As a doctoral student a lot of my time goes into managing my references. Thankfully there are many tools around to help me manage my references and to speed up the process of inserting citations while I write my papers. After a lot of trial and error I settled on Refworks that I was really happy with. Unfortunately it is a paid software with a stiff fee that I may not be able to afford once I leave the university. Thankfully, a friend told me about Zotero that has all the important functions of Refworks and Endnote, and even has some advantages over them – and all this for free.

Reference database

Zotero is a Firefox add-on (a tool that can be installed in Firefox browser). It can be installed with a click of a button from the Zotero website and is ready to use in minutes. Once it is installed we can add references such as books, articles, movies, e-mails, laws, videos and other items that we wish to record and cite. References can be stored in folders and can also be tagged. We can add multiple notes for each reference and can also link these notes to related notes. We can also store articles, web pages and other electronic documents along with the reference. Zotero thus acts as a fantastic database to store, categorise and to maintain our references.

Adding references in a jiffy

Adding all details of a reference like names of all authors, publisher, year of publication, etc. is a laborious process. Zotero makes this process really easy by allowing us to import references from a large range of websites. You can visit your library website, Google Scholar, Google Books, and other bibliographic databases like JSTOR, Econlit, Lexis-Nexis, etc. and import full citations with the click of a button. All we need to do is to look for a small icon in the address bar of Firefox, as we are browsing these websites, and click it. It will get added to Zotero automatically and normally we can get full bibliographic details with just a click. Zotero also provides us with the ability to browse many online newspapers including NY Times.com and The Hindu and get full citations for the article (including author, date, section, etc.) using the same process.

Creating bibliographies

To create a bibliography all we need to do is to select the references of our interest and drag them to MS Windows or any other word processor (or for that matter even Google Docs or your e-mail window). A fully formatted bibliography will be created in seconds. We can choose a style of our choice from a large menu of standard styles including APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.

Citing in research papers

If you wish to cite references in MS Word or Open office document Zotero offers a plug-in that makes this job simple. Simply download the plug-in and install it your computer and Zotero will be available as an Add-in (in case of MS word). A window will open when you click the Zotero icon in the add-in with your complete library. You can search the reference you want to cite and add it with a click of a button. This will create an in-line citation and also a bibliographic reference. We can change the style of the bibliography (say from Chicago to MLA) with a click.

Syncing

If you work from multiple computers, you can create a Zotero account and store a copy of your references online. These can be used in a computer you work on regularly at a different location by installing Zotero in all computers you regularly use. It takes minutes to set up and works smoothly once it is put in place.

Migrating from Refworks or Endnote

It is relatively easy to migrate from Refworks, Endnote or other citation managers. We can just export all references and import them into Zotero painlessly. [There are some tricks of the trade to make this process complete, on which I hope to write soon].

Summing up

Zotero is powerful, free and simple to use. The website has good documentation and the open-source community is constantly at work in adding new features and answering new questions. One disadvantage of Zotero at this point is that, unlike Refworks, we cannot use it in public computers since our library will be downloaded and maintained in Firefox. But for most of us who work in universities and homes, Zotero is as good as Refworks and perhaps a little better than Endnote; and unlike these software, Zotero comes absolutely free.

Related posts

1. Manage citations and bibliography with Refworks Refworks Rating: 4 out of 5 Manage citations, create bibliographies...
2. Citations using Word 2007: Bibliographies made easy Creating neat bibliographies can be a pain, Word 2007 makes...
3. Refworks goes offline: Exciting new features For an introduction to Refworks click here. If you have...
4. Speed up citations with bibliography managers Surprisingly few students use citation managers though it can make...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Gmail’s Canned responses feature allows you to send fairly sophisticated customised auto-responses based on incoming mails.  First we have to draft different kinds of responses we would like to send and label them.  For example, being the party animal I am becoming, I’d want a mail like, “This sounds great, I am on my way” for any e-mail inviting me for a party.  I will create it and label “Party mail”.  I can then create a filter in Gmail to scan all my incoming mails based on senders, keywords in text, subject line, and an assortment of other features.  In this case, I would want search for words like “Pizza OR free food OR party”.  Once we specify the keywords we can instruct Gmail to send the “party mail” canned response to any mail that matches the search strategy.

