Screening criteria are structured rules that define what qualifies or disqualifies a study for inclusion in your review. They act as your team’s shared decision framework — ensuring that everyone applies the same standards when making Include, Exclude, or Maybe decisions. Well-defined criteria also improve the accuracy of Rayyan’s AI-powered features.
You can access the Screening Criteria panel from the Screening criteria button in the top right of any review page, or from the Overview tab.
How to add screening criteria
Screening criteria can be added and edited by the review Owner and any Collaborators. Open the Screening Criteria panel and use the Inclusion Criteria and Exclusion Criteria tabs to add your rules — one criterion per entry. Type the criterion in the input field and press the arrow button to save it. To edit or delete an existing criterion, use the icons that appear next to it.
Writing effective criteria
Write each criterion as a complete, descriptive sentence — avoid vague or single-word entries.
| Type | Clear example | Unclear example |
|---|---|---|
| Inclusion | The reference is, or includes, a meta-analysis. | Meta |
| Exclusion | Studies conducted on animal models only. | Animals |
Follow these guidelines when writing criteria: be specific and avoid vague terms like “relevant” or “appropriate”; define measurable parameters where possible (study types, populations, outcomes, interventions, timeframes); write criteria that leave no room for interpretation — two reviewers reading the same criterion should reach the same decision independently.
How criteria support AI features
The more precise and complete your criteria, the better Rayyan’s AI-powered tools perform. Relevance Ranking learns from your screening decisions — the more consistently your team screens, the more accurate its predictions become when you compute ratings to expedite your work. Relevance Ranking is available on all plans.
Rayyan’s AI Reviewer and AI Analyzer — available on Institutional plans as part of the ResearchPilot™ Suite — use your screening criteria directly to suggest or evaluate decisions and detect patterns across reviewers. If criteria are vague or missing, AI-assisted analysis may produce less reliable results.
Continue to: How to Use Labels and Exclusion Reasons in Rayyan
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.