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ME 241 - Mechanics Lab

Managing Citations

Finding print and electronic books

Besides the Articles & Books Search, the UR Catalog provides another view into the print and electronic resources available to you. Try them both!

Other ebook providers include:

Content

  • Contact me! (Information on the Mechanical Engineering Resources page)
    • Individual or group consultations are welcome!
  • Chat with library staff
  • Ask in person at the Carlson or Rush Rhees Q&i desk

Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a free service for you to get any book or article the Libraries don't own. 

  1. Find whatever information you can about the thing you need.
  2. Go to ILL and fill out the right form.
    • (Bonus points if you can have the form filled out automatically!)
  3. Submit and wait! Usually 1-2 weeks for print, 1-2 days for electronic.
  4. Pick up your thing!

For this class, I recommend using the ASME referencing style. If you find ASME's own guide confusing, another library has written a more approachable guide here.

In general, citations serve to give your reader a way to track down the information you used; they need to have enough detail that your reader can find the exact thing you did.

Reference management software can help you gather your references, organize and annotate them with your groups, and automatically generate your in-text citations and bibliography! I recommend Mendeley as an efficient citation manager. Take a look at their training material, or ask me for help getting started! (Tip: you'll have to install the American Society of Mechanical Engineering citation style. It's easy to do! Ask if you need help.)

Other options include RefWorks, EndNote, and Zotero.

  1. Use the Articles & Books tab to find: Kundu, Pijush K. and Ira Cohen. Fluid Mechanics. Burlington, MA: Academic Press, 2008.
    • What is the call number?
    • Use the electronic version to find the dedication.
  2. Use Web of Science to search for: Kataoka, Dawn E. and Sandra M. Troian. Patterning liquid flow on the microscopic scale. Nature 402. 16 December 1999, p. 794.
    • Find articles that reference/cite Kataoka’s Nature article.
    • Find more articles by Dawn E. Kataoka.
    • Find articles related to Kataoka’s Nature article.
  3. Use Compendex to find articles on the aerodynamics of windmills.
    • Where is most of the work being done?
    • Which authors are publishing most on this topic?
    • Email an article to yourself.

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article

Is My Source Scholarly?

Source Level

Here are a few criteria for determining if your source is scholarly:
Author(s) credentials - are they experts working or teaching in this field of study?
Length - is it a few brief paragraphs or a longer, more substantive article?
Language - is it written for other scholars in the field?  Do they used specialized or technical language specific to this field of study?     
References - is the author(s) citing other scholars in this field of study? Do they have a robust reference list?
Journal or Book Type - If it's a journal article, what kind of journal is the article is published in?  Is it a scholarly journal, or even peer reviewed?  If it’s a book, is it published by a university press or other well-respected commercial publisher known for publishing scholarly works?