THE DISSERTATION BULLETIN, Vol. 11
Referencing and Bibliographic Software
Introduction
I have never seen a dissertation that did not have referencing errors. When I say referencing errors, I mean errors of style in either the in-text (or footnotes) references and/or the bibliography. Quite frankly, I don't really expect to see one without any referencing errors at all either. But there are errors and errors. A couple of typos, while not neat, are forgivable. A list of mistakes as long as my arm implies that the dissertation writer didn't care enough about their work to get the formalities right. And guess what reaction that! 's going to get from an examiner? That's right, the standard "if you don't care, why on earth should I?" response.
Getting It Right
It doesn't have to be that way. You have a number of options. First is to do all the references by hand, check, double-check, and then recheck again. You'll probably still miss a couple, but your work will be vastly improved. If you've got the time, do it.
Another option is to pay a professional editor to check your references and bibliography. But good editors are professional people, and they charge by the hour. There is no such thing as a good cut-rate editor. At least, I've never met one. Editing for style errors in references is among the most-uncreative and mind-numbing work one can think of. No matter who does it, it will take a lot of time. If it's a professional editor's time, either they will charge you for it, or they will skimp on the details. And besides, there's no real reason why you should be paying somebody to do what you can easily do y! ourself.
Yes, I said easily do yourself. How, you may wonder? The answer is simple: Get some good referencing software, learn how to use it, and use it religiously. It's an investment of time that pays huge dividends. They are all kinds of software packages out there that will do your references for you. As far as I've been able to tell, none is very much better than the next from the perspective of dissertation writers. Some are very expensive, while some -- wait for it -- are free.
Good referencing software should come with the most popular referencing styles built in (usually that means Harvard, APA, Chicago Manual of Style and MLA), and it should allow you to adapt those styles to a completely different style if you need to.
Good referencing software should also be able to insert your references directly into your document, without you having to type or paste anything. You should simply put your cursor on the place where you want the citation to app! ear, select the record, and click transfer. It should not make any difference whether you use an in-text, footnote or endnote referencing style.
Once you're done with your dissertation, your referencing software should create your bibliography or list of sources for you. In other words, you should just have to select the records that you want in your bibliography, click go, and the program should automatically transfer them all into your bibliography, in alphabetical order, and in the required style. No typing required.
Of course, there is a catch: When you enter the information about a book, article or other source into the program, you have to do it carefully. You only need to do it once, but that one time must be right. If not, the error is going to be repeated whenever you use the source in your dissertation!
Scholar's Aid Lite
As you've probably figured out by now, I'm a huge fan of referencing software. The software that I use, Scholar's Aid Lite, is free, plenty powerfu! l enough for the writing of a dissertation, and easy to learn to use. It pretty much does all the things that good referencing software should do.
All it requires is that you select the type of source you want to reference, for example, a chapter in a book, an article, an Internet source or anything else, and then fill in the information requested. After you've done that, simply click 'Update' and it will be added to your library of sources. You can use it as often as you need after that. You can also set the program to prompt you for a page number every time you insert a reference, so you won't forget them. You can also keep multiple "libraries" of sources, so you can keep the various projects you may be working on separate.
When you download Scholar's Aid Lite, it will come with another program, Scholar's Aid Notes. I've found that academic notes software tends to be a lot less useful than referencing software. They all suffer from a number of inherent disad! vantages: the notes difficult to shuffle around, you need to have the computer with you when you're taking notes, your screen can only show a limited amount of notes at a time, and so on.
To my tastes, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. I prefer to use index cards. They have none of the disadvantages of notes programs, and once you learn to use them properly, it becomes second nature. They are invaluable during the researching, structuring, and writing of your dissertation.
You can download a free copy of Scholar's Aid Litehere. You'll need to scroll down to get to the free version (6.5 MB). You can also download the manuals in either MSWord or .RTF format. The program will ask you to register after thirty days, but the registration is free.
Zotero
An alternative to ScholarsAidLite is Zotero. It's not a stand-alone program though; it integrates itself in the web-browser Firefox as an add-in. It won't work with MS Exp! lorer, but that's no big deal, as Firefox does exactly the same things and it's also free (you can get a copy here.)
Zotero is a little different from the usual referencing programs. While it can be used like a standard referencing manager, it really comes into its own when used online. It automatically collects the bibliographical information from the web page, will optionally allow you to store a copy of the page, and you get to make notes. There are more functions; if you're interested, you can check it out here. Like ScholarsAid, it's free.
Conclusion
References are an important part of your dissertation. They point other scholars to related work, and give credit were credit is due. They also guard you against accusations of plagiarism, one of the cardinal sins of the academic worl! d.
One of the many things you can do to make a good impression when you hand in your dissertation is to have your references right, both factually and in style. And with referencing software, it's not that hard.
