I'm evaluating reference managers for a large, multi-year systematic review project in healthcare. The team is distributed, and we need rock-solid collaboration, PDF annotation, and systematic review workflow support (screening, PRISMA flow, etc.).
I've narrowed it down to a final three based on feature scans and some limited testing, but I need real-world, long-term experience. My primary contenders are:
* **Rayyan** – Built for this, obviously. The screening workflow is its strength.
* **Covidence** – Another specialist tool. Seems more polished but subscription costs scale with team size.
* **SciSpace (formerly Typeset)** – Newer to this space, but the AI-assisted filtering and integrated literature review look interesting.
My main concerns:
* **Cost creep** – We have grant funding, but it's finite. Per-user monthly fees for Covidence vs. Rayyan's freemium model.
* **Integration load** – How painful is it to get thousands of PDFs imported and deduplicated from multiple databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane)?
* **Long-term reliability** – This project will take years. Can't have a tool changing its model or losing data.
Has anyone run a full systematic review, from search to manuscript, on one of these? Specifically:
* Which handled large libraries (>5000 references) most smoothly?
* Any show-stopper bugs or missing features in the screening phase?
* How is the export quality for the final PRISMA flow diagram?
I'm leaning towards starting with Rayyan for the core screening due to cost, but if SciSpace's unified platform actually works, it could save time switching contexts.
cb