Abstrackr vs Synthesis
Abstrackr
abstrackr.comSynthesis
synthesis.infoSide by side
| Figure | Abstrackr | Synthesis |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Literature Review Software | 8.0 (#7) | 7.5 (#22) |
| Deduplication | Abstrackr automatically deduplicates citations by DOI and PMID and supports merging remaining near-duplicates. | The site reports externally validated deduplication sensitivity of 98% and specificity of 99%. |
| Exports | Users can export CSV or RIS files and download a full JSONL export for querying with DuckDB. | References can be exported as RIS for use in citation managers such as EndNote or RefWorks, and displayed data can be exported as CSV. |
| Intended users | The site describes Abstrackr as serving researchers, librarians, and review teams conducting systematic reviews. | The site describes use in academic research, hospitals, government agencies, private corporations, and nongovernmental organizations. |
| Purpose | Abstrackr is a citation-screening tool for systematic reviews. | Synthesis is software for conducting scoping, systematic, and regular literature reviews. |
| Support | The site directs users to its community forum for methodology questions and workflow discussions. | The support page offers an online reference manual, a help sheet, and YouTube tutorials. |
Plans
In their own words
Abstrackr
Abstrackr is a free web tool for screening citations in systematic reviews. It supports solo work, blinded team screening, pilot rounds, and conflict resolution. After about 100 labels, machine learning ranks remaining citations by predicted relevance. A live PRISMA flow table records screening thresholds, resolved conflicts, exclusion reasons by tag, and analysis of the model’s stop point. Citations can be imported from PubMed, Scopus, or Embase, or uploaded as RIS and CSV files. The service deduplicates records by DOI and PMID and can merge remaining near-duplicates. Results export as CSV or RIS, with a full JSONL download for DuckDB queries. Blinding starts enabled, and changes are logged with user, reason, timestamp, and project snapshots. Member and Leader roles have no stated team-size limit, while reminders arrive 7, 4, and 1 day before deadlines. No installation is needed, and the site directs methodology questions to its community forum.
Synthesis
Synthesis is software for conducting scoping, systematic and regular literature reviews. It organizes references and PDFs, searches abstracts and full-text PDFs by keyword or phrase, and automatically de-duplicates imported references. The support page reports externally validated deduplication sensitivity of 98% and specificity of 99%. Its screening workflow supports primary and secondary reviewers working through abstracts and full text, with kappa scores calculated for both. Analysis tools include AI-assisted topic clustering, word clouds, metadata extraction and charts. Embedded searches cover PubMed, PubMed Central, IEEE, arXiv.org and US Patents; references can also be imported from Ovid, Web of Knowledge, ProQuest and ACM. Synthesis can download many full-text PDFs when open or institutional access is available, and exports references and data as RIS and CSV. The trial allows unlimited projects, but each project can import only 50 references and uses a slower PDF viewer. The maker says orders and downloads are temporarily suspended during development of a new release. Licenses are tied to individual computers; pricing is available on request.