Environmental Studies Graduate Student Library Seminar

November 16, 2009

RSS Feeds | Alerts/Feeds in Web of Science | Citation Formatting Resources

 

I.  a>RSS Feeds and Readers

What is an RSS Feed?  Stands for “Really simple syndication”, a file format for delivering content.  Usually indicated by this orange button:

 

What is it for?  How is it used?  Assembles new content from newspaper sites, blogs, table of contents for journals and other unique content into a single site that can be logged into from anywhere.  Allows you to keep up to date with favorite sites, without your having to remember to visit them. 

• Readers are free and plentiful; both Google and Yahoo have readers.  Bloglines is a good one we'll use for this demo.

 

Set up an account at bloglines.com

Add feeds two ways:

1. add subscribe to bloglines button on browser toolbar
2. cut and paste url into bloglines

 

II. Setting up alerts and newsfeeds in Web of Science:

1.      Sign in or set up a new  account

2.      Select a specific database (cannot be set up in all databases tab) 

3.      Run your search. 

4.      Click on Search History

5.      Click Save History/Create Alert

[You will be prompted to sign in or create an account if not already signed in]

6.      Look for box labeled “Send Me email alerts”.  leave this box unchecked for RSS; Email alerts: ISI Research Soft for importing to EndNote

7.      Click the RSS button, it’s a link to an RSS feed.

8.      Copy and paste the resulting URL into your feed reader.  May need to edit the URL, for example:

• If logging in from off-campus, be sure to delete section of URL: oca.ucsc.edu
• AND Delete http://www.bloglines.com/sub/

9.  The RSS reader will automatically display new articles as they become available

10.  To cancel the RSS feed, open your RSS reader & follow the directions provided.

 

III. a>Citation Formatting Resources

Endnote Web | Zotero | Cite while you Write 

 

• Endnote Web  - Endnote Web is "free" to you as a UCSC student because the library subscribes to a database whose parent company offers Endnote Web as an additional resource to UCSC students, faculty and staff. After you graduate, Endnote Web is no longer a resource that will be available to you. Endnote requires a bit more thought than some of the other bibliographic tools, but it is a good tool with which to become familiar. Additionally, it has a, for purchase, very robust and flexible, software package that is incredibly helpful for scholars who conduct a lot of research - a good tool for graduate school.

Pros: portable, web-based, offers many different citation formats, free to you as a student, nice "cite while you write" download, can manually enter citations for databases that won't allow imports, can download references from Melvyl

Cons: not all references may be directly exported into it, some references need to be downloaded from one database and then uploaded into Endnote Web. Requires knowledge of database and sometimes vendor names to help ensure the import process

 

How to use it:

• set up an account here (Remember if you are off campus and try to set up an account, you must first login to Off Campus Access so the library will recognize you as affiliated with UCSC)
• search a database (like Web of Science)
• select one or two articles (click the check box to the left of each citation)
• click on the "My Research" tab at the top of the screen
• under the header "My Research," select "Export Citations into Endnote, Procite, RefWorks, or Reference Manager"
• select the third option "Download in a format compatible with Procite, Endnote, Reference Manager and Refworks"
• when the screen with the text of your citations pops up, choose "save page as" from the browser's file drop down list
• rename the file anything you want AND save it somewhere you will find it, the desktop, for example
• it should default to a .txt file (text file) but if it does not, select .txt from the "save as type" option when the save as dialog box opens up
• next, login into endnote web
• in Endnote Web, select the tab called "collect"
• select the link called "Import References"
• choose "browse" to locate the file you saved to your desktop or disk
• next choose the name of the database vendor you used to find the citations (in this case, Proquest) from the drop down list called "Filter"
• when you have your file located and the Web of Science filter selected, click the button labeled "import"
• when the import is complete, a message will appear that says references have been imported into "unfiled"
• click on the My References tab and click on the link to "unfiled"
• your citations, fully formatted will be there

 

Organize your citations:

• you may create new folders and move your uploaded citations to those folders (for example, a ENVS XX folder).
• you may do that in the "organize" tab by creating a new group
• click on the button called "new group" and name the group.
• go back to the "my references" tab to move items into your new folder/group.
• simply click on the unfiled folder and select the items you want to move into the new group/folder, then select the folder/group name from the drop-down box on the page
• then click on the "go button" and the references will move into your new group.

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Create your bibliography:

• when you are done gathering your citations and are ready to create your bibliography, select the "format" tab
• from the references drop down box, select the group/folder of citations you want to format
• from the bibliographic style drop down box, select the citation style (APA)
• from the file format drop down box, select RTF (rich text file)
• save it OR email it OR preview and print

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Zotero - Zotero is a web-based,open source (no vendors or companies are behind its creation) free resource. It is a Firefox Browser plug-in (an add on to a web browser called Firefox). It is very simple to use and requires no knowledge of library database names. As long as the people who are collaboratively improving and building Zotero continue to make it available to the world at-large, for free, Zotero will be available to you regardless of whether you are a current UCSC student or former UCSC student. It is available to everyone anywhere.

