I personally hate installing extra toolbars in my browser, and not only because they take up screen real estate. But the potential usefulness of Citelighter piqued my interest enough to overcome my reluctance. Citelighter is not merely for students, because with its information gathering features, it could be handy across the board for bloggers, writers, office workers, even stay-at-home moms.

How does a citation tool help us?

Citation is defined as a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted text. You can call it a reference. If you are still confused, just open up a Wikipedia entry and head below to the section called References. A citation also similarly acknowledges previously published works and in case of the web, links to it. There are various styles for publishing citations in research papers and on the web. But we will not go into that. For us, it’s more useful to learn what we can do with a citation and research tool like Citelighter.

• Citation is the best way to avoid charges of plagiarism or copying.
• Information is reusable. Crediting the source of the original information helps everyone because a reader can go back to the source and dive deeper into the material.
• Citations help to respect intellectual property rights of the person who created the source text in the first place

Organizing information with Citelighter

Citelighter is described as a fully automated bibliography, citation, research, and internet highlighting tool. It works as a Firefox plug-in. Citation is in public beta now, but is gradually progressing towards maturity as a full-fledged academic research tool.

Let’s see how it automates the whole process of collating information and preparing a research paper (or any paper).

1. To get started, register with an email account or Facebook Connect. Next, you have to download the Firefox plug-in which shows up as a toolbar after you restart the browser. The screenshot in the next point gives you an idea of how it looks after an install on Firefox.

2. Start a project. You can also set a due date for project completion and set reminders. The next steps are pretty simple.

3. Surf the web and start collecting information from webpages. Citelighter does not yet work on PDF files, but with webpages it’s a smooth flow.

4. Highlight all relevant information with the mouse by selecting the text as you would with a highlighter pen and clicking the Capture button.

A small sub-toolbar drops down and gives you an option to edit the capture or add extra comments. Citelighter automatically captures the information, but as you can see in the edit box below, you can fine-tune your capture by adding a lot of citation worthy info.

5. As you keep collecting the info, you can press the View button anytime to see all that you’ve saved. It’s arranged in points. The View window is where most of the information organization takes place. You can drag & drop to reorder all the data you have collected. You can click on Comments and type in more information required for your paper or notes.

6. Scroll down and you see all the bibliographic information neatly recorded as per the order you collected the information. You can customize it according to the three styles presently on offer right now – APA, MLA, and Chicago.

7. Once you’ve completed your research, press the Export button to send all the organized data (or selected ones) to a MS Word document, Google Docs, email, or printer.

8. The My Projects page (accessed from home icon on the toolbar) lists all your projects. You can use the search bar to search for specific text stings within all your projects listed here.

Footnotes…

Citelighter is a quick research tool to collect and organize your research notes. It works well on webpages, but it’s still not tuned for PDFs. That may go against it, but these are still early stages and the project is evolving. It just might be the premium feature when the developers start offering it in paid and free flavors. Browser extensions for Chrome and Safari are also in the offing. Citelighter is also putting a points system in place for more community participation.

When it comes to citation and bibliography tools, I like Citelighter for its speed and ease of use. What about you? Which research tool would you recommend?

Usually, those who frown upon the quality of Internet research are “old school” journalists who long for the days when you had to walk down to the local library in order to conduct “proper” research on the background of a particular topic.

However, times have changed drastically, and today the overwhelming reach and power of the Internet is giving both journalistic researchers and scientific researchers a run for their money.  Today, almost anyone can become an armchair researcher – quickly becoming a so-called “expert” on any topic.  However, writers with a true journalistic flair can write and publish stories more quickly and with far more detail than their newspaper journalist counterparts of even just ten years ago.

Finding Powerful Internet Research Tools

There are countless research tools for online writers who are interested in digging for information about any topic.  But three very useful tools in particular come from Cogitum LC, a company that offers three useful free tools that can help you collect and organize information as you’re scouring the Internet for data.  These three tools are:

• Co-Citer – Records quoted text, its title and URL, and the date you collected it.
• Co-Tracker 2.0 – Captures an image, its URL and the URL it links to, and the date you captured it.
• FotoTagger – A image editing tool that lets you point out and note details about photographs.

Each of these three tools have unique features that are very useful to researchers, especially those who are working on research for market, educational or scientific papers that require proper citations of all sources.

Cogitum Co-Citer

In order to provide an example of the power of this software, I’m going to use niche industry research on the real estate market that I’m currently working on for a client.  In this example, I’ve found information about real estate demographics.  At Realestatejournal.com, I found a great Wall Street Journal news blurb entitled “Foreclosure Rate Outpaces Bank Sales.”  The data in this article is very useful.  To cite a section of such an online article, you just highlight the text you want to cite (in Internet Explorer) and then right-click and select “Grab Selected Text.”  Co-Citer will open and allow you to add a comment for the citation as well.

The nice thing about the Co-Citer is that you don’t have to keep multiple windows or documents open, trying to keep track of the URL or the quote.  Every time you find useful data, you can simply right click, add a comment to describe why you find the quote useful, and then move on.  Using this application alone has cut down my own research time by at least 25%, and I don’t lose citations anymore.

Cogitum Image Co-Tracker

Another valuable research tool from Cogitum is the image “Co-Tracker,” which essentially does the same thing as the Co-Citer, but it does it for images.  Whenever you’re utilizing images from the internet where the image creator provides images for free, as long as the source is cited – this tool makes it simple to do so by keeping track of the source of all of those photos for you.

