Importing & Prefiltering Papers
Get your search results into Zynthia, deduplicated and pre-scoped, before screening begins.
Zynthia doesn't run database searches for you yet, you run your search in Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, or wherever you normally would, export the results, and import them. This guide covers formats, deduplication, and how your scope filters are applied.
Supported formats
You can import RIS, BibTeX, CSV, TXT, and Excel exports, up to 25MB per file. Upload multiple files from different databases in one go, tagging each with its source so Zynthia can show you an identification breakdown (e.g. "60 from Scopus, 50 from Web of Science") in your PRISMA diagram later.
Deduplication
Once uploaded, Zynthia deduplicates across all your files automatically, so a paper indexed in both Scopus and Web of Science only shows up once in your screening queue. The import summary tells you how many records were identified in total, how many duplicates were removed, and how many unique papers are ready for screening. If you import more papers later, you can re-check for new duplicates without re-running the whole import.
Deterministic prefilters
If you set any of these scope filters when defining your review's criteria, Zynthia applies them automatically at import, before AI screening ever runs:
- Publication year range
- Document type (e.g. excluding conference papers)
- Language
- Source type
A paper is only flagged this way when its own metadata actively conflicts with your filter, missing or unknown metadata never causes an automatic exclusion. These prefiltered papers are counted separately in your PRISMA flow diagram, under "Records removed before screening", exactly where the PRISMA 2020 standard expects automated exclusions to be reported, rather than being mixed into your AI screening exclusion counts.
Note: subject area and country scope aren't applied as hard filters at import. Instead, they're passed to the AI as context during screening, since they usually require reading the abstract to judge accurately.
Year ranges written into your criteria
If your inclusion or exclusion criteria contain a year-range phrase, like "papers published since 2015" or "2015–2023", Zynthia detects it automatically and applies it as the same kind of deterministic prefilter described above, so you don't have to duplicate it as a separate scope filter. This detection runs whenever you create or edit your criteria.