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📑 Handle duplicates across databases

Discover the deduplication feature functioning

Flinn helps you in the crucial first step in any literature search: Deduplicating search results. All what you need to know is described below:

What is a duplicate on Flinn?

Currently, the deduplication feature is based on DOI comparison. Papers with the exact same DOIs will be flagged by Flinn as duplicate. There’s no need to manually trigger the process; if any duplicates are found within your search, Flinn will alert you with a purple deduplication icon.

 

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Exclude all duplicate from your search

If you see Flinn alerts with a red icon and the duplicate icon at the top of your results list, access the bulk exclude feature by clicking on the icon. With just one click, you can exclude all duplicate papers, automatically applying the exclusion reason 'duplicate' and generating a documentation comment.

Exclusion logic

We've designed our deduplication logic to ensure you never overwrite an already evaluated report nor exclude too many papers. All key duplicate exclusion logic are listed below:

  • If 2 not evaluated papers are duplicates, from different sources (e.g. Cochrane & PubMed) the exclusion logic will only exclude 1 papers and keep the PubMed one not evaluated.
  • If 2 not evaluated papers are duplicates, from the same source (e.g. both PubMed) the exclusion logic will only exclude the oldest paper and keep the most recent one not evaluated.
  • If 2 papers are duplicates, with 1 already evaluated as duplicate, the exclusion logic would not apply.
  • If 2 papers are duplicates, with 1 already evaluated, if the evaluation is not duplicate, the exclusion logic would exclude the not evaluated one.
  • If more than 2 papers are duplicates (e.g. 4 duplicate DOIs), all the rules above applies at scale.

Verify the deduplication logic

After using the "Exclude all duplicate" feature, filter your results list by "Excluded". Open all excluded papers to verify that the correct exclusion reasons has been selected "duplicate paper", and, a note with the corresponding duplicate DOI is created for traceability.