While writing a research paper, such as a term paper or the final thesis, the source search and the compilation of a bibliography turn out to be fundamental. First of all, do we know what is a bibliography and what is it for?
A bibliography is an alphabetically ordered list of all the documents consulted during the research (books, articles, encyclopedia articles, statistical reports etc.). Bibliographic citations show essential information on the works consulted, providing references to the paper you are writing: this will allow the readers to identify the sources used and possibly find them.
It’s important to always verify and cite your sources in order to guarantee the copyright, promote and disseminate the work of other researchers and avoid plagiarism.
The following online guides are recommended:
- The University of Chicago. Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide
- American Psychological Association. APA Style Guidelines
- American Sociological Association. ASA style quick tips
- Modern Language Association (MLA)
From our discovery, through the "Cite this item" tool, you will be able to create citations using different International Standard formats.
Additional information may be found thorough the Mendeley Citation Hub with a very useful citation guides:
Reference Management Systems
BMS (Bibliography Management Systems) or RMS (Reference Management Systems) are specialized tools that help with storing and organizing bibliographic citations to create and manage bibliographies according with the most popular and accepted styles.
Most of these tools are compatible with the main operating platforms (Windows, above all, but also MAC OS, Linus, Unix, etc.). The output of the collected data is usually in rtf, doc, txt, html, xml, odt files, etc. Among the free software are Endnote basic, Mendeley and Zotero.
Endnote basic is the free version of the Clarivate Web of science EndNote for managing refrences and formatting citations authomatically.
Once landed on Web of science you can access the tool on the top right menu. References can be collected from Web of science or on the web using the browser plug-in for capting metadata. Online personal registration is required to access and download the plug-in also for the integration of EndNote in Office Word which helps you to insert citations into the text and to build your bibliographies.
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Mendeley is a system provided by Elsevier for the management of bibliographic references which also functions as a social network for academic environments. Usage requires online registration for the account creation and local download of a data synchronization program. It allows you to import documents or folders of documents in pdf and to extract their bibliographic references.
The tool is perfectly integrated into Scopus, a database also accessible remotely which contains abstracts and citations from scientific literature and authoritative web sources in the scientific-technological and human and social sciences fields.
Luiss users with an institutional account can register on the platform directly by clicking on "Create account" and then on "it is possible to access through your own institution" by entering the Luiss e-mail address or the name of the University.
For further information visit the online guides.
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Zotero is an open source software made for helping in the harvesting and collecting references on the web. To access it is required the online registration and the free download of the software.
For further information visit the online guide Reference Management Systems: Zotero.
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