English 520: Seminar in Research Methods & Design

Many of our article databases and the EWU Library Catalog have a citation generator. Accuracy varies. You still need to know your style, but it's certainly easier to copy/paste the MLA citation and correct any errors.

EWU Library Catalog

Click the quotation mark icon  then choose MLA. Note: The author format isn't consistently accurate, and it doesn't include URLs to the full article. 

JSTOR

Click the Cite button on the right side if you are viewing the results list, or the Cite this item button on the left if you are viewing the article in full. Ask your professor if you need to include the date you accessed the article.

Project MUSE

You need to be viewing the full article or book (click on the title, or View), then look for the link View Citation.

EBSCOhost Databases

You need to be viewing the full record (click on the hyperlinked title), then click the Cite button on the far right. You can also have the citation included in the record emailed to you by choosing Include when sending: Citation Format, and choose MLA. On rare occasions, I've seen the author in ALLCAPS because that's how it was in the EBSCOhost record.

We are discontinuing our subscription to RefWorks in December 2022. If you have an existing RefWorks account and would like to export your records to something else, contact Ielleen.

Two free alternatives are Mendeley and Zotero. 

For help with Zotero, see https://research.ewu.edu/Zotero

Mendeley is a popular solution for STEM faculty and students.

What is Mendeley?

Mendeley is a free citation management system, but it also includes social networking features. It is sponsored by Elsevier, one of the largest scientific publishing companies in the world. Therefore, it's designed for researchers to discover and download journal articles and resources, organize them, read and annotate PDFs, create in-text references and bibliographies, and collaborate with other researchers. You can pay for a premium version, if you need more than 2 GB of space or need to create more than one private group with more than 3 people.

Tutorials

See http://resources.mendeley.com/ for quick start guides and videos produced by Mendeley. Highly recommended that you peruse the relevant Getting Started guide!

Tips & General Advice

Mendeley offers a desktop and web version. Create an account, download the desktop version, or the streamlined Reference Manager version for newer Mac OS, and log into the web version -- click on Library to view references. If you use both, you'll have to sync the desktop version to the web one.

Mendeley Desktop can be used with:

• Windows - x64 and x86 of the following operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 – Version 1803
• Mac - macOS 10.10 (Yosemite), macOS 10.11 (El Capitan), macOS 10.12 (Sierra), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra)
• Linux - x64 and x86 of the following operating Systems: Ubuntu and Kubuntu 17.04 (Zesty Zapus), Ubuntu and Kubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), Debian Stretch 9.

Mendeley Reference Manager - streamlined version of just your stored references

• Windows - x64 & x86: Windows 7 and above
• Mac: OSX 10.10 and above
• Linux: Generic Linux 64 bit (Debian, Ubuntu)

Adding References to Mendeley

From EBSCOhost and Other Library Databases

Use the Export function in the library database, then choose a generic format. BibTeX is a good choice. Save the .bib text file generated.

Note: Mendeley is affiliated with Scopus, so you can just choose Mendeley when exporting records from Scopus.

• In the Desktop, click Add, then Add Files and upload the text file.
• In Reference Manager, click Add New, then Import Library and choose BibTeX. (Or File(s) from computer.)
• In the web version Library, click Add, then Import BibTeX.

I have the DOI

With just the DOI, you can manually add a reference in the Desktop or Reference Manager version. (Doesn't appear to work with the web version.) Just choose Add Entry Manually and paste the DOI. For the Desktop, click the search icon after you've pasted it in the DOI field.

Using Mendeley Web Importer

Mendeley Web Importer is an extension for Chrome. (It's supposed to work with Firefox, but it isn't working at the moment. It doesn't work with Safari.) Access via the Desktop version or Reference Manager (under Tools), or go to https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/web-importer/.

Once you have it added, you'll see the red Mendeley icon in the upper right corner. Click on the icon, log into Mendeley, and then it will try to grab any reference or PDF it detects on the web page you are on. Select the references and download the PDFs into your Mendeley account.

Using Mendeley with MIcrosoft Word

Mendeley Cite is a plug-in for MS Word 2016 or newer. Access the installation in either the Desktop version (under Tools, MS Word Plug-in), or Reference Manager (under Tools, Mendeley Cite for Microsoft Word). If you encounter a problem adding it, it's probably because the EWU SSO page is hidden -- just minimize screens until you find it. Note: It does not show up in the Microsoft Add-ins, for whatever reason.

Once you have installed the plug-in, click on References in the toolbar, and you'll see Mendeley Cite. Click on it to view your references. You can insert a reference as you type, then choose your style to create the bibliography at the end.