Assignment
Scholarly Writing Reference Basics

Administration

Precisely-named submission files for D2L (zipped together):

• ScholarlyChecklist.html— Copy the HTML source and change no to yes as appropriate: Scholarly Sources Checklist
  

• ScholarlySources.docx—your fake scholarly paper with citations, bibliography and—at the bottom—annotated screenshots.

• ScholarlySourcesTII.docx—(or .html) your paper submitted to the D2L TurnItIn link.

• MySources.xml A copy of your XML format Microsoft Word Sources.html file or equivalent.

Learning Goals:

• ...locate your master Word bibliography file, how to copy it and how to merge new entries into it.

• ...capture formal citations provided as online resources associated with articles.

• ...convert online citations to a format suitable for use in Word documents, and have at least one way to merge them into your master bibliography.

• ...create a style- and entry-flexible bibliogrpahy in Word (or similar) and enter citations in text that refer to it.

• ...find online sources for new articles through the DPU library using your EZProxy credentials.

The assignment

A Complete Walkthrough available that takes you through most of this assignment.

Notes:

• Very important: In Word, you need to create your initial Sources.xml file. Otherwise you won't be able to find it—because it isn't there! This is especially important on the Mac. In the case that you have never created any bibliographic entries (and thus have no Sources.xml file), you must:
  1. Open Word
  2. Select the "References" tab
  3. Choose "Manage Sources"
  4. Press the "New..." button
  5. Enter a fake Journal Article or Book using your own name and a title of "My FAKE ENTRY for Sources.xml."
  6. Press the OK button. At this point your are done. You will have a Sources.xml file.
  7. For fun and practice, in your junk testing Word document, you can also type in a sentence, then under the Word References tab, select "Insert Citation" and insert your new (fake) citation. Then, select the Bibliography dropdown and create a bibliography with your citation in it as well.

• Techniques, file locations and etc. are provided here as suggestions. However, individual computers and software are configured differently. File locations change. Your job is to use these suggestions as a starting point, then figure out on your own how to get the assignment completed. You may have to search for the location of your Sources.xml file.

• If you have suggestions, helpful URLs or updates to the techniques, send them to me and I will post them here.

• If you don't use Word (e.g., you are using LaTex instead) you still have to complete the assignment, but submit reasonable similar versions of the files you use including, explicitly, your master bibliography file. Provide clear notes on what you have done at the bottom of your checklist.

• If you are already familiar with bibliographic and scholarly search techniques, this assignment should only take a few minutes. I apologize for the redundancy.

• We will be playing with merging your master bibliography file. Be sure to make backup copies of this file (typically named Sources.xml) and save it in a safe place so you can restore it if something goes wrong.

• Most of these older established citation formats are poor when it comes to first names of authors and DOI Digital Object Identifiers, so you may wish to add these to your bibliography manually.

• If you come across a bug in the assignment, let me know. It is still being developed.

Finding the Manage Sources functionality on the Mac:

1. You can only use a file called Sources.xml. You have no choice. On Windows you can choose which XML-formatted bibliographic file to use. So, you are going to have to save existing Sources.xml files under a different name, and copy your new file into the correct directory with the name Sources.xml if you want Word to find it.

2. Currently, to manipulate your sources in Word, use References | Citations | "Settings gear icon" menu on the lower right | drop down to Citation Source Manager.

If you already have an existing Word bibliography file:

All students should note that this merging process will, in theory, continue throughout your academic life.

The Word document file:

Your ScholarlySources Word document must contain:

• At least one paragraph of text in the assigned domain that has a minimum of five new references in it. These new references are the ones you have located in the other part of this assignment. The references must also appear in a bibliography at the end of the paper. Don't write the paper, and be artificially direct in your paragraph: we just want a demonstration of the bibliographic / citatation tecnique. This is about mastering the structure of accessing articles through the DPU library and getting the references into your master bibliography. It is not about the content of the paper

• Convincing annotated screenshots of your path through the DePaul libarary resources showing that you have selected databases to search for articles, searched them, narrowed or expanded your search, downloaded the text of new articles, and that you have produced automated citations for the articles you have examined. Give (small but readable) screenshots of:

  1. Setting up Google Scholar with DPU library access.
  2. Selecting databases at DPU library—several versions of this.
  3. Searching your databases for an article.
  4. Downloading a copy of the article.
  5. Copying the formal citation for the article.
  6. Using JabRef to create a BibTex format version of the citation.
  7. Your Word-appropriate XML version of the new citations.
  8. Merging your new references into your existing Word bibliography.

