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Screen Machine

Include or exclude? Screen made-up abstracts against numbered criteria, then settle your conflicts with Reviewer B.

  • About 8 minutes

Screen Machine

Include or exclude? Screen made-up abstracts against numbered criteria, then settle your conflicts with Reviewer B.

Keyboard, touch or gamepad. Sound stays off until you turn it on.

How to play

I includes, E excludes (then the number of the criterion), M is maybe and N is not retrieved, when the shift allows them. The arrow keys work too: left includes, right excludes, up is maybe, down is not retrieved. Enter moves on. On a phone, use the buttons. P pauses.

Records roll in on the belt. Read the title and abstract, check them against the criteria (I1, E1...), and stamp include or exclude. A second reviewer, an AI, screens the same records blind; when you disagree, you talk it out, and your agreement is worked out as Cohen's kappa, step by step.

What you will learn

  • How to judge a record against numbered inclusion and exclusion criteria, and why every exclusion needs a reason.
  • Why two people screen every record on their own, and how conflicts are resolved.
  • What Cohen's kappa measures and how to work it out from a two-by-two table.
  • Why an unclear record goes on to the full text, and why a report you cannot get is not an exclusion.

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Send the link to a friend who is starting a review.

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