5.1 Reasons for Citing and Citation Style
Citing the sources of information that you consulted and used in research is critical and plays several roles, it:
●lends validity to your own research approach
●links your contribution to its provenance
●gives the original creator credit
●directs the reader to more information
Accomplishing this across millions of publications by hundreds of thousands of researchers in thousands of sources requires consistent practice. Standard formats specify the critical information components needed to identify a definitive information source. The standard style most commonly used in chemistry is published by the ACS9 and you will be asked to use this format for the assignment.
The approach to articles generally includes the following components9:
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. Title of Article. Journal Abbreviation Year, Volume,
Inclusive Pagination. DOI and/or URL (access date).
Please consult the Reference chapter of the ACS Style Guide for the format of different types of citations9. This guide from Pennsylvania State University could also serve as a quick guide of styles (http://www.library.wisc.edu/chemistry/research-help/write-and-cite/acs-style-guide/) .
5.2 Citation Management Software
Citation management tools are often used to help researchers organize citations, annotate references, and automatically format bibliography while they write. Starting to use a citation management software in early in your education will help you save your time when you work on class projects or writing an article, and organize an accumulation of interesting references for future use. The table below lists a few popular citation management software products.10 You may choose one or two to explore based on availability at your institution and your preference of functionalities. Reference records can be transferred among many of the tools below. If you cannot decide which one to use, start with any of the free ones and you can always transfer your references to another tool later. More detailed comparison and information about specific software can be found at the Research Guide page from the University of Michigan Library.10 You will have an opportunity to explore one or more of these tools in the next few weeks through another module: Collaborative Citation Management.
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EndNote |
Zotero |
RefWorks |
Mendeley |
Papers 2 |
|
Cost |
Discounted price for affiliates of educational institutions |
Free |
Institutional subscription based |
Free, additional fee for advanced accounts |
Discounted price for affiliates of educational institution |
|
Access and sharing |
EndNote desktop software. Collections can be accessed and shared online through EndNote Web. |
Can be run as a Firefox extension, or a standalone program. Apps available for most common browsers and MS Word. Collections can be accessed and shared online. |
Must be accessed online. Collections can be shared online. |
Must be installed on the computer. Collections can be accessed and shared online. |
Must be installed on the computer. Collections can be accessed and shared through Livefe feature |
|
Linking to PDFs and other attachments |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Annotate and index PDFs |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Import citations directly from PDF |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Compatibility with Word Processing Programs |
MS Word, OpenOffice, Mathematica, Pages, LaTex through BibTex |
MS Word, OpenOffice, Google Docs, |
MS Word, OpenOffice, LaTex through BibTex |
MS Word, OpenOffice, BibTex |
MS Word, OpenOffice, BibTex |
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Citation Style Modification |
Can add new styles, modify existing styles |
Most popular styles available, difficult to modify styles |
Most popular styles available, cannot add styles, but can modify existing styles |
Most popular styles available, difficult to modify styles |
Most popular styles available, difficult to modify styles |
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Tutorials |