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COBRA: Managing Your Scholarly Identity

This guide focuses on managing your academic presence, where we delve into the nuances of cultivating a distinguished scholarly persona.

Research Collaboration Tools

Some scholarly tools can be used to more easily collaborate with co-authors and research assistants. These tools can allow you to co-edit documents, share research, and more. 

Zotero Citation Manager

Zotero is an alternative to Mendeley and EndNote to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research.

Zotero is a free, open-source tool that was born out of the George Mason University's Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media in 2006. Zotero 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 can be useful to keep track of research across multiple projects and create citations for you. If you are working with co-authors or a research assistant Zotero groups can help you share research with other users.

While Zotero is a free tool, JMU Libraries subscribes to an upgrade to unlock unlimited storage. 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 as well.

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 sponsor account access or pay out of pocket.

 

Here are a few tips to migrate from a different citation manager to Zotero:

Overleaf

What is Overleaf?

Overleaf is an alternative to Microsoft Word or Google Docs for collaborative writing projects.

What separates Overleaf from those applications is its reliance on LaTeX, a popular typesetting tool that allows researchers to write in a plain text file that is interspersed with LaTeX commands to create the desired (typesetting) results. LaTeX supports complex math and tables in documents, making it is especially appealing to business researchers in Business Analytics, Economics or Finance.

Why Would I Use Overleaf?

Some journals provide direct submission LaTeX/Overleaf article templates, while other publishers provide generic LaTeX templates and offer support for authors; See Springer NatureMDPIWileyElsevier.

Can I subscribe?

Individual subscriptions to Overleaf cost about $200 a year but limit the number of collaborators. JMU has included Overleaf on the list of approved software that departments can purchase for individual faculty to use.

Can JMU subscribe?

We are aware of faculty interest in an institutional subscription to Overleaf. We will update you if funding becomes available.

Libraries Access for External Research Collaborators

Does Your Research Team Include an External Collaborator?

Many of us tackle research projects with scholars from outside of JMU. That leads to questions about how they can access JMU Libraries resources while you are collaborating. The usual answer is: They can't. You can share PDFs you download with them, but they will be unable to search the library website or databases for articles on their own.

Why Can't They Get Access?

Because access to most of the libraries' electronic resources is tied to a JMU e-ID, an external collaborator will not be able to search or download articles on their own.

Is There a Workaround?

Depending on your circumstances, you could sponsor your collaborator as an Affiliate of the University. JMU defines an affiliate as "any individual who has a formal affiliation with the university, and receives some services from the university, but is not a student or employee of the university, and receives no remuneration from the university."

Sponsoring departments must submit an electronic Affiliate Hire Form to initiate Affiliate services. This application is managed by JMU Human Resources. 

Data Management Plans

Good data management helps you keep your data organized, making it easier to find, understand, and use. This is crucial for maintaining data quality and integrity, especially in collaborative projects. A data management plan outlines how research data will be managed, stored, shared, and preserved throughout the life of a research project. Data management plans may be required by funders but can also aid others in understanding your data and help you comply with appropriate security measures and other regulations.

The Libraries' Scholarly Communications Strategies department can assist faculty with data management plans. Please contact the Data Services Librarian, Samantha Harmon, to learn more.