How do PICO highlighting and filtering work in Rayyan?

Using artificial intelligence to understand language in context, Rayyan offers you the ability to automatically highlight all the PICO related terms and phrases and extract all the terms to three filtration facets: Population, Intervention/Comparison and Outcome. PICO highlighting acts as a heuristic to speed decision making while PICO filtering allows you to narrow in on the most relevant references first using PICO. 

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use the PICO functionality in Rayyan:

Step 1: Access Your Review

• Sign in to your Rayyan account.
• Access your systematic review by navigating to the appropriate review in your dashboard.

Step 2: Navigate to the Review Data or Screening Stage

• Go to either the Review Data page or the Screening stage within your review.
• This is where you'll perform the PICO detection and extraction process.

Step 3: Enable PICO Functionality

• In the toolbar, click on PICO to start the PICO detection and extraction process.

Step 4: Wait for PICO to Complete Detection and Extraction

Rayyan will process the references and automatically detect and extract PICO-related terms. This may take a few moments. Once the process is completed, you will see the highlighted terms and phrases that Rayyan has recognized as relevant to PICO.

Pro Tip: PICO Highlighting Colors

Rayyan uses distinct colors to highlight terms based on the PICO element they belong to:

• Purple = Population
• Indigo = Intervention & Comparison
• Orange = Outcome

Hover over the highlighted terms to view the % probability of relevance and to see which PICO element the term is associated with.

Step 5: Navigate to the Filters Workbench

• Open the Filters Workbench to access the Population, Intervention, and Outcome facets.
• These filters allow you to narrow your focus to the most relevant references based on the detected PICO terms.

Step 6: Enable PICO from the Filters (Optional)

• Alternatively, you can enable PICO directly from the Filters section by clicking on Extract PICO. This action will trigger the extraction process immediately.

Step 7: Use PICO Filters to Narrow Your References

Once PICO is activated, you can begin using the Population, Intervention, and Outcome filters to filter the references that align with each PICO element.

PICO Facets Showing Sample Data

For each facet—Population, Intervention/Comparison, and Outcome—Rayyan extracts truncated forms of words and phrases. This index includes all references that contain the detected terms, and the number of articles where Rayyan has identified these terms will appear next to each one.

• The Population facet will only show terms detected as related to Population.
• The Intervention/Comparison facet includes both Intervention and Comparison terms.
• The Outcome facet will only show terms related to Outcomes.

Important Notes About Rayyan’s PICO Implementation

• Truncated Forms: Rayyan uses truncated forms of words and phrases to capture variations of terms, which optimizes accuracy and coverage.
• Combined Intervention & Comparison: The Intervention facet includes both Intervention and Comparison elements (I and C combined).
• OR Function: Selecting multiple terms within the same facet functions as an OR search. This means your results will either stay the same or increase when you select more words or phrases.
• AND Function Across Facets: Selecting terms from different facets works as an AND search. Adding terms across facets will further constrain your results, narrowing your focus.
• Viewing More Terms: Click on More at the bottom of each facet to view additional terms. You can toggle the filters on and off, or use the Clear button in the visualization bar to reset all filters.
• Sorting by Frequency: The terms within each facet are sorted by frequency. The most common terms will appear at the top of the list.