Biology 3420: Animal Behavior

Keeping track of the sources you've consulted during your literature research can save you time and make it more efficient as you move from one database to another or return to a source for additional searching.  A reference manager (see more in the next box) will help you keep track of your citations, keep track of PDFs of your resources, and help you create a bibliography in the appropriate citation style.

You might also try creating a concept map as you conduct your research.  As you map out the information you have found so far, along with the sources (books and journal articles) you have to support that information, you can see where there are still gaps in your literature review.

If you do not already have a reference manager then try using RefWorks to help you quickly format your references list and keep track of your resources.  It allows you to export references from databases, keep separate folders for different papers you're writing, and even format your bibliography when you're ready to turn in the paper.  For more information on using RefWorks at Trinity, click here.

For your literature review paper, Professor Murphy has asked you to follow the format used by the journal Animal Behaviour.  You can specify this citation style in RefWorks under the Bibliography tab>Output Style Manager. 

Keep in mind that citation managers like RefWorks do not always output the citation style completely correctly.  If you set up RefWorks to use the Animal Behaviour citation style, Professor Murphy does not require you to double check your bibliography from RefWorks against the known style guide.  However, if you want to get in the habit of checking the bibliography that RefWorks outputs against a guide to that citation style you can do that for Animal Behaviour by looking at the guidelines and examples at the publisher's homepage under "Reference Style".

An example Animal Behaviour citation for a journal article is:

Beifer, E., Ryback, F. & Aubin T. 2008. When to be a dear enemy: flexible acoustic relationships of neighboring skylarks, Alauda arvensis. Animal Behaviour, 76, 1319-1325.

An example Animal Behaviour citation for a book is:

Stearns, S.C. 1992. The Evolution of Life Histories. Oxford: Oxford University Press.