What Is a PRISMA Flow Diagram?
The PRISMA flow diagram is the visual summary of how records moved through identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion. It shows where studies were removed and why.
What the Diagram Is For
Review readers need to know how many records were found, how many were removed as duplicates, how many were excluded at title/abstract screening, and how many studies made it into the final review. The diagram makes those decisions transparent.
Identify
Where records came from
Screen
How many titles and abstracts were reviewed
Assess
Which full texts were excluded and why
Include
How many studies remained
Counts You Need Before You Build It
Records identified
Total database records, register records, and any extra records from citation chasing or manual searching.
Duplicates removed
How many records were removed before screening because they represented the same study more than once.
Records screened and excluded
How many titles and abstracts were reviewed, and how many were excluded at that stage.
Full-text reports excluded
The count of full texts excluded plus the specific reasons you report in the figure or caption.
Common Reporting Mistakes
Fastest Way to Build One
If you already know your counts, use Lumina's free PRISMA diagram tool to generate a publication-ready diagram without sign-up.
Open Free PRISMA Tool