There is no scientific writing without references
Scientific writing differs significantly from other written activities such as drawing up a newspaper article, writing a novel or updating a blog. Scientific writing “does not lead a life of its own” but always exists in some relation to what others have previously written about the topic. All arguments presented in a scientific text must be reliably validated.
References help the authors to demonstrate the previous results they have been aware of, research methods they have used and how they have proportioned their own results to the interpretations of others. It is essential to report adequate details, i.e. references of the source publications used in the text. This is how the reader – for example, the supervisor of a thesis – can verify the reliability of the arguments used to support the presented hypotheses. In addition, references give credit to whom credit is due.
References and citations
Sources can be utilised in two different ways:
- reference (summarising/paraphrasing) is a way of expressing the thoughts of another author in your own words
- citation (citing) is a direct quote from the text of another author. The citation is separated from your own text with quotation marks
The source publications used in a text must be referred to in a way that the references and citations can be easily recognised and found later on. If the source is not mentioned and if the quotation or material produced by someone else is presented as your own, you are guilty of plagiarism. It is a case of stealing intellectual property and it is strictly forbidden even when done unintentionally. Material found from the Internet is not available for everyone to copy and use freely. The copyright law applies also to the Internet.
The reference process consists of two parts
- references (textual references)
- bibliography (list of references)
There are several different styles and ways of recording references and compiling a bibliography. Furthermore, different disciplines use varying reference and citation practices. Therefore, the authors must always make sure that the reference practice used in their text complies with the practices of the intended faculty, organisation or publication.
If you study at the University of Eastern Finland, you may find reference practices in UEF study communities.
Other guides to reference practices
- Aalto University: citation guide and visual resources
- University of Oulu
Reference management program offers several advantages. It helps you in building and maintaining your personal database of all literature you need in your work. You can easily import search results from many different databases into the program. A reference management program streamlines your writing process. The program allows you to insert citations in a manuscript while you are preparing it. When the manuscript is finished, you can print it out with citations and a bibliography in a style of your choice.
Reference management programs
We have to terminate the RefWorks subscription on December 31, 2022 due to issues in licence agreement. It is not possible to use RefWorks after that, because personal licences are not available. Alumni access ends also.
Do not change to another program if you can finish your work with RefWorks by the end of 2022 and do not need a reference management program after that. You can use free programs such as Mendeley or Zotero if you need reference management in the future.
Please see instructions about how to start the use of Mendeley or Zotero by opening the appropriate menu below. Migrate your references from RefWorks to the new program according to the following instructions.
How to migrate references from RefWorks to Mendeley and Zotero [accessible text]
How to migrate references from RefWorks to Mendeley and Zotero [not accessible, contains images]
It is also possible to export references from your RefWorks account to Covidence (for systematic reviews), the same way, as RIS files.
Web Page references in RefWorks are migrated to Zotero as E-mail references. These are formatted incorrectly in reference lists and bibliographies. To correct the reference type click first the reference title in Zotero and then E-mail in Item Type in editing area on the right. Choose Web Page from the list. You may also check and correct other reference data if necessary. All corrections are saved automatically.
Remove RefWorks Write-N-Cite or RefWorks Citation Manager from your text if the text is incomplete and you want to continue reference management with corresponding tools in Mendeley or Zotero. You have to add all citations to your text again. It is a good idea to change the citation style temporarily to a name-year version such as Harvard. List the bibliography also if it is missing. These will help in finding the citations with the new program.
Remove Write-N-Cite by clicking Remove Field Codes at the top left corner of the RefWorks tab in your word processor. Confirm by clicking OK. Save the text.
Remove RefWorks Citation Manager as follows:
- Select all the text (in Windows: Ctrl-A).
- Place your mouse pointer over the selected text and right-click.
- Left-click Remove Content Control in the opening window.
- Save the text.
We have to terminate the RefWorks subscription on December 31, 2022 due to issues in licence agreement. It is not possible to use RefWorks after that, because personal licences are not available. Alumni access ends also.
Do not change to another program if you can finish your work with RefWorks by the end of 2022 and do not need a reference management program after that. You can use free programs such as Mendeley or Zotero if you need reference management in the future. Please see instructions about how to start the use of Mendeley or Zotero by opening the appropriate menu below.
RefWorks is an online, browser based reference management software. You can import your search results from UEF Primo, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and other important databases directly into RefWorks. It is also possible to enter references manually. In RefWorks, you can view the availability information of full text articles corresponding to each reference in the online and printed journals of the University of Eastern Finland Library. Click the reference and then Full text availability at UEF.
References added in the RefWorks can be searched and printed out in various styles. You can also insert references in a manuscript you are preparing and then print out your finished text with citations and bibliography in a style of your choice. MS Word or Google Docs program is needed for reference insertion and bibliography management. Install the necessary add-in either from Software Center (UEF computer, Write-N-Cite, MS Word only) or from RefWorks (home computer) by first clicking Tools on the icon banner and then selecting Tools. After Tools page has opened, choose either Write-N-Cite or Cite in Google Docs. If you have Word above 2016, Word in Office 365 or Word for Mac, you must use RefWorks Citation Manager. It is available from Word add-ins (select Insert -> Get Add-ins -> search for refworks).
