Back on March 1 I concluded that I was planning to use Noodletools for my graduate research (NoodleBib, to be precise).
I did so partly because of an error in trying to sign up for SourceAid.
A few days after that post a gentleman named Ronald Silvia contacted me, and it turns out he’s the president of SourceAid. He gave me a free one year subscription.
Remember, I had already paid for the one year with NoodleTools. So I was able to compare them.
I will admit my reasons are probably picky preference, but I ended up using NoodleTools for my entire graduate semester. I wrote three papers, all more than 10 single spaced pages each. I amassed more than 100 references and NoodleTools didn’t balk. Here is what I liked about them…
1. They provide help at every step, as there is helpful hovering info as well as on-demand help in the form of popup windows with further explanation.
2. They are wonderfully responsive via email. The service is very personal.
3. The references exported nicely into an RTF file that I copied and pasted into my paper.
4. Creation and management of resources is nice, and they really help you ensure you get it right.
All of my papers used APA 5th Ed. so I can’t speak to either service’s capabilities for MLA or Chicago.
I quickly got accostumed to NoodleTools, so probably didn’t give SourceAid a fair shake, but when you compare $20 per year for SourceAid against $8 per year for NoodleTools, it would take a bunch to overcome that difference, which means a lot when you’re me.
So I appreciate SourceAid, they seem like a fine service, and Mr. Silvia is quite a gentleman.
For now, though, I’ll be sticking with NoodleTools.
Chris,
Thanks for this information. As you know I am starting my grad. research as well and I’m going to check this out. Anything to make it easier to keep track of when there is so much!
Cool beans. I knew you’d like NoodleTools! Aren’t you glad I suggested it?? Just kidding, I know I wasn’t the only one, or by any means the sole reason you tried it out. I just want to remind you that any media specialist that is up to date would have told you you couldn’t go wrong with NoodleTools.
Thirty single-spaced pages of paper? OUCH! I certainly hope they were submitted dbl spaced.
[...] secret I am interested in managing my citations online. You can read about my previous adventures here and here. I ultimately settled on NoodleTools, which I have now used through hundreds of APA 5th [...]