Reference Management and ePublishing
Tracy Kent, Digital Assets Programme Advisor and EThOS advocacy Officer, University of Birmingham (t.k.kent@bham.ac.uk)
Updates on Reference Software
New Social Bookmarking sites
There are a couple of new social bookmarking sites that are worth a try. 2collab, owned by Elsevier and initiated by a collaboration between Scopus and ScienceDirect, is aimed at researchers and scientists. Usefully, members can evaluate the resources (egg: by rating bookmarks, tagging and adding comments and adding their own bookmarks). Users can browse public groups and bookmarks, but must register (your name and email address) to access the full functionality – such as creating groups, adding comments, and adding bookmarks. Just as interesting for this column is the fact you can import from the traditional reference packages of Endnote and Reference Manager.
www.2collab.com
Twidox
Twidox is a new, free, document sharing site with a focus on professional and industry- specific documents, research materials, dissertations and data and statistics. The material on the site is archived and indexed. The software is also offered to universities and non-governmental organisations using Open Course Ware to share learning and teaching. More details from www.twidox.com .
Mendeley
This is a free social software package for managing and sharing research papers. It is also a Web 2.0 site for discovering research trends and connecting to like-minded academics. It is still in closed beta, but it is already packing a punch with some features that make it much more than just a paper manager. One of the nice features is that there is a Desktop and a Web component that makes the most of each platform. It will be interesting to see how the collaborative features in Mendeley Web work. Further details from http://www.mendeley.com/ .
Is your social bookmarking software package legal?
There is currently a lawsuit going through against Zotero (http://www.zotero.org) , a free piece of software developed by George Mason University) alleging that the
tool makes improper use of EndNote citation software. The major issue is whether the programmers at George Mason University "reverse-engineered” EndNote to create the program. Zotero can import files created by EndNote and turn them into files that can be used and shared online using Zotero. The lawsuit refers only to the beta version of the software. More updates can be found at http://dltj.org/article/endnote-zotero-lawsuit-2/ .
Reference Manager 12 available
This latest version of the popular software has taken into account user feedback, which is great news. The additional options with Cite While You Write allows users to specify the sort order for in-text citations and the bibliography, and to differentiate between ambiguous citations such as multiple works by the same author. This later revision is something that is a particular issue in Humanities disciplines. Reference groups have new options to list as a single citation and suppress an author's name with multiple citations.
A new useful reference type is available such as Grant (allowing you to keep track of them was a feature requested some time ago) and new fields are now available such as conference location (to be able to record, for example, the UKeiG conference, Manchester Conference Centre, June 16-17 2009).
The Web publisher feature has been enhanced in a number of ways, including retrieving an unlimited number of references. It can now be integrated with other portals using updated SOAP and WSDL technologies. A useful feature is that of being able to specify a number of references to be downloaded from ISI web of Knowledge or PubMed.
Endnote2 for the Mac
Endnote 2 for the Mac has been released. Features include downloading the full text for articles where available. The package now includes the creation of smart groups to build subsets of references (a feature taken from Procite) and a preview pane, which includes a new tab for searching indicating the source being searched. New reference types have been introduced, recognising the pervasiveness of referencing (including Blog and Pamphlet).
More details from http://www.adeptscience.co.uk/ .
Document it
Document it is a tool for recording and managing citations, which enables students to learn the rules of correct referencing. It is a passive application that runs within Microsoft Word, helping students to record the correct information following conventional citation standards. The tool prompts the user to enter the necessary information which is then laid out automatically on the page according to citation standards. Once a citation has been entered, it is available for insertion into the text of a document in a number of formats and is based on the Harvard System of Referencing. It is available for free for students. (http://www.documentit.co.uk/download.php)
Citation Machine
Citation Machine is a web-based tool to inform and help in the prevention of plagiarism.
http://citationmachine.net/
Symposium on Referencing and Writing
An under-developed area for anyone dealing with researchers is the role of referencing and difficulties encountered. To help remedy this, the Referencing Learning Area of the LearnHigher CETL network is researching this area. The research is being conducted by Colin Neville, Learning Area Consultant for the LearnHigher Referencing Learning Area, and will culminate in a ‘Referencing and Writing' Symposium at the University of Bradford
in Summer 2009 to raise awareness of issues relating to the referencing of evidence and other sources in academic writing.
http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/eventsandnews/learnhighereventsandnews/
Referencing-its-Role-in-Academic-Writing.htm
Paying to be Referenced
If you are trying to publish material to be referenced then you might find the SHERPA list a useful tool. Specifically, they have http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/09/publishers-with-hybrid-oa-
journal.html created a list of publishers with paid options for Open Access. It annotates each one with a link to the program, the price range for the OA option (in dollars and in pounds sterling).
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/PaidOA.html
Sherpa have also recently produced a list of Publishers who allow their pdfs to be deposited in institutional repositories. As with the link above, this additional feature from Sherpa will provide researchers with guidance on getting their work referenced more easily.
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/PDFandIR.html
A Good Read
And finally Evolution of an electronic book.: Scholarly electronic publishing bibliography by Charles W Bailey has c1400 selected English-language articles, books and other sources relating to scholarly publishing, mainly dating since 1990. A useful tool for finding information in this area.
http://www.digital-scholarship.org/sepb/sepb.html |
