Choose a Citation Style and Stick With It!

Your client, unlike your professors or a journal editorial board, won't specify a citation style but it's still important! Your client will want to find and look at the references you used and a consistent citation style is key. In the social sciences, APA or Chicago are pretty standard (the Purdue Online Writing Lab has a nice comparison chart), and I find APA to be easier.

Zotero

 

Zotero

 

Zotero is a popular free open source citation management tool that makes saving and citing online resources, including websites, YouTube videos, news articles, and scholarly database results, a breeze. Some of Zotero's strengths include its ability to capture a multitude of resource types with the click of a button, and its group library function, with no limit on group membership.  For more about Zotero, see this guide.

 

Zotero Sync

Syncing your library means backing up your citations on Zoter's server. This way you can access your citation remotly and retrieve them if something happens to your personal computer.

This arrow will appear in your Zotero library. It will spin when it is uploading your citations.

If you're regularly using more than one computer in your research, Zotero's sync feature can keep your library up to date on all of them. Zotero can store a copy of your library on the Zotero.org server and check it for updates whenever you open your library on a different computer. All your computers must be running the same version Zotero and be configured to sync to the server.

  1. Set up a free Zotero.org user account.
  2. Open Zotero preferences (via the gear menu) and select the Sync tab. 
  3. Enter your Zotero user name and password. 
  4. Check the "sync automatically" box. Zotero will upload your library to the server. 
  5. Repeat this configuration on each of your computers. Any updates you make on one of your computers will be reflected on the others. This even works to synchronize your library among Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Sync Tab and Sync Settings in Zotero

For more details and help troubleshooting sync problems, check the Zotero site.

Research Log

Research is a process and you'll want to keep a log of what you are doing so you don't reduplicate your work or miss steps or useful information. The research log below can help you with this.

 

ZoteroBib

ZoteroBib is a free, quick, and easy bibliography and citation maker that saves time and trouble.

Add sources using the ZoteroBib search box. Then, copy and paste the complete bibliography (or footnotes or in-text citations) into your paper in the citation style of your choice.