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LITERATURE REVIEW

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CHAPTER – 3

LITERATURE REVIEW
Topics Covered
3.1 Concept of Literature Review
3.2 Purposes of Literature Review
3.3 Sources of Literature
3.4 Organization of Literature Review
3.5 Literature Search Engine
3.6 Literature Management Software
Chapter - 3 Literature Review Page 38

3.1 CONCEPT OF LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature review is a process of reading, analyzing, evaluating, and summarizing scholarly materials
about a specific topic. Its purpose is to summarize, synthesize and analyze the arguments of others.
The literature review is a critical look at the existing research that is significant to the work that
you are carrying out. Some people think that it is a summary. This is not true. Although you need to
summarize relevant research, it is also vital that you evaluate this work, show the relationships
between different works, and show how it relates to your work. In other words, you cannot simply
give a concise description of, for example, an article - you need to select what parts of the research
to discuss (e.g. the methodology), show how it relates to the other work (e.g. What other
methodologies have been used? How are they similar? How are they different?) and show how it
relates to your work (what is its relationship to your methodology?). Keep in mind that the literature
review should provide the context for your research by looking at what work has already been done
in your research area. It is not supposed to be just a summary of other people’s work.
Here are some of the questions your literature review should answer -
 What do we already know in the immediate area concerned?
 What are the characteristics of the key concepts or the main factors or variables?
 What are the relationships between these key concepts, factors or variables?
 What are the existing theories?
 Where are the inconsistencies or other shortcomings in our knowledge and understanding?
 What views need to be (further) tested?
 What evidence is lacking, inconclusive, contradictory or too limited?
 Why study (further) the research problem?
 What contribution can the present study be expected to make?
 What research designs or methods seem unsatisfactory?

3.2 PURPOSES OF LITERATURE REVIEW / WHY THE NEEDS FOR LITERATURE REVIEW?
Conducting a literature review is a means of demonstrating an author’s knowledge about a particular
field of study, including vocabulary, theories, key variables and phenomena, and its methods and
history. Conducting a literature review also informs the student of the influential researchers and
research groups in the field. Apart from the above reasons for writing a review (i.e., proof of
knowledge, a publishable document, and the identification of a research family), the scientific
reasons for conducting a literature review are many. Gall, Borg and Gall (1996) argue that the
literature review plays a role in – delimiting the research problem; seeking new lines of inquiry;
avoiding fruitless approaches; gaining methodological insights; identifying recommendations for
further research; and seeking support for grounded theory.
Hart (1998) contributes additional reasons for reviewing the literature, including -
 Distinguishing what has been done from what needs to be done;
 Discovering important variables relevant to the topic;
 Synthesizing and gaining a new perspective;
 Identifying relationships between ideas and practices;
 Establishing the context of the topic or problem;
 Rationalizing the significance of the problem;
 Enhancing and acquiring the subject vocabulary;
 Understanding the structure of the subject;
 Relating ideas and theory to applications;

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 Identifying the main methodologies and research techniques that have been used; and
 Placing the research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art
developments.
Another purpose for writing a literature review not mentioned above is that it provides a framework
for relating new findings to previous findings in the discussion section of a dissertation. Without
establishing the state of the previous research, it is impossible to establish how the new research
advances the previous research.

