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We (a realist review team including World Vision Australia, Patricia Rogers from RMIT and myself) plan to use EPPI-Reviewer (we think) because it comes with the EPPI Centre's support for our team. I use N-Vivo9 for RE work but haven't yet tried it for RR work. But we've also had to find a way to share files before being 'formally ready to start', and have discussed DropBox for that and Delicious for making and sharing little comments on documents and sharing URL's. Haven't had the chance to play with EPPI Reviewer yet but am really, really hoping it will allow us to do all of the above in ONE package. Cheers Gill -----Original Message----- From: Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Geoff Wong Sent: Friday, 12 August 2011 2:22 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Software for reviews It seems that a number of review teams have been using software to help them in their reviews. So far mentioned have been: - Joanna Briggs software - Medeley http://www.mendeley.com/ I use NVivo and Excel (yes I know NVivo has Excel like functions but I am too dumb to use it). I have found that software can help on three fronts: - organising data (really helps me when I need to find something like a quote) - providing verbatim sections of text (e.g. for reports, team discussions, publications). Software does not do the analysis for you, but it does help with the transparency. One thing which I though others who have yet to make a decision on software might find helpful is a PROS and CONS list? Here is mine for NVivo 8 PROS Basic features are pretty easy to learn to use Advanced features (I can't comment - have not used these) Easy to retrieve data Imports pdfs (most of the time - apparently NVivo 9 is even better at this) CONS Expensive and each user needs a license adding to the costs Can't share NVivo data unless you have the programme Need a pretty 'powerful' PC or it will hang/crash Does nor work on Macs (unless you have Bootcamp/Parallels like programme) Geoff