Covidence

VCU Libraries is piloting a 3-year subscription to Covidence from January 2023 - December 2025. An assessment will be conducted during the third year to determine whether to maintain our institutional subscription. For more details, see our FAQ section.

All VCU faculty, students, and staff who are interested in conducting systematic reviews or other similar literature reviews are welcome to sign up for VCU Libraries' institutional Covidence account.

• If you are new to Covidence or have an existing Covidence account that uses a VCU email address (@vcu.edu, @mymail.vcu.edu, or @vcuhealth.org), please view these instructions on how to sign up for a VCU Libraries' institutional account. You must use your current VCU email address to register.
• If you have an existing Covidence account that does NOT use a VCU email address as its primary contact, then please see the instructions below.

For additional guidance on literature reviews, see our systematic review guide and our overview of health sciences literature reviews. Please contact your librarian to learn how they can provide support for your systematic review.

If you have already followed the sign-up instructions above, please sign into your Covidence account directly through their homepage: https://app.covidence.org/sign_in

Watch a recording of VCU Libraries' "Introduction to Covidence Systematic Review Software" workshop (April 11, 2024). VCU sign-in is required.

Covidence's Getting Started page includes videos on how to create a new review, set up your team, import references, screen articles, and extract data.

UNC's Covidence guide provides instructions on how to get started as well. Recently recorded webinars are also available through Covidence.

The Covidence Knowledge Base provides additional support on how to use this resource.

What does it mean that VCU Libraries has a 3-year pilot institutional subscription to Covidence?

VCU Libraries will be providing institutional access to Covidence for 3 years as a pilot project, from January 2023 through the end of December 2025. Whether we will continue a subscription beyond the 3 years will depend on our assessment of its use, its impact, and our budget.

What will happen if VCU Libraries decides not to continue its subscription in 2026?

All Covidence accounts under VCU Libraries' institutional subscription will be notified via email if we decide not to renew our subscription after 3 years. Covidence users can continue to view their data on the platform indefinitely, or they can request within 1 year of VCU Libraries' cancellation that their data be migrated to a personal account in order to enable editing privileges. There is no fee for migrating data to a personal account during the 1st year after cancellation; requests that miss the 1-year deadline will be assessed a project migration fee (currently $240).

I already have a personal Covidence account. Why should I join VCU Libraries' institutional account?

If you currently are a free trial user or if you were invited to work on a Covidence review, joining VCU Libraries' institutional account will allow you to create your own reviews with unlimited reviewers, references, and bulk PDF uploads. See this chart for more information. 

If you currently pay for a Covidence subscription, then joining VCU Libraries' institutional account provides you with unlimited access through December 2025, which means you will not need to pay subscription costs in 2024 and 2025. Unfortunately, Covidence is unable to refund individual users for personal subscriptions to this product.

How can I migrate reviews I own under my personal account to VCU Libraries' institutional account?

Please email support@covidence.org to migrate reviews you own to VCU Libraries' institutional account. Please note that review migrations take time and will need to be processed in accordance with Covidence's staff workload.

Reviews under the institutional license will be visible to administrators of VCU Libraries’ Covidence account, and reviews under your personal account will only be seen by you. When creating new reviews, you will be able to select whether you want the review to be housed under VCU Libraries' institutional account or your personal (usually paid) account.

Can I add non-VCU researchers to my review project?

Yes, with VCU's institutional account, you can invite anyone -- including non-VCU researchers -- to work on your review. Although they will be able to assist you with your review project, non-members will not be able to create new reviews unless they have their own paid or institutional accounts.

Can I get help with my systematic review?

Please see our systematic review guide for additional guidance. You may also contact your librarian to learn how they can provide support for your systematic review.

I'm leaving VCU and/or graduating soon. Will I be able to access my Covidence reviews after I leave?

Yes, you can continue to access the Covidence reviews you created at VCU after you're no longer here! To ensure uninterrupted access, log into your Covidence account and update your primary email address to your personal, non-VCU email address before you leave VCU.

You will no longer be able to create new reviews through VCU's institutional account after you leave, but you will continue to have full access to the Covidence reviews you created while you were at VCU.

I accidentally created two Covidence user accounts with two different sign-ins. Can my two user accounts be merged?

Unfortunately, no. Covidence Support can transfer reviews between accounts on request from the review owner but their system is unable to merge two or more separate accounts that belong to the same user.

I already paid for a personal Covidence account this year! Can I get my money back, now that VCU Libraries is offering unlimited access for 3 years?

Unfortunately, Covidence is unable to refund individual users for their subscriptions to this product. But by joining VCU Libraries' institutional account, you will save on overall costs through December 2025.

How do you pronounce "Covidence"?

It rhymes with "providence"!

If you already have a personal Covidence account and it does NOT use your VCU email address (@vcu.edu, @mymail.vcu.edu, or @vcuhealth.org) as the primary contact, there is no need to create a new Covidence account to join VCU Libraries' account. Please follow the instructions below to sign up for access to VCU Libraries' institutional account via your personal Covidence account. This ensures access to all of your reviews through a single user account. 

1. Make your VCU email address the primary contact in your Covidence account.
   • Sign into your personal Covidence account.
   • Click on your initials in the top right hand corner and select "Profile."
   • Add your VCU email address.
   • Make the VCU email address your primary contact in Covidence.
2. View our instructions on how to sign up for VCU Libraries' institutional account.
3. If you would like to migrate any of the reviews created under your personal account to VCU Libraries' institutional account, please email support@covidence.org.

If you already have a personal Covidence account and it uses your VCU email address (@vcu.edu, @mymail.vcu.edu, @vcuhealth.org) as the primary contact, then you may proceed with directly signing up for VCU Libraries' institutional account. Please email support@covidence.org if you would like to migrate reviews from your personal account to your institutional account.

Please contact support@covidence.org if you run into any issues with the steps above.