PRISMA Specification¶
This phase established the data model blueprint for PRISMA 2020 compliance. There are no user-visible changes to the SyRF interface.
What Changed¶
The engineering team documented how every box in the PRISMA 2020 flow diagram maps to specific data fields in SyRF. This specification serves as a binding contract for all subsequent development: every feature built from this point forward must satisfy these data requirements so that SyRF can eventually auto-generate PRISMA flow diagrams from your project data.
Key outcomes of this phase include:
- A three-level data model was defined (Publication, Citation, Study) that separates global bibliographic identity from project-specific review data
- The study lifecycle was formalised with nine states that track each study's position in the review pipeline
- The deduplication service interface was specified, describing how duplicate citations will be detected and resolved
- Source type categories (Database, Register, Website, Organisation, Citation Searching, Other) were defined to determine which PRISMA column each search's records appear in
These are all behind-the-scenes decisions that shape how SyRF stores and processes your data. You do not need to do anything differently. When the features built on this specification are ready (particularly PRISMA reporting in Phase 16), you will see the benefits in the form of auto-generated PRISMA 2020 flow diagrams.