Using a similar process we can create canned responses for other purposes.  For example, I can look for all mails from my advisor containing words like “deadline OR late OR finish” and automatically send response like, “Got swine flu: I have been instructed not to get in touch with any person or animal for the next 15 days”.  This can be set up in a jiffy.

Setting it up

Enable canned response: Login to Gmail and go to Settings>Labs and look for canned responses in the list.  Once you find it, click the “Enable” button and save the selection by going to the bottom of the page.

New canned response: Next, compose an email with any subject line and text you want.  You will now see a button called “Canned responses” near attach file button above the message box.  Click on it and select “new canned response”.  Give it an appropriate title.

Create filter: Go to the top of the inbox and you’ll see a “create filter” link next to search box on top.  Click on it and it will enable you to create a search strategy.  After defining the keywords, it will automatically ask you to create filter.  Click on it and it will have a box below called “send canned response”.  Select the appropriate response like “Party mail” or “Got swine flu”.  Make sure you define the keywords carefully, else your advisor may get a response saying you are on your way and a party invitation will get the response that you’ve got swine flu.

3 Tips for power users

Send this to anyone but…

You may want to send a mail asking people not to disturb you since you’re having a quiet evening with your girlfriend.  In case you do not want this to go to your wife you would want to mention “-wife” in the “from” section when you specify the keywords.  The minus sign will ensure that mails from your wife’s mail id do not get this response.   If you believe in being extra careful you may want to mention “-wife –mother in law” as keywords.  Grad students would want to filter out advisors as well.

Messages to a group

An extra careful secret lover may want to ensure that his wife or anyone related does not get the “do not disturb” response.  Unfortunately, Gmail does not allow us to filter messages based on a whole group of people, but there is a way around.  Create a group called “wife & related” from the contacts link.  Once you create a group, Gmail allows you to select all contacts of this group.  Once you select, you will find a link on the right saying “recent conversation”.  Click on “Any” under that and it will automatically generate the keyword for you to filter any message from any of them.  You will find the keyword on the search box on top.  You can then copy and paste it when you create a filter.

Meticulously choosing keywords

After my comprehensive exams I decided to take off for a week when I did not want to hear the word “work” or anything remotely related to it.  I wanted to create a filter that will meticulously choose keywords so that any mail with words like work, job, study, deadline or exam will automatically get a response saying “temporarily dead: reincarnation expected in one week”.  An online application called wordnet (www.wordnet.princeton.edu) can help us create a list of keywords based on the word of our interest.

Related posts

1. Google custom search engine: frame size problem I was excited at the prospect of adding Google CSE...
2. Zotero: The best citation tool around, and it’s free Zotero is a free-software to manage bibliographies and citations with...
3. Manage citations and bibliography with Refworks Refworks Rating: 4 out of 5 Manage citations, create bibliographies...
4. List of useful software (mostly free) for students and professionals The following are my bookmarks relating to useful software. Some...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Note: There is an easier way to cite in MS Word and it’s free.  Check out my note on Zotero citation tool.

There are hundreds of formats for citations like Chicago, APA, etc.  The only thing in common between them is that each of them is a nightmare!  I cannot imagine how people did extensive citations before the coming of automated help.  I am a big fan of refworks, endnote and other bibliography managers.  Unfortunately, these are costly and cannot be afforded by everyone.  For those who did not have the fortune of having one of these, websites like Citation Machine provided some free help.  Basically, one can enter the name of one’s book, article, and other details and get the citation in the correct format.  We can then copy and paste this into our editor.  MS Word 2007 has now introduced an ability to add citations and create bibliographies with ease.

There is now a tab called “references”.  After clicking this we can add a new source (article, book, book section, etc.) by clicking on insert citation button.  The citation gets added to that point automatically. Word 2007 offers many styles including MLA, Chicago, APA, ISO, etc.  Once we are ready, click the bibliography button to get a neatly formatted bibliography at the bottom of the file.

