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Literature Review and Research

Reference management software

Bibliographic software automates the process of creating citations and bibliographies according to a selected bibliographic style.

It enables you to :

  • collect and classify your references from different sources: databases, library catalogs, PDF files, personal documents;
  • insert references in a text document (citations and bibliography);
  • manage associated files (PDF, images, etc.);
  • annotate documents in PDF format.

See the following guides to learn more about downloading and using reference management software : 

  • EndNote, licensed software to which you have access through HEC. 
  • Zotero, free, open source software.

Covidence

Covidence is an online platform that simplifies the analysis and selection of articles for systematic literature reviews and other types of comprehensive reviews : scoping review, umbrella review, meta-analysis, etc.

The team or researcher determines the project parameters and the criteria used to :

  • import bibliographic references from article databases;
  • decide whether or not to keep each article, based on its title and summary (screening);
  • obtain the full text of the remaining articles - assess their quality and relevance;
  • export selected references in various formats (RIS format can then be imported into EndNote or Zotero);
  • extract relevant information in an analysis template.

Although Covidence is mainly used by teams of researchers to improve collaboration, it can also be used for individual research projects.

An overview of the process : 

  • Import bibliographic references into Covidence;
  • Remove duplicates (this can be done in EndNote or Zotero beforehand);
  • Initial assessment based on titles and abstracts of articles to remove irrelevant results;
  • Second evaluation based on the full text of the articles selected at the previous stage;
  • Create a PRISMA diagram;
  • Export selected references to bibliographic management software;
  • Data extraction and quality assessment of studies.

See our guide to learn more about creating an account and how to use it.

Reference mapping

ArtiRev 

ArtiRev is a tool for identifying and grouping relevant scientific articles into units of meaning, so as to prioritize reading for research purposes.  

An overview of the process : 

  • Data extraction and cleaning (Dataman and Web of Science databases).
  • Data processing using bibliometric techniques.
  • Creating units of meaning:
    • Schools of thought in the field of research (past - analysis of references cited);
    • Research themes (present - analysis of literature review references).
  • Mapping of results using visualization tools.

Contact biblio.info@hec.ca for more information on terms and conditions of access to the software.

Obsidian

Obsidian is a note-taking and knowledge management application that uses Markdown files. It allows you to simply create links between notes and automatically generate graphics of these connections, helping you to visualize and navigate your ideas and information. Obsidian supports a variety of plugins.

  • You can import files and annotations from Zotero.

Links between references

There are several tools available for finding and viewing interconnected references: