Rayyan
Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) · Business
Rayyan is an AI-assisted platform for systematic reviews, letting research teams screen, deduplicate, and extract data from literature on the web and in a mobile app.
About Rayyan
What Is Rayyan
Rayyan is a web and mobile platform built for systematic review projects and other evidence synthesis work. It fits teams that need a literature screening and review management tool with AI support. The Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) launched it in 2015, and it now serves more than a million researchers at over 30,000 institutions. Teams upload search results from databases like PubMed and Cochrane, then screen titles and abstracts against their own inclusion criteria.
The core job it solves is the screening bottleneck. A single review can pull thousands of records, and manually deciding include or exclude for each one is slow and error-prone. Rayyan speeds this up with duplicate detection, blind-mode collaboration, and AI tools that predict relevance. Your reviewers still make the final calls, so the process stays defensible.
The main limits are about scope. Rayyan handles screening, deduplication, data extraction, and PRISMA reporting, but it isn't a database or a full reference manager. You still run searches elsewhere and import results. The heavier AI features, grouped under ResearchPilot, sit on the higher paid plans rather than the free tier.
Getting Started
- Create a free account at rayyan.ai with an email address, or sign in with Google.
- Start a new review and set your inclusion and exclusion criteria.
- Import records from a database export (RIS, BibTeX, or CSV) or drop in a file directly.
- Invite reviewers, then screen titles and abstracts in single, blind, or collaborative mode.
- Resolve conflicts, mark included studies, and export your PRISMA flow diagram and results.
Product Information
A quick look at Rayyan's pricing, supported platforms, and performance.
Best for
The users, tasks, and scenarios where this tool fits best.
Users
- Academic researchers
- Health and medical teams
- Librarians and review coordinators
Tasks
- Deduplicating database exports
- Screening titles and abstracts
- Extracting study data
- Generating PRISMA diagrams
Scenarios
- A Cochrane-style review with a small team
- A thesis or dissertation review
- Screening while traveling
Key features
AI relevance predictions
Rayyan learns from the studies you include and start marking, then predicts how relevant the rest of your records are. Those scores let you screen the strongest candidates first instead of reading records in random order. The predictions come after you've marked a handful of studies, so the model has something to learn from.
ResearchPilot AI agents
ResearchPilot adds AI agents that screen, analyze, and extract data on the higher plans. AI Reviewer screens articles against your criteria and returns include or exclude calls with notes, appearing as a team member in progress views. AI Analyzer recommends decisions with justifications, while Auto Extraction fills your data form questions from full texts.
Duplicate detection and auto-resolve
Rayyan flags duplicate records when you import, which matters when you've pulled the same studies from several databases. You can deduplicate up to 200,000 references with your own protocol. Manual dedup is free; auto-resolve, which clears duplicates in one step, is part of the paid plans.
Blind and collaborative screening
Reviewers can screen in blind mode, where nobody sees the other person's decisions until conflicts are resolved. This is standard practice for reducing bias in systematic reviews. Multi-select, bulk actions, and programmable hot keys speed up large batches on paid plans.
Mobile app with offline mode
The Rayyan mobile app for iOS and Android lets you screen on a phone or tablet, including offline. You can work through a backlog on a commute and sync once you're back online. Offline access is limited on the free plan and unlimited on Essential and above.
PRISMA and workbench analytics
The platform generates PRISMA flow diagrams and offers 15+ workbench facets for analyzing your set. Facets let you filter and cut the dataset by labels, keywords, and other attributes. PRISMA diagram generation starts on the Essential plan.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free plan covers a full systematic review with duplicate detection and AI relevance predictions, so you can test the workflow before paying.
- Blind-mode screening and complete audit trails support defensible, reproducible reviews.
- Offline mobile app turns commute time into screening time.
- ResearchPilot AI agents screen, analyze, and extract data, cutting manual effort on large reviews.
Cons
- It isn't a search database or a full reference manager, so you still run searches and organize citations elsewhere.
- The strongest AI features sit behind the Business plan, which starts at five licenses and $2,500 per year, which is steep for a single reviewer.
- Free tier caps you at three active reviews, two invited reviewers, and one sample, which is tight for bigger teams.
Frequently asked questions
Rayyan is a platform for systematic reviews and literature screening. Teams import search results, remove duplicates, screen titles and abstracts against set criteria, then extract data and export results.
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