Academic Writing Success - Simple Literary Research Strategies

There is an academic community, often forgotten in faculty circles, which I have great admiration for: librarians. Think about how their work has changed over the last 30 years. Their world has changed dramatically from the people who worked re-shelving books in the stacks, typing bibliographic card entries and maintaining order in the card catalog drawers. Even the name of their role has changed: they are now considered "library and information science specialists."

Their tools are no longer cards, paper slips and typewriters: instead they master online and computer based searching, ready to guide us into the riches they can retrieve.

There are tiers of what they can do for the academic in need: they can provide bibliographic trails for your projects, with notes- they can help provide lists of references you can use to help write articles, chapters, and books. As you delve deeper into their skills, they can do even more- for example, they can help you learn and operate online bibliographic databases, such as Refworks, EndNote, etc. There are so many different ways that these under-recognized experts can provide assistance: they are experts who deserve far more attention than they customarily receive.

Library and information science specialists also have a macro and micro perspective of resources, databases, archives, and serial publications of which we cannot dream. In one of my specialty fields alone, distance learning, the number of new journals which emerge annually is staggering. And yet such changes do not fluster these master resource tamers! It is because of them that we have such fabulous reference management tools available to us at any computer connected to the Web.

Scanning the websites of major universities and colleges across the USA, it is easy to see that many libraries have brought bibliographic format and tools to the forefront of their services. When one considers the nature of our work as faculty engaged in research and publication, it would serve us well to benefit from a perspective and skill upgrade in this area. Bibliographic support is an area in which faculty will experience a quick return on time invested.

Simple Research Organizational Strategies

Documenting Your Research Trail

One of the basic strategies I have developed over the years is to open an extra MSWord document when I am doing research and to copy and paste resources I view (articles, and books I find) along with brief notes about my reading in them or key points I recognize in them immediately.

This strategy basically provides a digital transcript of your search without retyping information and has many efficiency boosting benefits.

• When assembling references one does not have to spend another 30 minutes re-locating cited publications to access complete reference details.
• The written notes provide a permanent record which prevents small details from slipping through the cracks of our busy minds, and may help trends and patterns "bubble up" to the surface.
• Quickly scanning the pages of our research can help us quickly and accurately identify areas we have not yet investigated. Thus, we are able to develop a comprehensive final literature review more efficiently.
• Sometimes these research trails may be used to extract helpful bibliographic resources, course guides, or reference guides for our classes.

I have recently learned that many lawyers conduct their research in this same manner. If you do not already do something like what I describe here, I highly recommend you give it a try. This process has a high return on investment of our time and effort as it is a simple way to the research trail and notes with many immediate and long lasting benefits.

Online Reference Management Software

The next tool to add to your writing and research tool bag is the use of online reference management software, which really serves as your personalized bibliographic database! The first step is to check with your library or instructional technology department to determine if they have a site license for you to use, and for which program. This strategy provides you with a powerful and efficient tool for free (and as academics we love free resources). Once you determine if and what online tool you have available through your institution, check it out online and look at the tutorials. Also ask if your college/university has in person training sessions to guide you through setting up your database most efficiently.

The reason you want to use one of these online reference tools is that they provide the means to store, organize and retrieve your growing body of references for your many different writing projects.

What products are available at this time? Refworks and EndNote are by far the most robust and popular in higher education, but you need a subscription for full access. If your school does not have this yet, (1) voice your need to the library and academic dean, (2) consider an individual license or one of the free/inexpensive applications such as Wizfolio, Zoho, CiteUlike, NoodleTools, etc.

Choosing a Reference Management Software Package

When choosing a reference management software package, the first criteria may well be which is available through your institutions. Once you have begun to use some of the basic features of that or a free product, you might spread your wings and compare features among products to fine tune your choice. However, I strongly recommend if you have not used one of these products before, you dig in and get your fingers moving on the keyboard by using one to work on a paper/article you are drafting or conducting preliminary research for a future project. By test-driving the products in this manner you will be able to better and more realistically evaluate their respective benefits, efficiencies, and applications to your specific content area and databases.

Some of the features you will want to examine include the following characteristics. Your choices will depend on your needs. Each of us have different preferences; therefore, make your own choice based on your needs and at this time and be aware of options to move to a different product if you would like to in the future. These products continue to improve and evolve. So we should have even greater options in the future.

Questions to Ask About Reference Management Software

Does the software...

• Work over the web or have to be installed one each computer?
• Work even if you do not have online access?
• Allow password protection of your account?
• Affordable subscription options?
• Have to be installed on a central server, or is hosted by the vendor?
• Within the range of your technical expertise limits and desires?
• Provide good on-demand tutorials?
• Provide free access to technical support in the format you desire? (Phone, email, chat?)
• Allow the database of references it compiles by the software exportable to csv files?
• Allow you to import files from other packages or generic formats (csv)?
• Integrate with your work processor of choice?
• Include a citation tracker where it will create a reference list based on the citations you choose for a document?
• Export your reference list to the manual of style you use? (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.)
• Allow for online and local (on your own computer) backups?

With this list as a background, now you are well equipped to begin looking at some products. For a most complete and current list check the Wikipedia listing which is collectively updated at Wikipedia under "Comparison_of_reference_management_software"

Changing our work habits is never easy, but if you remember the time when you switched from yellow legal pads to keyboards for writing your manuscripts, you will recall the increase in productivity you experienced ultimately. In a similar manner, the benefits of reference and research management can catapult your efficiency and also give rise to new ideas as you organize your thinking and work with new tools.

Whether you begin developing an electronic Research Trail or advance your use of reference management software, consider how you can take your research and writing to the next level. New tools and improvements surround us daily; we need to take the risk of leaving old habits behind and exploring if new tools might be an improvement for us.

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