Author: Águeda Delgado-Ponce – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion
One of the aspects that are a pain in the neck for most of the investigators when elaborating their reports, articles, etc. is the management of bibliographical references, especially in those novice authors. However, this is a crucial labor that should accompany to the reading and if it is done correctly since the beginning it could avoid future problems.
The reference managers that emerge with the domain of technologies make it easier this task, by giving great advantages to the tedious work of storing the references, organizing and adapting them to the corresponding norms, which, in addition could vary from one publication to another, with the consequent effort of adapting them once the article is elaborated. Therefore, it is always recommended to select in advance the journal to which it is destined the article in order to avoid unexpected surprises; although we count with the support of a bibliographical manager.
Currently, it exists a great variety of programs for these purposes: EndNote, BixTex, Bibus, RefWorks, Zotero, among others; with similar characteristics
In the majority of them it could be added the references manually, export or import them. In fact, many of the search engines include on their search results the option of exporting references, as it could be seen in the selected image of Academic Google. This way, we can create our own database, storing the references that interest us. Similarly, we have the option of organizing the information in folders, converting the bibliography to different formats (in the majority of programs it appears the main ones: APA, MLA, Vancouver o Harvard) and moreover, sharing the references; an option that becomes essential in the writing and shared investigation that encourage the communication technologies. Finally, it is important to mention the possibility of connecting with the text editor in order to include the references as it is elaborated the article and incorporate the final list.
To sum up, among the most utilized programs in the academic field and about which we will go in deep on later posts, will be the cited ones: RefWorks for the members of the University community; EndNote, developed by Clarivate Analytics and which requires purchase, although it includes a free proof option; and Zotero, the only one of the three mentioned before, which is free, open and gratuitous.
