A hybrid approach to large-scale systematic literature reviews: combining automated tools with text-mining techniques

A preliminary evaluation using simulations indicated that this approach has the potential to craft a comprehensive collection of seed articles that covers broad subject areas for semi-automated tools in a large-scale systematic review. The strengths and limitations of using a semi-automated tool alone in such a context are discussed. Our approach increases the efficiency of automated tools by providing a larger and more focused selection of articles to start with, optimising the learning process for those tools and reducing biases. Additionally, our approach could increase the transparency and reusability of keywords for future review updates.