How to Use PDF Automatch in Rayyan

Automatically match full-text PDFs to your references — no more manual work for hundreds of files!

What Is PDF Auto Matcher?

PDF Auto Matcher is a smart tool in Rayyan that automatically matches uploaded PDF full texts to the references in your review. It’s especially useful during Full-Text Screening or Data Extraction when you're dealing with large numbers of articles.

Rayyan scans each PDF, extracts its title on upload, and tries to match it to references in your review. When a match is found, Rayyan selects the PDF — you just need to click “Done” to finalize the attachment.

Where Can You Use It?

You can use PDF Auto Matcher in the following stages of your review:

• Review Data
• Screening
• Full-Text Screening (FTS)
• Data Extraction

How to Bulk Upload and Match PDFs using My Library

1. Open My Library in Rayyan and upload all of your retrieved PDFs
2. Navigate to Full Text Screening.
3. Select one or more references you want to add PDFs to 
4. Click “Search My Library”
5. Rayyan will search My Library and auto-match corresponding PDFs with selected references

How to Bulk Upload and Match PDFs using Multi-Select

1. Open your review in Rayyan.
2. Navigate to one of the supported stages above (e.g. Full Text Screening)
3. Select one or more references you want to add PDFs to 
4. Click “Upload PDF”.
5. Choose and upload your PDF files (only .pdf format is supported).
6. Click "Auto Match".
7. Rayyan will:
   • Extract the title from each PDF upon upload.
   • Try to match it with the titles in your review.
   • Select matched PDFs — you need to click “Done” to finalize attachment.

What If a Match Fails?

• If Rayyan can’t auto-match a PDF, it will stay in the selection list.

• You will need to manually select and assign the PDF to the correct reference.

• You can also reassign PDFs or override incorrect matches at any time.

Watch It in Action

The entire process is shown in the GIF below — from uploading to automatic matching:

Tips for Best Results

• Engage the Full Text filter by selecting Empty in the Full Text facet. As full-texts are attached, references with full texts will disappear until all references without full texts have had full texts attached.
• Select 10-20 references at a time. Select All will be available soon.
• Make sure that you have selected the correct documents for the group of references you are uploading full texts for or place all the full-texts in My Library and use Search My Library to auto-match PDFs.
• If your PDFs are scans or have non-selectable text, try using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software to convert your PDF to selectable text before uploading.
• PDFs of 10MB or less can be auto-matched. Larger PDFs (over 10MB) will not be auto-matched — you’ll need to assign them manually.
• If Rayyan has less than an 85% confidence in a match, it will not attempt a match. Attach these manually.

📅 Interested in a webinar?

We're excited to invite you to our upcoming Rayyan webinars! Whether you're new to the platform or looking to deepen your knowledge, our webinars are designed to help you get the most out of Rayyan. Register here to secure your spot!

🆘 Need Assistance?

Start by browsing our FAQs for quick answers. Still stuck? Submit a support request through the Help Center.
When reaching out, please include:

• The name of your review
• Steps you took before encountering the issue
• A screenshot (if available)