How to cite lecture notes from an online course?

jwoodell

Any ideas out there about how to cite lecture notes for an online course? Seems to me that guidance on this page for "citing handouts" is what most applies--
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/apa/faq.html

But which source type to use in Zotero? Any thoughts?

-Jim

MTBradley

As an anthropology student who plans to do ethnographic field work I've often thought about how one cites data garnered in the field. It seems to me that there are two basic choices: 1) citing the data as a personal communication ("Interview" in Zotero, probably) OR 2) citing the data as part of the field note you created describing the personal communication ("Document" in Zotero, probably).

Of course this isn't an ideal solution. Not all ethnographic data is garnered via interviews or even via communication- observation of public symbols is an acceptable field work method, but its niether a communication nor a document. Citing information gained form a lecture is similar- its a one way communication (at least those of us who have lectured aim for it to be!) but its no interview. Maybe "Observation" should be part of the ontology somehow...

chrisalbon

I'd like to see 3 new types:

Handouts (I get these all the time in class and at presentations)
Notes (including class notes)
Field Notes (specifically format for field information)

erazlogo

All of the above can be entered as a Manuscript item type because that's what they are--unpublished written documents. You can use the "Type" field to enter the type of your manuscript: "handout", "field notes," "class notes," or whatever.

chrisalbon

ooo, nice find erazlogo

marvin.smudge

This is probably too late. Thanks for the Owl reference at Purdue. They now have a page on Web notes! When searching i found a wizard to cite web notes On Line lecture notes citation tool at http://dairyscience.info/harvard/ . Works well.
Cite author, year, title of notes, file format e.g. PDF file, date assessed and url.

stephensaid

So what about a paper based on a lecture? I have found a transcript of a paper, based on a lecture from 1953. Any thoughts?

adamsmith

Generally, as erazlogo says above, unpublished papers can be cited well using the manuscript item type. If that doesn't work, we'd need the specifics of the item.

stephensaid

The lecture in question is embedded in this website http://www.giffordlectures.org/Browse.asp?PubID=TPSAGT&Volume=0&Issue=0&ArticleID=1

I am pretty sure it was a paper delivered at a conference.

How would you guys do it?

adamsmith

not a conference - those are Gifford Lectures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifford_Lectures
I'd suggest using the "Presentation" item type for this.

stephensaid

Ah excellent. Thankyou. I am new to all of this. Do you have any suggestions as to the way in which I edit the information for the "Presentation" entry?

ie:

Title: Do I just put the name of the lecture or do you preceded it with "Gifford Lectures"?
Abstract: I have no idea what this means.
Type: Again, no idea.
Location: Location of the lecture or of the place where the paper was published post lecture?
Meeting name: Is this where you would put "Gifford Lectures"?
Rights: Again no idea.

Where would I insert the details of the publisher of the paper, or do I even need to?

Thanks again for your insights and help.

adamsmith

Title: title of the lecture.
Type: Gifford Lectures
Location: University of Glasgow (i.e. where the lectures are)
You can leave meeting name, rights and abstract blank.

I wouldn't worry about the publisher, but would include the URL. In the end, though, at some point this is a question of how you want citations to look, so there is some flexibility for things like this that can fall into multiple categories.

stephensaid

Thanks so much Adam. Really appreciate your assistance. Very kind.