3.3 SOURCES OF LITERATURE

In terms of a literature review, ‘the literature’ means the works you consulted in order to
understand and investigate your research problem. Literature falls into two categories-
Non-statistical: Written documents, text books, journal articles, news paper, Govt.
documents, other pamphlets.
Statistical data: both GOs & NGOs.
Sources may also be-
 Unpublished
 Published.
The following sources are very useful for literature review –
Journal Articles: These are good especially for up-to-date information. They are frequently
used in literature reviews because they offer a relatively concise, up-to-date format for
research, and because all reputable journals are refereed (i.e. editors publish only the most
relevant and reliable research).
Books: Books tend to be less up-to-date as it takes longer for a book to be published than for a
journal article. Text books are unlikely to be useful for including in your literature review as
they are intended for teaching, not for research, but they do offer a good starting point from
which to find more detailed sources.
Conference Proceedings: These can be useful in providing the latest research, or research that
has not been published. They are also helpful in providing information on which people are
currently involved in which research areas, and so can be helpful in tracking down other work by
the same researchers.
Government/Corporate Report: Many government departments and corporations commission or
carry out research. Their published findings can provide a useful source of information,
depending on your field of study.
Newspapers: Since newspapers are generally intended for a general (not specialized) audience,
the information they provide will be of very limited use for your literature review. Often
newspapers are more helpful as providers of information about recent trends, discoveries or
changes, e.g. announcing changes in government policy, but you should then search for more
detailed information in other sources.
Theses and Dissertations: These can be useful sources of information. However there are
disadvantages: (1) they can be difficult to obtain since they are not published, but are generally
only available from the library shelf or through interlibrary loan; (2) the student who carried
out the research may not be an experienced researcher and therefore you might have to treat
their findings with more caution than published research.
Internet: The fastest-growing source of information is on the Internet. It is impossible to
characterize the information available but here are some hints about using electronic sources:

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(1) bear in mind that anyone can post information on the Internet so the quality may not be
reliable, (2) the information you find may be intended for a general audience and so not be
suitable for inclusion in your literature review (information for a general audience is usually less
detailed) and (3) more and more refereed electronic journals (e-journals) are appearing on the
Internet - if they are refereed it means that there is an editorial board that evaluates the work
before publishing it in their e-journal, so the quality should be more reliable (depending on the
reputation of the journal).
CD-ROMS: At the moment, few CR-ROMs provide the kind of specialized, detailed information
about academic research that you need for your own research since most are intended for a
general audience. However, more and more bibliographies are being put onto CD-ROM for use in
academic libraries, so they can be a very valuable tool in searching for the information you need.
Magazines: Magazines intended for a general audience (e.g. Time) are unlikely to be useful in
providing the sort of information you need. Specialized magazines may be more useful (for
example business magazines for management students) but usually magazines are not useful for
your research except as a starting point by providing news or general information about new
discoveries, policies, etc. that you can further research in more specialized sources.

Find a Special
Library in the
Alternative Path Area Bibliographies and
to Literature Bibliography
Search Index

Reports and Library Catalog

Combination of for Bibliography
Above Routes

Miscellaneous: RESEARCHER Periodicals and

Business Services, Newspaper Index
Company Index for Articles

Dissertation Index, Government

Dissertation Document Indexes
Abstracts

Hand Books and Encyclopedias and

Guides to Dictionaries
Literature

Figure 3.1. Sources of Literature.

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3.4 ORGANIZATION OF LITERATURE REVIEW/ HOW TO CARRY OUT LITERATURE REVIEW?

There are a number of ways of organizing a literature review. Here is one suggestion –
1. Introduction: Define the topic, together with your reason for selecting the topic. You could also
point out overall trends, gaps, particular themes that emerge, etc.
2. Body: This is where you discuss your sources. Here are some ways in which you could organize
your discussion -
 Chronologically: For example, if writers' views have tended to change over time. There is little
point in doing the review by order of publication unless this shows a clear trend;
 Thematically: Take particular themes in the literature, for example in the literature review of
poverty and disability cited in the next section, the author takes the themes of the prevalence
and structure of disability, education, employment, income and poverty, causes of disability, the
path from poverty to disability and vice versa, and finally, policies for disabled people;
 Methodologically: Here, the focus is on the methods of the researcher, for example, qualitative
versus quantitative approaches.
3. Conclusion: Summarize the major contributions, evaluating the current position, and pointing out
flaws in methodology, gaps in the research, contradictions, and areas for further study.