Adding page numbers

To add page numbers, put your cursor anywhere on the in-line citation.  A drop box will appear on the bottom right.  Once we click it would have a button called “Edit citation”.  Click this button and it will have a box where we can add a page number.

Advantages over Citation Machine

Word 2007 offers significant advantages over online citation generators like Citation Machine.  To begin with, there is no need to copy and paste the inline text and the formamted citation.  When we copy and paste, it takes a while to ensure that the order is maintained in the bibliography at the bottom.  Worst of all, if we choose to change our style, say from APA to MLA, we have to start all over again in citation machine.  With Word 2007, we can do this with a click of a button.

No substitute for Refworks, Endnote, Bibtex

Word 2007 is no substitute to Refworks or other bibliography managers.  It lacks many useful functions that come with one of these managers. Most importantly, there is no ability to import citations from sources such as econlit or JSTOR.  It does not offer folders, search facilities, etc. for using it as a useful database.   While the drop down box for inserting citations is very useful for a limited number of citations, it’d be a nightmare if we have a large database.

On the whole, Word 2007′s bibliography functionality is useful with limited citations but is un-evolved to serve as a bibliography database as yet.

Related posts

1. Zotero: The best citation tool around, and it’s free Zotero is a free-software to manage bibliographies and citations with...
2. Map my word dictionary in Google Personalize Map wy word creates a graphical output of various meanings...
3. Manage citations and bibliography with Refworks Refworks Rating: 4 out of 5 Manage citations, create bibliographies...
4. Speed up citations with bibliography managers Surprisingly few students use citation managers though it can make...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I have tried my hands on four to five voice recorders so far. When I left to India for my fieldwork I was determined to get a good one that matches all my requirements. I will be doing long interviews and attending conferences – so I needed one that has a powerful mic and could record for long durations. When I read or when I work on some topic, I like to record my thoughts as they come. I needed a voice recorder that could contain a large number of folders and something that will allow many files (many voice recorders allow a limited number of files and this can be a disadvantage if I am recording my thoughts or taking notes from a book – I tend to get to the quota rather fast). After some research, I landed on Olympus DS-40 with which I am rather happy.

Large capacity

With five folders that could carry 200 files each DS-40 is very appropriate for my notes and thoughts and for long recordings in conferences.  I just went to a ten day event when I did not have the chance to access my laptop to transfer files from the recorder.  I did several interviews and also recorded the proceedings on several occasions.  At the end of it all, I had used only half the capacity in High Quality (without stereo). In a previous recorder, I had made several small jottings as and when I heard an interesting idea; since the recordings were short, I had some space left, but had run out of files.  The large capacity of DS-40 will almost certainly ensure that I can record without limitations on most occasions.

Recording quality

It has three modes for recording “dictation”, “lectures”, “conferences”. Each of them come with an assortment of recording quality. With over half a gig memory, it allows recording in high quality for over 30 hours easily. With a lower quality, we can record for more than 170 hours! The battery life is also terrific. Further, DS-40 voice recorders carry fantastic features to reduce unwanted noise. I have not tested this feature in a conference so far, but in dictation mode this works wonders. For example, I did some voice recording amidst some noisy construction in wall street and DS-40 managed totally eliminate the noise of machines. I also used it in dictation mode when a train entered in the New York subway; even under crushing noise and the voice recorder managed to capture my voice with just a minimal sound of the entering train.

If one is looking to capture the noise of the environment all we have to do is to change from the dictation mode and cancel various features relating to noise reduction. It also comes with an ultralight stereo jack that we can use to record sound in stereo mode. This though is unlikely to be of any importance to field work and other forms of research.

