ASReview vs Parsifal

ASReview is a free, open-source tool that uses AI-aided active learning to prioritize records for systematic review screening, with a human making screening decisions. Its site says the approach can reduce screening workload by up to 95%. Users can simulate AI-aided review to compare models, while Crowdscreen supports parallel screening with access managed by administrators through a private login system. The described model families are ELAS-Ultra, ELAS-Heavy, and language-agnostic ELAS-L; ELAS-Heavy and ELAS-L require the Dory package. ASReview works with reference managers including EndNote and PubMed, and imports and exports CSV, RIS, and XLSX files. Documentation includes a Python API, while the institutional workflow also describes a REST API and CLI for automation. In a local setup, data stays on the user's computer; server deployments keep it in the organization's environment and follow its policies. Support includes documentation, tutorials, videos, community discussion, and organizational workshops and consultancy. ASReview LAB costs nothing with no licensing fees or subscriptions, though running hardware or a server may incur costs.

Parsifal is a web tool for planning, conducting and reporting systematic literature reviews. Its planning process covers objectives, PICOC, research questions, keywords, search strings, selection criteria, quality questions and data extraction forms. Researchers can import BibTeX records from Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE, ACM and PubMed, or use API imports. The platform supports article screening against inclusion and exclusion criteria, duplicate detection, quality assessment and snowballing through references and citations. Review owners can invite co-authors to edit protocols, screen articles and generate content, or share a public read-only link. Parsifal can create PRISMA diagrams and export review data to Excel or CSV, with papers in Word, LaTeX or PDF. It lists more than 45 community templates across 12 domains and 6 languages, and connections to services including ASReview, OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar. Its optional AI assistant can help with screening, assessment, extraction and paper sections, but requires the user's Anthropic or OpenAI API key; AI usage is billed directly by the AI provider. Imported articles, screening decisions and extraction data are stored in the user's account database.