Getting Started
Library Homepage: www.usfca.edu/library
Pre-Search Tasks:
Topics and Keywords
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Your topic might morph and change as you conduct your research and gather information: this is part of the process.
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Brainstorm keywords and synonyms, write them down, keep track of them, and add to them if necessary as you go along.
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Example: Museums/Architecture or design or Construction/sustainability or environmentally conscious.
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Consider using a research log to keep track of your keywords and search strategies.
Keeping track of references/sources
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Consider using Refworks, or another online reference manager to create a personal database of your references/sources.
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Online reference managers can also help you automatically generate citations, as well as entire bibliographies and works cited lists.
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Check Refworks citations against citation manuals. Refworks citations are not always perfect and might need to be edited or cleaned-up. This page of the library website has more information about Refworks and citation styles and manuals: https://library.usfca.edu/citing-sources.
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To create a Refworks account: click the RefWorks link below or go to: https://refworks.proquest.com/. Then click CREATE ACCOUNT at the bottom of the page and follow the instructions.
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- RefWorks allows users to create personal databases to manage, store, and share the information citations/references. Users can automatically insert references from their database into their papers and generate formatted bibliographies and manuscripts in seconds. Create an account using your USF email address.