Literature Review

[Etino]

Can anyone help with some very basic questions? If I cite a journal paper am I claiming to have read it? Some of them are very expensive and if I can see from the abstract it is relevant can I still cite it?
And Harvard referencing 😒
I’m looking at a book with 2 editors but the chapter which is relevant to my review is by 2 different authors. Do I stick to intext (Editor, A & Editor, B 2017) and reference it:

Bolloxy theory in Practice (Editor, A & Editor, B) Chapter 4 Esoteric Technique (Author, A & Author, B London 2017.

Apologies if this is the wrong place.

Yes, you should read it to cite it, otherwise you can't really do justice to the argument/data presented. There may be ways of accessing a free copy of the paper - including emailing the authors, if possible.

The intext reference should be (Author A & Author B, 2017); in the ref list it should be Author A & Author B (2017) Esoteric Technique, in Editor A & Editor B (eds), Bolloxy Theory in Practice, Place: Publisher, 1-25 (or whatever the chapter pages are)

Thank you so much! So no mention of the editors in either citation?
Can I ask another question? How may articles and books would you expect to see in a 2000 word review? It’s so short!

Look up a guide for Harvard referencing. Usually you cite the author of the chapter first (listed alphabetically in your reference list) and the editors are listed later with the book title. Beware, there is more than one style of Harvard! As long as you keep it consistent, it probably doesn’t matter which you follow.

You can email authors for articles you need and many will send them to you. Or your library can usually do inter library loan to request them.

There is no set number for a lit review as it depends very much on the topic. You would be expected to cover the most cited articles on the topic though as well as ones that emphasised gaps in the existing literature and any that had findings contrary to the general consensus in the field. Basically to demonstrate you know the topic reasonably well.

What's the essay for? Your university/college should have a style guide for references or tell you which one to use. You should also have journal access through your library log in.