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4.8: Save Early and Often

  • Page ID
    289253
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    Now that you have an idea of which citations you’ll want to save, you’ll need to save both your search history and your citations.

    Saving Searches

    • If you haven’t already, check with your library for the best way to save your searches.
    • Many databases allow you to create a personal account to save searches and get alerts on new citations added to the database that meet your search criteria. This would still be under your institution's account, so you can think of it like a "profile".
    • If you use Google Scholar, keep a list of what you’ve tried.

    Saving Citations

    Use a citation management tool to save and organize your citations. They can also create your bibliography or works cited page in correct format (APA, MLA, etc.) and do in-text citations.

    Don’t rely on saving links, creating bookmarks - the links might break. And don't just save PDFs - you won't have the citation information easily stored. If you’re not sure of the best tool, check with your library to see what they recommend.

    A few popular options:

    • RefWorks (if your library subscribes to this, you can use it to find the full text)
    • Zotero
    • Mendeley
    • EndNote

    Tip: Always save more citations than you think you need. It’s easier to ignore an extra article than to realize later you need it but can’t find it.

    In Practice

    Activity: Select a citation management tool \(\PageIndex{1}\)

    If you didn’t already do this, check with a librarian on setting up a citation management tool.

    • Play around with the tool to feel comfortable with:
      • Exporting and importing citations (most databases have an easy button to click for this).
      • Creating folders
        • Consider naming them:To Read, Finished Reading, and Not Relevant
        • You can share your folder with a group partner or with your advisor
      • Creating a bibliography
      • Finding full text (does the tool do this, or can you upload the PDF?)
      • Using add-ons and other features (e.g. auto-generating in-text citation tool in Word or Google Docs)
    • Save the citations from the previous section.
    Activity: Save your search history \(\PageIndex{1}\)

    Note: This is not a step for you to read full text. We’ll cover reading and taking notes in Unit 5.


    This page titled 4.8: Save Early and Often is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Frances Brady.

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