Features

Synthesis applies the latest in automation and enhanced analytic functionality to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of conducting literature reviews...

Version 3.3.x

Synthesis provides a comprehensive research reference management system with advanced analytical and automation functionality for delivering timely evidence-based information in hours not months for better decisions.

Synthesis also offers embedded Search for PubMed, IEEE, arXiv.org, and US Patents. In addition, Synthesis can import from other bibliographical databases such as Ovid, Web of Knowledge, and ProQuest. Other features include de-duplication verification, charting for summarizing columns, and grey literature capability.

Several new features have also been added to Synthesis including Word Clouds, Topic Clustering, and the ability to derive meta data from the abstract or full-text PDF.

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  • De-Duplication

    Automatically de-duplicates references as they are being imported in a manner of minutes. With an external validated Sensitivity (Se) of 98% and Specificity (Sp) of 99%.

  • Topic Clustering and Word Clouds

    The ability to quickly organize your references into Topics using Artificial Intelligence or Visually view the Title or Abstracts as Word Clouds for a more clear understanding.

  • Automated PDF Downloading

    Downloads the PDFs that you have access to, either through open-access or institutional subscription, on average 20 seconds per article.

  • Full-Text Searching

    The ability to search in real-time for keywords or phrases through the abstracts or full-text PDFs and then tag these references for future analysis.

  • Advanced Charting

    The ability to Right-Click on a Column and quickly produce a line, bar, pie, stacked bar, or stacked area chart for quickly understanding trends and frequencies.

Feature List

Core Features in Synthesis Version 3.1.x

  • Embedded Online Searching

    The ability to search PubMed, PubMed Central, IEEE, arXiv.org, and US Patents from within Synthesis.

  • Bibliographic Database Imports

    The ability to import references from a variety of bibliographical databases such as Scorpus, Web of Knowledge, ProQuest, ACM, and many others.

  • De-Duplication

    Synthesis automatically de-duplicates references when importing from multiple bibliographic databases.

  • Integrated PDF Viewer

    Synthesis comes with an integrated PDF viewer. As well, any PDF can be launched using your default PDF viewer.

  • Bibliographies

    Bibliographies are automatically generated based upon what references are being displayed. Bibliographies are presented in a variety of formats (such as BibTex) and with differing levels of content (such as references plus reviewers comments).

  • Export as CSV File

    All the data being displayed in Synthesis can be exported as a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file for secondary analysis.

  • Export as RIS File

    All the references can be exported as a RIS File so that they can be imported into a Cite and Write applications such as EndNote or RefWorks.

  • Generate Random Sample

    The ability to generate a random sample of references is provided within Synthesis. This feature is useful, as it provides the ability to identify a specific percentage (i.e. 10%) of references that can then be used for supporting limited secondary review or data quality checks.

  • Automated PDF Downloading

    Synthesis can automatically download the majority of full-text PDFs provided institutional access.

  • Dual Reviewer Capability

    Synthesis has the capability for primary and secondary reviewers. This allows two people to screen abstracts and full-text and automatically have kappa scores calculated for both.

  • Automated Highlighting of Content

    Sometimes when looking at hundreds of abstracts you want certain words to jump out at you. You can add keywords so that Synthesis automatically highlights them, whether they be in the title, the abstract or even in the PDF document.

  • Drag and Drop References

    When you quickly need to prepare a document that includes the reference citation, Synthesis allows you to drag and drop a reference into any text or Word document.

  • Grey Literature

    In the event that the references you want to manage aren't in a bibliographical database, you can manually enter these references into the Grey Literature component and treat them like any other reference.

  • Author Statistics

    The ability to automatically extract and summarize first author, last author, number of authors for all the references.

  • Extraction of Comments and Text

    Synthesis can extract the PDF comments and text underlined and saves them in the comments sections. Meaning, you now have what is important to you extracted and quickly accessible.

  • Full-Text PDF Search

    Synthesis provides the ability to search the all the full-text (PDFs) contained in the dataset.

  • Integrated Data Collection Interface

    Synthesis is designed around a spreadsheet-like interface that enables columns to be created, so that data collection can occur directly within the application.

  • Autotagging Rows

    Synthesis allows for the autotagging (annotation) of rows to occur, so that references that contain searchable keywords or phrases can be automatically tagged.

  • Derive Meta Data

    The ability to automatically tag references based upon specific keywords and phrases exists in Synthesis. This includes tagging Study Types (RCT, Case Control, etc.), Author Country, Population (Female, Male, Infant, etc.), and any custom definitions that you create.

  • Topic Clustering

    Topic clustering is a computer science technique for automatically identifying topics from the abstract text. These generated topics then provide an un-bias view of the topic groupings presented in the literature.

  • Word Clouds

    Word clouds are a visualization technique that display the most frequent words presented in a body of text. Synthesis applies word clouds to both the title and the abstract of the references.

  • Charting

    Synthesis provides the ability to view column information summarized as a pie, bar, line, stacked bar, or stacked line chart. This information can also be view over time (year) and the charts can be manipulated in various ways such as changing the title, ignoring NULL values, or only display the most X frequent items.

New Research and Development

Synthesis is a software application for conducting scoping, systematic and regular literature reviews. Synthesis focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of conducting literature reviews through automating manual processes and enhancing the workflow. Synthesis is available for Windows, Mac and a Java application that can be run on any platform.

White Papers

Concise information on specific topics

  • Searching and Assessing the Medical Literature

    Informed evidence-based decision making depends on having access to the latest research information in a summarized and collated manner. The ability to quickly search through and understand the large body of academic medical literature in a timely and complete manner is of utmost importance to both academic medical researchers and operational healthcare decision makers.

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  • Synthesis for Business

    Technology managers and entrepreneurs need to stay up to date on the latest industry and academic information. Synthesis provides an inclusive environment in which the United States (USPTO) patent information and publications from the technical (IEEE and arXiv.org) and medical (PubMed) domains can be quickly searched, collated and the references managed and assessed. Allowing knowledge to be quickly generated and acted upon.

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