3.5 LITERATURE SEARCH ENGINE

The first step towards a good literature review is an effective and comprehensive literature search.
An effective literature search will-
 Reduce the time spent looking for information;
 Maximize the quality and appropriateness of results;
 Help clarify the scope of research topic;
 Help find a niche in the literature;
 Assist in identifying the experts and the important and influential published works in the field;
 Identify publishing options – relevant journals, publishers, conferences, etc.
Need to make sure you are getting a good range of the available literature in your area of study.
Keep in mind as you are searching that the age of the material is relevant. The best method is to
start from the most recent sources and work backwards. This also puts you in a better position to
let good studies guide your reading. You can always go back and check that seminal reference
everyone else quotes.
 Use a variety of resources to cover a range of media- a literature review should include a range
of literature, such as books, journal articles, theses, conference papers, e-prints and reports.
 Do not rely solely on electronic full-text material which is more easily available.
 Be aware of the importance of evaluating information.
 When beginning a literature search, reference sources such as dictionaries can assist in defining
terminology, and encyclopedias may be useful in introducing topics and listing key references.
 Most searching is done by keyword or subject searching. You can might also undertake author
searches and search using citation indexes (i.e. Web of Science or Scopus.)
 Most databases allow you to save searches and set up email alerts. These can help you keep your
literature search up-to-date.
 Take care with recording your references. Keep systematic and accurate records. Good time-
management skills can help you to feel in control. Aim to find the most important relevant
material early. Read as you go and make critical and evaluative notes as you read.

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While there are many academic search engines available, there are some that have the most trusted
resources. They provide information on a range of topics from Engineering and technology to Biology
and Natural Science. They provide a one-stop solution to all research-related needs for a scientific
paper. Besides, they provide a personal and customized way to search research materials on any
given topic. Some popular academic search engines that have revolutionized the way information is
researched by the researchers. They are rich in information and have the highest level of
credibility.
Google Scholar: Probably the best known scientific search engine; Google Scholar is a free
academic search engine that indexes academic information from various online web resources.
Founded in 2004, it is one of the widely used academic resources for researchers and scholars.
Google Scholar indexes a vast part of the scholarly literature, including peer reviewed articles,
preprints, theses, dissertation, books, book chapters, conference proceedings and technical reports.
Google Scholar displays several types of records e.g. Web documents; Article citation-only records;
Book citation-only records. Each of these types has a different appearance, along with some
accessibility issues.
Scopus: Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality
web sources with smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research. Elsevier is the owner of
Scopus and is also one of the main international publishers of scientific journals. Scopus offers the
broadest, most integrated coverage available of Scientific, Technical, Medical and Social Sciences
including Arts & Humanities literature. Next to its proprietary abstract and citation database,
Scopus offers patents from 5 patent offices (US Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent
Office, Japan Patent Office, World Intellectual Property Organization and UK Intellectual Property
Office) and multiple selected sources e.g. institutional repositories, digital archives and special
subject collections. Scopus subject coverage spans 27 discipline areas - Agricultural and Biological
Sciences; Arts and Humanities; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Business, Management
and Accounting Chemical Engineering; Chemistry; Computer Science; Decision Sciences Dentistry;
Earth and Planetary Science; Economics, Econometrics and Finance; Energy; Engineering;
Environmental Science; Health Professions; Immunology and Microbiology; Materials Science;
Mathematics; Medicine; Multidisciplinary; Neuroscience Nursing; Pharmacology, Toxicology and
Pharmaceutics; Physics and Astronomy; Psychology; Social Sciences; Veterinary. Scopus covers 250
million quality web sources, including 22 million patents. Searches in Scopus incorporate searches of
scientific web pages through Scirus, and include author homepages, university sites and resources
such as preprint servers. In 2014, Scopus announced a new journal metric called Impact per
Publication (IPP). IPP measures the ratio of citations per article published, and provides an
additional metric for comparing and evaluating journals. Access the IPP metric from the ‘Compare
journals’ tool in Scopus.
Scirus: Scirus is a free science-specific search engine from Elsevier (2001) covering science-
related journal articles, preprints, patents and websites in all areas of science. Apart from
searching all bibliographic information of ScienceDirect (The journal hosting system of Elsevier
Scientific) it also searches so called preferred web resources, mostly scientific repositories or
freely available. Scirus provides an extensive, annotated list of these preferred web resources.
Moreover, Scirus indexes the scientific part of the Web, e.g. University Websites or those of
research institutes etcetera. One of the beautiful Scirus features is the search refinement options
that are offered on the basis of initial searches.

