Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bibliography

SEC filings in MLA format

activitystory — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:07:05 -0800

AskMe librarians and other interested parties: how would one, in proper MLA format (6th edition), format a citation for a 10-K form or other SEC filing for a company? I'm unable to get my hands on a copy of the handbook (though I don't remember seeing it specifically in there anyway), and none of the online tools that I can find seem to have that type of source listed.

Help me organize research

rbf1138 — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:26:50 -0800

Zotero, Scrapbook, Papers, Evernote, etc. What should I be using to best organize materials for a research paper? There are lots of research organization software/browser plug-ins available now, and trying to make sense of which to use (whether standalone or in conjunction) is giving me a headache. I'd like to be able to take notes alongside either text from websites or PDFs, store, sort, and view PDFs, create citations/bibliographies, etc. Which of these and/or other tools will help me do that?

Zotero + Sente = ?

solipsophistocracy — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 15:08:57 -0800

Can I convert a Zotero library to Sente? I received a lot of great answers about how to maximize my use of Zotero, but when I arrived at my new lab I was informed that the PI uses Sente. I've messed with it a little bit, and it seems really great, but I spent an awful lot of time updating my Zotero library. Is there any way to merge the two? I've tried exporting my Zotero library, but I don't understand how to use the folder it creates.

If I have to, I can just manually retype all my notes and tags, but I feel like there's an easier way to do this.

Unnumbered thebibliography in LaTeX?

limon — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:40:03 -0800

In LaTeX, how do I get \thebibliography{} to not number items? I just want them listed plainly, with a hanging indent if they spill over a single line. I don't want to use BibTeX. It's an old paper written by someone else that I'm typesetting in LaTeX, so I want to preserve some of the idiosyncrasies in the citation rather than have BibTeX do it "properly". That's why I'm using thebibliography instead.

Zotero Zorros, share your techniques.

solipsophistocracy — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:32:42 -0800

How can I optimize my use of Zotero? I've got a box with several hundred journal articles in it. Most of them have obscene amounts of highlighting and notes written directly on the article or on paper stapled to it. I'm moving across the country to start grad school in a month, and I've realized that hauling all this paper with me is not going to be an effective strategy. That said, all the PhD advice I read says to organize your library early and often, so I'm taking this time to digitize the all the science I've been studying for the past year or so.

After lengthy debate between EndNote and Zotero, I've decided to go with Zotero, and have begun collection citations, tagging articles, making notes, etc. However, I feel like I'm not going about it in the most efficient way. I really like that you can have an item in more than one collection, but I'm stumped as to the best way to start organizing them.

What are your strategies for getting the most out of Zotero? I've also heard about using it in conjunction with bibTex, but I'm totally clueless on that front.

My degree will be in psychology, with a focus on developmental social neuroscience, but I'd love responses from anyone who has had to organize a large body of academic work.

How to find books.

monocultured — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:55:46 -0800

I've been tasked with finding a bunch of books, and have author names and occasionally publisher, genre or topic. Some of the authors are academics and seem to have published mostly in journals or edited group anthologies. Hælp me you dominators of printed matter, how to find? This is all loosely architecture related, and the originals are often either Spanish or South/Latin American.

Right now I'm casting a wide net; Googling, checking Amazon and LOC, as well as the Swedish Royal Library (Since I'm ultimately trying to find copies to borrow at my uni) but it takes too much time and yields inconsistent results.

So. How would you go about finding an as complete bibliography of an author as possible, including appearances in group anthologies and by academic presses? Which are the go-to databases one trawls to get an international overview of printed stuff?

BibTeX style for Turabian-style citations?

cmyers — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:30:37 -0800

I need a comprehensive BibTeX style for the Turabian format. My high school requires juniors to write their research papers with Turabian-style citations. We have a subscription to NoodleBib, which I'm using to compile my notes, but I'd like to dump it all into my BibTeX and let LaTeX worry about my citations so I don't have to.

Though there are many Chicago BibTeX styles, I've yet to find a comprehensive style for the Turabian format. I'd be grateful for any pointers the hive mind might have.

