Introducing RAPTOR: RevMan Parsing Tool for Reviewers

Abstract

Abstract Background Much effort is made to ensure Cochrane reviews are based on reliably extracted data. There is a commitment to wide access to these data—for novel processing and/or reuse—but delivering this access is problematic. Aim To describe a proof-of-concept programme to extract, curate and structure data from Cochrane reviews. Methods One student of Applied Sciences (16 weeks full time), access to pre-publication review files and use of ‘Eclipse’ to create an open-access tool (RAPTOR) using the programming language Java. Results The final software batch processes hundreds of reviews in seconds, extracting all study data and automatically tidying and unifying presentation of data for return into the source review, reuse, or export for novel analyses. Conclusions This software, despite being limited, illustrates how the efforts of reviewers meticulously extracting study data can be improved, disseminated and reused with little additional effort.

Keywords

• RevMan
• Automation
• Systematic reviews
• Data extraction
• Document classification
• Automatic document classification