The University of Eastern Finland Library has acquired a campus licence of RefWorks for students and staff. The licence allows you to use RefWorks even after your studies or employment in the University of Eastern Finland have ended, as long as the University of Eastern Finland Library has a valid subscription to RefWorks. Use for commercial and business purposes is prohibited.
How to start
- Go to the new RefWorks login page at: https://refworks.proquest.com/. The program works best with either Firefox or Chrome.
- Click Create account.
- Enter your UEF or KUH (KYS) e-mail address (address format: username[at]student.uef.fi, firstname.lastname[at]uef.fi or firstname.lastname[at]kuh.fi). This e-mail address is your new RefWorks username. PLEASE NOTE: address in the format username[at]uef.fi is not valid.
- Click Check.
- Enter a password of your choice for RefWorks. It is not necessary to enter your UEF or KUH e-mail password. We advise to use different password for information security reasons.
- Login to your UEF or KUH e-mail, open message from RefWorks and finish the account creation by clicking a link in the message. If you cannot see the message, check your junk mail folder.
Please take the following issues into account when using new RefWorks:
- Direct export from Scopus, Web of Science and EBSCOhost databases (e.g. Cinahl, SocINDEX, PsycINFO) to RefWorks does not always work via remote access e.g. from home computer. You can save the references on a file and import it to RefWorks according to these instructions.
- If you already have a Legacy RefWorks account, you may import its content (references, folders, your own citation styles) into new RefWorks easily. Log on to your new RefWorks account. Click plus sign on top of the screen and select Import references. When you see text Import from another reference manager, click Legacy RefWorks. Then click Authorize, log on to your Legacy RefWorks account and wait until the import is finished. Your Legacy RefWorks account remains unchanged.
- You can use either the new RefWorks or the Legacy RefWorks to manipulate citations in one and the same document, not both versions.
Guides
Mendeley is a reference management program produced by Elsevier. Like Zotero and other similar programs, Mendeley helps you to manage references and generate bibliographies.
Mendeley is available as a free of charge version and as a chargeable version. The free version provides you with 2 GB of web storage space. The chargeable version is not available at the University of Eastern Finland.
You have to create your personal free Elsevier account in order to use Mendeley. Do not create new account if you already have one for another Elsevier product such as Scopus.
Mendeley can be used either via a desktop interface or via a browser interface. Mendeley consists of three programs:
- Mendeley Reference Manager is an user interface installed to your desktop for managing references. You do not need administrator privileges for installation.
- Mendeley Web Importer installed to your browser enables easy importing of references and full articles from several databases to Mendeley library online.
- Mendeley Cite is an add-in program you install to your word processor (Word for Windows, Word for Mac, Word Online). The add-in is needed for adding citations and bibliographies to texts.
Guides
Zotero is a free, open source reference management program maintained by the Corporation for Digital Scholarship in the USA. It is used as a desktop application that is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and iOS. The application is available in several languages. The installation defaults to the same language as your computer operating system. You do not need administrator privileges for installation. It is not necessary to create an user account if you use the application on single computer only. Remember to backup your Zotero database.
If you want to use Zotero on several computers, install the desktop application to all those computers and create your user account. The Zotero databases on individual computers are synchronized via the account. Please do not use a networked drive or a cloud storage space as a substitute for the user account. This may cause problems. There is unlimited storage space for references in the account. You may see the references in your account also by logging in to Zotero website. The account acts also as a backup of your Zotero database. However we recommend also a separate backup to be taken periodically, if at all possible.
Reference attachments such as publication pdf's are not synchronized. You may synchronize the attachments via Zotero Storage functionality. It is free until 300 megabytes are used. You may buy additional storage space on the Zotero website.
It is possible to switch off the attachment synchronization. You may even consider not to save any full texts at all to Zotero. Online publications may be linked to Zotero references (see instructions below) and free Zotero Storage space is quite small.
Use Zotero Connector extension on your browser to add new references to Zotero. The extension usually installs itself automatically along with the desktop application and is compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Safari. The extension finds citation information (metadata) automatically from search results and websites and saves the metadata to Zotero. Publication pdf's are also saved, if they are available. The pdf saving may be switched off if necessary. It is also possible to import references as RIS files and as PubMed files.
In order to add citations to your text and create bibliographies you need a Zotero plugin in your word processor. The plugin is available for Word (stand-alone version), LibreOffice and Google Docs. The plugin is usually installed automatically when you start Zotero desktop for the first time. There are about 10 000 ready-made citation styles available. You may modify the styles by yourself if necessary. The styles are made with CSL language. It is an open standard describing the internal structure of the style. CSL based styles are also used in other programs such as Mendeley.
Install Zotero desktop and create your user account here.
Guides
- How To Use Zotero (A Complete Beginner's Guide) (video, 12:40)
- Zotero's own support pages
- Zotero: Getting Started (Harvard University Library)
How to link UEF Primo e-journal articles to your Zotero references
- Click Edit on the Zotero menu bar and select Preferences.
- Click Advanced on the Zotero Preferences window.
- Type https://libkey.io/libraries/1029/openurl to OpenURL Resolver: and click OK.
How to open e-journal articles
- Click the title of the article you want to open on the Zotero desktop.
- Click the straight green arrow at the top right corner of the reference list and select Library Lookup.
- Enter your UEF username and password, if asked for.
- Article opens in a little while, if e-version is available.