Once you’ve installed the application, it’s installed as an IE add-on.  So when you find a photo you want to use, simply right click and select “Grab Image.”

As shown above, Co-Tracker automatically saves the file on your hard drive, and it includes three editable lines which you can use to attach any information you want to the stored image.  Once you’re finished collecting images from around the internet, the Image Co-Tracker provides you with an entire catalog of images stored under whatever categories you create for them.

This makes it easy to create a large database of images that you can reuse again and again, without worrying about losing track of the source of those images.

Cogitum FotoTagger

FotoTagger is another IE add-on that you can use to automatically capture online images and then add tags to them.  On IE, just right click and select “Grab to Fototagger.”  You can also open up the Fototagger application and just open any image you like.

The cool thing about this application is that within less than a minute, you can completely fill a photo with detailed tags.  This is useful when you need to point out specific details about an object, or provide someone with detailed directions.

Fototagger also has features that allow you to automatically post the tagged image to your blog, or export it to Flickr.  You can also export to HTML or send it in an email.

I use Fototagger mainly as a quick method to mock-up detailed images as part of a research report, but with the “balloon” tag feature, you could create funny images from family photos or create a detailed “how-to” update on your blog, complete with tagged images outlining each step.

Conclusion

Conducting research on the Internet often involves hundreds of educational websites, online news archives, and countless other valuable resources.  When you find a valuable bit of information within those volumes, it can be a very tedious chore to try to keep track of those citations.  With these Cogitum tools, you can track and manage both text and images as you’re surfing quickly through resources, drastically cutting down on the time it takes you to get your work finished.

Do you conduct a lot of online research for school or for work?  What free tools do you use to keep track of sources?  Share your own online research experiences in the comments section below.

Thus I was rather irritated when I heard that my dad had to complete training for his job to learn new things. I remember I asked him when one would be done learning and the essence of what he said was of course never. Bummer!

Some 20 years later I’m still a student and I know I’ll never get done learning. So hang in there and enjoy it! Here are my favorite websites for students.

1. Chemistry

Dynamic Periodic Table

This periodic table helps in keeping elements apart. You can highlight them by their aggregate state (solid, liquid, gas, unknown) or group (nonmetals with subgroups and metals with subgroups). Clicking on an element or group will launch a separate window with the matching Wikipedia article.

Periodic Table of the Elements

This periodic table is more compact than the previous one and it’s great for a quick summary for each element. As can be seen in the screenshot below, all elements are represented by a matching image and clicking on it launches a small information window.

2. Biology

Foldit

Foldit is not really a tool you’ll need for your everyday biology class. BUT it can help you understand something about proteins AND help scientists at the same time. Basically it’s a game and it’s your task to build protein molecules based on previously described structures.

Simon has reviewed the tool in detail in his article Foldit – Solve Puzzles for Science.

3. Mathematics

Mathway

This is an online tool that will help solve your maths challenges. Just enter the “problem statement”, select a subject and hit solve for the solution including the steps taken to get there.

Varun previously wrote about Mathway – A Step By Step Mathematics Problems Solver.

SpeedCrunch (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Unlike Mathway, this is a very powerful desktop calculator that contains a ton of helpful libraries for various maths problems.

Damien just recently introduced this tool in all its depth, so check out his piece SpeedCrunch – High Precision Freeware Desktop Calculator.

4. Languages

LiveMocha

This is a social network for learning languages. While you are helping others to improve their skills in your native language, they may help you improve a foreign language you are struggling with. They may even help you with your French homework.

Saikat wrote a thorough review of LiveMocha – Small The Coffee & Learn The Lingo.

VerbaLearn

With VerbaLearn you can improve your English vocabulary with online study sessions. The tool learns with you, keeping a record of your progress and weaknesses. You can listen to your study list offline to better memorize the words and practice the pronunciation and online you can read examples of how the word is being used.

The tool was recently introduced by Tim: Practice Your Vocabulary With VerbaLearn.

Bullfighter (MS Word and Powerpoint plugin)

Similar To VerbaLearn, this tool is designed to improve your use of the English language. The tool will analyze your texts for jargon. The higher your Bull Composite score, the higher the chance people will actually understand what you are trying to say.

James has written about Bullfighter – Simplify Your Writing & Gain Results.

5. Literature

wePapers

On this website people can share and expand their knowledge for free. You can read the material others have provided and upload your own papers to contribute to the community.

Zotero (Firefox extension)

When composing an assignment or a thesis you have to reveal your sources. Zotero is a Firefox extension that can help you keep track of your references and organize a citation bibliography for Open Office or MS Word documents.

Mixed Literature Resources

Struggling to find cheap college text books? These resources collected by Nick may help: The Top 5 Sites To Find Your College Textbooks. Are you a medical student who’s looking for resources online? Have a look through Jackson’s list of The Best Reference Sites For Medical Students. Maybe you need to improve your writing and homework? I wrote about 7 Online Resources To Help You Improve Your Writing and Where To Research Material For Your Homework.

Finally, you may also find Ken’s article on 10+ Web Tools To Save Your Butt In School very helpful.

How do you use the internet to get through school?

Picture credits: amr_safey