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Literature Searching

Managing literature search results depends on the purpose for the search. whether for writing, a systematic review or clinical decision-making amongst many, different levels of organization and documentation are required. The choice of tools and strategies for reference management should align with the intended use to ensure efficiency and accuracy.

Why is managing results important?

  • ensures transparency and reproducibility of the search process.
  • facilitates efficient organisation, deduplication and citation during writing or review
  • supports collaboration and sharing of search strategies and findings

Accessing full-text articles

You can access the full-text of individual articles from the search results, either before or after you export -- view the 1-page guidance below.

How to access full-text articles

Are you conducting a systematic review and/or meta-analysis?

If so, there are certain considerations and requirements for managing and reporting on search results.

Visit our Systematic Review Guide for more information.

Systematic Review Guide

Exporting your search results prepares you for later stages of research, such as screening and writing. Exporting your results also makes it easier for you to review them more closely, including offline if needed.  Search results can be exported from all major databases available via Monash Health Library.

Why is exporting results important?

  • collates all studies together
  • allows for sharing and collaboration
  • facilitates reference management and documentation

How to export

See our 1-page summary of how to export search results from Ovid (Medline, Embase, Emcare, and APA PsycInfo), and Cochrane Library.

  1. Select all citations you wish to export
  2. Click the export button
  3. Choose the file format - there are a variety available option, some of the more common ones are:
    Microsoft Word - word document with all citations in a list
    Excel sheet - excel spreadsheet with all citations in table format
    EndNote - reference list file that is compatible with EndNote reference manager
    RIS - Research Information System file that is a reference list compatible with multiple management tools such as Covidence, EndNote, and Zotero.
  4. Click export - the file will be downloaded.

How to export more than 1000 results from Ovid
This video demonstrates how to export more than 1,000 results from the Ovid platform. The Ovid platform includes the Medline, Embase, Emcare, and PsycINFO databases.

Taking an organised and structured approach to managing the results of your search, such as by using a reference manager,  makes it easier to handle the potentially large number of papers found during your search. It also minimises the risk of losing or misplacing relevant papers

 

Why is it important?

  • Add in-text citations and reference lists when you write up your research ('cite while you write')
  • Find, read, and annotate the full-text of relevant papers
  • Remove any duplicate papers from your search

Reference management software

There are various reference managers available, such as EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley. Check our 1-page overview to decide which reference manager is right for you. 

Which reference manager is right for you?

Visit the Library's Referencing Guide for more information on common reference managers.

Referencing Guide

Deduplication is the process of removing duplicate papers from your search results. When you search in multiple databases, a small portion of papers will appear in one or more databases, creating duplicates. Duplicates may not be evident until you have used a reference manager such as EndNote to collate the search results from multiple databases.

Why is de-duplication important?

  • reduces the overall volume of the studies to review
  • Is required when conducting most forms of literature reviews, such as systematic reviews, meta-analyses and scoping reviews
  • provides a more accurate understanding of the breadth of the research published

How to de-duplicate?

Three formats to de-duplicate:

  1. Reference managers such as EndNote, Mendeley and Zotero have a de-duplication tool
  2. Screening tools such as Covidence have automatic de-duplication
  3. Manual de-duplication using an excel spreadsheet, conditional formatting allows you highlight duplicates.

Recommended Resources:

EndNote User Guide