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Literature Reviews: systematic searching at various levels

This guide briefly looks at some of the different types of reviews to help you determine what kind of review you actually need to do and where to start

Why use a reference manager?

For a literature review at undergraduate level, and even at Masters' level, you don't have to use a reference management tool but it can be extremely helpful in managing the resources you want to cite and reference, and with producing a consistent list of references in the format you're expected to use.

There are a number of free reference managers that you can sign up for which will give you access to the key tools of storing references, saving articles, and creating a reference list as you write your assignment or independent study.

The university also subscribes to the full version of EndNote (currently at version 21) which is available to download for both PC and Mac OS. This is only available to students and staff while they are at the university, so once your programme of study ends you will no longer have access to the software and will need to export your data so that you can import it into one of the free reference management programmes out there (or purchase your own subscription to a commercial version.)

For more information and links, have a look at our reference managers library guide.

We also run regular workshops introducing reference managers in general and also looking more specifically at how to use EndNote at both an introductory and intermediate level. If you are an early career researcher / academic and have used EndNote up to intermediate level then the Research Liaison Librarians will also offer advanced sessions more suited to research roles.