Speaker 1: Reference Management Software

Speaker 2: Literature search is a vital step in developing a strong research project. The next step after performing a literature search is to manage the articles that you have selected, which would provide you with a strong foundation.

Speaker 1: In another video, Reference Management and Note, we review the basics of reference management and introduce different software that can help you in this task. In this video, we will show you two open source software, Mendeley and Sotero, that are useful reference managing tools. Let's begin with Mendeley. Mendeley allows you to collect, manage, share, and use references. It can be used with Word to add citations and produce a reference list in a document. The free version of the software has a storage capacity of 2 GB, but more space can be purchased.

Speaker 2: The first step is to download Mendeley. Go to www.mendeley.com. You have to create an account to download the software. Click on the Create a Free Account button. To register, provide an email account and a password. Mendeley will ask you for your role or position and your field of study, but it is not mandatory to provide this information. Click on the Continue to Mendeley button. You will be redirected to the download page for the Mendeley Reference Manager. Click on the Get Reference Manager button.

Speaker 1: Select your operating system and download the software. During the installation of the software, you would be asked to sign in with the password and email you created before. Mendeley is now ready to be used. Click on the icon of the app to open it. When the software opens for the first time, it automatically displays a short introduction.

Speaker 2: One of the features of Mendeley is the Import tool that allows you to import documents from your computer library and from web searches. To import documents from the web, you need to install the Mendeley Web Importer tool found in the drop-down box of the Toolstat on the Mendeley Desktop Bar at the top of the page.

Speaker 1: Click on Install Web Importer. Depending on the browser, the process of installing Web Importer can be different. After the installation, you should have the Mendeley icon on your browser. The references added to your library can be organized according to the date of addition. It is, however, advised to create new libraries according to the discipline, as the number of your references may exponentially increase over time.

Speaker 2: To create a folder, locate the My Library section and then click on Create Folder. Rename the new untitled folder according to your preferences.

Speaker 1: Add references from your computer.

Speaker 2: Click on the Add button located on the top left corner of the Mendeley Desktop. Find the document that you want to add to Mendeley and then click on the Open button. Your Mendeley library will be updated and the imported document will appear in the All Documents section. If you click on a document, Mendeley may show additional information about the reference, including the author's names, the journal, and the year of publication, among others. When you add a PDF document, Mendeley analyzes it and automatically extracts the information necessary for citation.

Speaker 1: This information is displayed in the right side panel next to the PDF. If the given information is incorrect or incomplete, Mendeley would automatically alert you that these details need reviewing. You can also add other file types such as Word documents or PowerPoint presentations to your Mendeley library.

Speaker 2: Add references from the web sources. If you haven't downloaded your articles to your computer, you can add them to Mendeley directly from the web page. You can even import more than one document at once.

Speaker 1: For example, if you look for Educational Innovation on Google Scholar, you will have several articles to choose from. To save documents into your Mendeley library, click on the Mendeley extension in your browser and select your articles of interest from the drop-down list to your library. Mendeley gives you the option of downloading the PDF of the article if it is available.

Speaker 2: Select the destination folder where you want to save your references in Mendeley and click on Save All. If you don't choose a folder, your references will be uploaded by default to the All Documents section.

Speaker 1: Create a Bibliography from Mendeley

Speaker 2: You will need to install the citation plugin for Microsoft Word from Mendeley. To install it, follow the same steps as for installing the Mendeley Web Importer. Open your Microsoft Word document. The Mendeley extension is located on the Reference tab. Mendeley allows you to select the style of citation you need. There are a number of styles included in the Style Selection field, from APA to IEEE. Click where you want your citation to be inserted. Then, on the Mendeley extension, click on Insert or Edit Citation.

Speaker 1: The Mendeley Citation Editor window appears. Select the reference you want to cite and click the OK button. The Citation Editor window again appears to allow the addition of a second reference. If you have no other references to cite, click on OK. Mendeley will create the citation which appears on your document. You can change the citation style by going to the Mendeley toolbar in Word and clicking on Style. A drop-down list of available citation styles will display from which you may choose.