Finding original printing information for books.

magnoliasouth — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 04:40:58 -0800

How can I get bibliographic information on the original printing/first editions of books? I'm looking for a website where I can find bibliographic information on the original printing of books published in both the US and UK. Many books are reprinted time and time again and Wikipedia only touches on popular books. Even then the information is lacking. Is there a site - or only a couple of sites - which catalogs nearly all books?

Using Word2007/2003 to make a bibliography

mateuslee — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:01:44 -0800

Word 2007 vs. 2003: It's complicated to go back-and-forth! Help me write my dissertation, please! So, I'm a grad student working tirelessly on my dissertation. At home I work with Word 2007 and at the university I'm using 2003. I just started using the citation mechanism in 2007, inputted a few books, and really started to get the hang of this as a useful too. However, as you probably know, when I switch to 2003 (I have the converter installed), all those citations are converted to static text.

Is there any way around this?
If not, what free software do you reccomend for standardizing citations and keeping them in a database?

Sure do appreciate any thoughts...
Thanks a lot!

Unlock the secrets of citations!

boubelium — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:57:18 -0800

What's all this fuss about bibliography software? I have never used Endnote, Reworks, or any other bibliography organizing software before. However, I know it seems to be popular based on the number of questions here mentioning it and the seemingly perpetual training seminars I have seen at University libraries... but I don't see its attractiveness and I wonder if someone could explain its advantages? I don't want to be on the outs with academic technology or sound like a curmudgeon (I don't yet have a lawn for people to stay off of).

Little background: I am a history grad student and have always managed my bibliographies in a spreadsheet. When I get a new source, say a book, I just flip to the title/copyright page and write out the citation in my excel master bibliography sheet (Chicago Style). This takes about 10 seconds.

So, outside of being able to easily convert from one citation style to another, what neat things can these bibliography builders do? Or is this software just for undergrads who are confused by/or juggling different styles of citations?

Oh, and bonus points for any humanities or historian friends who can share how I can use them.

Bibliography management for Macs

philosophygeek — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:46:50 -0800

I am beginning to write articles for publication as well as starting with my doctoral dissertation. I am looking for a bibliography manager that will be compatible with Microsoft Word for Mac or OpenOffice for Mac/NeoOffice (these document formats are necessary since many journals require .doc submissions, so no LaTeX recommendations). Specific features I need:
- Ability to generate in-line, footnote, and end-of-document reference info
- Ability to customize citation formats for odd sources within my field
- Ability to choose a different citation style (so I can alter the formatting to meet the requirements of multiple journals).
- Free is strongly preferred

My institution has a RefWorks subscription, but I don't think I will be able to access my account after I graduate, so I'd prefer another option.

While Google tells me that OpenOffice and the Windows version of Word have basic citation abilities, I have been unable to determine if they have all of these capabilities.

Site that will help me, um, cite.... (ugh, I've got nothin')

numinous — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:02:04 -0800

[Attention-Citation-Officers-Filter]: I am clueless as to the proper way of citing financial documents in the course of my writing. The Chicago Manual of Style has left me high and dry. Hope me! I'm having difficulty finding out how to accurately cite financial documents. Specifically, I need to cite information from a non-profit organization's 990 form. I am citing several figures from this tax document. I've searched various terms, such as citation+financial+report+document+writing etc., with every coupling and configuration in between. No. Dice.

So, my multifaceted question:

Is there a cut-and-dried template of citing data from a tax document in expository writing? For both note and bibliographical references? In a way that is consistent with (or at least acceptable by) the Chicago Manual of Style? Are there any websites dedicated to illustrating this type of citation? If so, which ones?

Also, WHERE CAN I FIND AN EXAMPLE, PLZ.

All suggestions welcome. Seriously. This is driving me nuts.

