NUTRITN 372 Writing in Nutrition

Nutrition 372 - Creating & Sharing a Bibliography with Zotero

Here are written instructions, followed by a short video demonstrating how to create the bibliography.

1. Add articles to Zotero using the browser connector. (Refer to this video if you need help.)
2. (Optional) Move articles into a Collection
3. Select the articles to include in your bibliography
4. Make sure capitalization in the Title field is correct for AMA format. 
   • Article title (the Title field) should only have the first word, proper nouns (places, acronyms, names, etc), and the first word after a : capitalized.
   • To edit the entry, click on the article in the list, then in the information pane, click on the title and that field should become editable.
5. Right click and choose “Create bibliography from Items"
6. Choose American Medical Association 11th Edition as your citation style.
   • Output Mode should be bibliography
   • Output Method should be Copy to Clipboard
   • Click OK
7. Open a Word document or Google doc and then paste from your clipboard.
   • Double check your entries
     • Citation numbers should be left-justified
     • Journal title (the Publication field) should use the PubMed abbreviation. You can double-check abbreviations in the NLM Catalog
8. Save your document and submit in Moodle.

The links below go to videos or short tutorials that cover different aspects of the research process. Please contact Ellen if you have any questions!

When you read a scientific article, you do not want to read it straight through in order - at least not on the first time through. There are different ways to go through an article.

Here is how I usually approach scientific articles to get a basic understanding of what the article is about:

• I read the title and abstract to identify articles of interest. 
• I look at the authors and their affiliations, as well as funding disclosures to look for potential slants or biases.
• Next, I skip to the last paragraph of the Introduction, where the authors typically state what they plan to do in their study and their objectives.
• Then, I skim through the Methods (sometimes called Materials & Methods) and Results sections, focusing on the charts, images, and tables to get a basic understanding of what they did and what they measured.
• The Discussion/Conclusion section is what I read through after that, to get an understanding of whether the authors felt they met their objectives and what it means. In this section, they should mention limitations of their study and possibly suggest next steps for research.
• If I still want to know more, I go back and read through the full Introduction, Methods, and Results sections.