How to Perform Full-Text Screening in EasySLR

How to Perform Full-Text Screening in EasySLR

Full-Text Screening is the second screening stage in the Systematic Literature Review process. Reviewers assess the full PDF against the review protocol to determine whether it meets the eligibility criteria before proceeding to Data Extraction.

Before screening, ensure that:
  • The articles to assess have reached the Full Text stage.
  • The correct full-text PDFs and any relevant supplementary files are uploaded.
  • Your review protocol and inclusion- exclusion reasons are configured.
  • The number of reviews required per article is configured for your workflow.
  • The required AI mode is enabled.

To begin screening:
  1. Open your project.
  2. In the left sidebar, go to Review stages.
  3. Select Full Text.
  4. Open Articles To Review.
  5. Click Start Reviewing.

Managing Articles Without PDFs
The No PDF tab shows articles that have reached the Full Text stage but do not yet have a PDF attached. When automatic retrieval is enabled, EasySLR attempts to fetch available PDFs, but some articles may still require manual upload.

To add a PDF:
  1. Open No PDF section.
  2. Click the article title to access the upload feature and attach a full-text PDF.
  3. Select the relevant PDF file.
  4. After selecting the file, click Update to attach it to the article.
The article will then move to the screening window for further processing.

Bulk PDF Uploads
You can also upload PDFs in bulk using the following methods:

Reviewing an Article
The screening window displays the article’s publication details, full-text PDF, and screening controls, allowing you to review the article and record your decision.

At the top of the screening page, you can view:
  • Journal information
  • DOI
  • Publication type
  • Article title
  • Authors

Click the DOI to open the publication page when additional information is required. The article title appears below the publication details. Use the Copy option next to the title to quickly copy it when searching for related articles or further information.

Within the PDF viewer, you can:
  • Adjust the reading size using the zoom controls or Toggle Fullscreen.
  • Search within the PDF or use Outlines, Tables, and Figures for quick summary of the PDF.
  • Review saved highlights and return to their page locations.
  • Check supplementary and linked files for supporting information.
  • Download the PDF with selected highlights included.

To download a PDF with highlights:
  1. Click the Download icon.
  2. Select the highlights you want to include:
    • Keywords (Positive & Negative)
    • Full Text PICOs
    • Highlights
  3. Click Download to save the PDF with the selected highlights.

Review the full text against your eligibility criteria and refer to relevant supplementary material when the main article does not provide enough information.

AI-Assisted Screening: When enabled for your project, AI features provide additional information to support your screening assessment.
AI Suggestion: Provides a recommendation to either Include or Exclude an article.
AI Reasons and Notes: AI-generated rationale to understand the reasoning behind the recommendation.
AI-Generated PICOS: Summarises relevant study characteristics to help you assess the article. Each PICOS element includes source links (1, 2, 3...) - click any number to navigate to the relevant section in the PDF. Click Edit to add or remove sources.

AI Smart Tags: To display available Smart Tags during screening, enable under Project Settings → AI Copilot. AI Smart Tags automatically classify articles using AI-generated labels.

These tags can help you:
  • Organise articles
  • Filter articles
  • Identify specific types of studies
  • Prioritise articles for review

Accessing the Protocol
Click the Information (i) icon to view your project protocol without leaving the screening page. This allows you to refer to your eligibility criteria while reviewing an article.

Making a Screening Decision
As you review an article, you can access:
  • Inclusion reasons
  • Exclusion reasons
  • Notes
  • Tags
Tags can also be used to categorise and organise articles during screening.

Skip an Article for Later
If you need to revisit an article before making a decision:
  1. Click Skip for Later in the screening window.
  2. Return to the Skipped section when you are ready to review it.

Filtering and Reviewing Articles
Use filters to find specific records, organise your screening workload, and focus on a particular subset of articles.

