Posts Tagged ‘referencing’

Write-N-Cite III on the XP and Cloud Desktops

Posted on March 8th, 2013 by Paul Stainthorp

After a few glitches, and a lot of work by ICT Services to resolve them, both University of Lincoln corporate Windows desktops are now running the same version of RefWorks’ Write-N-Cite application – version III.

This replaces v.2 of Write-N-Cite which was available on the XP desktop until recently. ICT services and the Library are also working on a plan to upgrade the Cloud Desktop to the newest version of Write-N-Cite (version IV) in the near future.

Now that students & staff can connect to the Cloud Desktop from their own computer or device remotely, they can use Write-N-Cite III from off campus without having to install the software locally.

If you’re used to using Write-N-Cite v.2, you’ll find that there a few differences with version III. In particular:

“…Write-n-Cite III works with one Word document. You can make changes in the document and then click ‘Bibliography’ again. RefWorks will make the changes. Write-n-Cite v.2 works with two versions of the Word document; when you click ’Create Bibliography’ a new Word document that contains the references is made. This new document automatically gets the name Final-(title of original document).”

(Taken from the website of Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.) There are also differences in the way you use text switches / the Edit Citation feature to modify in-text citations between the two versions.

How to log in to Write-N-Cite:

1. On the Windows XP corporate desktop

  • Click on the “Start” menu, then on All Programs > Research Software > Write-N-Cite.

    Screenshot from Windows XP

  • Click on “Athens users” to begin the login process.

    Screenshot from WNC III

 

2. On the Cloud Desktop

  • Click on the Windows icon, then on Research Software > Write-N-Cite.

    Screenshot from the Cloud Desktop

  • Click on “Athens users” to begin the login process.

    Screenshot from WNC III

 

3. Alternatively, you can download Write-N-Cite IV to your own computer

To download Write-N-Cite IV:

  • Log in to RefWorks via the Library website;
  • Go to Tools > Write-N-Cite;
  • Download and install the appropriate version (Windows/Mac) of Write-N-Cite IV;
  • Copy-and-paste the Write-N-Cite Login Code – you will need this to access Write-N-Cite once it is installed;
  • There is a help guide for working with Write-N-Cite on the RefWorks website.

ICT services and the Library are working on a plan to upgrade the Cloud Desktop to Write-N-Cite IV in the near future.

If you have any questions or problems with Write-N-Cite, please email: RefWorks@lincoln.ac.uk

 

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RefWorks citation output styles for the University of Lincoln – added IEEE

Posted on May 4th, 2012 by Paul Stainthorp

At the request of the School of Engineering, we have added a new citation output style to the ‘University of Lincoln Specific‘ list of styles preferred and/or supported at the University of Lincoln.

The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) citation reference style is a broadly-recognised format for writing research papers in technical fields, including computer science as well as engineering.

Screenshot of RefWorks create bibliography options

It’s now available to select within RefWorks’ “Create Bibliography” menu, as well as in the Write-N-Cite application. The list of Lincoln-specific output styles now consists of five options:

  1. APA (American Psychological Association) style, used by the subject of psychology.
  2. Harvard (University of Lincoln) – a generic version of Harvard created by the Library which you may have to modify using the Output Style Editor to meet the preferred referencing style for your course;
  3. IEEE, commonly used in engineering;
  4. ISO 690 numeric style, which is permitted as an alternative to Harvard by some subjects;
  5. MLA (Modern Language Association) style, used in some humanities subjects.

For help with referencing style and with using RefWorks, contact your subject librarian or email: RefWorks@lincoln.ac.uk

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Harvard referencing system guide

Posted on October 4th, 2011 by Paul Stainthorp

In his blog (restricted to University of Lincoln users), my colleague Bernie Russell says:

This is a very user-friendly guide to the Harvard referencing system published by Anglia Ruskin University.

I’ve talked about this to a couple of colleagues over email from the school and from the library, and the general view is that it might be worth looking at as a possible resource.

I like the interface. It’s easy to read and easy to use. And there’s a refworks hint, which is very handy.

…and he’s right. Claro?

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Adding manual ‘switches’ to Write-N-Cite to modify citations

Posted on June 17th, 2011 by Paul Stainthorp

I was asked how to do this today, and it seemed worth recording here.

N.B. These instructions are valid for versions of Write-N-Cite v.2. (Things work slightly differently in WnC III for Windows!)

Here’s how to manually edit the in-text citation created by WnC using a ‘switch’, in order to suppress the author’s name in the citation. I’m assuming here that we’re using the Harvard (University of Lincoln) citation output style.

  1. Click on the ‘Cite‘ button in WnC to enter the citation into your Word document, e.g.:
    {{115 Cohn,Mike 2010; }}
    When you generate the bibliography, this would appear as (Cohn, 2010).
  2. Modify the citation by typing /a (RefWorks calls this a ‘switch’) before the semicolon, i.e.:
    {{115 Cohn,Mike 2010/a; }}
    This will suppress the author’s surname in the in-text citation, i.e. it will reduce the citation to just (2010).

Now, you can use the author’s name in the sentence without it looking odd (e.g. “…according to Cohn (2010) the most effective method is…“). There are several such switches which modify a citation in various ways. For a full help guide on using WnC switches, see: http://lncn.eu/nq4

Email RefWorks@lincoln.ac.uk if you have any problems.

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What to do when Write-N-Cite chokes.

Posted on June 7th, 2011 by Paul Stainthorp

This is an issue that gets reported to the Library a few times every year… it’s a rare problem, but a devastating one if you’re 24 hours from dissertation hand-in day.

Students using Write-N-Cite to add references to a long Word document (usually a dissertation/thesis) occasionally find that WnC isn’t happy about processing the document. When they click on the ‘Create Bibliography’ button, the application thinks… for a… while…
Screenshot of the WnC application
…before finally spitting out one of the following two error messages:

  1. Errors were encountered while processing your file: / The following error occurred attempting to read your document
  2. Your manuscript was processed successfully, no errors / System error 602. Cannot download formatted document from the server

Either way, no bibliography.

Most of the time, this seems to be caused by the size of the document. Write-N-Cite just will not cope with MS Word documents of >10MB, and who can blame it?

Word documents are often only so big because they contain (raw, uncompressed) images such as screenshots or digital photos. I’ve found it’s usually possible to reduce the file size of the dissertation document by compressing any images in the file, to print quality.

You can do this (in the version of Word on the University of Lincoln’s corporate desktop, anyway: instructions for your version of Word might be here…) by right-clicking on the image and selecting ‘Format Picture…’.

Screenshot of the Word compress pictures process

Then, in the ‘Format Picture’ window which appears, select the ‘Picture’ tab, followed by the ‘Compress…’ button (at the bottom of the window). Choose the option to apply to ‘All pictures in document’ and the ‘Print’ resolution (200 dpi), then click OK.

Screenshot of the Word compress pictures process

Other tips that seem to have helped in the past:

  • Instead of using Write-N-Cite, process your document within RefWorks itself by going to the ‘Bibliography’ page, selecting the option: ‘Format Paper and Bibliography’, and uploading the document directly.
    Screenshot of the RefWorks Bibliography page
  • Make sure you’re using the right version of WnC for your Operating System and version of MS Office/Word. Generally, Write-N-Cite III seems to suffer from fewer problems of this sort than v.2 (which, unfortunately, is the version we’re using on campus).
  • If all else fails, try removing appendices, tables etc. from your dissertation, before you process it (then stitch it back together after WnC has done its business). I call this the ‘throwing everything out of the hot air balloon’ method.

Anyone else know of any tricks for getting Write-N-Cite to play nice with overweight Word documents?

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