General Considerations in Reference Management Sofía Reveles Huizar General Considerations in Reference Management
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General considerations in Reference Management Sofía Reveles Huizar General considerations in Reference Management Using databases such as Web of Science and SCOPUS to find and validate references that are interesting and relevant to your work probably will result in many articles to review if your key words were chosen correctly. Every year, the number of papers related to each topic increases as new articles are published. Do not feel overwhelmed by the volume as the organization and management of the references are also skills that can be developed. Remember that not all the articles in the search results will be useful to you and the readers interested in your research. There are some factors to consider before selecting articles. In our tutorial, “Literature Search & Conference Assessment,” we delve into these factors to explain how to perform a fruitful literature search. The first step is to carefully select the relevant keywords, vary them, and modify search phrases in several iterations to arrive at the most focused state of the art in your topic of interest. Do not give up trying new keywords and combinations; the various attempts likely will provide you with the articles that support and/or contribute to your research. 2 of 9 General considerations in Reference Management When an article seems relevant, read only the abstract and the conclusion. It would be time consuming and, probably, unnecessary to read the entire article. Reading the abstracts and conclusions is a screening process that leads to finding the research that is specific to the topic of interest. Subsequently, download only the highly relevant articles that are published in highly ranked journals and have a reasonable number of citations. This filtering assures a strong background for your understanding of the field. Even after this screening, there could be many articles as possible citation sources, and these will need an organized and professional method of management. 3 of 9 General considerations in Reference Management Begin by creating folders in categories and subcategories in your computer directory to contain files according to the topics in your references. Be as specific as possible. This system will help you visualize similar research articles, the results they report, and the areas of opportunities they discuss. The number of folders created is not as significant as the consistency of the labeling system you devise. Commit to a labeling style for your folders and articles. Once you have the necessary folders, you need to follow a labeling style for all your articles. This practice will make searching for a specific article easier; therefore, it will make working with your references easier. The professional method in academia for labeling articles follows the structure below: Name of the first author (followed by et al. if more than one author is involved) + year of the publication + title of the journal 4 of 9 General considerations in Reference Management For example, if you are intending to download the article presented in Figure 1, you would identify the labeling parameters as shown. The name for this file, therefore, would be “Hosseini et al., (2015), Scientific Reports.” Rename the file and save it in the related folder. By doing so, you will expand your archive of articles in a very systematic manner that allows the growth of your literature collection through the years and facilitates finding the references. There can be variations in this style depending on personal preferences but remain consistent in the labeling of the articles. Figure 1. Example of the identification of the labeling parameters in an article 5 of 9 General considerations in Reference Management It is also advisable to print out the most relevant articles and make notes as you read them. It is not necessary to read the entire article. Typically, in each research article, the relevant sections are the abstract, the conclusion, the last paragraph of the introduction (which tells what the article really is about), and the results and discussion. Develop a personal system of highlighting relevant sections in the articles to differentiate the sections that are meaningful to you, perhaps because of the results you wish to note or the methodologies you may want to replicate. You can choose notation symbols or highlight colors that help track the information in that specific study. Develop a consistent and logical system so that in the years of research and literature search to come, references, subjects and essential points you may be easily retrieved. Also, take advantage of the articles that you select for another reason; namely, to improve your scientific language and your academic writing. Pay attention to how the researchers in your field express scientific ideas and findings. In this regard also, be methodical and make notes and highlights in your articles of interest, whether these are in printed or digital format. 6 of 9 General considerations in Reference Management Once the chosen articles supporting the research and literature review are labeled and stored in the computer directory, the next step is the management of references and citations. Managing the references can be tedious. It is no longer acceptable by journals and publishing groups to receive articles that contain manual citations. Once a journal receives a manuscript, the editors can make changes in the references to match the style of the journal, which, in turn, is only possible if the references are cited using one of the reference management software. Fortunately, there are several reference management software tools that can assist in this work. Table 1 shows the characteristics of some of the available options. In subsequent handouts, we cover how to use Endnote, Mendeley, and Zotero, which are among the most popular tools for reference management. 7 of 9 General considerations in Reference Management Operating system Citation styles Word processor integration support Password protection Name Cost Windows macOS APA Harvard MLA Others Word for Word for mac Pages Windows Endnote Paid Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 6926 styles Yes Yes Yes Yes Mendeley Free + Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 9397 styles Yes Partial No Yes paid upgrades Zotero Free + Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 9397 styles Yes Yes No Yes paid upgrades JabRef Free Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Any BibTeX style Yes - - No Paperpile Paid Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 9397 styles In beta No No Yes Wikindx Free Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 8 styles No - - Yes SciRef Paid Yes No Yes Yes Yes Various Yes - - - RefWorks Institutio Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 4256 styles Yes Yes No Yes nal subscripti on Qiqqa Free + Yes No Yes Yes Yes 9397 styles Yes - - Yes paid upgrades Sente Paid No Yes Yes Yes Yes Various Yes - Versions prior Yes to 5 RefDB Free Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Various No - - Yes Table 1. Some characteristics of reference management tools 8 of 9 For further information and support contact: [email protected].