Every Rayyan export generates a zip file containing two files: the articles file and the customizations_log. Both files are available for every export regardless of which stage you export from. This article explains what each file contains and how to read them.
The articles file
The articles file contains your references, including key metadata from the original source file. The notes column also contains Rayyan's customizations — decisions, labels, exclusion reasons, and notes added during the review. The columns that appear beyond the standard metadata depend on which stage you exported from.
Screening and Full-text screening exports
The notes column bundles all Rayyan-specific data using pipe-separated prefixes. If a reference already had content in its Notes field when it was imported, that original content is preserved and Rayyan's data is appended after it.
| Prefix | What it contains |
|---|---|
| RAYYAN-INCLUSION | Each member's decision on the article (Included, Excluded, Maybe) |
| RAYYAN-LABELS | Labels applied to the article — multiple labels appear comma-separated |
| RAYYAN-EXCLUSION-REASONS | Exclusion reasons applied — only present when at least one member has assigned an exclusion reason |
| USER-NOTES | Notes added by each member |
Data Extraction exports
The DE export includes two additional column types beyond the standard metadata:
- PDF files — the name of the PDF attached to the article, if any.
- Extraction question columns — one column per question, named using the format [question ID]-[column title] (for example, 14-population, 15-Intervention?). The answer for each article appears in the corresponding row.
Risk of Bias exports
RoB exports follow the same pattern as DE. The file includes one column per RoB form, named using the format [ID]-[form name] (for example, 127404-RoB 2 (Randomized trials)). Each cell contains all collaborators' assessments stacked, one per line. Each assessment includes the overall judgment (Low risk, Some concerns, High risk) and each collaborator's individual signaling question answers (Q1.1, Q1.2, etc.). If collaborators have unmatched answers, both judgments will appear in the same cell.
The customizations_log file
The customizations_log is a complete audit trail of every action performed in the review — useful when you need to track a decision change, audit a team member's work, or verify when a specific action took place. Each row records one action with six columns: created_at (timestamp), user_id, user_email, article_id, key (what changed), and value (what happened).
How to read the log
- The key included means a decision was recorded — not that the article was included.
- The log records every change sequentially — a member who changed their decision multiple times appears multiple times for the same article.
- When a member excludes an article with a reason, two rows are created at the same timestamp — one for the decision (included: -1) and one for the reason (__EXR__...).
- Entries from rayyan@rayyan.ai (user_id 0) document Rayyan's automated response to a user action — such as assigning an article to a sample or moving it to a stage.
Key reference
| Action type | Key | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Screening decision | included | 1 = Included · 0 = Maybe · -1 = Excluded |
| Label | "label name" | 1 = label added · deleted = label removed |
| Exclusion reason | __EXR__[reason text] | 1 = reason added · deleted = reason removed |
| Note | note-[ID] | 1 = note added · deleted = note removed |
| FTS decision | included__SYSTEM__STAGE__[ID] | 1 = Included · 0 = Maybe · -1 = Excluded |
| DE / RoB question answer | included__SYSTEM__STAGE__[ID]__QUESTION__[ID] | JSON with answer text · [] = answer removed |
Continue to: How to Export Data Extraction Results from Rayyan