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PubMed: PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references
and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. PubMed first released in January 1996 but
offered free to the public in June 1997, ushered in the era of private, home and office-based
MEDLINE searching. In addition to MEDLINE, PubMed provides access to - older references from
the print version of Index Medicus back to 1951 and earlier; references to some journals before
they were indexed in Index Medicus and MEDLINE, for instance Science, BMJ, and Annals of
Surgery; very recent entries to records for an article before it is indexed with Medical Subject
Headings (MeSH) and added to MEDLINE; and a collection of books available full-text. As of
February 8, 2015; PubMed has over 24.6 million records going back to 1966, selectively to the year
1865, and very selectively to 1809; about 500,000 new records are added each year. As of the same
date, 13.1 million of PubMed’s records are listed with their abstracts, and 14.2 million articles have
links to full-text (of which 3.8 million articles are available full-text for free for any user).
Web of Science: Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science (WoS) (formerly Web of Knowledge) provides
access to a network of scholarly articles linked by their references. Whether looking at data, books,
journals, proceedings or patents, Web of Science provides a single destination to access the most
reliable, integrated, multidisciplinary research. Quality, curated content delivered alongside
information on emerging trends, subject specific content and analysis tools make it easy for
students, faculty, researchers, analysts, and program managers to pinpoint the most relevant
research to inform their work. Articles have been indexed from journals since 1960 and 12,000
journals are currently covered. WoS is the online version of the Science Citation Index with some
differences. Separate annual editions covering science, social sciences, and the arts and humanities
have been integrated into a multiyear multidisciplinary system. WoS covers nearly 23 million source
papers from the 1940s to the present, and frequently updated. Web of Science is updated with
approximately 25,000 articles and 700,000 cited references added each week.
Q-sensei: This search engine has a metadata orientation that offers some interesting search
capabilities. It can suggest alternative search strategies and allows searchers to narrow and focus
their search results in a manner familiar to traditional searchers.
CiteSeerx: It is a digital library and an online academic journal that offer information within the
field of computer science. It indexes academic resources through autonomous citation indexing
system. Founded in 1998, it is the first online academic database and has since evolved into a more
dynamic and user-friendly academic search engine.
GetCITED: GetCITED is another powerful tool for searching scientific information. It is an online
academic database that indexes academic journals and citations. It is a one-stop platform that
offers everything related to academic publications such as chapters, conference papers, reports
and presentations. You can even browse through the bibliographies to search related details.
Furthermore, you can find information on any author and his/her published works. The two ‘most
outstanding’ features of this academic search engine tool include - ‘a comprehensive database’ and
‘discussion forum’. It allows every member from academia to contribute in its database resources. It
has over 3,000,000 written by more than 3,00,000 authors.
Microsoft Academic Research: Microsoft academic research is yet another top search engine for
academic resources. Developed by Microsoft Research, it has more than 48 millions publications
written by over 20 millions authors. It indexes range of scientific journals from computer science
and engineering to social science and biology. It has brought in many new ways to search academic

