Use of Reference Management Software in Research by V. Sriram

Use of Reference Management Software in Research

V. SriramChief Librarian, K.N. Raj LibraryCentre for Development StudiesThiruvananthapuramemail: vsrirams@gmail.com

Contents

Literature – What and How to manage Basics of referencing – What and Why Reference management software Zotero – Features Zotero – Word integration

Literature Research requires engagement with literature at each and every stage starting from exploring the topic to submission of the paper / theses / report. Researchers gather a huge mound of literature in the research process and are often shocked to find that they are not able to manage it well. Making literature manageable involves assessing their relevance, systematically keeping track of the sources, and maintaining notes / annotations

Managing LiteratureSystematic gathering of sources:

Using proper tools to gather literature – Google Scholar, Journal Databases, … Creating bibliographic records and making it error free Organizing by topic, subject, research area… Linking the soft copy full text for easy retrieval Assigning a unique primary-key for print items.

Managing LiteratureAnnotation / Notes:Incorporating the following -

Author and the audience Summary Critical comments Notes on relevance

ReferencingWhat is referencing?

It is a method used by the researchers to demonstrate that they have conducted a thorough and appropriate literature search, and reading. To accurately acknowledge other people's work and ideas when writing your own work, you need to use a referencing style. There are many types of referencing style such as Chicago Style, MLA, MPA …

ReferencingNeed for referencing

Accurate referencing reflects good academic practice and enhances the presentation of your work: it shows that your writing is based on knowledge and informed by appropriate academic reading.

You need referencing to ensure that anyone reading your work can trace the sources you have used in the development of your work, and give you due credit for your research efforts and quality.

If you do not acknowledge another writer's work or ideas, you could be accused of plagiarism.

Citation Style

http://citationstyles.org/https://zotero.org/styles

7126 styles and growing … APA, Chicago Manual of Style, IEEE, MLA …

Reference management software To record the details of all the information you find. You will need these details to provide accurate references, and to enable you to locate the information again at a later date

Benefits:search easily for a particular reference to which you need to refer backprint or save lists of referencesinsert citations into your document and automatically produce a bibliography in whatever style you require

Reference management software - Evolution

Proprietary / Free Open Source 1980s – Reference Manager, End Note, Bookends 1990s – Pybliographer, Biblioscape, 2000s – 25 new software – Mendeley, Zotero

Comparison - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software

Reference management software - Evolution

MS Word: References. Citation and Bibliography

Beginner: Zotero Advanced: Mendeley LaTex users: JabRef

Zotero

Free – Open Source Platform independent Works Offline and Online Over 6700 referencing styles Data Sharing 26 fields 34 Types of Sources Linking full text / pdf Integration with MS-Office / Open Office

Conclusion

Organizes your research materials Long term storage Reduces data entry and formatting Helps to develop your research

Thank you!

V. Sriramemail: vsrirams@gmail.comMob: 9447251892

Firefox - Installation

Zotero - Installation

Zotero - Installation

Open Zotero

Collecting References

Collecting References

Adding items

Organizing items

Drag & Drop Items

Notes

Tags

Searching Items

Zotero – Word Add - in

Insert Citation

Insert Bibliography

Create Zotero Account

Zotero Login

Synchronize

Settings

Backup