If you are not extremely familiar with Matlab already, IGOR is recommended. The programs of choice are either IGOR or Matlab. You will certainly need to use something other than Excel when making graphs for publications or formal presentations. In all likelihood, you will need to move beyond Excel-based analysis of your data. Alternatively, you can use the online Endnote Web, which interfaces nicely with WOS. Endnote is available for free(!) download from the university through your my. account.

It allows you to easily re-format depending upon the specific requirements of a given journal. However, unless you have access to the articles you find (often not free), then it is of limited utility.Įndnote is a reference management program that can be used to insert and format references in word documents. Google Scholar is nice because it is a free service. If you happen to know the exact title of a paper you are looking for it is often the fastest way to get there. In addition to WOS, Google Scholar also does a pretty good job of finding articles. Similarly, many journals now make it easy to download and add a given reference to your Endnote library. You can also “export” your marked references to a reference manager program (such as Endnote X3).

You can also see who has referenced any given article, or link to references in a given article. Through WOS you can search by author, subject, etc. One tool that helps you to search the literature is Web of Science.

Knowing how to search the academic literature is an important skill that takes practice. If you use Firefox, there are add-ons that can make switching between having the proxy off (when you are on-campus) and on (when you are off-campus). I don’t find the VPN to be very user friendly and therefore recommend going through the proxy server.

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