Practices of making and using references
“I wanted to travel light, of course, but there were always certain things I could not throw away either for practical or sentimental reasons.” (Matsuo, 1974). Basho wrote this many years ago, and a reference to his text, originally spoken and written in Japanese is made here (Oslo) now (August 2023).
We use and make references in everyday life. We refer to what others have said, done, written or seen, in addition to what we ourselves have experienced – or dream about. We make references to the “real world of places, times, and events”, and ideas or thoughts about phenomena.
In science and academia, making and using references are central activities and part of critical thinking and working. You have perhaps heard about “standing on the shoulder of giants” before?
Tools and techniques for making reference.
Umberto Eco has a short book called “How to Write a Thesis” (Eco, 2015). This book was first published in 1977, before the Internet, but after books and libraries were around. The system he introduces is called the “Index card research system” for working with references. This book deals with the whole ecosystem of the writing process, covering how to choose a topic to conducting research, and making plans for various research activities. The book offers important lessons about critical thinking and information curation for students and teachers of today – almost 50 years after its publication. Today, the topic of making references is still relevant and alive, as illustrated by Søk and Skriv (“Sources and referencing | Search & Write,” n.d.).
In 1977 paper-based tools were used for working with references. What is used today is often electronic representations of references – and specific Reference Management Software like Zotero, Endnote, Mendely, and RefWorks to mention a few. EndNote for example assists you with search, collection, and organizing of references. These tools are integrated with browsers – and with editors like for example Microsoft Word.
Recently AI tools for references are introduced. In the article “Top 5 AI tools for citation management” (R, 2023, p. 5) some of these are mentioned and reviewed.
The questions as to why, how, what, where, and when we make and use references are central questions in the academic landscape.
Critical Thinking.
Critical thinking is a kind of thinking in which you question, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and make a judgment about what you read, hear, say, observe, or write. The term Critical comes from the Greek word, Kriticos meaning “able to judge or discern”. There are many “ways” and heuristics for critical thinking and books and courses about it.
One component, or part of critical thinking is the ability to use and handle references and citations. To be critical of what you read, by investigating and making sense of the “who, what, why, where…” the reference is about is central to critical thinking. Questions are part of critical thinking and research in general. Questions are used to open up, understand and explain the phenomenon or object of study.
Questions….
With the theme “reference management systems” and “critical thinking” in mind; you are invited to develop a master thesis concerning the use and development of digital tools for referencing. Some potential questions are:
- Investigate how reference management systems are used by master students, bachelor students, or researchers.
- What roles do the various parts of libraries have with these systems?
- Source criticism (kildekritikk) is an important topic in all education; in what way is this affected by digital tools?
- Universal Design of references - what does this "look" like?
Today, when books, articles, videos, and texts are at “our fingertip” everywhere and at all times, we have unprecedented access to information. In what way does this affect our learning and studying of topics? Umberto Eco wrote this answer in 1977: “There ara many things that I do not know because I photocopied a text and then relaxed as if I had read it” (Eco, page 125).
References:
Eco, U., 2015. How to write a thesis. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Matsuo, B., 1974. A haiku journey: Bashô’s "the narrow road to the far north and selected haiku, 1st ed. ed. Kodansha International ; New York : distributor, Harper & Row, Tokyo ; New York.
R, D.S., 2023. Top 5 AI Tools for Citation Management [WWW Document]. iLovePhD. URL https://www.ilovephd.com/ai-tools-citation-management/ (accessed 8.14.23).
Sources and referencing | Search & Write [WWW Document], n.d. URL https://www.sokogskriv.no/en/sources-and-referencing/ (accessed 8.14.23).