Python package for the SYNERGY+ and SYNERGY datasets

Python package for the SYNERGY and SYNERGY+ datasets — collections of systematically labelled records for systematic review research.

Installation

Requires Python 3.10 or later.

pip install synergy-dataset

Quick Start

synergy get

This downloads and exports the SYNERGY+ dataset as CSV files.

For the full set of CLI options and Python API, see the technical reference below. For an introduction to the SYNERGY project and example notebooks (including a Python getting-started notebook), see the main repository: asreview/synergy-dataset. Jupyter notebooks can be found in its examples folder.

Prefer working with the dataset in Python? Jump to the Python API.

Dataset variants

Variable	Value	Dataset
SYNERGY_SET	synergy_plus (default)	SYNERGY+
SYNERGY_SET	synergy	Original SYNERGY

Set SYNERGY_SET=synergy in your environment to use the original SYNERGY dataset.

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Command-line interface

synergy list — list all datasets

synergy list

Flag	Default	Description
--tablefmt FORMAT	simple	Table format (any tabulate format)
--n-topics N	3	Number of topics to show per dataset (-1 for all)

synergy show DATASET — show dataset details

synergy show Appenzeller-Herzog_2019

synergy get — export datasets to CSV

Exports one CSV per dataset to the output folder, plus a review_metadata.csv that combines key fields from each dataset's OpenAlex work object the studies' eligiblity criteria.

synergy get

For SYNERGY+, only open-access works with a valid abstract (≥ 20 words or ≥ 100 characters) are exported. Datasets with fewer than 5 included records are skipped.

Flag	Default	Description
-o, --output PATH	synergy_dataset	Output folder
-v, --vars VARS	title + abstract	Comma-separated list of extra fields, or extended for all OpenAlex fields
-d, --dataset NAME [NAME ...]	all datasets	One or more dataset names to export
-l, --ignore-legal	prompt	Skip the abstract plaintext legal prompt

Examples

Export all datasets with default fields:

synergy get -o ./output

Export with extended OpenAlex fields:

synergy get -v extended

Export a single dataset with specific fields:

synergy get -d Appenzeller-Herzog_2019 -v cited_by_count,publication_year

Skip the abstract plaintext legal prompt (e.g. for non-interactive/CI use):

synergy get --ignore-legal

Available --vars fields (on top of the always-included openalex_id, doi, lens_id, title, abstract, label_included):

publication_year  publication_date  type              language
language_fasttext cited_by_count    referenced_works_count  fwci
is_retracted      is_paratext       is_oa             oa_status
journal_name      author_names      authorships       primary_topic_name
primary_topic_field  primary_topic_domain  topics     keywords
mesh              sustainable_development_goals        indexed_in
referenced_works  related_works     counts_by_year

Output files

Each run of synergy get produces:

• {dataset_name}.csv — one file per dataset, with one row per work (filtered by the active settings).
• review_metadata.csv — one row per dataset (≥ 5 inclusions), combining:
  • key — dataset identifier (e.g. Abgaz_2023)
  • split — train or test (SYNERGY+ only)
  • data_doi — DOI of the dataset deposit
  • n_records — number of works in the export
  • n_records_included — number of included works
  • eligibility_criteria — the screening criteria text from metadata.json (overwritten by reviews.csv's Eligibility Criteria, if available)
  • All fields selected via --vars applied to the review publication itself (the OpenAlex work for the systematic review paper)
  • If reviews.csv (review-level metadata: screening process, search sizes, review type, etc.) is available at the top level of the dataset repository, all of its columns are merged in, converted to snake_case (e.g. Paper link → paper_link, Ti-ab screeners → ti_ab_screeners, Paper inclusion % → paper_inclusion_pct). If reviews.csv can't be found or downloaded, synergy get prints a warning and continues without these extra columns.

synergy attribute — attribution for datasets

synergy attribute
synergy attribute --format markdown

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Python API

Iterating over datasets

from synergy_dataset import iter_datasets

for dataset in iter_datasets():
    print(dataset.name)

Filter by train/test split (SYNERGY+ only):

for dataset in iter_datasets(split="train"):
    ...

for dataset in iter_datasets(split="test"):
    ...

Working with a single dataset

from synergy_dataset import Dataset

d = Dataset("Appenzeller-Herzog_2019")

Export to pandas DataFrame

This functionality requires pandas to be installed. Install with pandas with pip install pandas.

df = d.to_frame()                         # title + abstract
df = d.to_frame(vars="extended")          # all OpenAlex fields
df = d.to_frame(vars=["cited_by_count"])  # specific fields

For SYNERGY+, only open-access works with a valid abstract (≥ 20 words or ≥ 100 characters) are included.

Export to dict

records = d.to_dict()              # openalex_id → record dict
records = d.to_dict(vars="extended")

Iterate over works

for work, label in d.iter():
    print(work["title"], label)

Dataset metadata and labels

print(d.metadata)     # dict with dataset/publication/collection info
print(d.labels)       # openalex_id → {doi, pmid, lens_id, label_included, ...}
print(d.cite)         # citation string for this dataset
print(d.summary())    # quick statistics

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Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
SYNERGY_SET	synergy_plus	Dataset variant: synergy_plus or synergy
SYNERGY_VERSION	3.0	Dataset version to download
SYNERGY_PATH	(auto)	Custom path to dataset; development for local dev

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License

MIT

Contact

See https://github.com/asreview/synergy-dataset for contact details.