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Conducting your literature review

Managing your search results

How do I manage my references in the most efficient way

Your search will generate many results. Not all the articles retrieved will be relevant and you will need to filter your initial results according to your inclusion and exclusion criteria. The first step is to remove any duplicate articles, then review the title and abstract, and finally review the full text of the remaining articles to identify the final articles for your study. At each stage you will need to be able to note:

  • how many articles there were;
  • each of your search string combinations;
  • each of your chosen databases.