List Archives >  Reference Manager List Archive >  Archive by date >  This Month By Date >  This Month By Topic

Managing your collection of books and papers

Search email archive for  

Managing your collection of books and papers
Author: Peter Malling    Posted: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 15:10:00 -0800
As a researcher, you have both books and articles. 1. Do you enter both books and articles into the same database (if you keep one big database, as seems to be the norm)? 2. Do you enter ALL material, you get, into the database. If you buy a new book, do you then enter it into your database instantly, or do you wait until you maybe use it for your writing? That is, do you aim at keeping the database as a mirror of your physical collection, or do you use it more pragmatically, according to your needs in writing? 3. When a book is added to your collection, then do you always enter it in the database? 4. What do you do with edited books? Do you enter all the chapters in such a book, or only a reference to the full book? And then, when you need a chapter from an edited book, then do you enter it as a separate record, which means that you database will be quite fragmentet, including only references to the chapters, you've used in your own writing? On one hand, it would be nice to have a fully updated database, reflecting everything you have. On the other hand you don't want to use your precious research-time entering records in the database that you might never use. It would be nice if somewhere you could just enter the ISDN-number of a book, you got, and then download the information (several records with all the chapters, if it was an edited book) and import it into RM. But maybe something like this would be possible using Z39.50 sites, but then which hosts should you choose? I tried to choose Danish Royal Library, but it didn't return any posts on searches which should return records. Best regards, Peter. ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System.

Re: Managing your collection of books and papers
Author: Lee Lim    Posted: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:25:00 -0800
Dear Peter, I am sure everyone uses RefMan in different ways. My experience with it during my PhD years had been a positive one. I could not imagine how I coped without it. I still use it for my journal paper writing. There are probably some equivalent packages out there. Reference Manager helps you to manage your references but it cannot organize your PhD study or thesis writing. You need to use MS words and the like as well. I would put all the likely useful references into a main database for the PhD project. Since a large amount of published journal articles could be easily downloaded to the database, I tended to be more liberal. I am not aware of any book database that one can download. I share your wish about it. If there is one I would like to know. But whole book reference is not a huge problem. Book chapter references can be tedious to key in. I keyed them in as I needed them. I filed all my hard copy papers according to authors in alphabetic order. Digital papers are getting more easily available. Its organisation into folders is even easier. Using MS Word, I wrote all the chapter headings and subheadings first. This served to outline my thoughts and ideas chapter by chapter, subsection by subsection. You can re-organize them when the need arises. You can then start writing paragraphs including in-text citation in whatever chapter or whatever subsections as soon as you are ready. You must cite the needed references as you write. If the reference is not in the main database, go and fill it up and so on. Consistency is important. The process saves you time and confusion in the long run. Sometimes when you read a key paper and not sure precisely where it belongs to, you may write a paragraph complete with in-text citation as you read and save it as a standalone word file and also enter a notation in the field Notes of the reference to remind yourself. This process would be on-going for a while before the first draft is done. RM saves you a lot time to generate the proper and consistent in-text citations and a complete reference list in your chosen format for the first draft. If you happen to have a few databases to complete the referencing task you can include them in your RM setting. After the first draft you can change citation format to any format you like, and changing or moving things around become easy during review processes. Any minor hiccups are manageable. Hopefully the experience may be of some help. Regards, Lee Chong Lee Lim Department of Neurology Westmead Hospital Westmead NSW 2145 Australia Tel: +612 9845 6834 Fax:+612 9635 6684 >>> Peter.Malling "pma" 9/07/2005 9:10:00 am >>> As a researcher, you have both books and articles. 1. Do you enter both books and articles into the same database (if you keep one big database, as seems to be the norm)? 2. Do you enter ALL material, you get, into the database. If you buy a new book, do you then enter it into your database instantly, or do you wait until you maybe use it for your writing? That is, do you aim at keeping the database as a mirror of your physical collection, or do you use it more pragmatically, according to your needs in writing? 3. When a book is added to your collection, then do you always enter it in the database? 4. What do you do with edited books? Do you enter all the chapters in such a book, or only a reference to the full book? And then, when you need a chapter from an edited book, then do you enter it as a separate record, which means that you database will be quite fragmentet, including only references to the chapters, you've used in your own writing? On one hand, it would be nice to have a fully updated database, reflecting everything you have. On the other hand you don't want to use your precious research-time entering records in the database that you might never use. It would be nice if somewhere you could just enter the ISDN-number of a book, you got, and then download the information (several records with all the chapters, if it was an edited book) and import it into RM. But maybe something like this would be possible using Z39.50 sites, but then which hosts should you choose? I tried to choose Danish Royal Library, but it didn't return any posts on searches which should return records. Best regards, Peter. ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. __________________________________________________________________ This electronic message and any attachments may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this message would you please delete the message and any attachments and advise the sender. Western Sydney Area Health Services (WSAHS) uses virus scanning software but excludes any liability for viruses contained in any email or attachment. This email may contain privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the addressees named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution, or reproduction of this email is prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify WSAHS immediately. Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender except where the sender expressly and with authority states them to be the views of WSAHS. ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

