Collaboration

Systematic reviews are team efforts. The tools should act like it.

A typical systematic review involves 3–7 team members across multiple institutions, time zones, and schedules. Most teams cobble together email threads, shared drives, spreadsheet permissions, and messaging apps. mapped provides collaboration infrastructure designed specifically for research teams — with the role-based access, audit trail, and integration requirements that rigorous methodology demands.

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Team Roles and Permissions

mapped uses a 5-role hierarchy designed for systematic review team structures:

Roles can be assigned at the project level. A researcher can be a Lead Reviewer on one project and a Reviewer on another. Permissions are enforced throughout the platform — a Reviewer cannot delete a project, and an Observer cannot modify screening decisions.

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Dual-Reviewer Assignment

Cochrane and PRISMA guidelines require independent dual review for screening and risk of bias assessment. mapped makes this structural, not aspirational:

• Assign pairs — the Lead Reviewer assigns specific reviewer pairs to screening or assessment tasks
• Blinded independence — reviewers cannot see each other's decisions until both are complete
• Automatic conflict flagging — disagreements are flagged immediately for resolution
• Third-reviewer resolution — the Lead or PI resolves conflicts with documented rationale
• Inter-rater reliability — Cohen's kappa is calculated automatically per phase

You don't need to "remember" to do dual review. The system won't let you skip it.

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Project Chat and Direct Messages

Communication is built into the platform, not bolted on:

Project Chat

• Per-project channels — all team discussion in context, not scattered across email threads
• Threaded conversations — keep discussions organized by topic
• @mentions — tag specific team members for attention
• File sharing — share PDFs, protocols, or notes directly in the chat

Direct Messages

• Private 1:1 communication — for sensitive discussions or quick questions
• Cross-project messaging — reach team members working on other projects

All chat history is retained and searchable, creating an additional layer of documentation for your review process.

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Google Workspace Integration

mapped integrates natively with Google's productivity suite:

Google Sheets

• Extraction data syncs directly to Sheets for real-time collaborative editing
• Custom data transformations using Sheets formulas
• Version history automatically maintained by Google

Google Docs

• Manuscript drafts can be exported to and edited in Docs
• Collaborative writing with familiar commenting and suggesting modes
• PRISMA reporting sections pre-populated with your review data

Google Drive

• Document storage — PDFs, protocols, and supplementary materials stored in Drive
• Shared team folders — organized by project stage
• Access control — permissions sync with mapped team roles

Google Slides

• Presentation generation — key findings, forest plots, and PRISMA diagrams exported to Slides
• Defense-ready templates — for thesis defense or conference presentations

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Audit Trail

Every action in mapped is logged. Every single one.

The audit trail is:

• Immutable — entries cannot be edited or deleted
• Exportable — download the full trail for supplementary materials
• Time-stamped — precise datetime for every entry
• User-attributed — who did what, always

This level of transparency meets the documentation requirements of Cochrane, PRISMA 2020, and journal peer review. When a reviewer asks "who made this decision and when?" — the answer is always available.

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Activity Notifications

Stay informed without constantly checking:

• Email notifications — configurable alerts for task assignments, conflicts, and milestones
• In-app notifications — real-time updates within the platform
• Digest summaries — daily or weekly progress summaries for PIs

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Why This Step Matters

Collaboration failures are invisible until they cause real problems: duplicated effort, conflicting versions, missing data, untraceable decisions. These aren't hypothetical — they're the daily reality of research teams using disconnected tools. mapped eliminates these failure modes by design, providing a single source of truth with role-based access, enforced methodology, and a complete audit trail.

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Ready to get started? Create your free account → and invite your team. Or go back to the Workflow Overview → to see how collaboration fits into every step.