colrev 0.16.1

CoLRev: An open-source environment for collaborative reviews

Collaborative Literature Reviews (CoLRev)

CoLRev is an open-source environment for collaborative literature reviews. It integrates with differerent synthesis tools, takes care of the data, and facilitates Git-based collaboration.

To accomplish these goals, CoLRev advances the design of review technology at the intersection of methods, design, cognition, and community building. The following features stand out:

• Supports all literature review steps: problem formulation, search, dedupe, (pre)screen, pdf retrieval and preparation, and synthesis
• An open and extensible environment based on shared data and process standards
• Builds on git and its transparent collaboration model for the entire literature review process
• Offers a self-explanatory, fault-tolerant, and configurable user workflow
• Operates a model for data quality, content curation, and reuse
• Enables typological and methodological pluralism throughout the process

For details, consult the documentation.

Demo

You can try a live demonstration of CoLRev via GitHub codespaces: start demo.

Related work (preview)

The following shows a comparison of CoLRev with related tools.

[!Note] This is a preview. We plan to document and link the criteria, verify each cell, and invite the developers of the other tools to comment on the overview (documenting responses if the developers agree).

Criteria	CoLRev	LitStudy	BUHOS	Covidence
Review types
Supports different genres of review methods	✅	❌	❌	❌
Extensibility	✅	⚠️	⚠️	❌
Process steps
Review objectives and protocol	✅	✅	✅	✅
Search	✅	✅	✅	✅
Duplicate handling	✅	⚠️	⚠️	⚠️
(Pre)Screen	✅	⚠️	✅	✅
Data extraction	✅	⚠️	✅	✅
Data analysis and quality appraisal	✅	⚠️	✅	✅
Synthesis and reporting	✅	✅	✅	✅
Process qualities
Extensibility	✅	✅	❌	❌
Extensions	111	0	0	0
Search updates	✅	❌	⚠️	⚠️
Search: APIs	✅ (19)	✅ (7)	❌	❌
Metadata preparation	✅	✅	✅	⚠️
Retract checks	✅	❌	❌	✅
PDF retrieval	✅	❌	❌	✅
PDF preparation	✅	❌	⚠️	⚠️
Status tracking	✅	❌	✅	✅
Collaboration
Large teams	✅	⚠️	⚠️	⚠️
Algorithms	✅	✅	⚠️	⚠️
Data management
Transparency	✅	❌	❌	❌
Validation	✅	❌	❌	❌
Reporting (e.g., PRISMA)	✅	❌	✅	✅
Publication of review	✅	✅	❌	❌
Platform
OSI-approved license	✅	✅	✅	❌
Peer-reviewed	❌	✅	✅	❌
Technology	Python	Python	Ruby	Proprietary
Setup	Local or cloud	Local or cloud	Server	Server
Interface	CLI, Programmatic (GUI planned)	Jupyter Notebook	Web-UI	Web-UI
Contributors				NA
Commits				NA
Last commit				NA
Pull requests				NA
Forks				NA
Last release				NA
Current release				NA

Contributing, changes, and releases

Contributions, code and features are always welcome

• See contributing guidelines, help page, and github repository.
• Bug reports or feedback? Please use the issue tracker and let us know.
• To get your work included, fork the repository, implement your changes, and create a pull request.

For further information, see tests, changes, and releases.

Contributors

Gerit Wagner 💻 📖 🔣 🖋 💡	Julian Prester 💻 📖 🔣 🖋 🐛 🤔	Tarin Mahmood 💻 ⚠️ 📖	dengdenglele 🔣 📖 ⚠️	mhlbrsimon 💻	ossendorfluca 💻	katharinaernst 💻
einfachjessi 💻	Janus678 💻	frxdericz 💻	MalouSchmidt 💻	RheaDoesStuff 💻	Cohen2000 💻	RobertAhr 💻
ThomasFleischmann 💻	AntonFrisch 💻	LouisLangenhan 💻 📖	Peter Eckhardt 💻 📖	User123projekt 💻 📖	LuminousLynx 💻 📖	koljarinne 💻
Karl Schnickmann 💻	edensarrival 💻	U1TIM4T3 💻	annaglr 💻	0xmtyset 💻	tobiaspffl 💻	CelinaSchwarz 💻
QuynhMaiNguyen 💻	pmao0907 💻	MingxinJiang 💻	JohannesDiel 💻	julialopezmarti 💻	olgagirona 💻	komashevska 💻
trathienphuc-tran 💻	ammar-uni 💻	Lea-Chaoui 💻	ChloeT17 💻

License

This project is distributed under the MIT License the documentation is distributed under the CC-0 license. If you contribute to the project, you agree to share your contribution following these licenses.

Citing CoLRev

Please cite the project as follows:

Wagner, G. and Prester, J. (2026) CoLRev - An open-source environment for Collaborative Literature Reviews. Available at https://github.com/CoLRev-Environment/colrev. doi:10.5281/zenodo.11668338