Do you already feel like you've fallen behind? It's mid-semester: time to feel the crunch! Time is the coin of the realm for faculty --anything that takes a lot of time is expensive. The Library suggests 1 app and 5 browser extensions to help you use your limited time more happily and productively. Icons for all the extensions will appear in your browser's toolbar.
You need not use all of these --even one will save you time. All are easy to set up and easy to learn.
BrowZine: BrowZine is an app for browsers and Apple or Android phones and devices that helps you flip through the Library's scholarly e-journals. Browzine has sorted our e-journals into broad subjects and then into narrower disciplines. You can save and organize your most-used e-journals on virtual bookshelves saved to your account. The result is an easy to browse through, read, and monitor your favorite journals.
Browzine Using Your Web Browser (Easy To Do This First!)1. Open your favorite web browser. |
Browzine App for Smart Phones and Tables1. Download the free BrowZine app by going to the app store for your device and search for "browzine." |
LibKey Nomad and finds .pdfs of articles in Wikipedia, PubMed, and nearly all of the library’s databases. LibKey Nomad uses the same knowledgebase (list of journals) that Browzine uses, which is regularly updated by the Library. LibKey Nomad also integrates visually directly in PubMed search results and Wikipedia documents. This makes PubMed search results far more useful to novice researchers. It can also scan results of Google (and other search engines), and identify results available through the library. You don't have to establish a login or identity to use LibKey Nomad, and you can change institutions if you have credentials for another academic library that uses it.
Available on: Chrome (ThirdIron is working on a Firefox add-on)
Setup: You will have to choose a library (Sacred Heart University —see the image below), but you do not have to establish an account (unlike Kopernio). Go to the Technical FAQ for more information.
Pros/Cons: Pro: LibKey Nomad more accurately guides you to Library journal subscriptions and databases (updated). It respects your privacy, and is visually clear. Best to use with PubMed. Con: Does not offer a “locker” for article storage; does not format citations. NB If you use both Kopernio and LibKey Nomad, the “flag” popups in the lower left-hand corner of your screen may overlay each other.
Zotero (pronounced "zoh-TAIR-oh") is an application that collects, manages, and cites research sources. It's easy to use, connects with your web browser to download sources, and best of all it's free.
Works on: Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Do not go to an extension store: go to this Zotero download page, and the page will determine which browser you are using, and offer you the correct connector.
Usage: Zotero Connectors allow your web browser to save citations to your Zotero library. The Zotero application must be open. When you click on the connector icon, a list will open with your Zotero collections, and you can add the citation to the one you choose. If you use Opera or Microsoft Edge, a bookmarklet is available, which also works on iOS and Android devices.
Pros/Cons: Zotero is easy to use, comes in many language, and has vigorous community support. You can configure some options by right-clicking the Connector icon (or Command/click in Mac). Con: Some find that Zotero is not visually appealing, and some also find Zotero itself to be confusing.
Unpaywall points you to legal, author-posted manuscripts that are hosted on university and government web servers --usually versions that have been posted with the full and explicit authorization of the publishers themselves. Unpaywall compiles one record for every article with a Crossref DOI*, and matches those DOIs to over 50,000 open access content sources. For any given DOI, Unpaywall should know about any OA version that exists anywhere. A canonical reference paper (from PeerJ) describes the scale of open access. Unpaywall does not index articles in ResearchGate and Academia.edu (because of legal questions), or authors’ personal websites.
(*A DOI is a Digital Object Identifier, a unique long number that permanently identifies an article or document.)
Set-up: Follow Chrome or Firefox instructions to install the extension.
Usage: When an open-access version of an article is available, a green or gold unpaywall icon will appear on the right-hand margin of the screen. Click on the icon will resolve the DOI and provide a full-text version of the article. An FAQ explains more how unpaywall works. Unpaywall is a project of Impactstory, “a nonprofit building tools to help make scholarly research more open, accessible, and reusable” –a clear business model.
Pros/Cons: Easy to use; Easy to set up; Identifies the “flavor” of an articles open access (green or gold); Con: Indexes open access content only, and may not index articles on an author’s personal website
The Google Scholar Button provides quick access to Google Scholar from any web page via a pop-up window that finds citations when you click on the Google Scholar icon (left). It can help find full text on the web or via the University Library, and transfer your query from an open web search to Google Scholar. It can also format references in several widely-used styles.
For more information, see: this guide from the University of Pennsylvania. Google Scholar can search articles, patents, and case law.
Available on: Chrome, Firefox, and Opera
Set-Up: Follow the instructions for Chrome or Firefox. In order to save settings, you must be logged into your Google account. You can set a few options by going to https://scholar.google.com/scholar_settings or clicking on the little gear icon in the popup window.
Pros/Cons: Easy access to Google Scholar from any web page; some ability to find full text in SHU Library. References can be formatted in widely-used styles by clicking on the quotation-mark icon on the right side of the Google Scholar popup window. Con: Library links work best on campus and are iffy off-campus; access through the library’s proxy service is spotty; usage is governed by the ever-shifting Google Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Kopernio finds articles and research papers in .pdf format on 20,000 academic platorms, and works with the Library’s proxy service. After it locates and presents the .pdf, Kopernio integrates with Mendeley, EndNote, Dropbox, and Zotero for easy export and bibliographic citation. See the Kopernio FAQ for more information – especially What is Kopernio and how do I use it? Kopernio works through the library’s proxy when you are off-campus. It does many of the same things that LibKey Nomad does, but with Kopernio you have to set up a login -—on the other hand, you can store some articles in its "locker."
Set-up: Install the extension in Chrome or Firefox, and open it by clicking on the icon in the toolbar. Identify Sacred Heart University Library as your library, and you can save this setting by creating a free account in Kopernio. After you register, you can try the example search, or simply search Google Scholar. You will see green “View PDF” icons appearing where Kopernio can locate a copy, and you can save it to your “locker,” share it, download it, and download an .ris citation to load into bibliographic management software.
Pros/Cons:Easy to use; already set up to work with SHU Library resources; Con: Owned by Clarivate (Web of Science); “freemium” but you get premium if you get a friend to use it (low bar); business model is unclear. NB If you use both Kopernio and LibKey Nomad, the “flag” popups in the lower left-hand corner of your screen may overlay each other.
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