 |
|
|
|
|
news feeds
|
|
|
Search BTR site
|
|
|
Receive update alerts
|
|
|
|
|
Main BTR Sections
|
|
|
|
|
Contact BTR
Post: Biblio Tech Ltd
24, Old Sneed Avenue
Bristol, UK
BS9 1SE
Telephone/fax : +44(0)117-904-7203
email: btr@biblio-tech.com
|
|
|
|
© Biblio Tech Ltd. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
Reference Manager v.8 reviewed |
|
|
|
Contents |
|
|
Introduction, Usability, Editing, Marking records, Web linking, Searching, Non Roman Characters, Conclusion, Main feature, Feature Table, ProCite, EndNote.
|
|
|
Introduction |
|
|
Reference Manager and ProCite now both come from the same suppliers and it is beginning to show as some of the features of these
versions are beginning to look very similar.
However there is enough difference at a functional level despite their identical price tag and summary feature scores. Looking at the differences in the main features table shows where the differences lie and indicate why your choice might be one way or the other.
|
|
|
|
|
Available from: |
|
From Research Information Systems:
2355, Camino Vida Roble
Carlsbad
CA. USA
email: sales@risinc.com
web: www.risinc.com
|
|
|
Price |
|
|
List price: single copy $395.95
|
|
|
Features score |
|
|
|
|
Usability |
|
|
|
|
|
Reference manager like its now stablemate ProCite has a modern Microsoft style interface with 3D buttons, floating toolbars, tool tips and so on.
The screens are basically well designed and I particularly liked the edit screen for Reference Manager which placed rules between fields and made it seem more structured than either of the other two products reviewed here. Reference Manger is also unique in using a single window for all open databases and retrieved sets of records. The different sets are separately tabbed so that you can move easily between them and, a nice point this, each database uses a slightly different colour for the background shading of the edit record so that it is easy to remember where you are when dealing with multiple databases.
Reference Manger also optionally presents the edit version of the record above the summary list so that there is no action necessary when moving to
edit a record displayed after a search.
|
|
|
|
Editing |
|
|
|
The editing of records takes place in the clearest of the screens and, for me, the easiest to use.
The faint lines separating the fields aid comprehension and navigation. Terms can be inserted by double clicking items in the term list and there are 5 user definable fields to be used. The term lists available are only for the three main fields KW, Title and Author but they can have up to five synonyms each which can be substituted if required in formatting output and are searched so that terms which may have been variously entered by different databases can be retrieved by entering a single term.
When entering references in Reference Manager you can elect to have pop-up browsers for the term lists. This makes the data entry chore a lot
easier than either ProCite or Endnote. ProCite has a button against the field which has to be pressed to go into the browser lists and it is not automatically linked to the correct field.
|
|
|
|
Marking records |
|
|
Like ProCite, Reference Manager has the ability to create groups - called “reference lists” in Reference Manager. These can be used as
the feed to retrieval ad output activities and are a very useful way to deal with subsets of records. Highlighting and marking references in a check-box add to the flexibility of controlling records.
|
|
|
|
Web Linking |
|
|
Web Linking is good - you can click on a mini-icon in the record - this is easier than trying to remember a control key sequence. There is no
direct download of Web pages as in ProCite however and you cannot link to the web page from the summary list.
The latest documentation claims that Reference Manager will also enable multiple objects to be linked to a record but I could not test this.
|
|
Searching |
|
|
|
|
I found the searching in Reference Manager to be the least easy to use. The search dialogue box is clumsy in the way it uses a “select from”
box for field names although once you are used to that part, building up a search statement can be quite powerful. Search statements are generally tricky to build up correctly and have confidence in.
There is however an automatic search history and the ability to save a search expression for later use so that once you have got it right, there is
no need to worry about having to get it right again!
The main unique feature of Reference Manager is the ability to search across several databases simultaneously.
I also found the distinction between indexed and none indexed fields difficult to grasp and to use effectively but the string searching did allow
for finding things like phenyl which will be found in chlorobiphenyls triphenylphosphate. The terms are highlighted in the retrieved record - useful when searching full abstracts.
|
|
Non-Roman characters |
|
|