What is the easiest way to index pre-existing bibliographies?

anotherpanacea — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:08:52 -0800

Bibliographic software newbie question: given an enormous backlog of hand-written bibliographies, what's my best bet for producing a database and integrating it with a book manuscript? I'd like to be able to push a button and change citation styles. No arduous data-entry, please. I've never taken the leap into Endnote et al, but I have some limited experience with Word 2007's reference panel. Now, it seems, I need to change, and fast. I'd like to be able to push a button and change inline citation styles. So:

1. What is the easiest way to index pre-existing bibliographies? Let's say I have fifteen pages of references saved as a Word document. Is there a citation sniffer that'll pull out the entries or some other import function I can use?

2. What software should I use? Is Word's new stuff robust enough? (I'm in the humanities.)

I read it for the articles. No, really. Just help me find them again.

marylynn — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:53:27 -0800

Please help me find a way to electronically organize my magazine article collection. I read a crazy number of magazines and have a habit of pulling articles out to save them for later. So far, they're just filed away on paper but I'd like to organize them electronically and I'd like to store them online if possible (and if I could do it without making them searchable so as to avoid any copyright problems).

I've looked at various academic bibliographic reference managers but none seem quite ... friendly?... enough or have exactly the features I need (or are prohibitively expensive), particularly the one below about uploading the document itself.

Features I'd like:
- ease of citation entry (I would probably have to enter these manually as the cites aren't coming from dbs)
- web-based, though I will consider local software I'd like to be able to access this info from anywhere if I can
- ability to create both URL links to articles (some of what I read it on the web) and to stored PDFs (which I'd upload and preferably not make searchable outside of my domain) - sometimes both
- tags or keywords
- ability to customize the interface display. Since most of what I'm saving are magazine or literary journal pieces some of the citation fields for scientific literature aren't useful to me
- ability to enter in some kind of abstract

So far the closest one I can find to fit my needs is RefBase and while I'm not keen on installing and maintaing the software I have a hosting package that might let me do it. If anyone has any experience using this, I'd be glad to hear of it. I've read the other threads on this I can find but they seem geared more towards the "scientific literature" needs of academics than my own "now what did I do with that article from Vanity Fair...?" more writerly needs.

I guess I just hope that someone has made a super simple, clean interface "writer's" version of the Endnote for less than $100. Well, have they? Or is there some other solution I'm not thinking of?

How to teach MLA/Chicago form

Mngo — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 20:50:53 -0800

I teach graduate writing and research. I'm pretty confident with the way I teach the spirit of citation (it's what we have in the humanities instead of the scientific method), but what draconian pedagogy can I use to soul-crushingly impose format dread on my unruly grad students? They all have a copy of the MLA handbook, and most of them have a Chicago Manual of Style near to hand. Most of them use robo-reference managers like Refworks, Endnote or Citation, that can theoretically output in any format But some of my senior colleagues still complain that they receive badly formated bibs and notes. Ideally this would also support the conceptual aims of the course, but what can we do in class, and what resources can I direct them to, to improve their pains-taking in producing formal research papers?

Bibliographic reference management on the web?

dmd — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:55:52 -0800

Is there some "Web 2.0" (by which I mean "well designed", not "shiny and in large type for no good reason) style site or package out there for managing bibliographic references online?

Help formatting a BibTeX style file (*.bst)

EmuBite — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 11:35:18 -0800

Calling all BibTeX gurus! Can anyone help me format a BibTeX style file (*.bst)? I'm a LaTeX/BibTeX newbie. The scientific journal I work for accepts papers in MS Word and LaTeX. Over the past few weeks, I've come to love working in TeX (using TeXShop on the Mac). I'm cutting my teeth at the moment, and thanks to excellent online references I haven't had a hair-pulling moment yet (knock on silicon...!).

There is one problem I have involving BibTeX. The journal requires a certain bibliographic style that many journal authors don't follow. It's up to me to edit the References section to conform to the journal's requirements. While the journal has a custom BibTeX style file (*.bst) to ensure that references are stylized correctly, the file dates from 1993. Needless to say, the journal has updated its bibliographic requirements since then.

