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AScribe is a basic reference manager for AMA, APA, Chicago, and MLA styles. Reference Managers help organize research sources in a database and format references in a selected style. Top commercial products like Endnote® and Reference Manager® can download citations directly from online databases and export them directly to your word processor. These applications start at about $100 for student editions--up to $250 for retail versions. AScribe does the basics for a whole lot less. |
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AScribe has its origins in the 1990s. At the time bibliographic software was not very good and very expensive. So a small group of graduate students wrote their own. To get the reference styles right the style sheets and guides featured on this website were developed. They proved much more popular than the software. The program was updated in 2007, but readily accommodates features incorporated in the latest editions of the APA and MLA manuals, as well as the addition of the DOI to AMA and APA style references. AScribe 6.0 formats references in AMA/ICMJE, APA, Chicago, and MLA styles. User Friendly? The programming language remains 1990s. The program was developed before even Windows 95 was available, but continues to work on all operating systems that support MS-DOS.the program has been configured to run on latest version of Windows XP. It's much easier to use than any commercial product. 
File Manager (screen shot) This is the program's opening display. Enter the name of your database and description or press Enter. The file manger remembers up to 24 files (20,000 references).
Card File (screen shot). Source information is organized in AScribe's card file database. This emulates a traditional library card catalog in Author, Title, Publisher format.
Template (screen shot). Templates guide you in entering information. There are just six: Authors, Books, Compilations, Journals, Monographs, and Reviews.
References (screen shot) The reference page shows the formatted reference as it will appear to a word processor, and provides space to add notes: up to a full page of text.
Word Processor (screen shot). AScribe generates a word processor file in Microsoft Rich Text Format (RTF). Microsoft Word and many other word processors can read this file, as can the basic word processors that come with Windows: Wordpad and MS Works.Import Text. Import text and references directly into AScribe. (1) Cut and paste from Adobe Acrobat files, word processor documents, even Web pages. (2) Save the information in a text file with Windows Notepad, and (3) Merge it with your reference cardfile database. This ends having to transcribe reference information from electronic documents, especially PDF files. Why Format References? There are few things more tedious than formatting references. AScribe can precisely format over 90 different sources in APA style, the 40 different sources featured on the ICMJE style sheet (in ICMJE or AMA style), and all but a handful of the sources featured in the MLA Handbook and Chicago Manual of Style (AScribe does not do references to secondary sources). |
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| Four Versions. AScribe comes in four versions that share a common database. All versions come with sample reference files cross-indexed to the respective style manuals. |
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AScribe AMA/ICMJE. American Medical Association and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors styles. Download: AScribe AMA (AMASetup.zip) |
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AScribe APA. Based on the current Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed., 2001). Download: AScribe APA (APASetup.zip) |
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AScribe CMS. Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed., 2003): Note, Bibliography, and Reference List styles. Download: AScribe CMS (CMSSetup.zip) |
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AScribe MLA. Modern Language Association Works Cited (Handbook Chapter 5), and endnotes (Appendix B). Download: AScribe MLA (MLASetup.zip) |
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It is important to test the program's compatibility with your system, and with you! AScribe works with operating systems from DOS 3.2 to Windows XP & Vista. Explore the program manual (AScribe 6.0 Guide PDF). Word Processor Test Files: (AMA.RTF) (APA.RTF) ( CMS.RTF) (MLA.RTF).  |
 amazon.com |
Endnote (Bibliographies Made Easy?). Version X3. 2009. ISI Research Soft. Windows and Mac. Amazon Student Versions $95: [Windows]Endnote automatically formats references for you--in standard AMA, APA, CBE, Chicago, ICMJE, and MLA styles, as well as a vast number of journal styles (over 1000). It is the standard of bibliographic software, required at many top universities. Surf for sources online; download bibliographic material from any online database or library catalog. The program comes with templates (for MSWord) that will set up your word processor for you! Endnote is your personal research assistant.  A free 30-day trial version is available at the Endnote website. |
 amazon.com |
Reference Manager. Version 12. 2008. ISI Researchsoft. Windows 2000-XP. Links to Amazon.com: ( Retail Version $180) (Student Version $95).
Reference Manager is not the top seller that Endnote is, but some find it the more refined application. It is now part of the ISI empire of bibliographic software, and priced in line with Endnote (it was about twice as expensive). It is also now available in a student version for a dollar more than Endnote. I recall it as being especially suited for medical research (surf PubMed). |
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Copyright © 2009 by Dr. Abel Scribe, PhD.
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