What *really* matters when citing sources? November 5, 2009
Posted by Emily in : Citing Sources, Duke researchers, Librarians, Original research , 1 comment so farYou may know that two major style manuals — APA and MLA — have released new editions in the last six or so months. And if you’re aware of that fact, you undoubtedly know that both editions contain inconsistencies in their examples and enough errors to require APA to post an 8-page list of corrections and then replace its first run copies with a second printing.
The new rules have driven confused and frustrated researchers to sources such as APA’s blog, which provides examples and attempts to explain the more complicated rules (check out the DOI/URL flowchart — yes, this rule requires a flowchart), or Purdue’s Online Writing Lab (OWL), which hosts APA and MLA resources that received 3.5 million and 2.5 million hits, respectively, during September and October alone, according to the coordinator of OWL.
It is evident from these stats alone that librarians and faculty have spent countless hours supporting the researchers and students who have spent even more time formatting manuscripts to meet the unbending rules of CSE, APA, MLA and enumerable others.
As Barbara Fister posits in her ACRLog post, is this time well spent? Is research somehow made more valid when its footnotes are perfectly formatted, its works cited page spaced just so? Have we spent so much time agonizing over comma placement and tracking down database names that we’ve lost sight of the whole point of citing sources in the first place? Do our budding scholars realize that citing sources is not merely an academic hazing ritual of sorts, causing them hours of extra labor after their papers are written?
It would seem that the newest editions of APA and MLA are only muddying the waters, making it harder for researchers — especially novice ones — to achieve the true goal of citing sources: to give credit to the scholars their research builds upon and to make it as easy as possible for their readers to learn more about that work.
And if we can agree on that primary goal, how do we get back to emphasizing it rather than the arcane rules?
Term papers by the numbers… October 26, 2009
Posted by Linda Martinez in : 16, Citing Sources, Cool tools, Duke researchers, Librarians, Research Help , 2comments
Ready to start that term paper? Not sure how to start? The University of Minnesota Libraries have created an assignment calculator to help students organize their time to meet their research needs. Start with today’s date, enter the date assignment is due, a timeline is provided, with research milestones. Use Duke Library links for local, on-site research assistance. For example, How do I begin my research? or Find a Librarian in my subject area? or ask for help are just a few of the services available to you through the Duke Libraries.
Timesaver=Lifesaver March 30, 2009
Posted by Kyla in : Citing Sources, Cool tools , add a comment
It’s the one little line in your assignment that can lead to hours of work:
Format your paper in APA (or MLA, or Chicago, or Turabian…)
Inserting correct citations and a properly formatted bibliography used to involve complicated manuals, memorization of arcane facts about space placement after a period, and a lot of hair pulling. Kudos to those who want to keep citing by hand…but for those who don’t, it’s….
REFWORKS to the RESCUE!
We’re kicking off a whole week of RefWorks training, which will run between March 30th to April 3rd, to introduce you to your new best citation friend.
What is RefWorks? It’s a web-based program that collects all your research and references in one handy spot, search and select them, and automatically generates citations and bibliography in whatever style your Professor is asking for.
In other words, RefWorks is a Lifesaver!
Drop by and learn more all week:
Mon. March 30: Bryan Center 12-2 pm
Tue. March 31: Lilly Library 1-3 pm
Wed. April 1st: Perkins Library 1-3 pm
Thu. April 2nd: East Campus Marketplace 12-2
Fri. April 3rd: Bryan Center Plaza 12-2 pm
Ultimate Citing: EndNote VS. RefWorks September 18, 2008
Posted by Hannah in : Citing Sources , add a commentIn the competitive world of Ultimate Citing, two kingpins rule the ring…RefWorks and EndNote, the academic world’s leading bibliographic management tools. Lucky for you, Duke has a subscription to both, so the choice is yours!
| RefWorks | EndNote | |
| Registration | Register for your free account here | Download for free here |
| Access | Web-based (Any computer w/ Internet access) | Not web-based. Access through any computer(s) in which you’ve installed EndNote |
| Most Useful for… | Collaborative projects, term papers, coursework | Complex research projects, dissertations, lengthy tomes |
| # of Bibliographic styles | 3000+ | 800+ |
| Classes | Register here | Register here |
| PC and Mac Compatability | Web-based, so will work on any computer w/ internet | Versions available for both MAC and PC |
Neither RefWorks or EndNote have figured out how to write your papers for you, but both are excellent tools for managing and formatting citations. Learn more about RefWorks here and EndNote here
Make citations in Facebook June 27, 2008
Posted by Phoebe in : Citing Sources, Cool tools , add a commentIn further Facebook takes over the universe (at least the parts not already claimed by Google) news, there’s a new application in Facebook called CiteMe. You enter the title of the book you want to cite, click go, and the app spits out a formatted citation in one of five styles (APA, Chicago, Harvard. MLA, or Turabian).
It uses the WorldCat library catalog to find books, so it won’t be helpful for citing journal articles. If you’re working with journal articles, you can check our Citing Sources pages for examples and do them by hand, or get started with RefWorks or EndNote, the two citation managers Duke has site licenses for, or Zotero, a free online citation manager. Lots of choices, but CiteMe is a nice little addition to the mix!
