An introduction to revtools - R and Shiny App for article screening and topic modelling. Presentation at ESMARConf2021

There are a large number of R packages that support meta-analysis in R, but comparatively few that support earlier stages of the systematic review process. This is a problem because locating, acquiring and screening scientific information is a time-consuming process that could benefit from improved support in R. The ‘revtools’ package supports manual screening of article titles and abstracts via custom shiny apps. It also allows the user to visualise and screen patterns in article text via topic modelling. In this talk, I will premiere the upcoming version which includes better integration with standard NLP packages (quanteda and stm) and new tools for screening as part of a team. These options will greatly increase the utility of revtools for a range of synthesis-related applications.