HAWC vs SyRF

HAWC is a free web application for storing, displaying, and synthesizing data used in human health and environmental risk assessments. Its modules support study-quality evaluation, data extraction from human epidemiology, animal bioassay, and in vitro studies, evidence synthesis, and dose-response analysis. Assessment teams can assign managers, members, and reviewers role-based permissions for viewing, editing, and administration. Published material is viewable without an account, while collaboration on an ongoing assessment with EPA scientists requires a Login.gov account and approved EPA HAWC group access. Interactive visualizations connect studies, experiments, endpoints, and dose information. Users can download available datasets as Microsoft Excel files and export figures to PDF or other formats. Benchmark dose modeling is performed endpoint by endpoint at the EPA HAWC chemical manager’s discretion. HAWC supports most modern browsers, with Google Chrome preferred, and reports functionality errors with Internet Explorer.

SyRF is a web platform for researchers conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses of preclinical studies. It supports collaborative projects, configurable workflows, study screening, annotation, data extraction, and educational guidance. By default, two reviewers assess studies against inclusion and exclusion criteria, with a third reviewer handling disagreements. Student projects can enable single screening, though the guide does not recommend it for journal-bound reviews. Administrators create annotation questions and assign them to workflow stages; graph extraction requires data extraction and annotation together. Studies and associated data, including quantitative results for analysis in R or SAS, can be downloaded. References must be deduplicated and supplied as EndNote Desktop XML or CSV. Full-text PDFs may be linked, but users provide the files separately for SyRF staff to process and store. Projects can be public or private, and each project currently supports one criteria set. SyRF is free online, with a minimum feature set under continuous development.