: Install your Selected Citation Manager

We highly recommend using the citation manager EndNote. All UTSA faculty, staff, and students can download the EndNote software on multiple devices for free. For setup instructions, see our EndNote research guide:

EndNote: Initial Setup
This page provides instructions for installing the EndNote software using your UTSA credentials.
EndNote: Getting Started
This page features a short instructional video on how to use EndNote. Further information on adding references, attaching full text PDFs, and using EndNote's Word plugin to cite as you write can be found by clicking on the tabs to the left.

Step 4b: Remove Duplicate Citations

In addition to organizing and managing large numbers of citations, EndNote allows users to remove duplicate citations (this step can also be completed using a screening tool like Covidence or Rayyan). For de-duplication instructions, see the "Deduplicating Your Library" section from the below UT Health San Antonio research guide:

EndNote: Organizing Your Library
A guide from the UT Health Libraries on organizing your EndNote library and removing duplicate citations.