Available filters may vary by project and can include:
  • Search Filters: Find articles using a keyword or phrase in the title, author, journal, or other available article information. For example, search for meta-analysis to locate records containing that term. Review each result to confirm its study type before making a screening decision.
  • PDF: Find articles with a PDF, without a PDF, or with a PDF fetched through Crossref.
  • Title Abstract Tags: Find labels recorded during the previous screening stage.
  • TIAB AI Decision and FT AI Decision: Filter articles based on available AI recommendations.
  • Page Count: Narrow the list by PDF length.
  • AI Study Attributes: Filter by available population, intervention, outcome, country, study design, or evidence-level labels.
  • Publication Year: Narrow the article list by year of publication.
  • Ref ID: Find articles using a range of Ref IDs or a list of individual Ref IDs. This is useful when reviewing specific batches of records.
  • Smart Tags: Find articles with specific AI-generated classifications.

Always validate AI recommendations and Smart Tags against the article information and your eligibility criteria before making a screening decision. After applying the required filters, select Review Filtered to review only the articles that match your chosen criteria.

Bulk Actions
For large screening tasks, EasySLR provides Bulk Actions.

To perform a bulk action:
  1. Select the articles using the checkboxes.
  2. Click Actions.
  3. Select the required action.
You can use available bulk actions to process multiple selected articles at once. These may include bulk Include/Exclude actions and rerunning AI on selected articles.


Rerunning AI on Selected Articles
To refresh AI analysis for a selected set:
  1. Select the required articles.
  2. Click Actions.
  3. Select Rerun AI.
AI is rerun only for the selected articles. Review the refreshed output before using it to support screening decisions.

Random Sampling
EasySLR supports Random Sampling for quality control and auditing. You can generate a random subset of articles, run AI on the sample, and review the results to assess its performance. Once you’ve completed the assessment and are satisfied with the AI’s performance, you can run AI on the remaining articles.

Resolving Screening Conflicts
A conflict occurs when reviewers record different screening decisions for the same article. Review the article against the protocol, compare the decisions and supporting information, and resolve the disagreement.

Conflicts You Can Resolve
This view displays conflicts that your role permits you to resolve.
  1. Click Resolve Conflicts to work through the conflict queue.
  2. To focus on a subset, apply filters and click Resolve Filtered.
  3. Review the article, reviewer decisions, reasons, notes, and any Mini Data Extraction responses.
  4. Submit the final resolution.

My Decision Conflict
This view displays unresolved conflicts involving the articles you have reviewed. If your project allows submitted reviews to be updated, you can revise your decision after discussion. Use Update Filtered Reviews to work through a filtered set. If review updates are disabled, a third reviewer resolves the conflicts.


Quality Control Project Owners can use QC to review articles with a final decision and override the decisions when required. QC is not available for articles that are still in conflict. All decisions overrides, QC are recorded and a report is available to download.

Returning Articles to Title-Abstract Screening
Use Actions → Send to Title Abstract Stage only when an article needs to return to the previous screening stage for rescreening.

Important: This action permanently deletes all Title Abstract and Full Text reviews for the selected articles. It cannot be undone. Review the articles and warning carefully before selecting
Move to Previous Stage.

Downloading Full-Text PDFs
To download full-text PDFs:
  1. Click Download Full Text Articles.
  2. Choose the available naming and download options.
  3. Request the download.
EasySLR sends an email containing a link to a ZIP file with the available PDFs. The link is valid for 24 hours. Select Download as folders when you want each PDF grouped with its supplementary files in a separate folder.

Best Practices
  • Confirm that the PDF belongs to the correct article and review relevant supplementary files.
  • Apply the eligibility criteria consistently throughout screening.
  • Complete a pilot screening exercise to identify unclear criteria early.
  • Record clear reasons and useful notes, especially for exclusions or decisions that may need discussion.
  • Validate AI suggestions, extracted values, and source passages against the full text.
  • Revisit skipped articles regularly.
  • Resolve outstanding conflicts before completing the screening stage.
  • Check the selected records carefully before applying a bulk action.

What Happens Next?
Once the required reviews and pending conflict resolution are complete, included articles proceed to Data Extraction.

Need Help?
Reach out through Live Chat in EasySLR or email at cs@easyslr.com.