Covidence vs RobotReviewer
Covidence
covidence.orgRobotReviewer
robotreviewer.netSide by side
| Figure | Covidence | RobotReviewer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $28.25/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 2 |
| Spec score · AI Literature Review Software | 8.0 (#13) | 8.4 (#6) |
| Integrations | Covidence lists CRS, EndNote, Zotero, RefWorks, Mendeley, RevMan, and tools supporting RIS, CSV, or PubMedXML formats as compatible workflow tools. | The self-hosted setup uses Grobid for document processing, RabbitMQ and Celery for worker processing, and SciBERT through bert-as-a-service. |
| Purpose | Covidence is a non-profit platform that helps researchers systematically review research. | RobotReviewer automatically annotates clinical trial PDFs with PICO characteristics and likely bias assessments using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. |
| Support | The contact page says the support team usually replies within one business day; pricing also includes free online technical support. | The project directs users to an email address for questions and integration assistance. |
Plans
In their own words
RobotReviewer
RobotReviewer analyzes clinical trial reports by annotating PDFs with PICO characteristics and likely bias assessments using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Uploading PDFs on the website extracts key data and presents a summary table. Its REST API can process groups of clinical trial reports to synthesize results across trials. The project is open source under GNU GPL version 3.0 and is free to use. It can run locally as Docker services, with a web app and API server exposed on local ports. The self-hosted processing setup uses Grobid, RabbitMQ, Celery, and SciBERT through bert-as-a-service. Docker instructions cover GPU use, and the worker can also run CPU-only. Manual setup calls for Python 3.6, TensorFlow 1.12.0, and the associated processing services. Installation is documented as tested on Ubuntu and Mac OS; Windows works with substantial installation difficulty. Maintainers ask users to cite the 2017 ACL paper and invite questions by email, including requests for help integrating RobotReviewer into other software.