Questions from students: which referencing style should I use?

Do you know which referencing style you should use in your essays and dissertation?
You will most probably find the answer to that question in your course handbook, or by asking your tutor.

Nonetheless, know that, if you're a student at the Tavistock and Portman,  it's most probably going to be one of those two options:

• The "Cite Them Right" version of the Harvard Style;
• Or the APA style.

Doing it by hand

To learn how to write in Harvard Style, you can:

• Check out the "Cite Them Right" book in the library (shelfmark JJE);
• Watch this video;
• Ask your tutor to organise a training session with me on the subject.

To learn how to write in APA Style, you can:

• Go over this tutorial;
• Ask your tutor to organise a training session with me on the subject.

With the help of a software

You also can you a reference management software that will "write" everything in the format you want automatically.

If you've never used such a software and don't have too many references, you can use RefMe, which is a free and very easy of use web application.
Just create an account and start entering information about your documents!

If you have a long reference list to create and don't mind learning to use a new software, you should try EndNote Web.
You will probably need a little bit more help to get it set up. So you should:

• Have a look at my "Citing and Referencing... with a software" section on the Information Skills Moodle course;
• Check the "Managing References" section on this blog;
• Ask your tutor to organise a training session with me on the subject. 

Good luck with your referencing!

Questions from students: How to add page numbers to a citation with EndNote?

Are you using EndNote to save your references and write your papers? You should!
If you don't do it yet, have a look at my page about EndNote.

I regularly give training sessions on this magnificent tool and here is a question which came up recently during one of those sessions: "How do I add page numbers to a citation in a Word document?"

This is actually an interesting feature of EndNote's "Cite While You Write" plugin (which enables you to insert citations easily and painlessly in your papers).
This presentation will show you how to add page numbers to a in-text citation in just a few clicks.

How to add page numbers to a citation with Cite While You Write from iSkillsTav

Questions from students: What does "Shibboleth" means?

During one of my latest training sessions, one of the students stumped me by asking "Where does the name "Shibboleth” comes from?". Well, here is the answer...

According to Wikipedia, the word Shibboleth comes from the Hebrew word shibbólet, which literally means the part of a plant containing grains, such as an ear of corn or a stalk of grain or, in different contexts, "stream, torrent".

Today, the word shibboleth applies to a word or a custom whose variations in pronunciation or style can be used to differentiate members of ingroups from those of outgroups. Within the mindset of the ingroup, a connotation or value judgment of correct / incorrect or superior / inferior can be ascribed to the two variants.

In the context of IT, Shibboleth is a 'single-sign in', or logging-in system for computer networks and the Internet. It allows people to sign in, using just one 'identity', to various systems run by different organisations or institutions (often universities or public organisations).

This is why, using only your Shibboleth password, you can access to the 13.000 online journals the library subscribe to, all our bibliographic databases, your reading lists and Moodle!

Questions from students: Geographical Limitation

During a session on literature search, a student asked me if it was possible to limit results to a particular geographic area.

From what I can see, when using the EbscoHOST databases that we have access to at Tavistock and Portman, the "geography" limiter (to limit your search to a particular country) seems to pop up depending on the database you’re using.

For example, you can use it with SocIndex, CINAHL or Medline.

It doesn't seem to be available in PsycINFO at the moment, but you can still use the field "PL Location" when you set up your advanced search.



Click on the image to enlarge it.



You might want to try different names (for example, “England”, “Great Britain”, “United Kingdom”, “Europe”) depending on the geographical area you’re searching, to be sure to be completely thorough.