• Your annotations must be suffiently personal to pass a plagiarism test, and should include your brief commentary on the process such as would be suitable for you to review a year later when writing a scholarly article for submission to a conference.

Google Scholar configuration:

1. Scholar.Google.com

2. Three bars drop-down menu on the left hand upper corner / Settings / Library Links.

3. Search for DePaul University.

4. Check each of the [3] boxes (which will configure the results pages in scholar.google.com)

5. Save your changes.

Searching for articles using the DPU library resources:

Possible location of your Word Sources.xml file:

• Windows: C:\Users\[Account]\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\Bibliography\Sources.xml (Note that you may have to manually type in the pathname; Microsoft tends to hide some of these directories, so they don't display in File Explorer.)

• Here is the similar procedure for Mac users: Sources.xml on Mac.

Merging your new references into your Word format bibliography:

This procedure follows the illustrated Complete Walkthrough.

Note: you may have a better way of achieving these results. If so, use them and let me know about them.

If you are using proprietary bibliographic software such as Endnote or Zotero then adapt as needed to complete the assignment, and explain at the bottom of the checklist.

In my experience MS Word is used by virtualy all students for writing papers at DePaul. If you are using a different word processor, let me know, and submit a version of this assignment that matches your environment. But you must work through the same bibliographic steps.

Download and install the JabRef open source bibliographic reference manager.

If you use the default (World Cat) search box from the DPU library home page the results will display a View Full Text button if DePaul has purchased rights to this article.

If you use the more refined database searches, you will use Find Full Text @ Depaul, then click on the "ARTICLE" link to retrieve the text.

Many papers have a double-quote icon at the bottom which will allow you to view and copy a formal citation for the paper. But you may have to enter whatever you have (e.g., the name of the article and/or the authors). However Worldcat and others do not support the Microsoft Word XML bibliography format, so we need to convert the reference to this XML format and merge it with your master Word bibliography. This requires two steps: translating into BibTex format and then translating into XML format suitable for word.

1. In World Cat (or other) select a citation style. APA version 6 is pretty standard.

2. Copy the text of the citation

3. Insert that citation into the search box for Google Scholar (or just do this directly, skipping the first two steps).

4. Assuming you retrieve a reference to the same article, click on the double-quote citation icon beneath the reference.

5. Select BibTex format

6. Copy the citation. Paste it into a file with extension of .bib into some working directory

7. If you have one, copy your current Word bibliography to the working directory (see location for this file above). MAKE A BACKUP OF THIS FILE and KNOW WHERE TO PUT IT BACK.

8. Open JabRef

9. File / Import into new library

10. Browse to your .bib file / import it

11. Import into current library

12. Browse to your existing Word bibliography (same working directory?) / Import it

13. You have now combined your new references with your old ones in a single bibliography.

14. File / Export

15. Use MS Office 2007 format [This saves the merged bibliography as Word-friendly .XML]

16. Note the directory where you save it.

17. Open your document in Word. Navigate to References / Manage Sources

18. Hit Browse. Be SURE to note where your current directory is. THIS IS IMPORTANT. You might need to return to it.

19. Browse to the directory where you have saved your new .XML file. Select that file.

20. You are now using your merged directory in Word.

Creating your Word submission file:

1. Use References / Insert Bibliography to insert a bibliography into your document.

2. Copy all the sources that you need from your combined bibliography into your "current list".

3. Rebuild your bibliography by clicking on the tab at the top of the bibliography object.

4. Write the (for this assignment, very limited—one paragraph) text of your paper.

5. Use References / Insert Citations to insert five new citations in the chosen domain into your document.

6. AT THE BOTTOM of your word file AFTER THE BIBLIOGRAPHY, insert your screenshot-annotated tour through the online reference retrieval at library.depaul.edu.

Submission:

1. Concatenate your completed Checklist HTML file, your Word document and your combined XML bibliographic database together using standard ZIP.

2. Submit to D2L before the deadline.