Here's an example of the old versus new style:

Old:

Smith, A. B., Jones, C. D., Baker, E. F, and Johnson, G. H., 2006, A pithy title for a journal article: J. of Sci. and Prog., 54, 100-150.

New:

Smith, A. B., C. D. Jones, E. F. Baker, and G. H. Johnson, 2006, A pithy title for a journal article: Journal of Science and Progress, 54, 100-150.

As you can see, the new style requires the authors' initials to appear before the last names (except for the first author -- this stays the same). We also no longer use abbreviations for journals, and the volume number (54 in this case) appears in bold type. (FYI, this is basically the Chicago Manual of Style form of citation with a few added constraints.)

For reference, here is a copy of the current BibTeX style file the journal is using (via Filecloud):

http://emubite.filecloud.com/files/file.php?user_file_id=110549

If anyone can point me in the right direction (what needs editing in the .bst file, a good Internet or print resource, etc.), I would be much obliged.

Thanks in advance for any information you can supply.

How to set up a web-based group bibliography

underwater — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 08:13:07 -0800

Help me figure out how to set up a web-based bibliography for an academic group... I want to set up something for an interdisciplinary academic group that has overlapping interests but is likely not to know about works not directly in their field. The goal is to set up a website that can provide a bibliography for people to go to that they can search for publications that may help them. The bibliography must be created by the group because new works are published frequently and I have neither the time nor expertise to manage it myself.

I want something like a wiki where anyone can contribute bibliographic information. But, it also has to be searchable by author, keyword, title, etc. and to display those search results in a reasonably useful way. Having all the books on one page is not an acceptable solution--I expect there to be hundreds of entries. I do not control the web server but I can probably get things on it. I know basic HTML but I am not familiar with javascript, php, or other website programming stuff. The people in the group have to be able to add to the database without knowing ANY html or web stuff. This must be a Windows-based solution. I can't purchase any software for this.

Can anyone out there suggest something?

Managing bibliographic references in OS X

sanitycheck — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:49:17 -0800

Help me choose a bibliographic reference manager for OS X... I'm a recent Mac convert. I've used Endnote in the past on Windows, but that was when I was at a different school with an advisor who owned a license. Before I shell out the cash for a license myself I'd like to know what else is out there.

Must-have criteria:
- Relatively cheap (I think the student price for Endnote is ~$100. Any more than this is too much)
- MS Word integration

Would-be-nice criteria:
- Plays nice with LateX
- Lets me store references online
- Existing style/formatting files for ACM and IEEE reference formats

As a secondary question, what's your favourite LaTeX editor for OS X? Is TeXShop my best bet?

BibTeX help wanted

kenko — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 12:20:09 -0800

Any BibTeX gurus around here? I'd like recommendations for software, running on Linux, that will help me develop and manage a bibliographical database, and for BibTeX styles/packages/whatever-they're-calleds developed for with humanities, as opposed to science or math, types in mind. I'm told jurabib is good on the latter score, but it seems to be primarily developed for German law formats, with Chicago/MLA styles in development for American anglophones. And if jurabib defines new fields, or defines them differently, does that mean that software for managing bibliographies wouldn't add them right? (There is such software, yes? People don't really write them out by hand?)

Any tips & tricks greatly appreciated.

Bibliographies in Excel

synecdoche — Wed, 04 May 2005 21:24:04 -0800

I'm working on my MA thesis and so have an enormous jumble of books, articles, and references kicking around. I am looking for an easy way to manage this. The idea I had was to use Excel to create a spreadsheet that has all the information for each title (bibliographical information, and perhaps some short annotation) and was hoping I could somehow do some kind of macro thing that will take the information from the cells and then put them into a word file in alphabetical order, in MLA format.

Is there a way to do this? I am not too familar with Excel, but I seem to remember a mail merge or somesuch doing a similar function to create mailing labels.

I know there are software solutions to this (one of my professors uses Endnote which looks extremely handy) but I'd like to do this with my existing set up.

If it makes a difference I am using Office 2004 on an iBook running Tiger.