LibGuides: How to do a Health Sciences Literature Review: Downloading and Exporting Citations from Databases

Exporting Citations from Databases

In most databases you will be able to export a single file that can be imported into a citation manager or Covidence (for advanced evidence synthesis projects. Look for the option to export or save all results to generate the file. The most common file type is RIS. RIS files can be downloaded into citation managers (e.g. Endnote, Zotero, Mendeley) or Covidence. Below I list some troubleshooting tips for specific tricky databases.

PubMed

If you have Endnote: choose Send To > Citation Manager. This generates a .NBIB file that can only be imported by Endnote.
For all other citation managers and Covidence: choose Save > Selection: All Results; Format: PubMed. This generates a .TXT file that can be imported by non-Endnote applications.

Embase and Scopus

You need to sign up for a free account on these platforms after signing in using your NetID to export more than 500 citations. Once you have done that choose "Select number of items" from the top of the search results, select the highest number of results, and click Export. In the export fields be sure the abstract field is selected.

PsycInfo on Proquest

Create a "My Research" account by clicking on the person-shaped icon in the top left of the webpage.
Click the "change databases" option and deselect APA PsycArticles. Only APA PsycInfo should be selected form the databases list.
Run your search.
Click on the "export results" option at the top of the search results page. Choose RIS as the file type and that you want to include abstracts.
Go to My Research > Saved Searches
Click the "Export results" option beside the search strategy to export an RIS file

CINAHL

It is critical that you use this link to CINAHL if you want to bulk export results. If you use the standard link through the MSU Libraries website you will be confined to exporting only 50 results at a time. That links allows a bulk export in the thousands. When you click that link and authenticate using your NetID and password you will automatically be logged into a MyEBSCO researcher account with no additional sign up steps needed.

Once logged in to CINAHL (and your My EBSCO account via the link above), perform your search and follow these instructions on how to export up to 25,000 citations as an RIS file.

Accessing and Using Covidence

Covidence
Covidence is a systematic reviews production tool for title/abstract screening, full-text screening, data abstraction, and quality assessment. Covidence was designed by researchers familiar with the systematic review process in order to make conducting reviews more efficient. It is the primary screening and data extraction tool for Cochrane authors. It can be used for any kind of literature review that requires reproducible and reportable reviewing and screening procedures.

To access this tool please contact your subject librarian: Health Sciences Disciplines healthsciencesgroup@lib.msu.edu; Integrative Biology, Entomology, Fisheries and Wildlife, Jodi Coalter, coalterj@msu.edu; Social Sciences, Carin Graves, gravesc@msu.edu; Education, Elizabeth Webster, ewebster@msu.edu; Psychology, Laura Leavitt, leavitt9@msu.edu. For other disciplines not listed please contact the Health Sciences Group.healthsciencesgroup@lib.msu.edu

For info on systematic reviews, see http://libguides.lib.msu.edu/systematic_reviews

For more information and training materials on using Covidence, check out our Covidence LibGuide.