Pros: simple interface, do not need to know names of databases, no downloading of records, can use your own tags or terms to help organize your citations, cite while you write word plug-in available

Cons: Firefox browser add-on, requires some work and a flash drive to make it portable, no server back-up yet

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Install it:

• if you do not have Firefox as a web browser, you will need to download it
• once you have downloaded Firefox, download Zotero
• after Zotero downloads, you will be asked to restart Firefox, go ahead and do so
• if the download was successful, you will see the word Zotero on the lower right side of your browser screen

How to use it:

• pick a database to search, try  Web of Science (any keyword search)
• when you see your search results, look in the top browser address (url) window, you should see a yellow folder icon
• click on that icon, select one or two articles from the list (check the boxes)
• click okay, notice in the bottom right of the browser a pop up box confirming that the number of items you selected are being saved
• now click on the word Zotero on the lower right of your browser screen
• you should see the items you selected

Organize your citations:

• with Zotero open, click on the yellow folder icon with the green circle/+ sign
• a pop-up will open, asking you to name a folder
• use the folder to organize your citations - highlight the citations you want to move into the new folder and drag and drop them in to the new folder

Create your bibliography:

• highlight the citations you want to include in your bibliography
• right-click and select "Create Bibliography from Selected Items"
• choose American Psychological Association (APA)
• make sure "Save as RTF" is selected
• click "ok"
• when the "save as" pop-up appears, name the file something meaningful and save it somewhere you can find it again
• open the document and look at your bibliography

Using the "locate" button in Zotero:

• this button will allow you to search for items you have saved in your Zotero library in Melvyl
• say you want to see if the copy you looked at 2 months ago is still on the shelf at UCSC or if you can Interlibrary Loan it (borrow it from another library)
• to get this to work, you need to do the following:
  • open Zotero and click on the gear icon ( it is grey and round and looks like a gear or a Lego Bionicle part)
  • select "preferences"
  • and paste the following url into the box named "Resolver" located at the bottom of the Preferences pop up window: http://ucelinks.cdlib.org:8888/sfx_local

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Cite While You Write:

Endnote Web:

• locate and download the Word plugin within the Endnote Web "format" tab.
• when asked if you want to run the program/install, say yes/ok
• after the program is installed, you should see a new set of tools/icons in Word
• before you can cite while you write you must first tell Word where to find your Endnote citations
• to do that, in Word, select the Tools menu, then select the Endnote Web option
• next select "Endnote Web Cite While You Write Preferences"
• next select the "Application" tab
• enter the email address and password you use to access Endnote web in the boxes labeled email and password at the bottom of the dialog box
• check the "remember my password" box
• click okay
• test it out, type a few sentences, save the Word document as an rtf (rich text file) and then click the magnifying glass icon
• a dialog box pops open, type the name of the citation or author you are looking for
• when the citation appears, click on it
• the citation will appear in brackets { } don't worry about that there are more steps
• when you are done with your paper and have inserted all of your citations, go to the "format" tab in Endnote Web
• locate your paper on your computer (use the "browse for file" option)
• select the citation format you want to use (APA 5th)
• click "format"
• if your browser has a pop-up blocker, allow the pop-up
• open the word document, your formatted paper and list of References, should be there

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Zotero

• download the Word plugin
• after you have installed the plugin you should see a new set of tools/icons in Word
• type a few sentences
• click on the icon that has an r quotes and a red Z
• a pop up box of your Zotero library should open up
• click on one of your citations
• click ok
• the formatted citation should appear
• when you are finished typing your paper and inserting your refernces, click on the icon that looks like a lined piece of paper (located between the two icons with pencils)
• this will insert all of the citations you referenced in your paper in order, fully formatted

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Caveats

All of the above tools are tremendous time-savers and are incredibly useful. Just make sure (particularly with Zotero but really with all of them) that the citations look correct and that they are consistently formatted. That means that you should look at the applicable citation style guide and make sure that the citations are formatted appropriately. If you have citations for two different journal articles (plain old, regular journal articles, nothing fancy about either one) make sure they are formatted the same way. The temptation to let the program do it all is strong, but inconsistent citation formatting is pretty obvious.  Be an informed consumer of these excellent tools.

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Additional Help

• Endnote Web Help: the company has many on-line tutorials and free webinars to walk you through use of the program, take advantage of them
• Endnote Web: UCSC Librarians have compiled an excellent help page for both the software version of Endnote and the web version. Make sure you follow the Endnote Web instructions and not the software instructions though (they are clearly marked).
• Zotero Help: the Zotero help pages are very, very useful. Spend some time exploring the FAQ section and read about Zotero's other numerous features.
• Zotero: the Zotero quick start page is also very useful and worth exploring

 

(Endnote and Zotero instructions created by Kerry Scott, Head, Collection Planning UCSC Libraries.   Adapted with permission)

 

 

LO - November 2009