P.S. You can also download complete (and free) hard-copy versions of the Harvard, APA, Chicago Manual of Style and MLA referencing styles in the free tools section at Exactica's website. Click here to go there. They'll show you how to make a citation and a bibliographical entry for just about any imaginable source; Internet, government documents, periodicals, books, conference proceedings, or just about anything else you can imagine.
Comments, Suggestions and Questions
What's the difference between a research design and a research method?
Good question. The two terms are so often used interchangeably that it is doubtful whether there is any point trying to give a universal definition. Having said that, I'll provide an answer based on how I prefer to use the terms:
Both the terms "research design" and "method": are commonly used to refer to:
- your particular way of coming to a conclusion about your problem / thesis statement (i.e. how you designed your study), or
- the general technique/s that you employ to examine your problem / thesis statement, for example, interviews, a case-study, content analysis or an experiment, etc. In this sense, the research technique is not focused on any specific problem; it can potentially be applied to many different problems.
By and large, in t! he academic world, you need to figure out which meaning is intended by the context. I prefer to use the word 'method' to mean your specific way of coming to a conclusion about the problem / thesis statement that your work deals with (in other words, how you apply one or more research designs to your problem).
I use the phrase 'research design' in both senses above. In other words, the research design section of your dissertation will tell readers which research design(s) you used in your study. Your method section will explain the nitty-gritty of how you apply that (or those) research designs to your specific study.
Hi, can you provide more information on the use of focus groups in qualitative research in the Dissertation Bulletin?
Phew - that's a rather broad question, and more than I can answer fully here. But I'll give you the basics, and if you find it a possibly useful technique for your work, you can always go to the library and check out a couple of bo! oks on the subject. There are plenty.
Essentially, focus groups are (relatively unstructured) interviews with small groups of people (usually around 10) that are focused on the topic that the researcher wants to learn more about. As such it is a qualitative research technique. It can be potentially applied to many different problems - it can be used to establish a participant in views on a given matter, be used to gather information to generate hypotheses for further research, or to gain the insight needed to structure questionnaires, to name but a few examples.
Like all research techniques, focus groups have their advantages and their disadvantages. Among the advantages are that they can be very cost-effective (if not too many groups are a run!), they can generate in depth and spontaneous information that might be difficult to get in any other way, and the information from focus groups can often be easily combined with information from other sources.
T! he main disadvantages are problems of objectivity and representativeness of participants and hence generalisability of results. There are many variants on focus groups that attempted to address these issues, but ultimately as with all forms of qualitative research, doing it to really right is as much art as craft.
Success in focus groups lies in three main areas:
1. Planning of the research. This includes things like:
a) Selecting of participants
b) Selecting of questions to be discussed
c) Physical preparation (e.g. letters of invitation, venue, refreshments, length of sessions, follow-ups etc.)
2. The skills of the facilitator.
Experience is important; the facilitator can make or break a session. Ideally, a good facilitator should e! nsure that all participants are relaxed, that sessions are kept on topic (but not necessarily too strictly!), that no personalities dominate, that there is room for dissent, and that the objectives of the research are otherwise met (i.e. questions are understood by all, and that everything is kept more or less on schedule so that all points of interest are covered).
3. Data collection and analysis.
The data collection has to do with recording techniques employed by the researcher (admittedly it's not always possible to record sessions on tape or video, but if it can be done it should and participants should be made aware that they will be recorded). If tape or video recording is not possible it's often a good idea to have someone other than the facilitator take notes too. It is also often a good idea to record non-verbal communication, although this flows over into participant-observations studies. But there is often useful information to be had there...
In terms of analytical techniques, the transcribing of data (in particular what is and isn't transcribed; it's not always obvious, for example nervous laughs), what the researcher will be looking for in the data, how much weight is given to various observations, and the interpretation of observations are key.
To sum it up: Focus groups can be a very useful research technique, especially when used in conjunction with other techniques. They have broad applicability, but there are dangers.
I'm doing an MBA: How long should my bibliography be?
Strictly speaking, your bibliography should be long enough to provide the reader with a full list of all the works that you cited or referred to in your dissertation, and of those that you consulted which influenced your work. In other words, it should provide a list of works that represent the most important and cutting edge scholarship as it pertains to the problem your work deals with. It should not be padded with irre! levancies in the hope of impressing your reader through sheer volume! What you choose to leave out of your bibliography will tell your reader as much about your work as what you include. Careful selection is the key, and quality is far more important than quantity.
That's probably not much help though, so on a more practical note, my suggestion is to look at your institutional guidelines, and aim to have the number of works in your bibliography within 20% of that. You must of course, per definition include every work that you referred to in your dissertation, whether by direct quotation, or a paraphrasing of the words or ideas.
Pay attention to your bibliography, because it will tell your examiner a lot about the quality of your secondary research, and hence what they can expect in terms of your dissertation. Of course, if you've done a good job researching the secondary literature, you'll have nothing to worry about. It'll reflect in the bibliography.