Reference Management

Tracy Kent,Librarian for Physics and Computer Science University of Birmingham t.k.kent@bham.ac.uk

Manuscript Management Toolset

http://www.thomsonscientific.com/press/2007/8360646/

Thomson Scientific have released a Manuscript Management Toolset. These tools integrate elements of ScholarOne Manuscript central with the Web of Science and Endnote. The collaboration makes it possible for authors to create their manuscripts in Endnote and then seamlessly submit it for review using Manuscript Central. This development will enhance the manuscript review process. Manuscript Central will also be able to check references for completeness. Blackwell publishing will allow a select group of references to take advantage of the new tools to accept and manage manuscript submissions through Manuscript Central.

Cross Ref

http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb061106-1.shtml

Cross Ref, the reference linking network of Publisher International Linking Association (PILA) has launched a free DOI look up feature called simple text query. Users can enter whole bibliographies with citations, in almost any bibliographic format, and receive back the matching Digital Object Identifier for these references to insert in their final bibliographies.

RefWorks

RefWorks has recently released RefGrab-It which drops in data from websites into the refworks database once a plug in has been installed. RefShare is probably the most unique feature and this has been developed.

New Reference software packages

OpenOffice Bibliographic Project (OOoBib): an interesting twist on using Wikis?

Reference software, created using open source, but which uses wikis to aid the development process. What more could you ask for? So if you have gripes about what's wrong with your existing reference software package and wish to contribute to a new piece of software, then OpenOffice may just the be the package for you. As the name suggests this product is based on open-source software and aims to make it easier for people to store and manage reference data, to format their documents and to collaborate with users. It has an emphasis on being simple to use for casual users, as well as meeting the requirements of the professional and academic writer. It is both a project and based on open-source software, which means that we as information professionals can begin to shape the future of this type of software.

On the webpage for the project, there are a range of opportunities to contribute including the use of wikis to help list deficiencies in the software and to suggest enhancements. Open-Source software is also being used in the Institutional repository fields as well as in this example of reference software, so there may be an merger of the two. A list of this type of software can be found at the registry of institutional repositories at http://roar.eprints.org/

Details of the open-source software package at http://bibliographic.openoffice.org

Ottobib

http://www.ottobib.com

OttoBib.com is a website with a free tool to generate an alphabetised bibliography of books from a list of ISBNs with output in MLA, APA, or Chicago/Turabian format. Each query also generates a permalink which can be used to recall the bibliography without having to re-enter the ISBN data. The site is a metasearch engine, integrating data from several sources, including the U.S. Library of Congress API, the Amazon.com database of books, and ISBNdb.com. OttoBib accepts both ISBN-10 and ISBN-13.

Reproducing the references

A unique selling feature of reference software tends to be the ability to reproduce references in a variety of established formats – often based on journal titles. A recent survey by Brahmi and Gall compared citation format in EndNote version 7 and ReferenceManager version 11 with the citation format for references found in the instructions to authors from the most significant medical literature. They provide some interesting conclusions.

Medical Reference Services quarterly 25 2 2006 p49-57

Training options

http://www.adeptscience.co.uk/kb

The Adept Science website that supports the UK market in reference software has recently launched new supporting materials. Particularly recommended is that of the knowledge database which provides answers to many common queries with different software packages – from changes in formatting styles to losing the toolbar in Word. The free tip sheets – unfortunately only for Endnote at the moment – are useful additions to any training portfolio.

Quick Links

Manuscript Management Toolset

Open Office Bibliographic Project

Ottobib

Adept Science