Systematic Reviews

Why Use Software?

Citation management programs are time-saving tools that allow you to:

• Create libraries of citations that have been directly exported from databases or entered by hand
• Organize citations into folders and subfolders
• Upload and store PDF documents with their citations
• Insert citations into word processing documents and format bibliographies in a variety of styles

Citation Management Programs

There are many popular citation management programs to choose from. The Boston campus officially supports one program:

• EndNote (available for installation on Tufts University owned or leased computers and computers personally-owned by patrons with a primary affiliation of Faculty, Student, or Staff in the Tufts Directory)

​Both programs allow you to create and organize a database of citations; as well as format in-text citations and reference lists into standard citation styles such as APA, MLA and JAMA.

Librarians also offer support for free citation management tools such as EndNote Online, Mendeley, and Zotero.

Please contact a librarian for advice regarding which citation manager is best for you. 

Why should you use a software program for your citations?

• The nature of systematic searching is that you will find thousands of articles that you will need to manage
• Systematic Review guidelines require you to track what you find from a search, what you discard & why, as well as what articles you keep
• Citation management software is practically required in order to effectively accomplish these tasks
• By creating folders, subfolders, and appropriate and clear naming rules, citation management software will keep you organized throughout the SR process

What is it?

• Citation management software installed on your personal computer.
• Automatically import citations from databases
• Organize citations into folders
• Share folders of citations via EndNote Web
• Download PDFs and attach them to citation records 
• Create citations automatically from PDFs 
• Insert tables/figures into Microsoft Word documents along with captions.

Getting Started:

EndNote: The Basics - A guide from HHSL

Yale University Guide to EndNote - videos and PDFs

EndNote Tutorial Library - Video tutorials produced by Thomson Reuters

Need More Help?

Please contact the Hirsh Health Sciences Library to talk to a librarian or schedule an appointment.

hhsl@tufts.edu

617.636.6705