Convert Word Document Field Codes into Formatted Text

Reference management software such as EndNote, Mendeley, etc. are great time savers when inserting citations in a manuscript typed in Microsoft Word.  Sometimes it is necessary to modify or remove the field codes these programs place in a document.  Situations include the need to edit some of the fields or submit a text-only article to a journal.  In these instances, these fields need to be removed and replaced with the appropriately formatted text.  How is this done?  Its incredibly easy...as long as you know the keyboard shortcut.  Here are the two simple steps:

(1) Select the text you want to remove the field codes from.  This can be done by highlighting a section of interest or pressing Ctrl + A if you want to replace the field codes in the entire document.

(2) Press Ctrl + Shift + F9.  This is the actual step that converts field codes into formatted text.

That's it.  You're done!  All your MS Word field codes in your .doc file should now be removed and the appropriate formatted text should be inserted in their place.  Hope this works for you as easily as it did for me.  If you find this post particularly helpful, please help me out by clicking the +1 link on the bottom of the post.

Change Citation Reference Style in EndNote X6

I was quite happy with Mendeley as my reference manager for a while, but recently it has been difficult to produce certain reference styles for lesser known journals.  Added to the difficulty of collaborating with others on manuscripts, I ultimately chose to convert to EndNote (non-open source, paid software...boo).  In all honesty, its not too bad and has plugins for Microsoft Word that work a lot like Mendeley.  When setting things up, I found importing journal citation styles could be a bit tricky, especially for newbies, so here is a quick primer to help out.

First go to Edit>Output Styles and look to see if the style you want is listed in the drop down menu.  If you see it you are in luck.  If not, click on Open Style Manager....

The EndNote Styles dialogue box will pop up.  There should be a list of styles that come pre-loaded with your installation.  If you see the journal style you need in the list, simply click the box next to the style so it is checked, exit out of the dialogue box, and click on that same style in the Edit>Output Styles menu.  If you don't see the reference style you need, keep reading.

To find additional styles, click on the Get More on the Web... button in the EndNote Styles dialogue box.  This will open the EndNote Output Styles Download site in your default web browser.  Use the fields to search for your style and if you find it click to download it.  Once downloaded, double click or drag your style into the EndNote.  A dialogue box with that style should pop up.  If everything looks fine, click File>Save As, delete copy from the style's name and save it.  To use it, check the box next to the style name and select it from the Edit>Output Styles menu.

If you don't find the style you need on the EndNote site, you can create your own style under Edit>Output Sytles>New Style....  A dialogue box named Untitled Style will pop up and you can begin to create a new style that matches your needs.  You are on your own here.  I have little experience with this.  Some tips are to start with a style that is close to what you need and edit it (ie: go to Edit>Output Styles>Edit "StyleNameHere", where StyleNameHere is the name of the style close to what you want).  Just be sure to save your style before closing out of the dialogue box.

Hope this helps.  Feel free to leave tips, helpful suggestions, or comments on anything I left out.

Calculate an Author's H-Index

The h-index is an indicator of the number of highly cited citations an author has among their total published work.  Simply put, an h-index of h is the number of papers an author has that have at least h citations, so an author with an h-index of 10 has at least 10 papers that have received over 10 citations.  An intuitive graphical representation is shown here.  This calculation is used so that articles that are highly cited or have not yet been cited do not disproportionately weight the overall score.

To calculate the score, go to the ISI Web of Knowledge webpage, click on the Web of Science tab, and enter the author's name in the correct field.  A good way to enter an author's name is last name, first initial followed by an asterisk (*).  Once the search has been conducted, click on the Create Citation Report link at the top of the search results.  This will take you to a report page that has the h-index calculated for you.  How high of a h-index can you find?  The highest I could find was 212.

Google Scholar also has a way to calculate an h-index, however, a Google account is required and this approach is more tailored to calculating your h-index.  At the main Google Scholar page, there is a link at the top right called My Citations.  Click the link and login.  This leads you to a wizard where you fill in your details and add papers to your My Citations list.  After all your papers are added, an h-index is calculated.  Best wishes for a strong h-index!