Working with citation lists in Resources

On this page:

• About citation lists
• Adding a new citation list: Overview
  • Searching library resources
  • Searching Google Scholar
  • Creating a new citation manually
  • Importing citations in RIS format
• Adding citations from search results to your citation list
• Reviewing your citation list
• Saving your citation list
• Editing your citation list

Note: To complete these procedures, you must be assigned a role having the necessary permissions. To determine your role, follow the directions in Participant roles. For a basic understanding of roles and permissions, see Permissions and roles: Overview.

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About citation lists

The citation lists feature allows you to search library resources (e.g., WorldCat, Academic Search [EBSCO], JSTOR), as well as create and manage citations and persistent links to articles and other online items.

You can search and retrieve citations from individual databases, such as ProQuest and JSTOR, as well as from groups of subject-specific databases, to create citation lists. Citations contain links to retrieve the full text or physical location of the information. You can attach copies of these citation lists to other items (e.g., assignments, forum postings, calendar items) within your worksite, as well as export citations to bibliographic management tools, such as EndNote and Reference Manager.

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Adding a new citation list: Overview

The process of creating a new citation list is as follows; for details about each step, see the complete instructions in the sections below.

1. In your site's menubar, click Resources. Next to the folder in which you wish to add the list, from the Add drop-down list, select Add Citation List.
   
   
2. You now have several options to add citations to your list:
   
   
   • Search Library Resources: Search the library catalog, article databases, and other resources.
   • Search Google Scholar: Search a world-wide database of scholarly resources, and save search results to this citation list.
   • Create New Citation: Add a new citation by typing in data.
   • Import citations: Import citations in RIS format from EndNote, RefWorks, or other citation management tools.
   
   
3. If you searched library resources for citations, choose the ones to add to your list. If you searched Google Scholar, choose the citations you would like to import.
   
   
4. Once you have added citations to your list, click Review Citation List. You then have several options for viewing citations and making changes; see Reviewing your citation list.
   
   
5. To store your list in Resources, name and save it.

Searching Library Resources

Note: The Search Library Resources option is only available if your institution has access to a library metasearch tool (e.g., Sirsi SingleSearch, Ex Libris MetaLib).

• Basic search tips
  
  
  • Enter your search terms into the text field, and click Search.
  • Search for phrases by using quotation marks around a phrase (e.g., lyrics for "a day in the life" ).
  • Searches ignore common words unless they are a part of a phrase in quotation marks. Common words include a, and, be, for, from, has, i, in, is, it, of, on, to, the, not, and or.
  • Searches use Boolean and (i.e., a search on cats dogs returns resources containing both "cats" and "dogs"). Other Boolean operators such as or and not are unavailable at this time.
  • Searches ignore extraneous punctuation, unless it is part of a phrase in quotation marks. Ignored punctuation includes: ? ! ; , ' : + - @ # $ % ^ & * () [] {}
  • Searches ignore whitespace characters (e.g., tabs, extra spaces, forced newline characters).
  
  
• Advanced search tips
  
  
  • To search library resources using the Advanced Search Form, click Advanced Search.
  • Use the drop-down list to select the field you wish to search: Keyword, Author, Title, Subject, or Year.
  • Enter search term(s) in the text field(s); search behaviors noted above apply to advanced search also. To begin afresh, click Clear Form.
  
  
• Selecting search category
  
  
  • The default search category is Quick Search, with Academic Search (EBSCO) and ERIC (CSA) preselected.
  • To use a different search category, select from the drop-down list. As needed, select a subcategory using the drop-down list until you reach the database list for that category with the recommended databases preselected.
  
  
• Selecting databases

  Note: Database descriptions are hidden by default, and you can search no more than eight databases at one time.

  • To view the database descriptions for every database on the list, click Show Descriptions.
  • To hide the database descriptions for every database on the list, click Hide Descriptions.
  • To view or hide individual database descriptions, click the toggle button.
  • You can search the recommended databases preselected for each category, or change the selections. To select or deselect a database, check or uncheck the database title.
  
  
• Conducting your search

  Once you are satisfied with your search terms, search category, and databases, click Search at the bottom of the page.

• Canceling your search

  During the search process, the Search button becomes a Cancel button. To stop searching the library resources, click Cancel.

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Searching Google Scholar

To add a citation to your list using Google Scholar, from the Add Citations page, click Search Google Scholar.

• Importing citations to your list
  
  
  1. Use the Google Scholar interface to conduct your search. For help, click Scholar Help beside the search box.
  2. Within the search results, find the article you wish to cite.
  3. You will see a number of links beneath the article description. To import the citation to your citation list, click Import into Sakai.
  4. To continue importing citations from Google Scholar, click Back to Google Scholar. When you are finished, click Close Window.
  5. To review your citation list, click Review Citation List. For more, see Reviewing your citation list.
  6. To save and title your citation list, click Finish.

