New software walks students through the research/writing/citing process
WriteNote has larger ambitions than simply managing references. It aims to teach undergraduate students to write research papers—properly cited research papers.
Debuting last fall, this is the most recent addition to ISI ResearchSoft’s line of bibliographic management software, which also includes Reference Manager, Endnote, and Procite. It’s intended for students new to the research process.
Like RefWorks (see earlier article), WriteNote is web-based, but it requires installation of plug-ins for Internet Explorer and Word to use its special features like automatic citation capture and bibliography generation. Also minimum requirements preclude Windows95 systems and Macintosh is not currently supported. These limitations let it work more cleanly than RefWorks, which is less platform dependent.
Here’s how it works: after the institution subscribes, students create their own accounts and then start searching, choosing from a list of resources selected by instructors and librarians that appears in the browser toolbar. For example, choosing PubMed takes you to the PubMed site where you conduct your search in the native interface. When you find a promising citation the “Get Biblio” toolbar button captures the bibliographic information adding the reference to “My Library.” Students are supposed to be selective—there’s a 500 reference limit. References are added one at a time, although an import feature does allow batch loading of records in RIS or tab-delimited file formats.
WriteNote does a decent job capturing information from databases like THOMCAT, PubMed, or OVID, but if you find information on a page that WriteNote can’t parse—like an organization website—it prompts you to enter the reference manually. Also, you can annotate the page with “sticky notes,” and save it locally so you’ll have it even if the website changes. References can be sorted into customizable folders within “My Library.”
Once you gather your references in “My Library,” you’re ready to write using Microsoft Word with the WriteNote Plug-in. Use the hourglass icon to find and insert the proper reference.
The pedagogical advantage of WriteNote is that it brings together the resources instructors and librarians want their students to use—such as the library catalog and particular databases—and streamlines the mechanics of formatting their references according to APA style (14 other styles are available). However, a copy of the style guide is still necessary—especially when entering references manually—and proofreading is more important than ever.
Although it has limitations—platform, number of references, output styles—WriteNote represents a step forward in streamlining the research/writing process. Look for continued progress and ingenuity in this software class to change the way we work.
Thomas Jefferson University has a WriteNote trial during the month of September. The trial is limited to the Campus network, the list of resources is not customized for Jefferson, and “My Library” is limited to 50 references. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
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