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Covidence: Zotero

A guide to using Covidence, a screening and data extraction tool for conducting systematic and other reviews.

Importing References from Zotero

Import the Contents of a Folder

From within your Zotero library, right click on the folder or subfolder that contains the references you would like to import into Covidence and choose Export Collection.

This is a screenshot of an example Zotero library. From within your own Zotero library, click on the folder that contains the references you would like to import into Covidence and select Export Collection.

In the resulting pop-up box, make sure the RIS format is selected and that "Unicode (UTF-8)" character encoding option is also selected. (These should both be the default.) Hit OK

Save the RIS file to your local computer and/or a cloud location. 

From within Covidence, go to your review and select Import references. Then click on the Import button. Select the step in the review in which you would like the imported references to be placed (e.g., "Screen") and upload the RIS file you saved. 

This is a screenshot of the Import References step within a Covidence review. You can choose which step in the review process you want your imported citations to go to. In this example, we are sending them into the Screen stage by selecting that option from  within the dropdown menu.

Import Your Entire Library

From within your Zotero library, go to File and select the Export Library option.

This is a screenshot of an example Zotero library. From within your own Zotero library, go to File and select Export Library. This will enable you to import all of the references in your Zotero library, across all your folders and subfolders, into Covidence.

In the resulting pop-up box, make sure the RIS format is selected and that "Unicode (UTF-8)" character encoding option is also selected. (These should both be the default.) Hit OK

Save the RIS folder to your local computer and/or a cloud location.

From within Covidence, go to your review and select Import references. Then click on the Import button. Select the step in the review in which you would like the imported references to be placed (e.g., "Screen") and upload the RIS file you saved. 

This is a screenshot of the Import References step within a Covidence review. You can choose which step in the review process you want your imported citations to go to. In this example, we are sending them into the Screen stage by selecting that option from  within the dropdown menu.