Question and Criteria
The first two stages set the scope of the review. In a manual review they wait for you to agree them; in an automatic review Medbot fills them in when the review runs, and you can read them on each stage.
You can edit fields directly when you own the review, it is in manual mode, and nothing is running. Nothing you type or Medbot proposes is saved until you save or agree it.
Stage 1: Question
The Question panel shows the question As asked and the question refined into a form a systematic review can answer:
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Refined question | The question as the review will answer it, badged PICO or PECO. |
| Population | Who the studies are about. |
| Intervention or exposure | What is being tested or what people were exposed to. |
| Comparator | What it is compared against. |
| Outcome | What is measured. |
| Study designs | The designs to include, separated by commas. |
Below the fields, Medbot’s scope check shows either Scope check passed (answerable from primary studies in PubMed, with no scope issues outstanding) or Scope issues to look at / Not answerable as asked with a list of issues.
Refining the question
In a manual review, Medbot’s first reply proposes a PICO question and asks you what it needs to know. Answer in the conversation, or click Refine with Medbot to ask it to look again. Its proposal appears in the panel as Medbot’s proposed question, marked Not saved, with each field tagged Changed or New and the saved value struck through, and a Still to settle list of open scope issues. Click Keep proposal or Dismiss.
You can also edit any field yourself and click Save question.
Agreeing the question
Click Agree and draft criteria when the question is right. This saves it and asks Medbot to draft the criteria. The button is disabled while a proposal is showing: keep or dismiss it first. You can still change the question later; saving changes it for the later stages.
Stage 2: Criteria
Every article is judged against the criteria, first on its title and abstract and then on its full text. The Criteria panel has two lists, one criterion per line:
- Include studies that
- Exclude studies that
Open Why these criteria to read Medbot’s rationale.
Refining the criteria
Click Draft with Medbot (or Refine with Medbot once there are criteria), or ask for changes in the conversation. The proposal appears as Medbot’s proposed criteria, with new lines tagged New and dropped lines struck through and tagged Removed. Click Keep proposal or Dismiss. You can also edit the lists and click Save criteria.
Agreeing the criteria
Click Agree and build the search when the criteria are right. You need at least one inclusion criterion. This saves the criteria and asks Medbot to build and test the search strategy; see Search Strategy and Search.