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resources, such as papers, authors, conferences and journals. This academic search engine allows
you to search information based on authors or domains.
Bioline International: Bioline is among the most trusted and authentic search engines that has peer-
reviewed academic journals on public health, food and nutritional security, food and medicine and
biodiversity. It provides free access to peer-reviewed journals from third world countries. It
promotes exchange of ideas through academic resources. Founded in 1993, it has 70 journals across
15 countries that offer information on subjects like crop science, biodiversity, public health and
international development.
Directory of Open Access Journals: Director of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is yet another free
search engine for scientific and scholarly resources. The directory offers a huge range of topics
within scientific areas of study. It is among the richest sources of scholarly database with over
8,000 journals available on different topics. All the journals are thoroughly peer-reviewed.
PLOS ONE: Founded in 2006, PLOSE ONE provides a free access platform to everyone searching
for science-related information. All the articles publish on PLOS ONE are published after going
through a strict peer-reviewed process. This academic database has a meticulous procedure for
publishing a journal. You can find plenty of articles and academic publications using this platform.
BioOne: An excellent search engine for scientific information, BioOne contains academic resources
for biological, environmental and ecological sciences. Established in 2000, it started as an NGO and
later became an online academic journal directory. The journal gives free access to over 25000
institutions all over the world.
Science and Technology of Advanced Materials: First published in 2000, the science and
technology of advanced materials became online in 2008. This peer-reviewed academic journal
offers free access to academic journals on major areas of science and technology. The academic
directory is totally free of cost and provides easy and simple access to plethora of information
covering scientific subject-matters.
The above mentioned academic database and directories are among the most trusted search engines
for scientific research. They offer information on possibly all the major areas of educations
including computer and technology, biology, environmental science and social sciences, and other
areas of academic research.
There are many different academic search engines. Some focus on a single discipline, while others
have citations from multiple fields. There are a handful of free, publicly available academic search
engines that can be accessed online; some of these are listed in the table below.

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Table 3.1
Free Online Academic Search Engines for Various Disciplines
Academic URL Disciplines Help Files
Search Engine
Google Scholar scholar.google.com All scholar.google.com/intl.en/scholar/help.html
Scirus www.scirus.com All www.scirus.com/html/help/index.htm
Pubmed www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubm Life sciences www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmedtutorial
ed
National agricola.nal.usda.gov Agriculture agricola.nal.usda.gov/help/quicksearch.html
Agricultural
Library
(AGRICOLA)
Education eric.ed.gov Education eric.ed.gov/WebHelp/ApplicationHelp.htm
Resources
Information
Center (ERIC)

Table 3.2
Academic Site Search for Various Disciplines
Web Site Good for.. Not..
google.scholar.com  Quickly highlighting popular and  Older papers are only
seminal research found once you know the
 Lists of citations – good indicator author, title
of importance of paper
www.google.com  Comprehensive search across  Online resources publicly
websites available
www.wikipedia.com  Excellent source for general  Referencable material
description of theories, models,
terms with references to other
sources
http://sulair.stanford.edu  Finding specific reference by  General search
author or book title–especially
books
 Finding a journal
www.dictionary.com  Great for citing definitions or
clarifying common terms
htt://citeseer.ist.psu.edu  Finding references by authors  Does not cover all
domains
htt://questia.com Online books in areas of sociology,
  Engineering in general
education, group research
 Great tools to bookmark, highlight,
and cite books
Here are some essential tips to help you get started with the academic search engines-
 Each search engine works slightly different, so it’s worth taking the time to read any available
help pages to figure out the best way to use each one.

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 When you’re beginning your literature search, try several different key words, both alone and in
combination. Then, as you view the results, you can narrow your focus and figure out which key
words best describe the kinds of papers in which you are interested.
 As you read the literature, go back and try additional searches using the jargon and terms you
learn while reading.
 Searching for Newer Papers (published during Internet era) -
 Check the library of a local college or university.
 Look for a free online version. Try searching for the full title of the paper in a regular search
engine like Google, Yahoo, or MSN. The paper may come up multiple times, and one of those
might be a free, downloadable copy. So, if the first link isn’t downloadable, try another.
 Go directly to the online homepage of the journal in which the paper was published. Some
scientific journals are ‘open-source’, meaning that their content is always free online to the
public. Others are free online (often after registering with the website) if the paper was
published more than a year ago.
 Search directly for the homepage of the first or last author of the paper and see if s/he has a
PDF of the paper on his/her website. If so, you can download it directly from there.
 Look for the paper (using the title or authors) in a science database. These databases contain
free, full-text versions of scientific papers, as well as other relevant information, like publicly
accessible data sets.
 Purchase a copy.
 Searching for Older Papers (published pre-Internet era) -
 Even with all of the above searching methods, you may not be able to find a free copy of the
paper online. This is particularly true for older science papers, which were published before
online content became routine. In these cases, there are additional ways to get the paper at no
or minimal cost.
 Contact the author via email. Briefly explain your situation and request a copy of the paper
directly from him or her. If you do this, make sure to be polite and brief in your email.
 Check the library of a local college or university.
 Contact your mentor and ask if s/he can help you acquire a copy of the paper. Use this as a last
resort though, because you may find that your request falls pretty far down on a mentor’s
lengthy to-do list.