Re: Managing your collection of books and papers
Author: Sarah Cage    Posted: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:30:00 -0800
This really depends on what you're using your database for. I would advise putting everything on one database, as otherwise you have problems deciding whether a report is a book or a journal article etc. We put all books on the database when we get them (to act as a sort of library catalogue), but only put individual chapters on if they are cited in a publication (to save on work, as some chapters will never be cited). As we use our database for a circulated current awareness list, we have a lot of citations to references we haven't got, but we do make sure that any references which we order from outside journals get added to the database (again for library administration reasons as well as so we can cite them). Not sure if this is "best practice" - but it works for our database. In terms of subject organisation - we group the copies into broad subject areas, and then enter the name of the file into the RM database (use the "notes" field for this so it gets scanned for keywords), and use additional keywords to give more idea of the subject. This means we can search on the file name to get everything which should be in a particular file, but can also do a keyword search which will find the more general review articles etc. If you decide that a group of papers refer to a particular section of your thesis, you can use global edit to add a specific keyword to all of them, and then do a keyword search to group the abstracts and give you a list to start writing. This helps with papers that come in more than one section - otherwise, if you are just using physical piles of papers to collect the subject areas, you will have to do (illegal) multiple copies to get these papers into each section. Hope this is useful Sarah Cage Senior Scientific Information Specialist NPIS (Birmingham Centre) Birmingham UK e-mail: "s.cage" ----- Original Message ----- From: ""Peter.Ma??????????????????????" To: "RIS-List" Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 12:10 AM Subject: <RefMan> Managing your collection of books and papers > > As a researcher, you have both books and articles. > > 1. Do you enter both books and articles into the same database (if you > keep one big database, as seems to be the norm)? > > 2. Do you enter ALL material, you get, into the database. If you buy a > new book, do you then enter it into your database instantly, or do you > wait until you maybe use it for your writing? That is, do you aim at > keeping the database as a mirror of your physical collection, or do you > use it more pragmatically, according to your needs in writing? > > 3. When a book is added to your collection, then do you always enter it > in the database? > > 4. What do you do with edited books? Do you enter all the chapters in > such a book, or only a reference to the full book? And then, when you > need a chapter from an edited book, then do you enter it as a separate > record, which means that you database will be quite fragmentet, > including only references to the chapters, you've used in your own > writing? > > On one hand, it would be nice to have a fully updated database, > reflecting everything you have. On the other hand you don't want to use > your precious research-time entering records in the database that you > might never use. > > It would be nice if somewhere you could just enter the ISDN-number of a > book, you got, and then download the information (several records with > all the chapters, if it was an edited book) and import it into RM. But > maybe something like this would be possible using Z39.50 sites, but then > which hosts should you choose? I tried to choose Danish Royal Library, > but it didn't return any posts on searches which should return records. > > Best regards, > Peter. > > ________________________________________________________________________ > This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email > Security System. > > ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

