What is the Importance of the "Number of Reviews Required Per Article" setting?

What is the Importance of the "Number of Reviews Required Per Article" setting?

The “Number of Reviews Required per Article” setting defines the number of independent votes required to include or exclude an article at a given stage (such as Title–Abstract Screening or Full-Text Screening).

Important: This setting does not limit the number of reviewers who can work on the platform in parallel. Instead, it controls how many decisions (votes) must be recorded for each article before a final decision is made. This setting plays a critical role in balancing speed, rigor, and confidence in your review outcomes.

Why this setting matters
  • Ensures the desired level of independent assessment
  • Helps manage bias and decision quality
  • Aligns the workflow with the type of review (TLR vs SLR)
  • Enables flexible collaboration between human reviewers and AI
  • Allows teams to choose fully human, AI-assisted, or AI-driven workflows

AI usage is flexible in EasySLR. You can choose to:
  • Run your review entirely without AI
  • Use AI as a supporting assistant
  • Use AI as an independent reviewer or one of the reviewers

All configurations are fully supported, allowing you to follow your methodological preferences, institutional policies, or review guidelines.

If AI is disabled:
  • All decisions are made by human reviewers
  • The Number of Reviews Required per Article setting still determines how many human votes are needed before a final decision is made.

Recommended settings by review type
1. Targeted Literature Review (TLR)

Recommended setting:
  • Number of reviews required: 1

TLRs are often exploratory, time-sensitive, and more flexible in nature. Requiring a single vote allows faster progress while still enabling oversight.

Using AI in TLRs
Set Number of reviews required = 1

AI as the sole reviewer
  • Enable AI as the reviewer in the AI settings
  • AI performs the screening decisions
A human reviewer can later:
  • Perform QC checks
  • Override decisions if required
This approach maximises speed while still retaining human control. Best suited for TLRs, Early scoping reviews, Rapid evidence assessments.

AI used as an assistant (human-led review)
  • Keep AI reviewer disabled in the AI settings
  • A human reviewer makes the final inclusion or exclusion decisions
  • AI supports the reviewer by:
    • Highlighting relevant content
    • Providing recommendations
    • Assisting with prioritisation
This setup is ideal when you want to maintain full human decision-making.

2. Systematic Literature Review (SLR)
Set Number of reviews required = 2

SLRs require a higher level of rigor and transparency. Best practice is to have two independent decisions per article to ensure reliability and reduce bias.

How to configure the setting based on AI usage
A. AI used as an Assistant (not a decision-maker)
  • Keep AI reviewer disabled in the AI settings
  • AI provides suggestions, highlights, or prioritisation
  • Final decisions are made by human reviewers

AI does not count as a vote in this setup.

B. AI used as one of the reviewers (Human + AI)
  • AI casts one independent vote
  • A human reviewer provides the second vote
  • Enable AI as the reviewer in the AI settings

This setup is ideal for SLRs where:
  • You want to maintain methodological rigor
  • AI helps reduce workload while still ensuring independent review

Summary table
Review Type
AI Usage
Humans Making Decisions
Number of Reviews Required
TLR
AI as Reviewer (sole)
0 (Human QC/override only)
1
TLR
AI as Assistant
1
1
TLR
No AI
1
1
SLR
No AI
2
2
SLR
AI as Reviewer
1
2
SLR
AI as Assistant
2
2

By configuring this setting thoughtfully, you can ensure your EasySLR workflow matches your review’s methodological needs, timelines, and confidence requirements, while making the most effective use of AI.






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