Reference management
Undertaking research and writing a scientific report or a thesis is not only a matter of finding and collecting data. The information needs to be processed and the sources of information need to be given credit in a coherent and standardized manner. The readers are to understand the difference between the researcher’s own conclusions and those of other researchers or authors. If citation and referencing is not done, the text might be suspected of being the result of plagiarism.
While the choice of referencing system is often a question of discipline, some guides are shared below. The different referencing styles have in common that there will be, inside the text, concise references, as numbers, footnotes or parenthesis, that indicate the sources of information (a bibliographic reference that is found at the end of the text).
Referencing styles
Footnotes are used in accordance with the Oxford style of referencing. Sources are rendered in alphabetical order in the note and the notes might also contain explanatory texts.
Known referencing styles based on the author’s last name plus year of publication intra parenthesis are Harvard (author-year style) and APA (that reminds of Harvard, but with the year put in brackets in the reference list). MLA is also similar to Harvard.
Referencing may also be done based on numbers, as according to the Vancouver style where in-text references are given numbers in chronological order. Numbers that the references keep throughout the text IEEE is similar to Vancouver.
Useful guides to reference styles
- APA style (mostly used in behavioral and social sciences)
- Harvard style (used in several disciplines)
- IEEE style (used in the field of technology)
- MLA style (used in literature studies)
- Oxford style (used in various disciplines such as history, law, theology)
- Vancouver style (used in the field of medicine)
Reference management tools
There are a number of different reference management tools but they all have in common that you create a database of your preferred references, which will then be used in your process of writing, creating references in the style used within your discipline. The Henry and Sayuni Kasozi Library services are going to provide support in the usage of reference management software.
Important Links.
Zotero
a free easy to-use -tool you can use to collect, organize, cite, and share research. This is a free and open-source reference management software to manage bibliographic data and related research materials.
Mendeley
Mendeley is a free reference manager and an academic social network. Manage your research, showcase your work, connect and collaborate. This is a desktop and web program produced by Elsevier for managing and sharing research papers, discovering research data and collaborating online. It combines Mendeley Desktop, a PDF and reference management application available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Free Plagiarism Detection Tools
Plagiarism is a serious offense that can turn your reputation around. It is wise to use an online plagiarism detector to get ahead of your competitors, classmates, and colleagues by publishing content that is completely free of plagiarism.
- Dupli Checker
This is one of the most effective free plagiarism detection tools on the Internet. While it doesn’t have a fancy interface, it certainly gets the job done well. - Plagiarisma
Basic and easy-to-use, multi-purpose plagiarism detection tool that is used by students, teachers, writers, as well as various members of the literary industry. - PaperRater
A multi-purpose free plagiarism detection tool that is used in over 140 countries. - Copyleaks
This cloud-based authentication platform enables you to track how eLearning content is being used all around the Internet. - Prepostseo Plagiarism Checker . Plagiarism checker that checks your content for plagiarism by comparing it to billions of online resources.
- Plagiarism Checker
User-friendly, entirely free plagiarism detection tool to check whether content is plagiarized.