Re: Managing your collection of books and papers
Author: Matthew Langholtz    Posted: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:20:00 -0800
Peter, The short answer from my perspective: One big pile in RefMan. The Key: keywords. You can make your own keywords to sort references any multiple ways you want, simultaneously, in the same RefMan Data Base. I have a list of my special keywords that mean unique things to me. I use a user defined field to note if I have it in *.pdf, its name, otherwise I use the Reprint field to note if I have a hard copy. Regards, Matt --- ris-list-digest "listmaster" wrote: > > ris-list-digest Saturday, July 9 2005 > Volume 01 : Number 1305 > > > > In this issue: > > <RefMan> Best practices for using RM for > research > <RefMan> Managing your collection of books and > papers > <RefMan> changing font in output style > <RefMan> author/date sort problem > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 15:10:00 -0800 > From: Peter.Malling "pma" > Subject: <RefMan> Best practices for using RM for > research > > Hi. > I would like to share with you some general > experiences/concerns on > managing references using RM, and hopefully we can > exchange ideas and > tips. > > I'm writing my PhD thesis in the social sciences, > and I've used RM for > about a year to input the references. Initially, I > had an vague idea > abuot the topics of the thesis, and categorised my > references into about > 15 categories in order to be able to find the > references linking to a > specific subject when writing the literature review > etc. I called one of > the custom fields CAT and made it contain one or > more (max 3) 3-letter > mnenonics, such as PER for personality and NET for > networks. Then the > idea was that I could just make a search for the > subject, and get all > the references relating to that subject, when I was > about to write about > it (typically a certain section in the literature > review). > > However, as I could have anticipated, the structure > of the thesis > changed when I got into the stuff, and even though > the categories are > still relevant, they don't relate directly to each > section to be > written. Many of the sections (and many of the > articles) are > combinations of the categories, and some of the > categories will not be > written about explicitly. > > I have all the papers filed in a filing cabinet, > alphabetically after > author, and my idea was to use the categories in RM > to guide my writing. > (The idea was something like: OK, now I'm going to > write about > personality, so I make a search for PER in RM, RM > gives me a list of the > papers to include in that section, I find the > physical papers, and I > write about them). Even though I can combine the > categories in my > search, I don't get the articles relevant to the > present structure of my > thesis. And I don't have a great view of my articles > either. > > So I've started to physically sort the papers in > piles according to the > present structure of the thesis. This is much > better, as it gives me a > much better view of the papers and how they relate > to each other. Then I > write the references (or copy them from RM) into my > outliner (TreePad, > recommendable!), under the appropriate sections. Now > my own thoughts and > ideas come into play with the references, which is > great. > > But that means that I don't use RM very > innovatively, so to speak. It's > mainly a record of all my references. I'm not really > sure how I should > use RM. Should I put each and every reference I > have, into a single > file, and then just pick the references for the > thesis out of this? This > means that RM won't give me any help in terms of > providing an overview > of my references, it is just a huge "pile" of > references, where I dig > the relevant ones out, when I need them, but use > other software for > actually managing the references according to their > contents, which I > would consider the knowledge management aspect of > writing up research. > > Or should I keep the references relating to my > thesis copied into a > separate RM-file? Then I would have one main file > with ALL references, I > have, and the references relating to the thesis > copied into another > file. But this gives me a problem of redundancy > between the databases, > with all the problems that this gives. And there is > a life after the > thesis - I heard - and then should I have a separate > RM-file for each > paper etc. and each research projects I might become > involved in? > > I would be very interested in hearing what you guys > do? Do you have only > one single RM-file, with everything in, and how do > you actually manage > your references, in relation with you writing? Do > you use RM to > categorise references? > > Regards from a nice, sunny summer-Denmark > Peter. > > ________________________________________________________________________ > This email has been scanned for all viruses by the > MessageLabs Email > Security System. > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Fri, 08 Jul 2005 15:10:00 -0800 > From: Peter.Malling "pma" > Subject: <RefMan> Managing your collection of books > and papers > > As a researcher, you have both books and articles. > > 1. Do you enter both books and articles into the > same database (if you > keep one big database, as seems to be the norm)? > > 2. Do you enter ALL material, you get, into the > database. If you buy a > new book, do you then enter it into your database > instantly, or do you > wait until you maybe use it for your writing? That > is, do you aim at > keeping the database as a mirror of your physical > collection, or do you > use it more pragmatically, according to your needs > in writing? > > 3. When a book is added to your collection, then do > you always enter it > in the database? > > 4. What do you do with edited books? Do you enter > all the chapters in > such a book, or only a reference to the full book? > And then, when you > need a chapter from an edited book, then do you > enter it as a separate > record, which means that you database will be quite > fragmentet, > including only references to the chapters, you've > used in your own > writing? > > On one hand, it would be nice to have a fully > updated database, > reflecting everything you have. On the other hand > you don't want to use > your precious research-time entering records in the > database that you > might never use. > > It would be nice if somewhere you could just enter > the ISDN-number of a > book, you got, and then download the information > (several records with > all the chapters, if it was an edited book) and > import it into RM. But > maybe something like this would be possible using > Z39.50 sites, but then > which hosts should you choose? I tried to choose > Danish Royal Library, > but it didn't return any posts on searches which > should === message truncated === Matt Langholtz Ph.D. Candidate School of Forest Resources and Conservation, UF P.O. Box 110831 Gainesville, FL 32611-0410 e-mail: "mateo" "mateopucu" Pager and Cell: (352)246-7091 Office Fax: (352)846-0892; E-Fax: (208) 485-8172 Home page: http://plaza.ufl.edu/mateo/ ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

