How to Use Blind Mode in Rayyan – Rayyan Help Center

Blind Mode controls whether reviewers can see each other’s screening decisions while a review is in progress. It is available on all plans and is turned on by default when a review is created.

What Blind Mode does

When Blind Mode is on, each reviewer screens independently — they cannot see the decisions made by other team members. This prevents reviewers from being influenced by each other’s choices, which is a standard requirement in systematic review protocols.

When Blind Mode is off, all decisions are visible to all members. This is useful when resolving conflicts or reviewing the team’s progress together.

Blind Mode	What reviewers can see	Conflict filter
On (default)	Only their own decisions	Not accessible
Off	All team decisions	Accessible

Blind Mode controls whether reviewers can see each other’s screening decisions while a review is in progress. It is available on all plans and is turned on by default when a review is created.

How to turn Blind Mode on or off

Open your review — the Blind Mode toggle is in the top toolbar and stays visible across all stages of your review
Click the toggle to turn it on or off

Important Only the review owner can toggle Blind Mode.

When to turn Blind Mode off

Conflict resolution — the Conflict filter is only accessible when Blind Mode is off. Turn it off after all reviewers have completed their screening to identify and resolve disagreements
Progress monitoring — turning Blind Mode off temporarily allows the owner to check how the team is progressing without affecting the independent screening of active reviewers
Label-based screening division — if you are using labels to divide screening work across the team, Blind Mode must be off, as labels are not visible to other members when Blind Mode is on
Moving articles to the next stage — keep Blind Mode off after resolving conflicts to add the correct set of articles to the next stage, then turn it back on once that is done

Best practice Keep Blind Mode on throughout the screening phase and only turn it off when you are ready to review conflicts. Turning it off mid-screening can influence reviewer decisions and compromise the independence of your review protocol.

Recommended workflow across review stages

In collaborative reviews, Blind Mode should follow a consistent pattern at every stage — screen with it on, resolve conflicts or unmatched answers with it off, add articles to the next stage while still off, then turn it back on.

Screening (TiAb)

Blind Mode ON — all reviewers complete screening independently
Owner turns Blind Mode OFF — resolve all conflicts
While still OFF — add included articles to Full-Text Screening
Turn Blind Mode ON before FTS screening begins

Full-Text Screening (FTS)

Blind Mode ON — all reviewers complete FTS independently
Owner turns Blind Mode OFF — resolve all conflicts
While still OFF — add included articles to Data Extraction
Turn Blind Mode ON before Data Extraction begins

Data Extraction (DE) & Risk of Bias (RoB)

Blind Mode ON — all collaborators complete their work independently
Owner turns Blind Mode OFF — review and resolve unmatched answers
While still OFF — proceed to the next stage if applicable
Turn Blind Mode ON if further collaborative work continues

Note Always resolve all conflicts (Screening and FTS) and unmatched answers (DE and RoB) before moving to the next stage. See How to Resolve Screening Conflicts in Rayyan for full conflict resolution steps.

How Blind Mode affects exports

When exporting references, make sure Blind Mode is off before running the export — otherwise only your own decisions will be included in the export, not the full team’s decisions.

How Blind Mode affects Relevance Ranking

Relevance Ranking works in collaborative reviews regardless of whether Blind Mode is on or off. Ratings are calculated based on all screening decisions made by all team members — their individual decisions are pooled together when computing predictions for undecided references.

Note If two members screen the same reference and make conflicting decisions — one includes, the other excludes — Rayyan excludes that reference from the rating computation to avoid skewing predictions. The more consistent and comprehensive your team's screening is, the better Rayyan's predictions will be for the remaining references.

Continue to: How to Organize Screening Work Across Your Team