Need to Know: Organizing Sources
For term papers or extended projects, you may want to make use of bibliographic application that will help organize your research and citations. Depending on the application used, there are a number of features to make life easier:
- Citations (and full-text) are accessible via the web
- Easily share resources with teammates
- Generate bibliographies easily in established formats
- Integrate with MS Word or Google Docs to easily insert references/endnotes
There are a lot of applications to choose from. the three listed below are those that are supported to some extent by the Libraries. Note that Zotero is open source but if you create an EndNote or RefWorks account while at A&M, you will still have access to it once you graduate (although you will not have access to the full-text databases and ejournals that are limited to current affiliates).
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ZoteroA free research tool created to help collect, organize, share, and cite sources. "It is designed to store, manage, and cite bibliographic references, such as books and articles...Zotero is a powerful tool for collecting and organizing research information and sources."
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RefWorksThis web-based tool is available at no charge to TAMU students and accessible even after graduating. It is ideal for collecting, accessing, organizing, citing, and sharing citations including articles, books, websites, and more.
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EndNoteThe application is free to TAMU students. Stores references to articles and books, allowing you to cite them in one of over 5,000 citation styles. The majority of library databases allow you to export references to your EndNote library.
Avoiding academic integrity issues
Being organized about your research - having a plan, being intentional about searching and collecting information, and organizing it so that it is easy to tell what you have used and where it came from can help avoid some issues with academic misconduct.
Other resources are available through the library guide on Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: https://library.tamu.edu/services/library_tutorials/academic_integrity/index.html
Or through the Aggie Honor System Office: https://aggiehonor.tamu.edu/