You have completed your systematic review, the included studies are identified, and now it is time for the meta-analysis. RevMan (Review Manager), developed by Cochrane, is the most widely used free software for this task.
What Is RevMan and How Do You Download It?
RevMan is free desktop software developed by Cochrane for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. It is available for both Windows and Mac.
Download: training.cochrane.org/online-learning/core-software/revman → RevMan Web (browser-based, no installation required) or RevMan 5 (desktop).
Starting a New Project
When you open a new systematic review in RevMan, the following sections are created:
- Background: Clinical background and motivation
- Objectives: The PICO question
- Methods: Inclusion/exclusion criteria, search strategy
- Results: Where the analyses are located
- Discussion and Conclusions
Data Entry
In a meta-analysis, data are organized under "Comparison." For each comparison, the outcome types are as follows:
Dichotomous outcomes: Yes/no, event/no event. For example: mortality, complications.
For each study: events (n) and total (N); for both groups.
Continuous outcomes: Continuous variables. For example: pain score, blood pressure.
For each study: mean, standard deviation, n; for both groups.
Time-to-event: For survival data. Hazard ratio and 95% CI.
Creating a Forest Plot
Once the data are entered, the forest plot is generated automatically with "Add graph."
Settings:
- Statistical method: Mantel-Haenszel (the standard for dichotomous data), Inverse Variance
- Analysis model: Fixed-effect or Random-effects
- Effect measure: RR, OR, MD, SMD
When the forest plot is saved, it can be exported as a high-resolution image.
Risk of Bias Graph
RevMan allows you to perform a RoB assessment for each study in the "Risk of bias" section. The graph, color-coded as green (low risk), yellow (unclear), and red (high risk), can be exported directly.
RevMan or R?
RevMan is simple and interface-driven, and it is the standard for Cochrane reviews. However, R (the metafor package) is required for network meta-analysis, meta-regression, or advanced publication bias tests.
It is possible to use both together: basic forest plots with RevMan and additional analyses with R.
For your meta-analysis process, get technical support.
Where Do People Most Often Get Stuck in This Analysis?
- You are entering data into RevMan, but instead of mean and SD, median and IQR are reported, and the conversion method is unclear.
- You created a forest plot, but the heterogeneity is very high, and the reliability of the analysis is in question.
- You need to perform a sensitivity analysis, but you cannot systematically evaluate what changes when you remove which study.