References in word can sometimes become a complex task. If you are writing a thesis or a scientific article you can easily find yourself surrounded by scientific papers that you intend to cite in your document. As long as the list is below 10-ish resources it is relatively easy to manage. Problems start to arise when the list is greater then 20 articles. Consider the following:
- What if you add one item at the beginning of your text?
- What if you cite a source multiple times?
- What if you need to change the format of the references?
The list of problems goes on and on, and the amount of sources that you intend to cite adds extra complexity.
There are several tools that could help you manage this complexity (for example Mendeley), as well as editors like Latex that are designed for this issue. However, in this article I would like to keep things as simple as possible.
Let’s consider the example of MS-Word and how it can help you. Even if what is going to follow is quite specific, similar considerations could be repeated for similar editors like Open office.
These links from the MS-World help center can guide you in how to add resources into your document as well as how to insert a reference:
These videos will give you an idea on how to add a reference.
Here is one on the potential of this feature:
This is just a possibility for improving your editing experience and focusing on what matters the most: your content. Please consider this article as the starting point instead of the final destination. There are plenty of possible way to collect and maintain your references and, in case you are not satisfied, you will easily find other ways to improve the efficiency in conducting this (boring) task.
As a final note, please keep in mind that managing references is a bit different then managing images and tables in your document. This video explains the differences (and repeats some of the information of the previous):
This article ( How to use references in word: a few tips and suggestions for your thesis ) is part of the miniseries on how to do a good thesis, you can see the full list of post at the following links:
