Covidence

Covidence is an online tool that streamlines the production of systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and other literature-intensive research projects. It coordinates the screening process of titles/abstracts and full-text articles, and it facilitates the population of data extraction forms and risk of bias tables.

All UC faculty, students, and staff who are interested in conducting systematic reviews or other similar literature reviews are welcome to sign up for an  institutional Covidence account.

For additional guidance on literature reviews, see our systematic review guide. Please contact your subject librarian to learn how they can provide support for your systematic review.

PLEASE NOTE: Currently, only faculty, staff, and students at the College of Medicine, Allied Health Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy, Education, Criminal Justice, Human Services, and Information Technology can receive one-on-one librarian assistance with their review (see levels of librarian assistance). Librarians at the CECH Library and Health Sciences Library may be able to advise on reviews outside of these areas as time allows.

If you have already followed the sign-up instructions above, please sign into your Covidence account directly through their homepage: https://app.covidence.org/sign_in

I already have a personal Covidence account. Why should I join the HSL's institutional account?

If you currently are a free trial user or if you were invited to work on a Covidence review, joining our institutional account will allow you to create your own reviews with unlimited reviewers, references, and bulk PDF uploads. See this chart for more information. 

If you currently pay for a Covidence subscription, then joining HSL's institutional account provides you with unlimited access through June 2024, which means you will not need to pay subscription costs during the next year. Unfortunately, Covidence is unable to refund individual users for personal subscriptions to this product.

How can I migrate reviews I own under my personal account to HSL's institutional account?

Please email support@covidence.org to migrate reviews you own to HSL's institutional account. Please note that review migrations take time and will need to be processed in accordance with Covidence's staff workload.

Reviews under the institutional license will be visible to administrators of HSL's Covidence account, and reviews under your personal account will only be seen by you. When creating new reviews, you will be able to select whether you want the review to be housed under HSL's institutional account or your personal (usually paid) account.

Can I add non-UC researchers to my review project?

Yes, with HSL's institutional account, you can invite anyone -- including non-UC researchers -- to work on your review. Although they will be able to assist you with your review project, non-members will not be able to create new reviews unless they have their own paid or institutional accounts.

Can I get help with my systematic review?

Please see our systematic review guide for additional guidance. You may also contact your librarian to learn how they can provide support for your systematic review.

I accidentally created two Covidence user accounts with two different sign-ins. Can my two user accounts be merged?

Unfortunately, no. Covidence Support can transfer reviews between accounts on request from the review owner but their system is unable to merge two or more separate accounts that belong to the same user.

I already paid for a personal Covidence account this year! Can I get my money back, now that the HSL is offering unlimited access for 1 year?

Unfortunately, Covidence is unable to refund individual users for their subscriptions to this product.

How do you pronounce "Covidence"?

It rhymes with "providence"!

If you already have a personal Covidence account and it does NOT use your UC email address as the primary contact, there is no need to create a new Covidence account to join HSL's account. Please follow the instructions below to sign up for access to our institutional account via your personal Covidence account. This ensures access to all of your reviews through a single user account. 

1. Make your UC email address the primary contact in your Covidence account.
   • Sign into your personal Covidence account.
   • Click on your initials in the top right hand corner and select "Profile."
   • Add your UC email address.
   • Make the UC email address your primary contact in Covidence.
2. View our instructions on how to sign up for HSL's institutional account.
3. If you would like to migrate any of the reviews created under your personal account to HSL's institutional account, please email support@covidence.org.

If you already have a personal Covidence account and it uses your UC email address as the primary contact, then you may proceed with directly signing up for HSL's institutional account. Please email support@covidence.org if you would like to migrate reviews from your personal account to your institutional account.

Please contact support@covidence.org if you run into any issues with the steps above.

Thank you to VCU Libraries for allowing us to use their guide as a basis for this new guide.