Re: Managing your collection of books and papers
Author: Dr Richard Mailman    Posted: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:20:00 -0800
1. Use one database (trust me Refman will make you crazy if you do otherwise). 2. If you do an internet search and use z39.50 sites, you can get places like the Library of Congress. Anything you pick up can be copied automatically to your Refman database 3. Chapters will have to be entered manually as far as I know (but you can use book info as start), unless the publisher has put the info on-line. 4. It's always a balancing act on how much time you spend on data entry and cleanup -- fortunately, it's not like medical research where 100% is the only standard, so you can allocate your time wisely. Richard B. Mailman, Ph.D. Professor of Psychiatry, Pharmacology, Neurology, and Medicinal Chemistry CB#7160, 7001C NC Neurosciences Hospital University of North Carolina School of Medicine Chapel Hill NC 27599-7160 USA "richard_mailman" Voice 919.966.2484; FAX 919-966-9604; Mobile 919.260.7976 -----Original Message----- From: "listmaster" "mailto:listmaster" On Behalf Of "Peter.Ma?????????????????????? Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 7:10 PM To: "RIS-List" Subject: <RefMan> Managing your collection of books and papers As a researcher, you have both books and articles. 1. Do you enter both books and articles into the same database (if you keep one big database, as seems to be the norm)? 2. Do you enter ALL material, you get, into the database. If you buy a new book, do you then enter it into your database instantly, or do you wait until you maybe use it for your writing? That is, do you aim at keeping the database as a mirror of your physical collection, or do you use it more pragmatically, according to your needs in writing? 3. When a book is added to your collection, then do you always enter it in the database? 4. What do you do with edited books? Do you enter all the chapters in such a book, or only a reference to the full book? And then, when you need a chapter from an edited book, then do you enter it as a separate record, which means that you database will be quite fragmentet, including only references to the chapters, you've used in your own writing? On one hand, it would be nice to have a fully updated database, reflecting everything you have. On the other hand you don't want to use your precious research-time entering records in the database that you might never use. It would be nice if somewhere you could just enter the ISDN-number of a book, you got, and then download the information (several records with all the chapters, if it was an edited book) and import it into RM. But maybe something like this would be possible using Z39.50 sites, but then which hosts should you choose? I tried to choose Danish Royal Library, but it didn't return any posts on searches which should return records. Best regards, Peter. ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

