Systematic reviews: Dedupe

Why use EndNote for deduping?

• EndNote can be set up to better spot duplicates next to each other (see instructions) 
• As at March 2024 we are not aware of a freely available tool that reliably removes duplicates more efficiently. 

How can SVHM staff access EndNote?

• Onsite it should be installed on your hospital computer. If not, contact the IT department.
• Offsite, library staff can provide installation files for your home computer. You will need an SVHM login. Please email us for more information. 
• Library staff can also provide individual EndNote tutorials and extensive online resources.

How to remove duplicates using EndNote

Image by Helen Wilding

Removing duplicates in Deduplicator - https://sr-accelerator.com/#/deduplicator

Pros:

• Free online
• Good layout - records appear above each other, and fields such as DOI are easily compared
• Potential duplicates are broken into groups according to likelihood of correct matches
• No need to check the group classified as "Non duplicates" - so less records to compare

Cons:

•  "Likely Duplicates" appears to group records by title only, regardless of different authors, DOI or journal title
• This requires "splitting" groups to compare more similar records eg those with the same article and journal titles
• "Splitting" groups adds extra steps to the deduplication process, which takes time
•  "Splitting" large numbers of suggested duplicates would be very time consuming - and this would take longer than comparing records in EndNote.

Recommended for:

• small to medium sets of records being compared eg less than 2000 before deduplication.

Note: Deduplicator tested and reviewed by HW 21 Sept 2023