Ok so I have been thinking pretty much non stop about research and bibliographies since the last time we spoke. Here is what I have been tinkering with…

A comment on my last post led me back to Lifehacker. This post held a wealth of opportunities, the most tasty of which were these three, which are in the final running..

First a quick review of my criteria. I need a web-based (or sync-able) program to be able to keep track of my research citations so that I can continue to work on a document prepping for submission for publication to journals. We are required to use the APA format, and I do have the Publication Manual here handy to consult as needed.

1.  Noodletools, $8 USD for one year, which I detailed in a previous post. Still very much in the running. I even emailed the son of the team and he emailed back saying he liked my posting. Heh.

2. SourceAid. $20 USD for one year. This is a tasty site, I have to say. It seems to offer very similar features to NoodleTools.  The interface is a little cleaner and seems a little more web 2.0. Ok not really, but the interface is a bit nicer and the questions are less confusing. For example, with NoodleTools, I had to know not to include the month of publication when citing a journal article, which I felt like should have been taken care of. SourceAid impressed me so much that I tried to sign up.

Twice. It declined my credit card without even asking for my address. No valid reason to decline, there’s plenty of room. Actually, it’s a debit card so I checked to make sure I wasn’t totally broke.  I’m not, although it’s slim pickings! No reason it should have declined, though. Is it worth fighting for? This may be what shoots me back to NoodleTools.

3. I also found a cool open source installable proggie called WIKINDX.  To be fair, I found a few installable proggies that could handle online bibliographies, but remember, I needed one that supported APA, which only WININDX did, best I could figure. I installed it in record time on my Bluehost account (full disclosure: that link has my affiliate code attached so I’d get credit if you signed up) and was up and running. I got a few records inputted and then tried to export them. It exported nicely as an APA list in Rich Text Format but there was a problem.

It wasn’t formatted correctly.

So far,  SourceAid has been the nicest in terms of formatting, as it gives a nice and easy download button right next to the citation, even when you’re using the free version. Noodletools allows you purely copy and paste when using the free version.

My big issue with NoodleTools, though, is the spacing. When the results come up, the spacing is not as strictly per the APA Publication Manual. With SourceAid, it is.

At least the Son of Citation Machine tells you to use your word processor to format the text to look like the illustration it shows, although the Son of Citation Machine does not allow you to enter an issue number for a journal article, only a volume number. So one portion of my citation is missing.

This is irritating. I am probably spending too much time on this, but hey, it’s keeping me from having to actually write the papers, right?!