Indexing & organising

One feature I enjoy a lot is indexing.  When I hear an interesting point being made during an interview or a long conference, I quickly press an ‘index’ button that inserts a bookmark.  One can insert upto 19 bookmarks in each file in this model.  If we open the files in the Olympus DSS Player, it will display little bookmarks as it plays the audio.  We can just skip to the bookmarks to hear the interesting parts of the interview or talk. As far as organising the files go, it is useful to have the beginning and end dates of recording is useful. Beyond this the Player does not provide additional features that make organizing files easier.
On the whole, I am quite satisfied with the instrument and I warmly recommend it if you are looking for a voice recorder.

Related posts

1. Open-source video cutter for presentations I was looking for a video cutter that could help...
2. Tools & Practices for finding, cleaning & organising references Getting and organising good references is the key to creating...
3. Refworks goes offline: Exciting new features For an introduction to Refworks click here. If you have...
4. Visualise ideas with Mind Maps, Concept Maps and Diagraming tools Visualising ones ideas is a great way to think through...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I have been excited with the prospect of Google Gears that will allow many online applications to be used when we are offline.  After the announcement there was a little lull and I was waiting for the products to be rolled out – and the first of them that I have seen is my favourite Task Manager – Remember the milk.  With this the task manager can now be used when we are offline as well.

Google gears is a product that allows developers to create applications for us to use online products when we are not connected.  As far as the user is concerned, we have to install Google Gears and allow chosen websites to be available for us when we are offline.  For the user it’s totally hassle free.  The application will then work quitely when we are online to synchronise the data without any input from our side.  All the functionalities of the utility will be available for us when we are offline.  This is terrific news. (For an overview of what you can do offline in Remember the Milk, click here).

Task manager is something that we would like to be available to us when we are offline.  With this function, not only can we avail the function offline, but we can seamlessly use the data from any computer if we are not carrying our laptop around (as long as the data is regularly synchronised).  This is truely going to revolutionize many of the sites we use online.

Related posts

1. Remember the milk task manager in Google personalize homepage The finest online task manager can easily be integrated with...
2. Google Calendar integrates with Remember the Milk A rather surprising feature about Google calendar is that it...
3. News, weather, fun with Google Personalize With some great new improvements Google Personalize is finally something...
4. Using Refworks with Google Scholar It’s easy to import citations from Google Scholar into Refworks....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Given that newspapers are our sole source of information on a variety of issues, news bias is a serious issue. In the days of reading on paper, I would subscribe to one, or at most two newspapers and read through them cursorily. But thanks to Google News (and other such news search engines), I now compare the presentation of news across newspapers. Google news puts together articles on a topic from newspapers across the world, and does a very good job of it. By a click of a button, I now can read how different newspapers deal with an issue across space and ideological spectrum.

For example, when there is an issue between India and Pakistan, it’s useful to read a few Indian news papers and at least Dawn from Pakistan. Between Guardian UK, NY Times (USA), Hindu (India) and a spattering of Tamil Newspapers, I get more unsettled view of than I would with just one news source….and thank god, all this is just a few clicks away.

One does not have to do this for every issue – that would be boring. But by putting a few headlines next to each other, Google News itself indicates discrepancies on occasions (see image below for example, courtesy Google News). Some issues are inherently divisive e.g. Tony Blair’s legacy. When it comes to one such issue, it’s very useful to consult a variety of sources. And of course, there are topics of one’s interest, where we’d like to see how things are portrayed across newspapers.

Related posts

1. News, weather, fun with Google Personalize With some great new improvements Google Personalize is finally something...
2. Remember the milk task manager in Google personalize homepage The finest online task manager can easily be integrated with...
3. Map my word dictionary in Google Personalize Map wy word creates a graphical output of various meanings...
4. Google custom search engine: frame size problem I was excited at the prospect of adding Google CSE...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Though I am an intensive user of various features of Google, I was surprised to find that it has an inbuilt calculator that I had not discovered till today.  Normally, I open MS Excel painfully or some other application to do simple calculations.  I found that one can do these by using the calculator function in Google by using standard methods that one would in Excel.  If one has the browser open, it’s a quicker and easier way to get answers than looking for an application.

