How to Use My Library in Rayyan – Rayyan Help Center

What My Library is

My Library is your personal file space in Rayyan — a central place to store, organize, and reuse research files across reviews. Unlike files uploaded directly into a review, items in My Library are not tied to any single project. You can store reference files, PDFs, and other supported files there and bring them into a review whenever you need them.

This is especially useful when you work across multiple reviews, run searches in stages, or want to avoid re-uploading the same files repeatedly.

What you can store in My Library

My Library accepts the same file types supported for reference import:

Reference files: RIS, BibTeX, EndNote XML, PubMed XML, NBIB, CSV
Full-text PDFs
Generic files

Note Unsupported file types may still be stored in My Library, but they cannot be imported into a review. Only files in a format Rayyan recognizes as reference data can be sent to a review from My Library.

How to upload files to My Library

Open My Library from the left-hand side navigation menu
Click Add New
Select Upload Files
Choose the files you want to store

Best practice Upload files to My Library when you want to reuse them across multiple reviews or keep them available between search rounds. Treat My Library as a reusable file collection, not just a temporary staging area.

How to create folders and organize your files

Click Add New → Create Folder
Enter a name for the folder and confirm
To move files into a folder, select them using the checkboxes, click Move To, and choose the destination folder

Best practice Use folder names that reflect your workflow — for example, by database source (e.g., PubMed exports), review name, or screening stage. Clear folder names make it much easier to find the right file when you are ready to import.

Common issue My Library can become hard to navigate if you upload files without organizing them. Create folders before uploading a large batch — it is much easier than sorting a long unstructured list later.

How to import files from My Library into a review

In My Library, select one or more files using the checkboxes
Click Import to Review
Choose an existing review or create a new one
Confirm the import

Note Only files in a supported reference format can be imported into a review. PDFs stored in My Library are used in PDF workflows but are imported differently — see How to Add and Manage Full-Text PDFs in Rayyan.

How exported files appear in My Library

When you export data from a Rayyan review — for example, when exporting your references or screening decisions — the exported file is automatically saved to My Library under a folder called Exports. Inside, files are organized by review — each review has its own subfolder named with its Review ID (for example, Review_2060425). You can always find your exports here and download them again.

My Library also serves as a history of your exports, making it easy to retrieve a previously exported file without having to re-run the export.

Best practice After exporting from a review, check My Library to confirm the file was saved correctly before sharing or archiving it. This is also where you can download a local copy.

How to download files from My Library

In My Library, find the file you want to download
Select it using the checkbox
Right-click on the selected file
Click Download

Note Bulk download is also available for multiple files at once. If you are looking for a previously exported reference file or PDF and cannot find it in your review, check My Library first.

Continue to: How to Copy References Between Reviews