RDP Thing 7 and 8: Referencing, Creative Commons and Copyright

As part of 23 Things I was tasked with talking about the reference management softwre whih I chose to use, and also to make use of copyright features such as the creative commons service.

Since my dissertation last summer and throughout my EngD so far I have been using the reference management tool Mendeley. I must say that I wouldn't be able to progress throughout my doctorate without some form of reference management software and Mendeley works perfectly.
The service works by creating a Mendeley account which all your source material will be saved to, there is then the option to download a plug-in/app for your desktop web browser, which places a small red button the the right of the web address which you can click on when viewing a journal article to have it directly saved as a source on your Mendeley account. Either online or using the desktop Mendeley library program one can then view the library of all sources that they have saved which performing a literature search. There are many features within the library such as the ability to assort your sources into separate folders, depending on which project they are relevant to. One can also [if the pdf is available] view the article within the program, with the ability to highlight sections of the text an dd notes to the article which will be saved within your library. Finally there is also a Microsoft Word plug-in available which allows you to insert references from your library with few clicks, as opposed to the hassle of carefully hand typing a reference.

I would say to setup an account and download and understand how to use everything will take around half an hour, and having this or any reference management tool at your disposal will save you hours of time that you may have spent meticulously typing references and checking them against the Oxford Referencing style guide. There are many other benefits too, such as the fact that you no longer risk losing a reference and searching for it last minute as you rush to complete your bibliography hours before a deadline. To all naive undergraduates, trust me when I say that it is so much better to reference as you write than to try remember and fit them in at the end of a document.