3.6 LITERATURE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Literature management software helps you to-
 Import citations from your favorite databases and websites.
 Build and organize bibliographies.
 Format citations for papers.
 Take notes on articles and save them in your collection of citations.
 Save and organize PDFs, screenshots, graphs, images, and other files for your research.
There are dozens of reference management software and they all do more or less the same thing.
Look through some of them and try to put some objective reviews up on the blog. Links - Zotero;
Mendeley; Connotea; citeulike; Qiqqa; 2collab; Bookends; Biblioscape; Citavi; Jab Ref; Refbase;
WizFolio -these are all absolutely free. They won’t cost you a penny. There are a few reference
managers out there that you do have to pay for – Endnote; Ref Works; Bookends; ProCite; RefMan;
Papers; pdf Stack; Sente; and Lab Meeting.
Here are some tips to help you choose quickly and effectively -

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1. Ask the people in your group what they use. If everyone in your department uses one reference
manager, you’ll need a pretty good reason to choose something else so if time is short, it’s
probably better to just go with the flow.
2. Have a look at the screenshots on the website of the individual reference manager.
3. Type the name of the reference manager into YouTube. If there are loads of how-to videos this
is a good sign, if there aren’t, forget about it.
4. Use Google- type the name of your reference software followed by review or forum and see
what kind of results you get back.
5. Is it compatible with your operating system? This could be a huge help as not all the reference
managers are compatible with all the operating systems so this could help you narrow down the
field quite quickly.
6. Twitter/Facebook- Does the site have a twitter/facebook page? If so try and spark up a
conversation. Being active on Twitter/Facebook is normally a sign that they are open and
responsive to customer feedback.
All in all, these tips won’t take very long but will give you a good idea of one or two that you could try
out, if not the exact reference manager you should use.
Docear: Docear is a unique solution to academic literature management and possesses three
features that you will not find anywhere else. Among others, Docear offers-
 A unique approach for organizing literature, focusing on your annotations instead of documents;
 A unique approach for drafting and writing your assignments, papers, books, thesis, etc.;
 A research paper recommender systems that recommends papers that are entirely free,
instantly to download, and tailored to your information needs.
Due to these three unique features, Docear will fundamentally change your way of organizing,
creating, and discovering academic literature. But before explaining these three unique features in
more detail, have a look what other researchers and students are saying about Docear.
Zotero: Zotero is a (free) Firefox extension that helps manage documents found online through the
browser. It collects metadata (including citation information) and stores PDFs, files, images, links,
and whole web pages for easier retrieval. Zotero is the only research tool that automatically senses
content in your web browser, allowing you to add it to your personal library with a single click.
Whether you’re searching for a preprint on arXiv.org, a journal article from JSTOR, a news story
from the New York Times, or a book from your university library catalog, Zotero has you covered
with support for thousands of sites. You can add PDFs, images, audio and video files, snapshots of
web pages, and really anything else. Zotero automatically indexes the full-text content of your
library, enabling you to find exactly what you’re looking for with just a few keystrokes. Those using
multiple computers may also sync their Zotero database between computers and may share citations
within a work group. Hence, it includes-
 Free Firefox extension that helps manage citations found online through the browser;
 Automatically capture citation information from web pages;
 Import citations from other citation managers;
 Store PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages for easy retrieval;
 Bound to the installation of Firefox on your computer, but you can install it on a portable version
of Firefox on a USB drive to allow for traveling with your Zotero library (or, use the standalone
version);
 Create bibliographies in Word and Open Office;
 Has a relatively fewer citation output formats compared to RefWorks or EndNote.

