Aim

Describing opportunities for keeping personal literature accessible

Description

There are various database programmes that can be used to organise the pile of articles. Proper use of these programmes creates two significant benefits: You can easily and rapidly retrieve the right article or articles and you don’t have to type in references anymore for publications (article/thesis). Profiles are available for most journals; submission to another journal is therefore also quicker and easier. Some other benefits include: You can search using your own classifications/keywords, options to link to electronic formats of articles, importing references from sources, including Medline and importing colleagues’ databases.
Whether the programmes are useful or not depends on a number of points:
A) The amount of literature, the time in which the literature has to be available and the number of publications;
B) Discipline and planning;
C) Whether your way of working links in well to the programme’s options;
The next section reviews the above points and provides some practical tips and advice.
           
A) Is it a brief topic? Storing in alphabetical order by 1st author can be sufficient to work with brief, one-off topics in an efficient way. This is particularly useful if you don’t have any experience in using the database programme. In the case of a limited number of articles (say 50-60 documents) and limited additions to these numbers, it may be that the time and energy needed for correcting, classifying and storage don't outweigh the benefits.
If you think you’re going to use the articles in multiple publications, or you just have a lot of articles, then a literature database programme can be very handy.

B) The articles retrieved/read and to be cited need to be added to the database. This requires a certain amount of discipline. If this is lacking, or if there is no time, then the returns will be less. It is good practice to set aside half an hour regularly for this: Importing and modifying 200 articles just before a deadline will probably not work out well. There are often errors in imported references. Finding and correcting errors takes time. You should therefore always plan for modifying entries. A well-maintained database will ultimately deliver the greatest benefits.

C) Literature database programmes have options available indicating where printed articles have been stored. In order to use these options you need to explore what the best way of doing this is for you. If you are not very familiar with programming, but can type very quickly, then a database probably isn’t the right choice for you.

Practical tips for working with a literature database programme
Firstly, think carefully about how you want to organise and store your literature. There are two practical options: Storing printed literature based on 1st author's name or 2) provide each article with a serial number and store them in order. The advantage of storing articles on the basis of author’s name is that you are able to retrieve the article without the database. Using a serial number, such as the literature database programme’s index number, is very easy and facilitates storage.

If you are starting to investigate a new topic, ask your mentor or colleagues if they already have a database with relevant articles; a copy will help you make a flying start.

Make sure that the database is included in the back-ups!
Using the various options in Reference Manager is explored in Details.

All descriptions provided here refer to Reference Manager – the literature database programme supported by the VU University Medical Center (VUmc)  and the VU University.

Keywords
Reference Manager has a number of fields that can be used to classify and code your literature.

The keywords field
Keywords can be added to this field. These are included in a pull-down list, so you can add the keyword to the next article. Advantage: Always enter the keyword in the same format. Disadvantage: The list can become too cumbersome. When importing Pubmed references, the Medline keywords are also included in the keywords list. Tip: Always start your keywords with a double zero. If you do, they will always be on top of the list, for instance: 000intervention. It is easier to import after the last keyword.

Free fields
As the name implies, these fields can be used for your own comments (user defined fields).

Keywords can also be included here by simply typing them in. The disadvantage of simply typing in the keywords is that you may end up with different spellings for the same keyword. There are, however, 2 tricks to be able to select from a list: Reference Manager has so-called phrases: Go to a user defined field and right-click on the mouse. Then go to Select Phrase:

 

 

This will allow you to choose from a list:
2) Use an external programme in which selecting a key combination adds text. For instance, function key F4 + V pastes the text Questionnaire; F4 + i enters intervention study, etc. Text and key combinations can all be created in this programme, as well as in all other programmes; you can also use it to paste standard texts into an email. A programme called Memokeys can be downloaded.

You can also make the free fields visible in the Reference List. Handy!
Right-click on the toolbar above the reference list and select Reference List Fields To Display for adding or widening columns.

Links
Reference Manager can also be used to link directly to an electronic version of the article. You can use the fields: Link to PDF; Link to Full Text; Related Links and Images to create a reference to where the article can be retrieved: Either your own location or a website where the PDF can be found. You can also create 2 storage locations, if you have saved the article both at home and at work.  

Working in two locations
If you are storing your literature in two locations, for instance at home and at work, it is important that the actual literature details are available at both locations. There are various methods to deal with this.
1) You could use a mobile storage facility, such as an external hard drive or a USB stick. The Reference Manager database consists of two files (databasename.rmd and databasename.rmx), which need to be included on the mobile storage medium. And make regular backups!!
2) You work on a network and connect from home using a VPN connection.

Please visit the library helpdesk for questions about Reference Manager, the introductory course and guide.
Visit Data and System Management for the programming options.

V1.1: 1 Jan 2010: English translation.
V1.0: 30 Jan 2007.