Where setup happens
Authenticated users enter Coventra through the workspace. The workspace keeps track of the active project, recent studies, assigned work, progress signals, and resume actions.
- Use the project switcher before editing anything.
- Confirm the active project before importing records or running exports.
- Use workspace progress cards to see where the review is incomplete.
- Use assigned work categories to resume the next concrete task.
Project creation
- Create the project from the workspace.
- Use a clear title that distinguishes the review from similar projects.
- Add protocol and review-question details as early as possible.
- Decide whether the project will remain free/core or needs premium allocation.
- Invite only the initial leads until the project structure is ready.
Project metadata
Project metadata supports review organization, reporting, and search strategy construction. Treat it as a living setup record, but keep it aligned with the protocol.
- Review objectives and research question.
- Population, intervention/exposure, comparator, and outcomes.
- Protocol checklist progress.
- Search notes and living-review markers where applicable.
- Project subgroups where the workflow requires them.
Analysis configuration
Analysis configuration tells Coventra which analysis experience to present and how to interpret extracted outcomes.
- Pairwise projects use comparative outcome extraction and pairwise analysis controls.
- NMA projects require premium access and network-ready treatment/outcome structure.
- Single-group or specialized analyses require data shaped for the selected family.
- Treatments, arms, and registered outcomes should be named consistently before extraction begins.
Do not change analysis configuration casually after extraction. Renaming arms or outcomes late can break consistency between extracted rows and analysis setup.
Study records
Study records hold citation metadata and workflow status. A single project can contain many imported references, screened records, eligible full texts, and included studies.
- Title, authors, year, journal, DOI, PMID, PMCID, and abstract text.
- Screening status and full-text eligibility state.
- Labels and duplicate-resolution state.
- PDF storage key when a report has been uploaded or fetched.
- Methodology/study-design details where entered or extracted.
DOI lookup and manual study entry
DOI lookup helps populate citation metadata when you have a known DOI. Manual study creation is useful for records missing from imports, trial registry entries, or corrected citations.
- Verify imported titles and years after DOI lookup.
- Keep identifiers in their dedicated fields instead of only in notes.
- Use manual edits to correct malformed import metadata before screening starts.
RIS and bibliographic imports
- RIS import supports reference-manager handoff into Coventra.
- Imported records should be checked for missing abstracts and identifiers.
- Run deduplication after importing from multiple databases.
- Keep source/import history for PRISMA-S reporting.
Open-access PDF fetch
Open-access PDF automation is premium-gated. When a report is available from a supported source, Coventra can retrieve it for the active project.
- Use direct upload when you already have the report file.
- Use open-access fetch where allowed and available.
- Public arbitrary PDF URL import is disabled by default.
- PDF access follows project membership and role permissions.
Setup checklist before screening
- Confirm the active project title and review question.
- Import or create the initial study set.
- Run deduplication and resolve obvious duplicates.
- Configure screening settings and reviewer requirements.
- Invite reviewers with the right access mode.
- Create assignments if the team will not self-select records.
- Export or record search strategy information before decisions begin.