Related posts

1. Google News: Advantage of using news readers Online news is more than just reading the same stuff...
2. Map my word dictionary in Google Personalize Map wy word creates a graphical output of various meanings...
3. News, weather, fun with Google Personalize With some great new improvements Google Personalize is finally something...
4. Remember the milk task manager in Google personalize homepage The finest online task manager can easily be integrated with...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Note: This feature has been disabled in Google Personalize, and visual thesaurus is not a free product anymore

I often struggle for words when I am writing long pieces.  Beyond a point it becomes boring to use the same word again and again across pages and I desperately start looking for new words to express my ideas. I then started using Wordnet of Princeton University.  Wordnet lets me navigate to related words (going beyond synonmys).  Apart from finding related words, it is also useful to find words to better express ideas I am struggling with.  Now, there is an interesting alternative in Google Personalize.

A software called Map my word creates word maps based on the selected word, and lets us navigate further by clicking on one of these.  The picture below, for example, is the map for the word “set”

I can now click on any of these meanings to explore the word that explains my thoughts best.  Apart from giving me my word, this system is visually pleasing.  It’s a great utility to have in my Google Personalize page. To add this plugin to your page, just go to “add stuff” on the top right and type “map my word dictionary”.  Else, you can search for the dictionary through the communications link on the right.

Related posts

1. News, weather, fun with Google Personalize With some great new improvements Google Personalize is finally something...
2. Remember the milk task manager in Google personalize homepage The finest online task manager can easily be integrated with...
3. Using Wordnet lexical database with content analysis software A tool to generate conceptually related set of words for...
4. Google News: Advantage of using news readers Online news is more than just reading the same stuff...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The last time I used Google Personalize, it was not a greatly attractive thing.  But in a span of few months some new features have been added that make Google Personalize a great online utility that one could use on a day to day basis.  To start with, instead of going to google for search, I can set it to go to Google personalize.  In that page, I can have snippets of news from selected sources, local weather, my custom search engines, and an assortment of other Google widgets (for example a task manager).  A great new tab system makes it easy for me to assemble utilities that I need in one or few pages.  I can just drag and drop the different “stuff” in the page as I desire to create a layout that suits my taste and convenience.

Today I tried adding a new tab in Google Personalize with the title “search engine”.  To my surprise, it automatically assembled an assortment of search engines from lyrics search to directions, weather, etc. automatically.  It was absolutely swanky.  As soon as you give a name to the tab, Google Personalize searches for different widgets and utilities that are related and assembles them in the tab.
If you have not given it a try, it’s time to do it now.  Log into a Google account  and go to Google.com.  A link will appear on the top saying Personalize.  Go to the page and give it a try.

Related posts

1. Remember the milk task manager in Google personalize homepage The finest online task manager can easily be integrated with...
2. Map my word dictionary in Google Personalize Map wy word creates a graphical output of various meanings...
3. Google custom search engine: frame size problem I was excited at the prospect of adding Google CSE...
4. Google News: Advantage of using news readers Online news is more than just reading the same stuff...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Google personalize has improved by leaps and bounds in the last year. Apart from a sleek Ajax page where we can drag and drop (and rearrange) various items of our interest, they have now added a “tab system”. Most importantly, it now permits us to “add stuff” that includes an assortment of Google widgets including, remember the milk. To add your tasks from rememberthemilk.com into my Google personalize home page all I have to do is to click on “add stuff” on the top right, and type remember the milk in the search box. Tasks from remember the milk can be added to your page in a click after that.

Once this is done, I can read, review and edit my tasks from this page. This is enabled by the web 2 style of organisation of both Google and rememberthemilk.com. Now I can use my task manager in Google calender, Google Personalize and an assortment of other places. This makes life so much simpler and tailored to my own taste and convenience.

Related posts

1. News, weather, fun with Google Personalize With some great new improvements Google Personalize is finally something...
2. Remember the milk available offline with Google Gears The best task manager online now goes offline! I have...
3. Google Calendar integrates with Remember the Milk A rather surprising feature about Google calendar is that it...
4. Map my word dictionary in Google Personalize Map wy word creates a graphical output of various meanings...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.