By Lindsey Schibelhut, Staff Reporter.
For many students, the job of putting together a works cited page for research papers has always been a task. No matter whether you are in high school or college, I’m sure you’ve always wished for a better way of getting that important source information together. While facing this same problem I stumbled upon an app in the Apple app store called “RefME.”
When you first open “RefME” choose how you want to login using either Facebook, Google or an email address. Once logged in you’ll come to a page that says “Add Project.” This feature is pretty cool because if there are multiple homework projects you need references for, you can name them and keep track of the sources you need for each individual paper. When your project has been named you will come to a page that says “Add Reference.” From here you can choose to search for the book/journal article of your choice manually, search for the website you want to use, enter your reference manually or scan the barcode of the book/magazine you are using and it will automatically add the reference to your project.
On this app there are over 7,000 different literary styles you can choose from, whether your preference is APA, MLA or others. Another neat feature in this app is when you click one of your references that has been saved: a dialogue box pops up and allows you to type in quotes you want to save from that publication or write an annotation. Not only are you organizing your sources, but you can also keep track of important quotes you may want to use. And by swiping left on either your project or reference you have the ability to delete, rename, etc.
According to the “RefME” app, users have the ability to log onto refme.com to see all of their references. They also have the ability to copy the references directly into their Word, Google Docs, along with other services using a computer to access their account.
nother comparative app to “RefME” I tried was called “EasyBib.” The “EasyBib” interface is a little more simple to deal with than “RefME.” But after working with both the “RefME” app and “EasyBib,” “RefME” has more features I found to be useful and organizational such as creating projects, keeping a list of the references you are using for that project and being able to save quotes to each source.
I just wish “RefME’s” menus were more concise, so you didn’t feel like you were going from page to page to page; however, once you get a handle on how to navigate through “RefME” it’s not that big of a deal. While “EasyBib” may have more of a concise menu system, “RefME” has “EasyBib” beat on usefulness and organization.
RefME” is a free app that can be found in both Apple and Android OS app stores. If you ever find yourself having trouble with the task of referencing – fear not there’s an app for that.