Re: Managing your collection of books and papers
Author: Malcolm Dean    Posted: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:10:00 -0800
> 1. Do you enter both books and articles into the same database (if you > keep one big database, as seems to be the norm)? This is a great concern. I already have a collection of over 17,000 PDFs, and I read in the forums user concerns about database crashes, etc. Most vendors seem to have greatly underestimated how much data users are having to deal with. I would like to see more statements of direction from the vendor, particularly about moving to a more stable OS, and taking advantage of the new Intel-based Macintosh architecture. > 2. Do you enter ALL material, you get, into the database. If you buy a > new book, do you then enter it into your database instantly, or do you > wait until you maybe use it for your writing? That is, do you aim at > keeping the database as a mirror of your physical collection, or do > you use it more pragmatically, according to your needs in writing? If citation data is downloadable along with a paper, I grab it. But if I bring a book home, or create a PDF from a Web site, I wait until I need the citation in a paper. Meanwhile, I use Acrobat's note function to store the URL and raw citation data, just in case. > It would be nice if somewhere you could just enter the ISDN-number of > a book, you got, and then download the information (several records > with all the chapters, if it was an edited book) and import it into RM. RM has a great Z39.50 facility built in. Have you tried the US Library of Congress? Start with a wider search, such as for the author's name or title. Malcolm Dean Los Angeles ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

Re: Managing your collection of books and papers
Author: Hans L Rieder    Posted: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 13:10:00 -0800
Dear Peter: Much of what you do is actually an issue of personal preference, and for some this solution, for others that solution works best. Mine thus not be the best for everybody. Nevertheless, I venture into giving some considerations to your points below. Peter.Malling "pma" wrote: >As a researcher, you have both books and articles. > >1. Do you enter both books and articles into the same database (if you >keep one big database, as seems to be the norm)? > > I have one single database. I renamed the 5 user defined fields into a 5-step hierarchy: Subject Area Heading Sub-heading File name The SUBJECT then may comprise my specialty interest, other interest, private stuff, etc. In the AREA it starts to split into whether I find it in PERIODICALs on my bookshelf to which I subscribe and nothing comes further down the hierarchy or BOOKS in my bookshelf and nothing comes further down the hierarchy. If I have photocopies of papers physically filed away in several filing cabinets, they are obviously more difficult to locate. My initiation to RefMan some 15 years ago was actually with the intent to find the stuff. For instance, in my specialty tuberculosis, I would use AREAs "Transmission, pathogenesis, and epidemiology", "Diagnosis", "Interventions", etc. Within each I would use sub-headings, and then the name of the physical file (that is a folder(s) with the papers in it. So, the first is to have a logical physical organization which then also becomes a searchable (non-indexed) field, in addition to the indexed fields which may also contain papers that may be found in other "File names" and are searched for in RefMan by the "usual" way. I can get my hands on a specific physical paper within less than two minutes (out of some 13,000). Of course, I have been making PDF files of the papers since this possibility came up with RefMan and then access is obviously instantly. To have several databases provides in my opinion no advantage, only disadvantages. > >2. Do you enter ALL material, you get, into the database. If you buy a >new book, do you then enter it into your database instantly, or do you >wait until you maybe use it for your writing? That is, do you aim at >keeping the database as a mirror of your physical collection, or do you >use it more pragmatically, according to your needs in writing? > > Material obviously accumulates. I have thus long decided to always do everything right away, else it will become so much as to be depressing and when it comes to writing, I want to write, and not go through the mechanics first. It takes some discipline, like with other things in live of which you better make a habit. > >3. When a book is added to your collection, then do you always enter it >in the database? > > Right away, then it is done. > >4. What do you do with edited books? Do you enter all the chapters in >such a book, or only a reference to the full book? And then, when you >need a chapter from an edited book, then do you enter it as a separate >record, which means that you database will be quite fragmentet, >including only references to the chapters, you've used in your own >writing? > > > That is indeed painful, and in my case not always possible. Thus, first, I add the book as a whole. Then, if I read it, and it has a relevant chapter that might ever in the future could be of relevance (obviously, in some multi-authored books, this will never be the case), I enter it after completion reading as I then know which keywords are relevant. >On one hand, it would be nice to have a fully updated database, >reflecting everything you have. On the other hand you don't want to use >your precious research-time entering records in the database that you >might never use. > > Why not? Over the years using RefMan, I learned that both PC storage capacity (that is relevant for my 12,000 PDF files linked to the database) is faster evolving than I could be spending. RefMan had in the beginning a ceiling on the number of references that could be entered that I was afraid to reach, but the software development always outpaced my entering capacity. > >It would be nice if somewhere you could just enter the ISDN-number of a >book, you got, and then download the information (several records with >all the chapters, if it was an edited book) and import it into RM. But >maybe something like this would be possible using Z39.50 sites, but >then which hosts should you choose? I tried to choose Danish Royal >Library, but it didn't return any posts on searches which should return records. > > On this subject, I cannot comment, I have no experience. > >Best regards, >Peter. > >_______________________________________________________________________ >_ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email >Security System. > > > > > On a final note, I have been watching this list for quite some time, but I have never entered into any discussion. I am amazed, how people criticize this and don't like that or are bothered by that. There is no perfect software, but what this one has given too me is incredible. In my specialty, I have the largest, easiest retrievable database in the world, the problem is not with Reference Manager, the problem is with international copyright laws that make it illegal to share paid-for PDF files that are linked to a searchable database. Obviously, the company that has given us Reference Manager has not yet been able to produce a functional system that at least the database can be shared over the Internet with thousands who are interested, it is still the small-scale "professor and his students" kind of stuff, but even here, you can find a work-around with the right IT people and overcome this only relevant limitation of a great software package. Best regards, Hans -- Hans L Rieder, MD, MPH Jetzikofenstr. 12 3038 Kirchlindach Switzerland Tel: +41 31 829 4577 Mob: +41 79 429 9945 Web: http://www.tbrieder.org ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

