Doing the literature review: Using a reference manager

A reference manager can be a very useful tool when you are doing a literature review. It helps you to organize your references in a systematic way.

With a reference manager you can

• Export references from a bibliographic database to your reference manager, including, when available, the abstract and keywords used in the item record. The reference manager displays bibliographical data from different databases in a uniform format - this makes it easier to scan the titles and abstracts to decide which articles you want to read.
  Each database has its own procedure for exporting references into a reference manager. See the step-by-step guides for EUR Library databases in List of databases in the RefWorks course of the University Library.

• Create folders to categorize your references. You can create folders per database, per topic, per 'status of the document' (to read, read, useful, not relevant), etc.

• Use additional fields, for example the User fields in RefWorks, to add your own keywords and remarks.

• Use the deduplicate option to locate results found in multiple databases.

• Use the link resolver to find the full text of an article.

• Store the PDFs in your reference manager.

The EUR supports the use of the reference manager RefWorks. The examples here are based on ProQuest RefWorks. 

RefWorks has a large number of assigned fields; Authors, Title, Pub Year, etc. Some fields are assigned only for particular reference types, for example Accessed, Year – a required field in some output styles for web pages. 

In addition, there are 15 User fields. The content of these fields is not pre-defined. By default they are called User 1, User 2, etc. but you can give them a more practical name. You can use them to add your own comments and keywords to records in your RefWorks database.

• Click your name at the top of the page
• Click Settings
• Scroll down the page to the section Custom Fields
• Click Add a new custom field and enter the name of the field
• Click Save

To use the custom fields, click a reference and click the Edit button (the pencil), scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click Add more fields... and scroll through the list to find your custom fields. You can recognize them by '(custom)' behind the name. You can make your custom fields visible by using the Full View display option.

Please note: the data you enter in the user fields is not controlled - you don't get suggestions based on what you’ve entered in that field before.

When you import references from several databases, it's likely that some titles appear more than once in your RefWorks database. This can cause problems when using RefWorks Citation Manager, because the Ref IDs of these references are different. RefWorks sees and treats them as different titles. It's possible identify duplicates in your RefWorks database, but keep in mind that it's a tool, you have to check the results. There can always be small differences between the references imported from different databases that make it hard for RefWorks to identify duplicates. 

1. Create a new folder and add all your results to this folder.
2. Open this folder
3. Click on Tools at the top of the page.
4. Select Find duplicates.
5. Make sure 'Only the current folder' is marked.

You have to make some choices about how RefWorks has to identify duplicates. It might be useful to test different combinations (and to write your choices down, so you know what you've selected). 

• How does RefWorks determine the primary reference? That is the reference that will not be deleted. This can be based on completeness, the most recent added reference (the highest Ref ID) or the reference added first (the lowest Ref ID).
• What method of matching has to be used? 
  • references must match exactly, based on the fields you select.
  • references that are similar. RefWorks will weigh the data for similarity.
• What fields should be used to do the matching? 

Click Find Duplicates. When the process is completed, RefWorks will show 'Process completed See results' in the menu on the left. Click this message to see and review the results. At the top of the page RefWorks shows the number of primary results and the number of duplicates.

You can change the view - the table view can make it easier to check the available data. The duplicates are marked. Click Delete at the top of the screen to remove the marked references from the folder. 

When you do a literature review, you might want to export large sets of references to your reference manager. In some databases that's easy - you can export a large number of references in one request or you can select the references by entering the numbers of the references you want to export. For example, in Web of Science you can select up to a 1000 records at a time, for example 1 to 1000 in your first export and then 1001 to 2000 etc. 

In EBSCO and ProQuest databases, the export of large sets of reference can take more steps.

EBSCO

• Change the number of results per page - the default is 20, the maximum is 50. This option is available in the Page Options dropdown list. Then you can add 50 results to a folder (via Share > Add to folder) instead of 20. 
• When you open the Share dropdown list, you can use the Export Results option to receive an e-mail with a link to your search results in RIS format. The link in the e-mail is valid for 168 hours. However, this file might be too large for your reference manager to handle. Unfortunately there is no clear information about the limits. 
• You can use the publication date filter to create smaller sets of references (for example around 500 results). Then use the Export Results option to export the sets from EBSCO and import the sets in your reference manager.

ProQuest
Databases: ERIC, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), ProQuest One Business, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts

• Sign into My Research or Create a My Research Account - these options are visible when you click the 'person' icon in the upper right corner.
• When you have less then 20.000 search results, you can use the Export Results option. This is option is only visible when you are signed in.
• When you have more then 20.000 search results, you can use the filter options to create smaller sets, for example by limiting by publication date. You can export 10 sets per day.
• Select RIS and mark Yes behind Include abstracts.
• Click the 'person' icon in the upper right corner and click Saved Searches. 
• Click Export Results below the query to download the RIS file.

ProQuest
Databases: EconLit, Philosopher's Index (the Export Results option is not available for these databases)

• Sign into My Research or Create a My Research Account - these options are visible when you click the 'person' icon in the upper right corner.
• Change the number of results per page - the default is 20, the maximum is 100. This can be changed at the bottom of the search results or via the preferences in your My Research Account.
• Mark the box before Select 1-100, move to the bottom of the page, go the next page of results, mark the box before Select 101-200, and repeat these steps.
• Open the folder at the top of the page.
• Click the button with the three dots.
• Choose your Export option.
• Select the fields to export behind Content.
• Click Continue.

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