Start a systematic review. Elicit runs the stages you configure — searches, abstract screening, fulltext screening, extraction, and a report. Each stage runs only when you include it; omit a stage to skip it. The default example below runs a complete review end-to-end.

Systematic reviews are long-running operations. The response includes a sessionId and a links.self URL (/api/v2/sessions/systematic-reviews/:sessionId) that you poll for status. You can also watch progress live at the url in the response.

Two options are chosen by the person requesting the review rather than by the client calling this endpoint: the screening depth at each stage and extraction.useFigures, both of which require higher usage when enabled. Set them explicitly rather than relying on the defaults — the examples below do — and check the settings block in the response to confirm what the review is actually running with.

Plan limits

Example

curl -X POST https://elicit.com/api/v2/sessions/systematic-reviews \
-H "Authorization: Bearer elk_live_your_key_here" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "researchQuestion": "Do GLP-1 receptor agonists reduce MACE in T2D patients?",
  "searches": [{ "query": "GLP-1 cardiovascular outcomes", "maxResults": 200 }],
  "abstractScreening": { "generate": true, "depth": "thorough" },
  "fulltextScreening": { "reuseAbstractCriteria": true, "depth": "thorough" },
  "extraction": { "generate": true, "useFigures": false },
  "generateReport": true
}'

{
  "researchQuestion": "Do GLP-1 receptor agonists reduce MACE in T2D patients?",
  "searches": [
    {
      "query": "GLP-1 receptor agonist cardiovascular outcomes",
      "corpus": "elicit",
      "maxResults": 200
    }
  ],
  "abstractScreening": {
    "criteria": [
      {
        "name": "Human study",
        "instructions": "The study must be conducted in human subjects (not in vitro or animal-only)."
      }
    ]
  },
  "fulltextScreening": {
    "criteria": [
      {
        "name": "Human study",
        "instructions": "The study must be conducted in human subjects (not in vitro or animal-only)."
      }
    ]
  },
  "extraction": {
    "questions": [
      {
        "name": "MACE hazard ratio",
        "instructions": "Extract the hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval for 3-point MACE.",
        "choices": [
          "yes",
          "no",
          "maybe"
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "generateReport": true
}

{
  "sessionId": "5ad08bfb-cbe0-4911-a8c3-309760d33029",
  "links": {
    "self": "https://elicit.com/api/v2/sessions/reports/5ad08bfb-cbe0-4911-a8c3-309760d33029",
    "resume": "https://elicit.com/api/v2/sessions/5ad08bfb-cbe0-4911-a8c3-309760d33029/resume"
  }
}