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Mendeley: Mendeley is a free online service that allows you to index and organize your PDF
documents, collaborate with fellow researchers and share information via shared and public
collections, and discover new research through the Mendeley research network. In addition, you can
create reference lists and bibliographies in Word (Windows only) or OpenOffice (all platforms).
 Free software/web hybrid for PC, Mac, Linux;
 Organizes and manages the PDFs that are already on your computer;
 Introduces social networking tools to collaborate with fellow researchers, including sharing lists
of references and collaborative tagging of documents;
 Sync PDFs to your web account for access to them anywhere you are online;
 Annotate PDFs;
 Search within the text of all of your PDFs;
 Good way to capture citations from the PDFs on your computer and export them into EndNote.
EndNote: EndNote automates the creation of bibliographies. Writers can save hours of typing and
interpreting journal and other style requirements by simply selecting the publication or style by
name and generating a perfectly formatted document. The EndNote support site includes new and
updated import filters and output styles to download.
 Offers sophisticated, flexible tools for organizing references and PDFs and for creating
bibliographies;
 Offers most comprehensive array of citation output styles;
 Link EndNote records to PDFs and other types of documents saved on your hard drive;
 In EndNote version X2 and higher: download article PDFs automatically;
 Can add figures and tables to your EndNote library;
 Use UC-eLinks to find the full text of the article from within EndNote;
 EndNote software must be purchased and installed onto your computer;
 Best option for large research projects.
RefWorks: RefWorks is a web-based tool that allows users to create their own personal database
by importing references from text files or online databases. You can use these references in writing
papers and automatically format the paper and the bibliography in seconds. Web-based means you
can access RefWorks from any computer with Internet access. Access to RefWorks is provided by –
 Web-based, so it can be used on all operating systems, at any computer connected to the
Internet;
 Format bibliographies in Word;
 Direct import available from most article databases;
 Full-text access to most articles is easy - UC-eLinks works inside RefWorks;
 Good for collaborative projects - share a citation database, or creat a group logon;
 Easy to learn and use;
 Offers about 1000 output styles (EndNote offers more than 5000).
The above popular citation managers provide the same basic features and functionality with some
exceptions.

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Table 3.3
Comparison Among Management Softwares
Contents Zotero Mendeley EndNote
Strengths  Simple download of records  Great for managing PDFs  Excellent for organizing
 Good for managing variety of  Does a good job of pulling citations for papers and
formats, including web pages citation metadata from PDFs theses
 Lots of functionality in an open-  Can share citations and  Good customer support
source product documents with others  Highly customizable
 Downloads records from several  Can handle a large
databases amount of references
 Can share citations and documents
with others
Type  Desktop software and browser add-  Desktop software and web-  Desktop client
on for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari based. software; also has web
 Works with Firefox, Chrome interface, EndNote Web
and Safari
Cost  Free with 300MB of back-up  Free with 2GB of web space  Between $100-200
storage
Learning Curve  Quick to learn; simple design, many  Quick to learn;  Takes longer to learn,
online user guides and demos  Pretty simple interface but not difficult with
training
How Does It  It can tell when you are looking at  Export references from  Export references from
Work? an item and shows an icon for it in compatible databases compatible databases
the browser’s URL bar.  It will also retrieve into EndNote
 Click the icon to add the item to metadata for PDFs that are
your Zotero references brought in
What kinds of  Traditional formats (books, articles,  Best with records for  Best with records for
records can you patents), as well as web pages traditional formats (articles, traditional formats
import and  PDFs, web screenshots, and other books, etc.) (articles, books, etc.)
organize? file types can also be stored in the  PDFs and other file types  PDFs and other file
records can also be stored in the types can also be stored
records in the records
Can you search  Yes. Make PDFs searchable by  Yes. Highlights the words  Yes, but search isn’t
within PDFs? choosing to index them in the you are searching for intuitive
preferences menu
Are records in  Yes, if you choose to share them  Yes, if you choose to share  No
your library  You can set up individual and group them
viewable by profiles and share records  You can set up individual and
others? group profiles and share
records
Does it back up  Yes, if you choose to back up or  Yes  No
your records? sync your Zotero library.
Can you annotate  No  Yes  Yes
PDFs (highlight &
make notes)?
Does it have a  Yes, a mobile site through  Yes, an app for iPhone/iPad  Yes, an iPad app
mobile site or zotero.org
app?  There’s also an app called ZotPad
for iPhone/iPad
Word-processor  MS Word, Open Office, Google Docs  MS Word, Open Office,  MS Office, Open
compatibility LaTex Office, iWork Pages
Import citation  Yes, also archives the page and you  Yes, with a bookmark for a  Yes, with Web Capture
info from web can add annotations limited number of sites tool and EndNote basic
pages (mostly publishers or account
databases)

