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COB 300H: Honors

This guide will help students develop their understanding of how to conduct research for more in-depth honors study within each student's chosen major

Managing citations

You'll be building on this project for multiple semesters. That's why you should consider a citation management tool instead of relying only on citation generators like the free version of EasyBib or Son of Citation Machine. 

We recommend you use Zotero.

Zotero Citation Manager

Zotero is a tool to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research. It can help you:

  • Organize your research in a digital library
  • Quickly collect articles and online resources into your library using a one-click browser extension
  • Allow you access to your library across multiple computers and via the web
  • Share research with others in groups
  • Generate a bibliography and manage citations directly in Microsoft Word or Google Docs
  • Annotate and add research notes to items in your library

Why Would I Use Zotero?

Zotero is an easy way to share your organized research with your professor or other students in a group project. Since it's a free tool, you can also take it with you when you graduate from JMU.

While Zotero is a free tool, JMU Libraries subscribes to an upgrade to unlock unlimited storage for all campus users.

To take advantage of this expanded storage to save more articles to your library, simply use your JMU email as your primary email for this account. You can add additional emails to your Zotero account to maintain access to prior projects or ensure you'll keep access at a new institution.

Zotero is the only citation management system licensed by JMU. Individuals who prefer a different management system can check the approved software list and ask their department to purchase access or pay out of your own pocket.

Zotero offers multiple ways to add articles to your library.

Use the Zotero Connector Browser Extension

Zotero Connector lets you save a source from your browser with a single click. It's available to download for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. In Safari, Zotero Connector is bundled into the Zotero software.

This is the best method for grabbing multiple articles from Google Scholar or adding websites found in a regular Google search.

Drag and Drop a PDF into a Collection

Just like it sounds - find the PDFs on you've downloaded on your device. Then drag them into the Zotero collection where you want them to go.

This is the best method for adding articles you already have as PDFs. Multiple articles can be dragged into a collection at once.

If Zotero doesn't automatically find the metadata for the PDF, try these steps:

  • Right click on the PDF in Zotero and click Retrieve Metadata for PDF.
  • Right click on the PDF in Zotero and choose Create Parent Item. Manually fill in the item's information.

Export Citations  from a Database like Scopus

Many databases like Scopus and Business Source Complete have tools that allow you to export one or more articles in a format that Zotero can read called an RIS export. 

This is the best method when using a database, since you can export multiple items at a time and add them to Zotero at once.

Use an Identifier Number like DOI

This is the "magic wand" tool in your Zotero library. It allows you to use a publication's unique ID number to find the item and add it to your collection.

  • For books, the ID number is the International Standard Book Number or ISBN. 
  • For scholarly articles, the ID number could be the Digital Object Identifier or DOI. Or it could be the PubMed number or PMID. 

This is the best method for an academic article or book chapter when you might be waiting on a PDF to arrive through ILL. 

We tend to describe Zotero as a citation management tool, but it is much more powerful than that. Here are three key features:

Group Items by Project

Create Collections (aka folders) that keep all of the sources you're tracking for a particular project together.

Within Collections, you can also create Subcollections. These subfolders can categorize articles that support one key theme you're researching or track articles you've reviewed that won't be cited in your final submission. 

 

 

Tag Items by Topic

Tags (aka keywords) let you add descriptions to an article PDF. Then you can click on a tag to see every article in your collection that shares it. Effective strategies for creating could include topics, methods, findings, or workflow (e.g., To Read, Read, Not Helpful). Tags could also be used to predict where the article might fit into your final project, using tags like Intro, LitReview, Discussion. 

 

Annotate PDFs and Export Them as Notes

Zotero's built-in PDF reader enables you to annotate documents within the tool. You can highlight key passages, capture your reactions in notes, and even snip images of relevant charts. These can then be added as a note to the item in the library. These notes will include page numbers and citations to make it easy to copy that into your working draft.

 

Helpful Videos

After you've gathered your articles and annotated them, you'll start writing up your research project. 

The Zotero Plug-in for Microsoft Word makes in-text citations and bibliographies easy! Rather than having to manually write and manage your citations, this plug-in enables you to:

  • Insert in text citations and bibliography entries in the citation format of your choice with a few clicks of the mouse from your Zotero library
  • Reformat your citations into a different style. For example say a publisher requires you to use APA citations when you wrote yours in MLA, in a few clicks Zotero will reformat your citations for you.
  • Update your bibliography entries when you remove or add in-text citations

Helpful Resources