Speaker 2: Once you have completed your citation, you can create the bibliography by going to the Mendeley toolbar and clicking on the Insert Bibliography icon. Mendeley will automatically create a list of the references cited in your work in accordance with the style that you chose.

Speaker 1: Sotero Another software option to manage references is Sotero. Sotero is also an open-source software for reference management, offered by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University in the United States. Some of its most noticeable characteristics include web browser integration, generation of in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies, as well as integration with word processors including Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer, and Google Docs.

Speaker 2: First, you will need to install the software. Go to www.sotero.org. On the home page, click on the Download button. Select your platform, wait until the download is completed, and follow the normal installation process. After the installation is done, click on the icon of the app to open it. Sotero is now ready to be used.

Speaker 1: When the software runs for the first time, it automatically opens a tab on the browser and asks if the installation of the Sotero Connector plugin is desired. Once this plugin is installed, Sotero can automatically add content from a webpage to your reference list.

Speaker 2: The Sotero window has three columns that present the references under different specifications. Your Sotero libraries and collections appear in column 1. Column 2 displays the articles contained in the collection. Column 3 shows information about the selected items.

Speaker 1: To begin using Sotero, let's create a collection. Click on the New Collection button in the upper left corner. Give the collection a name. You can name your collection according to your research topic. For example, Educational Innovation. A right-click on the collection will display some action options. Click on the New Subcollection and give the subcollection a name. The subcollections can be the research divisions or subtopics of your theme. References are added to a Sotero collection in several ways. Let's check out some examples.

Speaker 2: Add references manually. Click on the New Item icon. In the drop-down menu, select the type of item you want to add. If you don't see the one you need, click on More for more options to appear. Once you select a type of item, you can fill in information about the material on the right column. As you enter the information, the reference is automatically created and saved.

Speaker 1: Add references from web sources. To add references directly from web sources, first, make sure that you have installed the Sotero connector in your browser. If you don't have the connector, click on Tools and Install Browser Connector to download the connector and install it. To add references, for example, from a Google Scholar search, click on the Sotero icon and select the article of interest from the drop-down list.

Speaker 2: Select the collection or subcollection in which you want the materials to be stored and click Done. The references should appear in the Sotero library with all the related information. The Sotero connector allows adding references from various sources, including Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, etc.

Speaker 1: Create a bibliography from Sotero. Select the materials desired in your bibliography and do a right-click. Select Create a Bibliography from Selected Items and choose the citation style. You can download more citation styles from the Sotero webpage or add your preferred styles. The reference style is typically selected according to the guidelines of the journal one aims to submit to. This may vary from one journal to another.

Speaker 2: When using the reference management software, you can change the citation style without any problem. Sotero allows the selection of the citation style, the language, and the format of the bibliography. Next, give the reference list a name and save it.

Speaker 1: Sotero's Word and OpenOffice plugins link the citations from Sotero to the Word processor, which makes it more convenient to create bibliographies. With Sotero version 5.0, the plugin automatically links to Word or OpenOffice. The Sotero plugin contains five main options. These are Add Edit Citation, Add Edit Bibliography, Document Preferences, Refresh, and Unlink Citations.

Speaker 2: To add a citation in the text, put the cursor at the location in the document where the citation is desired and click on Add slash Edit Citation. If this is the first citation of the text, the Document Preferences window will open. Choose the bibliographic format you want to use and click OK. A new box, the C window, will appear. Click on the Classic View option. The Add slash Edit Citation window will open. Select your desired document and click on OK. To create a bibliography, click on the Add slash Edit Bibliography icon. This automatically adds the bibliography in your selected style to the bottom of the document.

Speaker 1: As you saw, managing your references can be easy with the help of reference management software, such as Mandalay and Sotero. If you need more information regarding these reference managing tools, please contact us and stay tuned for our next videos. Thank you for watching.