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Learning outcome

After studying this section you will know how to manage the literature you have used. 

Disseminating literature

After you have done your literature searching you have probably ended up with many useful articles, books, conference papers etc. It is very important to keep track of what you have found and where you found it. You have to note down precisely which sources you are using, right from the start of your research. Note down the exact title description and page number of the source you are using. 

Every university student is expected to be able to manage their literature independently; this is an academic skill.

Managing your literature

You can manage your literature in various ways: 

- Make a list of all publications you have used for your paper, essay or thesis in a Word document or a Google Docs document

- Save physical sources, such as print-outs of journal articles

- Use special software to save references to the literature, such as RefWorks, Endnote, Mendeley or Zotero.  

Using a reference manager greatly helps to retrace what you have seen and read. It also helps you to reuse and/or add annotations to a text and to share your references. Moreover, it leads to accurate citations. In short: good reference  management enables you to work more effectively and efficiently. 

Below you will find examples of reference managers together with tutorials.

RefWorks

RefWorks is a programme for managing literature references and for automatically generating bibliographies. This programme is officially supported by the University and is available to all staff and students. 

The University Library provides support by means of teaching RefWorks courses and answering questions. 

 RefWorks

If you want to practice using RefWorks, use the online course Ten days of RefWorks.

RefWorks Tutorial 

Mendeley

Mendeley is a free tool primarily built around a full text workflow, with good synchronisation between the desktop application and web interface, with a built-in PDF-reader and strong social functions. Please note: this is not the full version of Mendeley!

Afbeeldingsresultaat voor mendeleyGetting Started with Mendeley 

Endnote

EndNoteEndNote is a very complete and professional reference tool, and with almost unlimited sharing functions, licensed by the University of Groningen. Please note: this is not the full version of EndNote!

EndNote Tutorial 

Zotero

Zotero is a free, independent and open source tool, with very good ability to recognise and capture bibliographical data on webpages.

Afbeeldingsresultaat voor zotero images

Zotero Tutorial 

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Subjects: Information Literacy, SmartCat, Systematic Review, OER