Systematic literature reviews, from search to synthesis
SimpleSLR is a free, collaborative environment for conducting systematic literature reviews. It keeps the whole process organized and visible for a team, from PRISMA 2020 screening with hotkeys through snowballing to the Webster and Watson concept matrix, and it documents each step for the methods section.
- 1
Import
Database exports and manual entries, deduplicated on arrival.
- 2
Screen
Titles and abstracts, then full texts, against your criteria.
- 3
Snowball
Citation search outward from the included papers.
- 4
Synthesize
Read, excerpt, and build the concept matrix.
- 5
Report
PRISMA diagram, methods text, and exports.
What SimpleSLR covers
PRISMA 2020 screening and reporting
Screening with per criterion hotkeys and a complete audit trail; exports include the verbatim PRISMA flow diagram, a written summary, and the screening log.
Independent screening
Blind dual screening with a configurable number of opinions per stage. Disagreements surface for discussion and every resolution is logged.
Snowballing with a citation map
Backward and forward citation searching from your included papers, with per seed provenance, corpus level deduplication, and an interactive map.
Concept centric synthesis
A Webster and Watson concept matrix wired to a PDF reading room: verbatim excerpts, anchored quotes, and per concept exports.
Optional AI assistance
A prescreen and concept suggestions, run with your own API key under a prescribed methodology: unanimous multi pass removal rules, auditable votes, and disclosure text for the methods section.
Privacy and data handling
The site serves no ads and runs no analytics. API keys are stored only in your browser, uploaded PDFs are visible only to your project team, and review data exports as CSV at any time.
Free to use
SimpleSLR is free for any research team. The optional AI features run on your own Anthropic or OpenAI API key; nothing else requires payment.
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