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Creating a new citation manually

To add a citation by typing in the citation information, from the Add Citations page, click Create New Citation.

• Selecting a citation type

  To select a citation type, use the drop-down list to select Journal Article, Book, Book Selection, Report, or Unknown.

• Adding additional fields

  To create an additional field to accommodate more than one Author, Note, Subject, Rights, or Links, click the appropriate Add Another link.

• Saving a new citation

  To save a new citation, click Save Citation at the bottom of the page.

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Importing citations in RIS format

1. From the Add Citations screen, select Import Citations.
   
   
2. Next to "Import File From:", enter the path to the file you wish to import, or click Browse...  to browse to it.
   
   
3. When the filename appears in the box, click Import. The citations from your file will appear in the Citations list.
   
   
4. Alternatively, you can cut and paste RIS-formatted text into the text box below "Import RIS Formatted Data from the Following Text:", and click Import.
   
   
5. When you are finished, click Back to Add Citations. To cancel the import, click Cancel Citation List.

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Adding citations from Library Resources search results to your citation list

Adding and removing citations

To add a citation to your new citation list, click Add next to the desired citation. When you add a citation to your list, the citation is highlighted, and Add becomes Remove. To remove a citation from your new citation list, click Remove next to the desired citation.

Viewing citation abstracts

By default, only citation titles are displayed. To view abstracts for every citation displayed on the page, click Abstract View; to hide the abstracts and subject information for every citation displayed on the page, click Title View.

To switch between the abstract and title views for an individual citation, click the toggle button (the small black arrow between Add/Remove and the citation title).

Displaying search results

By default, 10 citations are displayed per page. Use the drop-down list to select 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 citations per page. To move through the pages of search results, click > or < , or <<  to return to the first page.

Starting a new search

To reset the search form, click New Search at the bottom of the page. You can then search a different set of databases.

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Reviewing your citation list

When you have added all the citations you need to your list, click Review Citation List at the bottom of the page. You can then do the following:

Accessing electronic or print content

To access the full text of a resource, click the title of its citation, or click Get It! below the title. If the full text is not available online, it may be available in print.

Viewing citations

To access the read-only view of a citation, click view citation below the citation.

Revising citations

To modify the details of a citation, click edit below the citation.

Selecting citations

To select or deselect all citations, click Select All or Select None. To select or deselect an individual citation, check or uncheck its box. Selected citations will be highlighted.

Paging through your citation list

To go to forward or back one page in your citation list, click > or < . To go to the beginning or end of the list, click << or >> .

Exporting citations

• To export individual citations on your list, select the desired citations to export and, from the Citation Actions drop-down list, select Export Selected.
  
  
• To export all citations on your list, from the Citation Actions drop-down list, select Export Entire List.

Exporting citations will prompt you to download a simple text file in the RIS format, which you can import into most reference management applications, such as EndNote, ProCite, and Reference Manager.

Removing citations

• To remove individual citations from your list, select the citations to remove and, from the Citation Actions drop-down list, select Remove Selected. Alternatively, you can click remove below each individual citation.
  
  
• To remove all citations on your list, from the Citation Actions drop-down list, select Remove Entire List.

Adding more citations to your list

• To return to your search results, click Back to Search Results.
  
  
• To start a new search, or create a new citation, click Add Citations to List.

When you are finished reviewing your citation list, continue to the next section to save it to your Resources tool workspace.

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Saving your citation list

To name your list and save it to your Resources tool workspace:

1. Click Finish.
   
   
2. Next to "Name", enter the title of your citation list.
   
   
3. Enter a description of your citation list if you wish.
   
   
4. Under "Availability and Access", choose the appropriate settings.
   
   
5. To enter detailed descriptors, click Optional properties.
   
   
6. If desired, use the drop-down box next to "Email Notification" to alert site participants.
   
   
7. To save your citation list, click Finish at the bottom of the page.

Your citation list will now be displayed in your Resources tool. Citations will display in alphabetical order by citation title.

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Editing your citation list

After you have named and saved a citation list, you can view and change the details or add and remove citations.

To view and change the details of your citation list:

1. In the Resources tool, from the Actions drop-down menu, choose Edit Details.
   
   
2. You can change the name, description, availability, access settings, or optional properties of the citation list.
   
   
3. If you wish to change the file type, click Change File Type, and use the drop-down menus to select the appropriate file type.
   
   
4. To save your settings, click Update at the bottom of the page.

To change the citations in the list:

1. In Resources, from the Actions drop-down menu, choose Edit Citation List.
   
   
2. To add citations, click Add Citations to List; to remove a citation, click remove below it.
   
   
3. When you are done, click Done Editing List.

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