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Chapter - 3 Literature Review Page 50

Create group or  Yes  Yes, free for up to 3 group  Yes, with EndNote basic
shared libraries members (larger group plans account
available for purchase)
Other important  Can be used for collaborative work  Very good for collaborative  Has a ‘find full
features with groups work text’ option to
 Will automatically attach PDFs to  If you back up records, you download full text
records if you choose can sync multiple computers for records (when
 If you back up records, you can sync you have access to
multiple computers the PDF)
 Integrated with work on web that
you do

Below are a few scenarios that might be helpful when choosing a citation manager. Once you have
narrowed down the choices, the rest is personal preference.
Table 3.4
How to Choose Management Software
Need to… Use… Why…
…work from multiple Zotero Zotero saves your citation library to your local computer, but syncs with multiple
computers or locations. Mendeley computers so you can work from home, work, or school.
EndNote Basic Mendeley is a program that lives on your local computer, but syncs with a web
account.
EndNote Basic is entirely web-based and can be accessed from any computer
with internet access, and can sync with EndNote desktop.
…work without an Internet Zotero Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote store your citation libraries locally on your
connection. Mendeley computer.
EndNote
…archive web pages and Zotero Zotero allows you to easily save snapshots of web pages and annotate them
import citations from sites within your citation library. It is a great tool for scraping citation information
such as Amazon and from web-based publications and some commercial and social networking sites.
ArtSTOR.
…work on a group project or Zotero Zotero allows you to share your citations through shared folders - you can give
share my citations with Mendeley individuals or groups permissions to add and edit the citations in the shared
others. EndNote Basic folder. Mendeley allows you to share citations and documents with a group of up
to 2 other users, or create a public reading list that is open to all. EndNote
Basic allows you to create and share groups with other users.

References
Kabir, S.M.S. (2016). Basic Guidelines for Research: An Introductory Approach for All
Disciplines. Book Zone Publication, ISBN: 978-984-33-9565-8, Chittagong-4203,
Bangladesh.
Kabir, S.M.S. (2017). Essentials of Counseling. Abosar Prokashana Sangstha, ISBN: 978-984-
8798-22-5, Banglabazar, Dhaka-1100.
Kabir, S.M.S., Mostafa, M.R., Chowdhury, A.H., & Salim, M.A.A. (2016). Bangladesher
Samajtattwa (Sociology of Bangladesh). Protik Publisher, ISBN: 978-984-8794-69-2,
Dhaka-1100.
Kabir, S.M.S. (2018). Psychological health challenges of the hill-tracts region for climate
change in Bangladesh. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, Elsevier,34, 74–77.

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Kabir, S.M.S., Aziz, M.A., & Jahan, A.K.M.S. (2018). Women Empowerment and Governance
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Kabir, S.M.S. & Karim, S.F. (2005). Influence of Type of Bank and Sex on Self-esteem, Life
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Psychological Well-Being of Teenage Students. Jagannath University Journal of Life and
Earth Sciences, 3(1&2),127-135.
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