VirtualMV/Research/Literature review/Tips and Techniques

Creating a reference

 * In Google (or Google scholar) type in the author and name of book/article
 * If you are lucky another author will have cited the reference in their work, cut and paste it from their references. (Warning!! make sure it is in the style you want as there are many styles)

Working out whether an article is peer reviewed
If you find an article there are several “sneaky” ways to find out if it is peer reviewed
 * 1) If it is based on a URl try URL shortening (keep deleting from the end slash) sometimes this will give the journal/edition info
 * 2) Check the authors web site – often they have a CV with a link to the paper (identifying the journal)
 * 3) For the Journal/publication check “information for authors” this will often indicate the kind of peer review the paper will undergo
 * 4) Type in the papers title to Google and see if it comes up in another place (or used as a source in another peer reviewed paper)

Google Scholar is a search engine rather than a database (and I have not seen it referenced as a database)

Wikipedia
Note: Most educators and professionals do not consider it appropriate to use tertiary sources such as encyclopedias as a sole source for any information—citing an encyclopedia as an important reference in footnotes or bibliographies may result in censure or a failing grade.

However, should you need to cite a wikipedia page you can get the bibliographic details automatically if you
 * Click on the "Toolbox" menu (in the left hand panel) and
 * select "Cite this page"

Zotero
Zotero is a stand-alone bibliographic database that utilises browser plugins and is available for Google Chrome, Firefox and ...

To set up
 * Download and install the stand-alone versio on your PC
 * Download and install the plugin for your browser
 * Chrome: Use Tools > Plugins and search for zotero

Once installed some sites (such as Amazon) will allow you to harvest the bibliographic information, place it in your zotero database, and generate an appropriate citation.

Method:
 * 1) Find the book in Amazon
 * 2) In the URL bar you may see a small document icon appear. If it does you can harvest the information
 * 3) Click on the icon
 * 4) To get an APA style reference
 * 5) In Zotero...
 * 1) In Zotero...