Svar: Re: Managing your collection of books andpapers
Author: Peter Malling    Posted: Tues, 26 Jul 2005 15:10:00 -0800
Thanks for the great answers to my questions on references for research. Among others, Sarah Cage wrote that she uses the Notes field to store information on keywords. Often this field is filled with various information already when you download it, such as author address, Times cited, etc. Do you just delete this information? (Sorry, I know this is a really basic question, but anyhow, I've been annoyed by this information that I never use, but I'm reluctant to delete it, now it's there). Regards, ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

Re: Re: Managing your collection of books andpapers
Author: Sarah Cage    Posted: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 13:45:00 -0800
I use the notes field to store file names (not keywords) for our collection of subject files, partly because it is scanned for keywords. (I don't agree with Karen in turning off automatic keyword scanning - mostly because I have a historical collection of references, most of which were NOT retrieved from Medline with their keywords already added - so we have our own specialised set of keywords - I let the computer scan for keywords and then remove the ones I don't want). If there is other information in the notes section I either delete it, or (if I think it may be useful at some stage) I move it to one of the other sections. When you are first deciding what to put where, it is worth considering which of the fields is "optional" for printing in bibliographies, and making sure you use these fields for the information you are most likely to want to include in reference lists - I find being able to list our file name very useful when I need to find the hard copy again. Of course you can always develop a style to include any of the fields, but I find being able to switch the notes field on and off useful. Of course, quite a bit of the "what goes where" in my database is historical - this database was started in RM5 (I think), and has been upgraded as the program developed. I have had to do some back-editing (the worst thing was moving the notes on who asked for the paper etc. from the abstracts section to a user defined section for about 5-6 thousand references, when we started being able to download Pubmed references with abstracts - took about a year in my spare time!) Hope this is helpful Best wishes Sarah Cage Senior Scientific Information Specialist NPIS (Birmingham Centre) City Hospital, Birmingham UK e-mail: "s.cage" ----- Original Message ----- From: ""Peter.Ma??????????????????????" <"Peter.Ma?????????????????????? To: "RIS-List" Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 12:10 AM Subject: Svar: Re: <RefMan> Managing your collection of books andpapers > > Thanks for the great answers to my questions on references for research. > > Among others, Sarah Cage wrote that she uses the Notes field to store > information on keywords. Often this field is filled with various > information already when you download it, such as author address, Times > cited, etc. Do you just delete this information? (Sorry, I know this is > a really basic question, but anyhow, I've been annoyed by this > information that I never use, but I'm reluctant to delete it, now it's > there). > > Regards, > > ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

Previous by date: author/date sort problem, D Price
Next by date: ABNT style (Brazil), Jeander Caetano
Previous thread: changing font in output style, Julia Veir
Next thread: ABNT style (Brazil), Jeander Caetano