Agenda Bibliographies made easy: Research tools for the aspiring Computer Scientists Dr. Pierre Boulos boulos@uwindsor.ca Ext. 3767 Introduction to the Problem The old fashioned, tried and true method The slightly more technological method New tools Introduction doing research is fun Writing might even be fun Worrying about the technicalities is a pain in the.! Many of us write/type our references and bibliographies once the research writing is complete The onus is to keep: a. accurate records (cue cards, paper, etc.) or b. copies of the texts/journal articles, etc. Although this method works (it has for many of us for a number of years), there are important drawbacks: 1. Easy to leave a reference item out. 2. Frantically trying to meet a deadline need not involve piecing a bib. Together. 3. The focus ought to be on the paper, not the bib. Right? 4. Need to understand styles. Page 1
Using Technology: As you do your research, create a database of reference records. Fields could include: Family name, given name, year of publication, type of publication, place of publication, publisher, etc. Create a style sheet or merge file in text editor/word processor that would import records according to certain fields. Formatting could be done at the primary file level Useful for mailing labels (when you apply for jobs), organizing cue cards (when you prepare for comprehensive exams), or for bibliographies Example: Page 2
Advantages Database can be sorted by name, by type (articles, chapters, book titles, etc.) Control over output Input is easier: no need to italicize or not; no need to remember order in bibliographic output (this depends on the desired style) Database is re-useable independently of the style And much more A newer tool to use There are a few academic tools on the market. If you use LaTex you are already familiar with the Bibliography style Many publishers have style sheets that can be imported to LaTex Downside: you still need to manage the bibliography Endnote: software to manage bibliographies. www.endnote.com Integrates with many libraries so that references can be directly brought into Endnote. Integrates with many word processors (e.g. MS Word) Over 1000 different journal and standard styles included so the output is controlled with a click of a mouse Drawback: not cheap (but not expensive); database is kept locally; computing overhead What about server side databases? Here there are a number of tools: Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) is useful in researching So is the library!!!!! Wouldn t it be nice to have a web-based citation manager? Introducing RefWorks Page 3
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References [1] M.A. Arbib, "Connectionism in a broad perspective (Book Review)," American Scientist, vol. 84, pp. 86, 1996. [2] B.J. Copeland, "Alan Turing's forgotten ideas in computer science," Scientific American, vol. 280, pp. 98, 1999. [3] W.K. Honig, "Behaviorism (Book Review)," American Scientist, vol. 83, pp. 380, 1995. What about a different style APA References Arbib, M. A. (1996). Connectionism in a broad perspective (book review) Copeland, B. J. (1999). Alan turing's forgotten ideas in computer science Honig, W. K. (1995). Behaviorism (book review) Page 7
Some Remarks: Refworks is server side. Your (ACCURATE) bibliography can travel with you (and no spelling errors) Create folders to manage citations Versatile to allow manual input of citations Not a steep learning curve Start now don t let the bibliography get in your way Can download Write-n-Cite to integrate into MS Word Great for literature review And much, much more Page 8