Once you have found the literature references, you need to know how they should be interpreted and what you need to make a note of in order to obtain and use the article. You should also evaluate whether the article is relevant to your needs. Look for:

• The language in which it is written
• The length. Ordering copies costs money
• How up-to-date it is with relation to your topic
• The topic - is it what you are looking for

To obtain the article it is a good idea to copy the essential information in the reference. You need this both to find the article and for your own reference if you want to use the article for a paper. Many databases have an e-mail function where you may arrange the references as you please and e-mail them to yourself.

Literature references for articles in journals include the article's:

• Author
• Title
• Date or year of publication
• Title of the journal or newspaper in which it was published
• Number and volume in which the article was printed
• Page number

Some databases also include other information. This varies between databases , but the information we have listed above must be included if you want to obtain the article.

Some references include abstracts of the article as well. That makes it easy for you to see whether this article is of interest to you.

Example of an article reference from a journal:

If the article is taken from a book, the information in the reference will be somewhat different:

• Author of the article
• Title of article
• Title of the book
• Editor(s) of the book
• Year of publication

Example of reference when the article is taken from a book