Covidence vs Universal SLR Assistant
Covidence
covidence.orgUniversal SLR Assistant
sadeghanisi.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Covidence | Universal SLR Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 1 |
| Spec score · AI Literature Review Software | 8.0 (#13) | 8.2 (#10) |
| Spec score · Systematic Review Software | 7.9 (#13) | 8.2 (#6) |
| Purpose | Covidence is a non-profit platform that helps researchers systematically review research. | Universal SLR Assistant supports systematic and scoping review workflows with AI-assisted screening, extraction, and reproducible outputs. |
| Review workflow | The platform supports review setup, importing, screening, data extraction, quality assessment, and export. | The workflow covers reference import, abstract screening, full-text PDF processing, structured extraction, and export. |
| 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 the Complete User Guide, in-app Help panel, output logs, tests, and GitHub issues for support. |
Plans
In their own words
Universal SLR Assistant
Universal SLR Assistant supports systematic and scoping reviews with AI-assisted screening, extraction, and reproducible outputs. It provides a desktop interface and a browser-based local Web App, and imports RIS, BibTeX, CSV, and plain-text references, including exports from PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Its workflow covers abstract screening, full-text PDF processing, structured extraction, and export; likely duplicates are identified by DOI and fuzzy title matching. Workspace mode stores references, PDF metadata, review items, decisions, and audit events in a local SQLite workspace, separating AI suggestions from human decisions. Exports can include decision files and logs, exclusion reasons, PRISMA-ready counts, a methods disclosure draft, and a manifest. The project supports a range of cloud and local AI providers. Cloud providers receive submitted paper text, while Ollama or another local endpoint can keep it on the user's computer or local network. AI results are assistance only: people must verify them and make final review and reporting decisions. The software is free under the MIT License; cloud AI provider API fees may apply.