RevMan vs Universal SLR Assistant
RevMan
cochrane.orgUniversal SLR Assistant
sadeghanisi.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | RevMan | Universal SLR Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | £6.67/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 11 | 1 |
| Spec score · Systematic Review Software | 8.7 (#3) | 8.2 (#6) |
| Documentation | The Knowledge Base covers data workflow, analyses, text editing, exporting, validation, version comparison, publishing, portfolio and administration. | Documentation includes a 1,550-line complete user guide, in-app help, troubleshooting guidance, tests and GitHub issues. |
| Intended users | RevMan supports diagnostic test accuracy, intervention, methodology, overview, prognosis, qualitative, and flexible review types. | It is intended for PhD students, researchers, professors, evidence synthesis teams, and systematic or scoping review authors. |
| Purpose | RevMan is Cochrane’s software for producing transparent systematic reviews, guiding authors from structured data entry and analysis through result visualization. | Universal SLR Assistant supports systematic and scoping review workflows with AI-assisted screening, extraction, and reproducible outputs. |
| Release news | The October 15, 2026 release added GRADE certainty ratings for nonrandomized studies and improved migration from manual to automatic analyses. | GitHub lists version 3.5.3 as released on 11 October 2026 with reliability and workspace data-integrity updates. |
| Support | Cochrane directs users to its Support Team and provides how-to articles, screencasts and release notes. | The project directs users to the Complete User Guide, in-app Help panel, output logs, tests, and GitHub issues for support. |
| System requirements | The minimum supported setup is a 1280×1024 viewport, 8GB RAM and Chrome, Firefox or newer Edge; mobile devices and touchscreens are unsupported and Safari can cause export problems. | The current website lists Python 3.10 or newer, Flask, a modern browser and either an AI-provider key or Ollama/local endpoint. |
| What it does | RevMan is Cochrane software for planning, writing, analyzing and reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses. | Universal SLR Assistant helps researchers import references, deduplicate records, screen literature, process PDFs, extract structured data and export auditable review outputs. |
Plans
RevMan
- Cochrane author accessFree
- Cochrane author accessFree
- Practice reviewFree
- Individual student annual subscription£80 a year
- Student£80 a year
- Academic£100 a year
- Individual academic annual subscription£100 a year
- Individual standard annual subscription£130 a year
- Standard rate£130 a year
- OrganizationPriced on request
In their own words
RevMan
RevMan is Cochrane’s software for building systematic reviews, from structured data entry and analysis to presenting results. It supports diagnostic test accuracy, intervention, methodology, overview, prognosis, qualitative, and flexible review types. Authors can edit separate parts of a review at the same time and see who else is working on it. Analysis options include pairwise meta-analyses, sensitivity and subgroup analyses, and fixed-effects, random-effects, Mantel-Haenszel, and inverse-variance models. Built-in outputs include forest, SROC, and funnel plots, risk-of-bias assessments, and PRISMA flow diagrams. Authors can work from ready-made or custom templates and structured headings with Cochrane methodological guidance. RevMan imports study data and references from Covidence, and RIS reference imports can draw on Crossref, PubMed, or CRS. A free practice review is deleted after 30 days and permits one person, with no data export. Free access is also available to authors working on Cochrane Reviews. Individual annual plans are £80 a year for eligible students, £100 a year for eligible academics, and £130 a year for standard subscriptions; VAT applies in the EU and UK.
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.