Literature Review Lab

A guided, step-by-step workspace to plan searches, screen results, appraise critically, and synthesize. Manual tagging powers visuals.

Step 1 of 10

Step 1. Define your topic and objective

Be specific enough to be researchable, broad enough to capture multiple strands. Record your aim to anchor inclusion criteria later.
Exemplar
Objective: Map how algorithmic recommendations influence consumer autonomy and identify doctrinal and empirical gaps relevant to Indian competition and consumer law.
Tutorial: framing scope helps define inclusion rules

Step 2. Generate keywords and subtopics

KeywordSynonymsRemove

Boolean preview

(empty)
Mini-tutorial
Combine synonyms with OR inside parentheses, concepts with AND, and exclusions with NOT. Record exactly what you will run per database with date.
Build the table; it feeds Step 3 strings

Step 3. Design your search strategy

DatabaseStringDateRemove
Mini-tutorial
PRISMA requires capturing exact strings and dates for reproducibility. Keep them unchanged; if you rerun, add a new row with a new date.
Next, record retrieval counts

Step 4. Record initial retrieval

DatabaseHitsKeptRemove
Total hits: 0 | Moving to titles: 0
Mini-tutorial
Target 200–400 records for screening after deduplication. You can refine strings and add more rows if too many or too few.
These counts feed the PRISMA diagram

Step 5. Title screening

TitleMetaMethodDecisionRemove
Titles included: 0 | excluded: 0

Step 6. Abstract screening

TitleDecisionReason
Exemplar exclusion reasons
Wrong concept; Wrong population; Wrong context; Insufficient information; Not empirical; Purely popular press.
Abstracts included: 0 | excluded: 0

Step 7. Critical appraisal (rubric + weights)

Score 0, 1, 2 for each criterion. Adjust weights to fit your field. Choose one modality add-on per paper.

Weights

Appraisal table

CriterionScore 0–2

Add-on criteria

CriterionScore 0–2
Core: 0
Add-on: 0
Anchors (names only)
PRISMA 2020 (Moher et al., BMJ); CASP; JBI; AMSTAR 2; Lincoln & Guba; Shadish-Cook-Campbell; King-Keohane-Verba; Yin; Booth-Sutton-Papaioannou; Hutchinson; Epstein & King.
Scores feed synthesis and final include flags

Step 8. Synthesis (manual tags → visuals)

These visuals use only your manual tags from Steps 5–7.

Methodological balance (radar)

Thematic network

Keyword cloud

Mini-tutorial
Refine your tags if the visuals feel skewed. For the network, themes connect to papers you tagged with them.
Update tags in Step 5 if needed

Step 9. PRISMA flow diagram

Mini-tutorial
Boxes populate from your Steps 3–6 entries. If counts seem off, revise earlier steps and regenerate.
Identified: 0 | Screened: 0 | Included: 0

Step 10. Export

Exemplar synthesis outline
1. Introduction and scope 2. Search and selection 3. Thematic synthesis 4. Methodological balance 5. Gaps and future research 6. Implications.
You can also Export JSON from the top bar

Live status

Hits: 0
Titles kept: 0
Abstracts kept: 0

Shortlist (from Step 6 includes)

    Autosave on

    References panel (names only)

    PRISMA 2020; CASP; JBI; AMSTAR 2; Lincoln & Guba; Shadish-Cook-Campbell; King-Keohane-Verba; Yin; Booth-Sutton-Papaioannou; Hutchinson; Epstein & King.
    Tip: Use the Next button to move through steps